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: Paul Galvin

Christie Hennessey winner, Tullamore school and Duagh chef to open Cork restaurant

A Break in the clouds over Ballybunion captured by Jason of Ballybunion Prints.

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This is Mide Houlihan from Clonakilty. She recently won the Christie Hennessey song writing competition. I think we’ll hear more of her.

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Listowel people at Ardfert Camera Club’s exhibition

Dillon and Mary Boyer with Anne Cox at the official opening of Ardfert Camera Club’s annual exhibition in Tralee Library recently        (Photo: Tralee Today)

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Tullamore School…..the girls

Recently I posted some photos from Tullamore school. I remarked that they seemed to be all boys. Well, no better man to supply me with the gender quota than Vincent Carmody. He sent me this photo and the names. Vincent’s mother and his aunts all attended Tullamore.

Ciss O Shea ( Teacher), Sara Madden, Mary Ann Mulvihill, Nora O Shea, —-, —–, —–, Lena Walsh, Pollough ( my aunt, older than my mam, she married Paddy Buckley ( cooper), lived at 26 Upper William Street), Mary Bridget Walsh, Pollough (my eldest aunt, she trained as a teacher in England, lived in Leeds, married to Victor Kilbride, a civil servant, had 2 daughters, Angela, a doctor, and Helen, an actress who was attached to The Old Vic.),  Lil Carmody, Mrs Julia O’Shea.

Middle row, 

____, ____, _____, 4th, Kitty Lynch, ____, ____, 6th, Eileen Shanahan,

Front row,

____, _____, 3rd Catherine Mulvihill, ( she married Paddy White of Bedford), 6th, Josie Walsh, Pollough ( my mam, went to England, like her other sisters to secondary school, then trained as a teacher, taught for some years, then came back and married my dad John F. Carmody), Margaret (Maud) Walsh, Pollough, ( younger than my mam, she also went to England, also trained as a teacher, taught over there for a while, she returned to Ireland in the early 30s, anxious to continue teaching she went to Ring to do Irish, while there she met the love of her life, Thomas Murray, he was over the Helvick lifeboat, they got married and she stayed down there teaching) . 

Vincent was also able to help in naming some of the boys

My uncle Patrick ( b.1900) is in the boys photo, somewhere. 

Apart from Master Roger O Shea. who is standing on the extreme right. He ( he came from the Rathmore area) and his wife Julia ( nee Scanlon) were outstanding teachers, they also had a daughter who also taught there at this time (1910) 

There are 3 O’Connor brother’s from Shrone ( Gale Bridge)

Thomas (Tom), is second from right extreme back row.

Edward (Ned) , is third from right, second row (back)

James (Jimmy), is forth from right, front.

It is possible to get the  names who attended the school at this time, unfortunately it is impossible to fit names on faces  however, Sheila O Connor could  point out her dad and his brothers.

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In the Real Capital of Ireland



Recently, I was “doing Pana” or, to put it in Irish, I was ag spaisteoireacht. I was mooching around on Patrick Street, Cork musing over what had changed since my last visit.


I strolled into Dunnes Stores and they have given over their new product corner to Paul Galvin’s latest collection. It looked very clean and pared down and there were very few items on display. Think TK Maxx, well, this is the opposite. The clothes looked just like what I would expect from Paul Galvin. I think he must have been designing his own clothes for some time because these look to my untrained eye like the clothes he has been wearing for a while now.

Across the road in Brown Thomas they had created a teaser display for their Christmas windows.

As I headed up towards Patrick’s Bridge who did I run into but North Kerry’s own celebrity chef, John Relihan of Duagh and London. He is now, for a short while, John Relihan of Duagh, London and Cork. He was in town to choose tableware for his new restaurant which, I can exclusively reveal to readers of Listowel Connection will be in The Mardyke. So, in a few weeks time, if you find yourself in Cork and you are looking for a great meal, remember to support our own.


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I Saw Brooklyn….the movie



It was great. Saoirse Ronan should definitely get an Oscar. She was superb in the part. I think this story was meant for the big screen. It is so much better than the book. I was never in a Brooklyn boarding house but I was there on Tuesday night. Much more familiar to me though was the claustrophobic Irish town, the dullness and drabness of life in the 50s and 60s. Everything in New York seemed so much brighter and more colorful but the message came across, loudly and clearly; It’s not places that matter to us, it’s people.

