Listowel Connection

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

Tag: Moments of Reflection Page 1 of 3

After the Snow

By

On November 22, 2024

In Listowel

John Kelliher’s photo of snowy Listowel on November 21 2024

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Meeting Eleanor

In Manor in Tralee earlier this week I met this lady for the first time. This is none other than Eleanor (Walsh) Belcher whose vivid memories of a happy childhood growing up in Listowel have entertained you all. It was great to meet a very popular contributor to Listowel Connection. I hope that meeting her has stirred up the memory bank and maybe she will put pen to paper while she is in Kerry. She has the writing gene and her reminiscences are a pleasure to read.

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Young Entrepreneur

On my way home from Tralee I popped in to Kelly’s to buy the great Lyreacrompane Journal and I was impressed by this display outside the shop.

These beautifully crafted and painted flower boxes are the work of an enterprising young man. I’ll have to call back to get more details.

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The Recipies

A novel way of cooking your turkey from Mary Lavery

And for Margaret here is the plum pudding recipe…

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More from the Food fair Craft Fair 2024

Olive Stack, artist has turned her hand to wearable art. Her charming, unique micro mosaics are little keepsake pieces, ideal for gifting to someone away or at home.

Delia O’Donoghtue always has lovely pots. Her wildlife collection is absolutely beautiful.

From wearable art we go to edible art. Fifi Shades of Cake’s pieces have to be seen to be believed

When I met Sarah for the second time she had a bevy of female relations gathered around her stall.

Copies of the Foodfair calendar were available to buy.

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Promoting my book on Talkabout

I had a great chat with Deirdre on Talkabout on Radio Kerry last week. I told her all about Thade Kelly’s Hen as well as rabbiting on a bit about pet funerals and useless but precious tat.

Here is the link…

My Interview with Deirdre Walsh on Talkabout

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A Fact

Elephants can hear one another’s trumpeting calls from a distance of up to 5 miles away.

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Antiques, Stained Glass and US Presidents

By

On November 12, 2024

In Listowel

St. Mary of the Angels….photo: Chris Grayson

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Listowel Traders at the Antiques Fair

The National Antiques, Art and Vintage Fair will be held in Limerick Racecourse on November 16 and 17. Dan and Maureen Hartnett of Listowel will be there.

Article from The Irish independent.

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Book Promoting

I’m busy with engagements these days.

These doors lead to Listowel Garden Centre and Café. The lovely people there have invited me to be a (small) part of their customer appreciation evening on November 21. I’ll remind you all again next week.

Here I am in Super Valu, replacing the stock of my book which was sold out.

Tomorrow, Wednesday November 13 2024 I’m on Radio Kerry with Deidre Walsh on Talkabout and on Friday, November 15 2024 I will be a guest of Listowel Tidy Towns at their prize giving.

Moments of Reflection is available in Woulfe’s, Eason, Listowel Garden Centre, Garvey’s Super Valu, Prifma, Kerry Writers’ Museum, Watsons in Duagh, An Siopa Milseán in Abbeyfeale and O’Mahony’s in Tralee.

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Presidential Messages

It is customary in the US for the outgoing president to leave a message for his successor. Below is the message George HW Bush left for Bill Clinton.

Biden never revealed the contents of the note Trump left for him in 2020 but he described it as “shockingly gracious”. I hope Biden will be just as gracious in defeat. I hope Trump will share the note with us all. It’s time for healing.

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Windows of Wonder

In the Church of the Resurrection, Mallow there are some striking windows.

Doesn’t this look like a priest with outstretched arms blessing the congregations. The window looks like his vestments

This window is in the baptistry.

This blue resurrection window has a look of the Harry Clarke studio about it but I couldn’t find the information online.

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Listowel Food Fair 2024

The big name celebrity guest this year was Mark Moriarty. His book sold out and his demonstration was enjoyed by a full house in the ballroom of The Listowel Arms.

Mark with Ruth O’Quigley, one of the longest serving members of Listowel Food Fair committee.

Jimmy Deenihan presented Mark with his commemorative plaque.

Breeda and Margaret, both keen cooks and fans of Moriarty, came from Co. Cork to see him in action.

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A Fact

The rose family of plants gives us flowers, apples, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, peaches and apricots.

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People, Old Laws, a Loss and a Design Classic

By

On November 1, 2024

In Listowel

Photo: Chris Grayson in Killarney

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More Hospice Morning Pictures

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More Brehon Laws

Glossery; a spancel was a piece of rope that tied the animals two legs together so that he couldn’t wander far or jump any fence.

I remember my mother spancelling a young cow who was not used to being milked and might kick out.

A yoke was a piece of wood tied under an animal’s head so that if he tried to walk too quickly, the yoke would hit him and deter him from straying.

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A Sad Parting

BEN.

By Mattie Lennon

We’re left with only memories,

At those we now must clutch 

 Your picture on the kitchen wall

 It is our only crutch.

That image is consoling

And helps to ease the gloom

As your eyes, like Mona Lisa’s 

Just trace me round the room.

From scraping plates to closing doors

To going to bed at night,

All have a Ben-connection;

Each smell and sound and sight.

Your meat and nuts  disposed of

(To the Blue-bin went your bed.)

I didn’t want any witnesses

When tears flowed in the shed.

We got you thirteen years ago,

You were only four months old.

The last one of your litter,

The others all were sold.

We brought you home immediately

‘Twas a lovely Summer day. 

