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: O’Connell’s Avenue Page 2 of 3

Lá Fhéile Bride, some photos and memories of Listowel in the fifties

By

On January 31, 2017

In Uncategorized

Lá ‘le Bríde





Tomorrow is February 1 2017, Lá Fhéile Bríde. The photo from the internet is of Bridgitswell in Kildare. She is our patron saint, of equal status with St. Patrick. Today we celebrate her and by tradition, we hang her cross to ward off evil.

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Beale on the Wild Atlantic Way

Ita Hannon loves her native Béal and you can see why. This is just one of the many beautiful scenes she has captured and shared with us.

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Trip to Trinity

Presentation Secondary School students paid a recent visit to Trinity College Dublin.  

(photo; Twitter)

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Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue

Isn’t this a super photo? It was taken on Christmas Day in Ballybunion and posted on the internet.

 I apologise for not noting the photographer’s name.

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Broderick’s Bar, Tae Lane, Listowel


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Summers in the 1950s Remembered by Maria Sham

During the summer school holidays we would take jam pots and go to Teampaillín Bán. I think the name means in English the little white graveyard. People were buried in a mass grave there during the Famine, only we did not know that then. Years later my brother Neilie got a group together and had a monument erected there to all the people of the famine who are buried there. The walk was on the Ballybunion road and I can still smell the tar on the road melting with the heat. In Teampaillín Bán there was a stream and we would paddle and catch kissans [little fish] and bring them home in our jam jars; the poor things did not survive long; we killed them with kindness over feeding them.

Also trips to Ballybunion, that was fantastic, Mam and Aunty Angie would bring tomato sandwiches, a large apple pie in a roasting tin and ‘ currant loaf, we would get a tray of tea at Collins’, (which was a house just off the beach) a large pot, milk, sugar and cups, all for I think 2 shillings. First we ran into the sea only in our knickers as we did not have swimsuits. After we would have our tea and it was fantastic. Even if the tomato sandwiches were full of sand nobody cared. Before leaving Ballybunion we would get our sand buckets and when the tide was gone out we marched off to the rocks and filled our buckets with periwinkles that we would boil when we got home. I remembered going to Ballybunion once with my aunt Eily in the donkey and cart, there was not that many motor cars or buses on the roads then.

At the back of our house there were a lot of elder bushes and we would hold concerts there. Admittance was a piece of broken china or a bottle top. We would dress up and pretend all kinds of things. We would put the elder flowers in our hair and pretend to be princesses. We would make mud cakes in empty polish tins and decorate them with daisies. We would have pretend shops.

As we got older it was not all play, Doreen and myself had to do jobs in the house i.e. wash up and clean the windows. There were brass rods on the stairs we had to clean with Brasso. Another job for us girls was to clean all the shoes for everyone on Saturday for Sunday mass.

My education finished at the convent at the early age of 15 followed by 2 years at the local technical college.

I left for England in March 1959 on the first step to my future.

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A Few Names



Marie Shaw thinks she recognises a few faces in Maria Sham’s photo.

This was a younger class for me but I THINK I recognize a few girls.

Third from left, back row is definitely Joan Relihan (Brennan)

Fourth from right, back row looks like Anne Wixtead.

Margaret Dillon, front row in plaid.?

Cathy Mae Leahy or maybe her sister Eleanor, front row, first on right and Maeve Mooney, second from right, front row.

God, that’s a long time ago.

Keep the memories coming Mary!

Growing up in Listowel in the fifties

By

On January 25, 2017

In Uncategorized

Paths

The hedge is coming along nicely in this path into the Garden on Europe

 Daffodils are breaking through at the foot of the MacMahon Bay tree.

This tree stump must have been identified as a trip hazard. These two traffic cones have appeared around it.

Everywhere there are bare branches and carpets of fallen leaves.



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Happy Listowel Memories Continued


 by Maria Sham


The Canty family


Maria’s brother Neilie’s communion


My cousin Betty
lived across the road from Nan and we would get together in Nan’s back garden
and make a hut pretending that we lived there. We would make a fire and roast
potatoes.  We never got food poisoning. That
could be down to the cup of senna we had to drink every Saturday morning; the
most dreadful taste ever.

