This blog is a personal take on Listowel, Co. Kerry. I am writing for anyone anywhere with a Listowel connection but especially for sons and daughters of Listowel who find themselves far from home. Contact me at listowelconnection@gmail.com
Our first washing machine!!!!!! You had to boil the water elsewhere: in our case, in a Burko boiler. You filled the drum the water and the washing, added the detergent, covered it and turned it on. When the washing was done, you fished it out with a wooden tongs and fed it through the mangle, pulled the machine to the sink to drain off the water and then repeated the operation with clean water to rinse the detergent from the clothes.
This machine was regarded as a labour saving device in 1960’s Ireland. It was the much maligned twin tub. The spin dryer had replaced the mangle for extracting as much moisture as possible from the washed clothes. The washing was washed in one compartment/tub which had to be filled with water from the tap. I dont ever remember a twin tub being plumbed in. The water had to be drained off and the clothes transferred to the second tub for spinning. These had to be loaded carefully so that the weight was evenly distributed. Otherwise the machine would do a mad dance around the floor. There were no tumble dryers so the the spun garments had to be hung out on a clothesline to dry.
Washing was a day’s work.
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Some Pres. Girls
I’m sure someone will name them for us, or maybe even one of themselves.
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Our Millenium Arch
Our first arch was blown down in a storm and this is the replacement.
This picture is from 2016
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The Book Tour is Coming to Kanturk
The Kanturk launch of Moments of Reflection will be in The Linngorm Community Hall, (P51 YC57) on Friday next, October 25 2024 at 7.30 p. m.
The children are rehearsing their readings and the hostess, Breeda, is trying out a few mouthwatering tray bakes.
I’m looking forward to a great evening among family and old friends.
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A Few Brehon Laws
The Brehons had no legal tender. all transactions were settled by barter.
Then, as now, location is everything.
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People at a Coffee Morning
On October 17 2024 these lovely people were in The Listowel Arms Hotel supporting the Kerry Hospice.
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A Fact
The world’s first speed limit regulation was in the UK in 1903. It was 20mph.
This is the remains of the first arch in 2016, It was damaged in a big storm. You will notice the the new designer didn’t bother with the things that looked like very big ball bearing between the arch and the pillars.
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Wolfgang and Anita Mertens
in John B. Keane’s Bar, May 16th 2023
This is the house from which Maria wrote to Wolfgang.
Here are 2 letters Wolfgang kept as souvenirs of his visit to Writers Week in 1974. The first is from Maria Coffey who was, I think, writing on behalf of Writers Week and one from Bryan MacMahon with whom he had a long correspondence. Wolfgang was writing his thesis on his work.
Anita and Wolfgang can’t remember where they stayed which is surprising because they remember a lot about their trip.
On their last night they saw a production of The Honey Spike by the Carrick- on-Siur Drama Group and they were enthralled by it.
Wolfgang in his library has almost all of MacMahon’s published works, in English and some in translation as well.
While we were at the MacMahon statue we met Maggie and Mac Donald who were just returning from a visit to Kerry Writers’ Museum.
Brían MacMahon took time out of his busy day to welcome the German visitors. He told them a few stories about his famous grandfather and generally charmed them with his wit and friendliness.
We met Liz Dunn who gave them a brochure for this year’s Writers’ Week. Wolfgang promises to send me his 1974 programme.
We called to the Garden of Europe on the way home from town.
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A 1980 Visitor
Hello Mary.
I came upon your blog while searching for “Irish Horse Caravans”.
I was a young soldier in the US Army on leave in 1980 when I hitchhiked/walked through Ireland.
I have a photo in this email, which I think may possibly be in Adare or very close to it. I was wondering if you perhaps recognize this image and the signs for the roads they reference and could tell me where this may have been.
Regards from the US, Marietta, GA Bob Jewell
Is Bob correct? Is that Adare? I think so.
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Kevins
Is your name Kevin or Caoimhín?
If the answer is yes, the place for you to be is this Listowel pub on Friday June 2 in the late evening.