Both had our eccentricities 

So we bonded straight away.

We strolled and shared our traits for years 

(A half a score plus three.)

Strangers always hailed you first 

And then they’d talk to me.

I now walk out without you,

Your spirit’s there but , then

The dreadful thing I  have to say.

When  people ask., “Where’s Ben.”

To you kind and loved and loving dog

The illness came to stay.

Then needles, scans and Xrays

Were the order of the day.

Some medicines you wouldn’t take

And your pain I couldn’t see.

I forced tablets down and hurt you

Now that thought is hurting me.`

When all that could be done was done,

The end came mighty fast.

Decision made. The plunger pushed.

Relief from pain at last.

We didn’t use that terrible word,

The one that rhymes with “Dread.”

I asked the Vet a question

As our son then kissed your head

Mattie Lennon

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Moments of Reflection

Thank you, Fred Ward for these photographic memories

Bobby reading

Me signing

Friends who came to support me

more cousins

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The Biro….a Classic of Design and Usefulness

John Anthony Hegarty shared the following with us

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A Fact

The world’s first car dealership opened in London in 1897.

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Launching my Book in Kanturk

By

On October 30, 2024

In Listowel

My hometown

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What a night we had!

Linngorm Community Hall, Kanturk on Friday, October 25 2024

I was delighted to meet so many old friends like Liz, Catherine and Susan

These are just some of the Boherbue ladies who came

My cousin, John Brosnan, with my brother Pat and me

Great to be among family, my family and Pat’s

The celebrations spilled over into the next day in Thomas Brown’s. Mary Lynch remembers my late sister well. They were in the same class and sat next to each other in the pew for First Homy Communion.

Apart altogether from launching my book, a trip home is always a joy. Being among my own people, people who knew “all belonging to me”, and who knew me “before I was famous” brings back so many memories.

I wasn’t allowed to have my phone to take pictures on the launch night so I’m hoping to have some more when people get round to sharing them.

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Iconic Stucco Work in Abbeyfeale

I was in Abbeyfeale last week and I spotted that the beautiful McAuliffe plasterwork has been painted. Isn’t it beautiful?

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Knockanure’s Unique Church

Photo and text from RTE website

Less than ten kilometres outside Listowel lies a simple structure that belongs to the first generation of modern Irish church architecture. The building is strikingly modernist, as is the artwork inside, but the young architect also reached back into the Hiberno-Romanesque ecclesiastical tradition.

Corpus Christi church in the village of Knockanure, near Moyvane, in North Kerry was regarded as a break with traditional church architecture and a modern fit-for-purpose design. This chapel of ease was commissioned in 1960 and its opening and blessing took place on 21 April 1964. Michael Scott of Michael Scott & Partners (later Scott Tallon Walker Architects) won the commission to construct the new church, with partner Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Tallon (1927 – 2014) designing it. Tallon would then establish the philosophy of the practice for the inclusion and integration of artworks in their buildings.

The Lightness of a Concrete Slab Roof

Corpus Christi is a Roman Catholic church in the International Modern style. It expresses a very simple concept: an open, unified space, like a temple on a podium, overlooking the valley of Knockanure. It is a double-height, flat-roofed, single-cell with four-bay side elevations. To the south-east side of the church is a freestanding iron belfry, built c. 1965, possibly incorporating the bell of earlier church. The most beautiful feature of the design is the church’s clear span, with its concrete roof, a series of T-beams cast in-situ, delicately floating in space above a transparent glass wall. This diffuses light through the interior and helps to express the quality of the board-marked concrete used in the shuttering for the beams.

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Still More Photos from the Hospice Coffee Morning

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A Corner of Tralee

The James Hotel

A pillar post box

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A Fact

The first newspaper crossword appeared in The New York World in 1913.

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Horses, Cows and Cats

By

On October 17, 2024

In Listowel, Personal

Photo credit: Chris Grayson in The National Park, Killarney, October 2024

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Moments of Reflection

My granddaughter, Cora, reading my book. I’m truly grateful to all the people who have bought it so far. It really is the ideal gift for young and old.

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Formica

There was a time when we thought plastic was a marvellous discovery. It was strong, durable, easy to clean and store and virtually indestructible. Of course this indestructibility has lead plastic to fall out of favour.

Formica was a tough, glossy surface, easy to clean and disinfect, didn’t splinter or stain. It was ideal for tables where spillages could be easily mopped up and there was no need for a table covering of any sort and no polishing and protecting. I wonder if anyone still has a formica kitchen table.

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Ah, so sad!

from Discover Duhallow magazine

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The Farrier

When I called home recently this sight met my eyes, the farrier’s van complete with an array of horseshoes. Horses, like people, have different shoe sizes.

My brother holding the horse and the busy farrier working away.

The farrier works his way from hoof to hoof and the horse waits patiently for the job to be done.

Pat’s grandchildren came to take a look at this age old skill.

Now, it’s the turn of the stable companion.

The rasp, the equivalent of our nail file, evens off the hoof’s edges.

This trade is no longer carried out by blacksmiths. It is a skill all of its own now and the farrier travels around to pay home visits to his equine customers.

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Brehon Laws

A few more sensible rules to live by…

The Brehons who were the judges were not above the law.

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Date for the Diary

This usually books out quickly.

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A Fact

A cat will clean itself with tongue and paw after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. this is an attempt by the cat to soothe its nerves by doing something instinctive and natural.

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