Nan also had
blackcurrant bushes and she made wonderful jam. When we had a cold we would put
a spoonful in a cup with hot water and drink. Just like Ribenia today.

I was sometimes a
bit naughty at Nan’s. When she called me for school, I would pretend to be up
and tap my shoe on the floor. Of course I was still in bed. Nan would think I
was up, then it was a mad rush to get to school on time.

 I was living at Nan’s when I heard that my dad
had to go into hospital in Dublin. He had damaged his eye at work. Dublin is a
long way from our town so we could not visit. I was in the bedroom saying a
prayer for dad and crying, when Cousin Betty barged in and then ran and told
dad. I hated fuss and wanted my prayer to be private; I was embarrassed when
dad arrived to comfort me. He told me everything would be all right. I also
remember him coming home from hospital and bringing me a doll almost as big as
myself and a sailor doll for Doreen. I can still remember those dolls now after
all those years, mine with a china head and wearing a lovely bonnet and dress
with flowers, Doreen’s doll had blond hair and had on a sailor suit.

My best friends
growing up and at school were Siobhan Loughnane and Joan Slemon. We had great times;
we would walk home from school by the bank of the river and pretend all kinds
of adventures. We were real tomboys. We were The Three Musketeers!


Maria in her school photo

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A New Carpark



If you were wondering what the council were going to do with the Neodata site, here is your answer…for the time being anyway.

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Tae Lane is Changing



Corridan’s Estate Agents has opened next door to Joe Broderick’s

Garden of Europe in Winter, Memories of growing up in Listowel and a Kind Lady

By

On January 24, 2017

In Uncategorized

Garden of Europe in January 2017

The Garden of Europe looks very bare these days. A lot of cutting back and clearing work has been done and we are in the fallow period before the spring growth.

Hydrangeas look ugly when they are dead.

Schiller looks exposed without his dress of yellow roses.

 The soil is wet and spongy.

A few last primroses add a hint of colour to the dead leaves.

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“….That best portion of a good’s life; 

His little nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love”  Wordsworth


These little caps for premature babies were knitted in Listowel by a lady called Eunice Perrin. Eunice loves to knit and she spends her evenings knitting these little caps which she donates to CUH Maternity hospital. She has knitted hundreds so far and the hospital is extremely grateful. 

As an infection control measure these lovely little handmade caps are used only once.

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Maria Sham Remembers    (continued)


 Maria’s Nan

 A young Maria with her nan


I was 6 years when
I went to live with my Grandmother Canty. She only lived at the other end of
the road from mam. It was this year also I made my first Holy Communion. The
nuns would treat us to breakfast as then you had to be fasting to receive Holy
Communion. The breakfast was cocoa and bread and jam.

Maria on her first communion day.

Grandmother Canty was
a dressmaker and I would sit under her old sewing machine and make rag dolls
out of all the scraps. Nan, as we called her, would sew special long drawers
for the local nurse and I was delighted to deliver them as I would get 2p for
delivery.

My Grandmother
Canty loved to go to the Sunday matinee in the cinema and I would have to
accompany her. On Monday morning at school, Sister would ask who went to the
cinema. I would have to own up and then get the bamboo on the back of the hands.
So it went on every Monday, until I got wise and kept my mouth shut and some
traitor in the class would tell on me and I would get double punishment.

At Nan Canty’s we
had a dog named Teddy, a mixed breed, and for some reason this dog followed me
every place. It was like the rhyme Mary had a little lamb. Teddy would be
waiting for me after school.  That was lovely! But it happened that one Sunday he
followed me into the church when I had gone to Mass. My embarrassment when I
saw Teddy up at the altar; well you can imagine the Canon calling to whoever
owned this dog to remove him. Of course I was almost under the seat hidden by
my friends. It took two men to get hold of Teddy and get him out. Some time
later he had an accident and did not survive. Poor Teddy!

(more tomorrow)

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This photo of the Ballybunion Road at Convent Cross brought back happy memories to one blog follower, Marie (Nelligan) Shaw.