I’d give Brooklyn 10 out of 10.

Reminiscences





Ah, The Tuck Shop!




Pres. Girls, do you remember the school tuck shop? This photo is from the eighties. Can you name the shop assistants?

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Another Great story from the old Rathea and Irremore Journal


The
parish of Lixnaw covers a big area of North Kerry. It stretches from the bounds
of Ballyduff to Lyrecrompane. There are three churches in the parish, Lixnaw,
Irremore and Rathea. Rathea was the last church to be built in the 19th
century. My grandmother told me that before Rathea church was built the people
of the upper region attended mass in Irremore. They came through the fields
with their shoes in their hands and put them on when they were near the church.
So much for the faith of our ancestors.

My
grandmother was Mary Dillon and was born in Gortacloghane. She was known as
“Marie the glen” as she was born down in the valley. There is a field
there in Tim Kennelly’s farm that is still known as the Glennies field. Close
by is Gleann an Aifreann (the mass glen). There is a mass rock there where
priests said mass during the penal days. My father was Ger Lynch a native of
Lyrecrompane and a tailor by trade. My mother was Liz Kirby from Mountcoal.
They lived in a thatched house at the crossroads in Rathea where the Grotto now
stands. There was another house joined to ours occupied by Maurice and Mary Mc
Elligott and he was known as Maurice Bán. To look at that site today you would
wonder how two houses fitted there never mind a rick of turf at the end of each
house. Those were the days of the horse and cart – there were not many motor
cars then. The crossroads were known as the “Tailors Cross”.

If
ever there was a rambling house ours was one. All the elderly men of the
locality would assemble at our house every night each one having their own
piece of news of the day. Men like Garret Galvin – he was the Father of the house.
Jack (Garret) Galvin Micky óg Galvin, Paddy (Con) Galvin, Jeremiah (Ger)
Galvin, Tim Kennelly, Mort Donoghue and many more. Where they all got room I do
not know but they did. My father had a big table at the end of the house for
cutting out the suits of clothes on. Jack (Garret) Galvin would always lie up
on it with his knees up and his hands under his head. When it would be nearing
my bedtime I would slip up and lie flat inside Jack to keep out of my mother’s
view trying to stay up as long as I could. I was very good for doing jobs for
my mother especially bringing the spring water. I had a small container and I
would make a number of trips to Micky óg Galvin’s every day. The daughter of
the house Julia Galvin (Shiels I used to call her) would raise the water for me
from a pump in the yard. When she had it she would always give me a cut of
currant bread or failing that a cut of bread and jam. (You see now how I was so
good for drawing the water).

Television
was not even heard of then and the radio was just coming on the market. I
remember the first radio to come to Rathea. It was to Jack’s (Garret) house in
the early thirties and it was worked by batteries. People had to depend then on
the paper for all the daily news. The paper came to our house every day. The
price of it was one old penny and each of the ramblers would buy it in turn. It
was bought by a young student from Lyrecrompane who was attending St. Michael’s
College in Listowel  a long cycle then
over rough country roads. There was no tarmacadam then. That student was later
to become Fr. Jack Nolan and he ministered in 
Australia. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. He is
now retired in his native Lyrecrompane.

Since
everyone could not get a piece of the paper, the set up was that Paddy (Con)
Galvin would stand up to the oil lamp then and read out all the news to his
audience. You could hear a pin drop while he was reading. When I look back on
it now it was like watching the newscaster on the television.

I
started school in Rathea at the age of four. The school was only a couple of
hundred yards over the road. My first teacher there was Mrs. Peggy O’Shea. She
was staying at Micky óg Galvins. She was later transferred to Dromclough and
married the principal of that school 
Master Bartholmew Rohan. She was the mother of the present principal
Master Kieran Rohan.

I
was only eight years when my parents left Rathea and went to live in my
grandmother’s house in Mountcoal. My three brothers went to Dromclough school,
it was nearer but I would not change from Rathea. I had great school pals there
in Denis and Bill Kennelly, Michael and Brendan Galvin, Seán (Neon) Trant and
many more. It was a good journey for an eight year old but come early Spring I
would jog along that road barefooted as happy as the birds on the trees. My
first port of call every morning would be to Mary (Carey) Greaney. She was an
early riser and she would be always baking her bread for the day when I would
call.

