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: mourning

Changes

Charles Street junction with Mill Lane

Great plans for Listowel Community Centre

Photos from Listowel Community Centre on Facebook.

A Black Diamond

Image and story from Folklore.ie

Black Diamond – Funeral Custom 

Here are some original black diamonds given to me by an undertaker from Kilmuckridge, Co. Wexford a few years which he had left over from the 1960s. 

For those of you who don’t know, there was once a tradition of wearing black diamonds on your left arm for a year after someone close to you died. This was to show you were in mourning and people claimed that it had to be on your left arm as it was closest to your heart. These were sewn onto you jacket and given to you by the undertaker at the time of the funeral.

I was showing a group of older people these today in a day care centre and they brought back many memories and naturally many did it. Interestingly there was one older man from Herefordshire in England and he remembered it too from his youth. It appears to have lasted longer here in Ireland but was mostly gone by the 1970s. You’ll still see the diamond on peoples arms in old photos and many people will still have the diamond in with the their memory (memorial) cards.

Flowers in Town

One of the first signs of summer is the return of flowers to our streets.

Here are a few from last week.

From My Yearbook Archive

A Fact

When humans first set foot in Iceland the only native land mammal they encountered was the Arctic fox.

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Some mourning customs and that motorbike again

As you know I am following
the Gleasure letters avidly.  

http://gleasureharberletters.blogspot.ie/

Recent letters have had a black border. This is because the family is in
mourning. 

I remember from my own
childhood such letters and their envelopes coming. Everything around death
seemed to be black back then.

When my grandmother died in
our house in 1964 many of the old traditions were observed. 

All of the pictures (these
were mostly family portraits anyway) were turned to face the wall.  Mirrors were covered. Curtains were drawn.

A black crepe was put on the
henhouse door. My mother described this custom as “draping the hens”.

The clock was stopped. The
family went into mourning. The radio fell silent. The women dressed only in
black and the men wore a black diamond (a piece of black material in a diamond
shape) sewn to the right sleeve of their jackets.

The family kept to
themselves. We did not go visiting or to any places of entertainment for a full
year after the death. If we, children, became too boisterous or noisy, we were
reminded that we were in mourning.

It was not uncommon for a
widow to dress only in black for the rest of her life.

       >>>>>>>>>>

Some photos along the lines of the same theme.

This is the funeral of Michael O’Flynn, a pilot from Fermoy who died during WW2.

Terence McSwiney’s lying in state 1920

A priest in Fermoy gives absolution to the troops during the civil war.

Kevin Barry’s memorial card

Families in Listowel still place a card on the door with the notice of death and details of funeral arrangements. It used to be a custom that all shops would close their doors while a funeral passed and the shopkeepers and customers would stand outside with heads bowed. This custom went out with the coming of multi nationals and the introduction of a one way traffic system, meaning funerals no longer go up Church St.

>>>>>>>

Remember this from yesterday?

Jer’s information was correct. Michael Lynch, County Archivist,  provides us with this interesting account of the bike’s provenance:

“I’ve had a look at our collection of RF.11 Registers of Registration and Licences for Road Vehicles, and have come up with some information on the motor cycle pictured below (Reg. No. IN 190).

Our collection doesn’t go back to the original registration for this vehicle, but picks it up on duty paid on it in 1927.

The owner is listed as William S. Moore, Listowel.  The vehicle is an AJS Cycle, (Engine No. 166660, manufactured in 1922).  It is a 2 ¾ HP cycle, weighing 197 lbs.

There is a back reference to an earlier register, but this doesn’t survive.  There is also a forward reference, which leads us to a new owner in 1928: 

Partick J Birthistle, Market Street, Listowel.  Another forward reference sends us to a second entry under Birthistle’s ownership, and gives another forward reference to a register which doesn’t survive either.  I’m afraid that after that the trail runs cold.”


We don’t know when the photo was taken so we do not know which of the owners this is.


For the real motorbike enthusiast, all the lowdown is here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJS

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