She sent me the following email;

Love the picture of Ballybunion Rd. The middle house belonged to my grandmother and I was mostly raised there. The first one belonged to Tim and Josephine O’Sullivan. And the third one, owned by Jack & Kate Thornton who operated a sweet shop. It was subsequently owned by Albert & Mary Kennedy who had a local grocery there.
Great memories of simpler times and fun filled days.
Thanks Mary,Marie Shaw

Maria Sham Remembers Growing up in Listowel in the 1950s

By

On January 23, 2017

In Uncategorized

Medieval Style




Mallow Camera Club organised a novel event for its members. Here are two of Jim MacSweeney’s great shots from the event.

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Ballybunion Memories

Mairead Gorman found this and posted it on her Facebook page. Sr. Lucy O’Sullivan and some Ballybunion  girls on their confirmation day.





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Success for Pres. Girls



Presentation Listowel badminton team who recently won the County schools competition.





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If we could turn back time…..


Maria (Canty) Sham grew up  in Listowel in the 1950s. She had a very happy childhood and a few years ago she decided to write down her memories so that her English family would learn something about their Irish heritage.

Maria has very kindly shared these memories and her photographs with us. Her experiences will be similar to many others so I’m sure many in the Listowel Connection community will enjoy this trip down Memory Lane. I will serialise Maria’s reminiscences over the next few days.

I was born on the 1st May 1938to Bridget and Timothy Canty,

the third of their
children and the first daughter. They had moved into 68 O’Connell’s Avenue and
I was the first of the family born there.

 It was May Eve and mam always said the fairies
brought me or maybe Duffy’s Circus which was in town that night. I was
christened Mary Ellen after my grandmother Moloney. My brothers were Neilie and
Paddy. My sister Doreen was born 3 years after, and our brother Junie came
along 10 years later.

 We lived on a council estate, a very close and
friendly neighbourhood. Everyone knew their neighbours and watched out for each
other. The children all went to the same school and the same church. Neighbours
would pop in to one another for a chat or to borrow something. I remember that
we always left our door key on the door. There was never any crime.

I went to the
Listowel Convent School when I was 5 years old and sorry to say hated every
day. The nuns then were very strict and in those days were not allowed outside
the walls of the convent.  I am sure if
they had more patience I could have learned a lot more. My favourite subjects
were History and English which I love to this day and later on the cookery
class. I wish now I had paid more attention and learned to speak Irish; I found
it very hard to get a grasp of.   It
would be nice to be able to speak my own language.


Timothy and Bridget Canty

Maria’s parents, her uncle, Peter and their next door neighbour, Jack Hurley

O’Connell’s Ave. Neighbours revisited and a raffle in 1929

By

On January 28, 2016

In Uncategorized

Kanturk’s T.J. MacSweeney is out early in 2016 continuing  taking his great wildlife photos. Here he is up close and personal with a rabbit.

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O’Connell’s Ave Neighbours Remembered



Maria Sham has been having a think since she sent this photo and here are her memories of some of these lovely people and where they went after this photo was taken.

“A little added history to the O’Connell’s Ave photos. 

Tadhg and Mary Murphy came from Brosna. They lived in the house next door to my home in Clieveragh when I was a teenager.(where the Grimes family lived after that). They had four girls: Bridie, Kitty, Mary (known as Babe) and Eileen. They moved to O’Connell’s Ave in the late 50″s. Somewhere in the sixties, they moved to England. Mary spent some time in Alberta, Canada but I believe moved back to England. Bridie married a Mulvihill man from Tarbert and passed away a few years ago. Don’t have an update on the others.

Molly Coppinger was married and living in England. After her husband died she moved to NY and was a housekeeper for a very prominent English movie producer/director called John Hayman (not sure of the spelling) for many years. I remember visiting there for dinner on 5th Ave in that luxurious apartment. She met all of Hollywood in that capacity. Elizabeth Taylor, Ingrid Bergman,
Richard Harris etc.