The first annual gathering of people called Kevin in Kevin’s is happening there.
The back story; Stephen Connolly, curator of this year’s Writers’ Week programme was, by chance, in Kevin’s on the late owner, Kevin Broderick’s, birthday and he happened to sit beside a man called Kevin. This sparked this idea; Why not have a gathering of people called Kevin in a pub called Kevin’s during Writers’ Week.
BTW you can come too if your name is not Kevin.
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On the Prowl with Camera
I was in The Square on Saturday May 20 2023
I met the lovely and very talented Eileen Sheehan as she went into Kerry Writers’ Museum to facilitate a poetry workshop.
I had a lovely chat with friends, Brian and May Griffin and Mary and Seán Comerford.
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Serendipity
The meaning of the word, good luck in finding valuable things unintentionally, refers to the fairy tale characters who were always making discoveries through chance. You can thank serendipity if you find a pencil at an empty desk just as you walk into an exam and realize that you forgot yours.
I have so often experienced serendipity at Listowel Writers Week. I have gone to a book launch by someone I had never heard of and find the writer or subject so fascinating that I can’t wait to read the book.
Let me point you in the direction of a few opportunities for serendipity coming up for us in Listowel.
I have never read either of these authors but it looks like lots of people have and loved them.
Friday June2 in The Listowel Arms
This handsome dude is well known to everyone in Kerry. As well as being one of Kerry’s all time great footballers, he is also a clothes designer and now an author.
Confession here; I considered buying this book at Christmas and dismissed it without knowing what it was about. I presumed wrongly that it was the story of how a footballer turned into a fashion designer.
I should have looked more closely and, if only to honour my weaver ancestors, I should have bought it. It’s not too late to make up for lost time.
Join me in Listowel Arms on Saturday at 3.00
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I Love this One
Published in The Irish Times on Saturday May 20 2023.
I have a god daughter who I can just imagine spending her old age (which is a long way off yet) reminiscing about horses.
A very unusual textbook with illustrations by Jack B. Yeats for adult learners
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More from last Thursday’s horse fair
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Another Listowel Poet
It is always a pleasure to be contacted by a Listowel emigrant who is discovering Listowel Connection for the first time. Such emails are less frequent now as there is a great bush telegraph that alerts Listowel people to home news.
It was a great thrill to be contacted by John Leahy and to discover that he is a poet.
Here is his email;
Dear Mary
I have just found the Listowel on Line and subscribed.
Billy MacSweeney’s article was an absolute pleasure to me, since Jack Leahy was my grandfather. My dad was Sean Patrick Leahy and I still remember his brother Patsy Leahy who had been a successfull boxer. (I remember well, Nora his wife) There was also his sisters Maureen (married a vet in Sligo, name of Gilmore, their son Connor is a accountant living in Hammersmith), Peggy Murphy (married the barber in the square), Margaret Bennett (moved to Harlow) and his younger brother Michael Leahy (Who moved to Manchester). Of course last, But not least there was Bridie O’Donnell (who owned Leahy’s Corner shop for many years with her husband Michael. I would sometimes go with Michael to buy cattle and horses, which he would then sell at the local cattle market.
I myself am a writer living in Brighton, Google: Leahy in Kemptown
Good Friday in Listowel is always a day for sponsored walking in aid of the hospice. Participants assembled at St. Patrick’s Hall on April 7 2023.
There were bicycles, dogs, prams, fast walkers, slow walkers and every pace in between. Many were remembering a lively presence on other year’s walks. Some were remembering loved one’s lost since the last walk and there were walkers who are living with cancer, and many whose cancer journey is thankfully behind them.
Back at base, a party was being prepared for the returning walkers.
On Charles Street I caught up with a few who started late.
They kindly posed for me at the Gaelscoil gate.
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Fred’s Seat
Fred Chute R.I.P. loved the river Feale. I took this photo of Fred with his dog as he walked in one of his favourite places.
This is the seat his family and friends have dedicated to his memory just a little further along that same road.