Jackie Hurley was in some way related to my father. I believe it was through the Reidy family since my grandmother was a Mary Reidy.
Just a little additional background on those whom I remember.”

Thank you Maria. Your old photos have brought back happy memories to so many people. 

Again can I make my appeal. If  anyone else has old photos or stories, will you please share them. They mean very much to a very scattered Listowel diaspora.






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And now for something completely different





These “penguins’ are, in fact, hot air balloons based in Trim. Co. Meath. You can read about their amorous flying adventures Here

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Another Prize Wireless




Liam OHainnín’s story of the radio his father won in a fundraising raffle reminded Vincent Carmody that he had this old raffle ticket.

The raffle in question was held as part of the annual garden fete that used to be held in the grounds of Gurtenard House. Canon Adderley would have been the vicar in 1929 and the fete was held in the garden of his residence.

First prize was a radio. These would have been common in well off houses at the time. 

The second prize is most intriguing. I was reminded of the people we often encounter at The Races raffling a goat or a calf for some cause. You’d be afraid to buy a ticket in case you won. Vincent assures me that lots of people had poultry in their backyards in those days and would have been delighted with a hen and chickens.

I suppose the box of chocolates were “handsome” in so far as they had a nice picture on the top. At home we often kept chocolate boxes for years. They were sturdy and pretty and were used for sewing notions etc.

“Winners will be notified by letter” Evidence of a much slower age.

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Calling Tarbert People


A very exciting an important job is being undertaken by Tarbert Development association. They are compiling a cultural directory. Take a minute to read the following bulletin and  help if you can.

Tarbert Development Association would like to thank everyone who came to the public meeting about the Digital Marketing platform last Saturday evening and are pleased to announce that the initiative has taken great steps forward with the addition of volunteers in key areas of the project.

The project has many sections but the first to get underway is our local “Cultural Directory“. We are an area steeped in culture, with local families having over the years produced an abundance of performers and indeed champions in traditional and contemporary music, dance, song, poetry and storytelling. We would very much like to gather any recordings that exist of these performances into an online directory of our cultural history that allows us to preserve it for future generations.

Already in the last few days we have had audio and video recordings submitted from poets and traditional musicians and we would like to build on this collection greatly.

We are asking families in the area to submit any recordings they have (as either audio or video) to this project so we can preserve them in this collection. We can accept any cassette tapes, cd’s, Reel-to-reel tapes, VCR video tapes or dvd’s. (Indeed, if anybody is interested in making a recording – playing an instrument, singing or spoken word – we have the capability to do so also.) We know that tucked away in the drawers and presses, sheds and attics of the community there is a treasure trove of valuable recordings from days gone by.

All items will be signed in, bagged, converted into a useable format by our team, and signed back to you again when returning them. The items will not leave the community as all the conversion of the material into digital formats is being done by our local volunteers, and we will endeavour to return these materials to you in a timely manner once we receive and process them. We will also accept any collections of old photographs pertaining to past events in the area to be included in the historical galleries of our site.

If you know of anyone that might be interested in contributing and would likely not see this facebook post then please do tell them of what is happening and ask them to be involved.

There are four methods by which you can contribute materials.

  1. There is a meeting at 3pm (not 6pm as previously indicated) this Sunday 31st January in the Bridewell where we can accept materials or schedule a recording session for sometime in the next couple of weeks.
  2. If you can’t make it to the meeting then Michelle Woods has established a drop-off point for the collection and return of materials at Tarbert Post Office, where they will also be bagged and signed in.
  3.  If you are competent with computers and have files in a digital format we will send you a dropbox link to upload them to. Please email project@tarbert.ie for details.
  4.  Alternatively ring Niall Fitzgerald 087 7847181 and he will be glad to arrange a pickup of the materials or answer any questions as to the process.

This will end up being a significant resource for both ourselves and future generations of people in the area.
We would like to thank you for your help in advance.

Tarbert Development Association.


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Awesome talent



Kelly St. John has just finished her latest crochet project, a really amazing throw.

After she had sewn in all the ends, Kelly had lots of colorful little scraps of yarn left. She will put them outdoors in a container for the birds to pick up for their nests.

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