Fred was my neighbour and friend and a huge supporter of everything I did here and in print. Listowel’s streets are the poorer for his passing.
May he rest in peace.
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Calling all Quizzers
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Spring Horse Fair
On Thursday April 6 2023 we had a fair on Market Street, Listowel. There were a few horses to justify the name but, in fact, there were as many goats and dogs as horses. I saw no farmyard poultry but there was lots of tack, saddles and horsey knick knacks.
I won’t mention the horrendous traffic disruption with road closures still ongoing as work continues on the bypass.
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Par 3 at Augusta Masters 2023
Doting dad, Rory McElroy, watches as his daughter, Poppy, gives Ivy Lowry a hug during the family Par 3 event before the Masters 2023.
Things went downhill from there. The Par 3 family day may hold Rory’s best memories of The Master 2023.
Photo shared on Facebook.
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A Fact
In 1555, Ivan the Terrible had St. Basil’s Cathedral constructed in Moscow. He was thrilled with the splendid result. He ordered that the two architects responsible be blinded so that they never build anything so beautiful again. He wasn’t called terrible for nothing.
Bridge Road, Listowel, through the Millennium Arch in March 2020
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The sod was turned for the building of Teach Siamsa in Finuge in 1974
Photo shared on Facebook by Siamsa Tíre
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Presentation Convent Listowel 2007
Presentation Convent Listowel
by the late Tim Griffin 2007
Below is just a snippet of a long article by Tim Griffin R.I.P which he wrote following the closure of the local convent which was so dear to him.
As with all big houses of the 18th and 19th centuries, Listowel Convent had a well in the yard. Up to quite recently, an electric pump was pumping water from that well. It also had a Laundry and a Drying Yard for the clothes lines. There was a big garden and a bountiful orchard. There was a cow-stall and cows, which had to be fed and hand-milked. Extra feed, such as hay, straw, turnips, mangels and potatoes, often had to be bought for them in the Market Yard.
A number of Domestic Staff were also employed, e.g., carers, cooks, cleaners, nurses, and maids. Richard Mackessy from Glounaphuca would have been one of the first gardeners and farmhands there and his son, Richard (Dick), took over from him and was there until the late 1980s. As the schools got bigger, the cattle had to be sold off. Timmie Walsh worked at the Convent, as a gardener and maintenance person, up to the mid-1990s.
The Convent Sisters used to do visitations to the local hospitals and they recited the Rosary in the nearby funeral home at removals.
Visitors were always made welcome and were provided with refreshments. There was one group of visitors that always called to the Convent – they were, of course, the “Knights of the Road” or more commonly referred to as tramps. Some of them were decent people who had fallen on hard times. One of them I knew was from Wexford, a real gentleman, who told me he would “start his rounds” in early March and finish again in late October. Convents were always in his itinerary as well as B&Bs where he would have been known over the years. A pot of tea and a plate of sandwiches were always forthcoming at the Convent and were graciously received. He told me that the allocation of the Free Travel Pass had made life much easier for him. I have not seen him in the last few years but then don’t we forget the ceaseless toll of time.
The Presentation Convent has ceased to exist in Listowel but Presentation Sisters will still be working in Listowel, continuing the work initiated by their Foundress many years earlier. After being in Listowel for 163 years, it is very sad to see the Convent go. Over that period of time, the Presentation Sisters have made a wonderful contribution to Listowel and its hinterland. The people of North Kerry owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.
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A Double Post-box
Someone who knows how much I love old postboxes sent me this card recently. Isn’t it lovely?
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Owen MacMahon needs your help
I have gone through all the Drama Group programmes since 1944,
a task long put on the long finger.
However, I am missing the following
1961 -Autumn Fire – produced by John O’ Flaherty
1966- Two on a String – produced by Ml Whelan
1967 – a Letter from a General – produced by J O’Flaherty
1970 – The Couple Beggar – produced Bill Kearney
Would you be able to put on a plea on your blog in due course?
I’ve no doubt there must be copies around somewhere.