It
was in Mountcoal I grew from boyhood to manhood and I have many memories of
those days. During the winter, Sunday would be spent hunting hares with Tom and
Dick Fitzmaurice, Tom Fitzgerald, Tom Joy and that great huntsman himself
Jerheen Hayes. During the summer there would be a great crowd playing football
in Relihan’s field. Mountcoal Cross or “The Hut” as it was known was
a great meeting place for all the boys around. There was a big population in
Mountcoal then. About 1950 the crowd at the cross started to get small.
Emigration opened up and all the young men and women took the boat to England.
There was only a small number of us left.

Jim
(Tade) Galvin was a great favourite at the cross. He was a Rathea man himself.
He bought a farm near Mountcoal Cross in the estate of Arthur Gentleman and
built a house there. He did not smoke – he always chewed his tobacco he said it
was more satisfactory. He was a great man to tell stories of bygone days and if
you quizzed him his answer would be “Tameneys man that was no
treble”. Another man who was a great friend of mine was Denny Flaherty
(Senior). He was a low sized stocky little man that would play cards until the
cows came home. As a young lad he often played cards with me by the fire on a
board on our knees. During the winter his house was a great gambling house. The
players were John Hartnett, Ned Fitzgerald, Jerry Mulvihill, Jack Sullivan and
many more. The stake would be a penny in forty one.  The last game of the night would be for
tuppence, this was called a rubber. You would be anxious to win that game as a
shilling then was money when the farm wage was fifteen shillings a week. (75p
today). Out of that you had to pay for your keep at home, you also had the
money for the Crosses dance on Friday and Sunday nights not forgetting the
packet of Woodbines and the bottle of Brillantine. 

Here I must sing the praises
of three great women in the locality. They were Mai Flaherty and the late Molly
Mulvihill and Mary Joy. They were midwife and undertaker in our locality. They
brought many a one into the world and laid out many more including my own
father for their last journey. There was no funeral homes then. I am sure God
will reward them for their work.

Dinny
Flaherty went to the rambling house at Pike every Sunday night for a game of
cards with his old mates. They would have the house to themselves that night as
all the younger crowd would be gone to the dance at the Crosses. During that
time I met Babell Mahony. She was later to become my wife. She worked for a
number of years with Mrs. Trant in Tournageehy. On our way home from the
Crosses dance we would nearly always meet Dinny coming from Pike. You would
hear him coming along. He would be smoking his pipe and humming away to
himself. I would say to him “well Dinny how was the going tonight “.
He would say “Yerra I was left holding my own Teagheen. What about
yourself, did you get a Kit-Kat”. He was one jolly little man. May God be good
to his noble soul.

In
1954 Babell and I got married and I came to live at her place in Tournageehy.
We had five children, four boys and one girl. They are all now fledged and
flown, two in America, one in Belgium, one in Dublin. The only girl I had is
married to local man Mike Dowling, Bunglasha, Duagh. We are once again back to
square one where we started. The clock has gone well around. We will be
celebrating our ruby anniversary (forty years of marriage) this year. Maybe
with God’s help and a bit of luck we might see our golden jubilee.

  “I remember the first time I met her,

   Those days I often recall,

   when we danced hand in hand,

   to Bunny’s great band,

   down in Regan’s dance hall”.

Ted
Lynch.  


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St. John’s then and now



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Galvin’s Back


The reaction in the Kingdom to this second coming is bordering on hysteria. Can’t a man change his mind?

Form is temporary; class is permanent

Hen Party in 2010, tram, car, bus and a BnM hostel and a Brocken Spectre at The Cliffs of Moher.

Famous Kerrymen

Joseph Patrick Brennan (10 September 1889 – 4 May 1968) was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician and medical doctor.

Dr J.P. Brennan, He was born in 1889 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, U.S. He was the son of Patrick Brennan and Julia O’Connor who married in Boston in 1888. He moved back from the US to his mother’s native Knocknagoshel, County Kerry at around the age of six years. His father had received communication from his brothers in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia regarding the Gold Rush and decided to join them in Australia and made his fortune with his brothers in the drapery business. The Brennan Building still stands today in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie.

On his father’s return to Ireland in either 1908 or 1912 he brought an estate called Delbrook Park in Dublin.

He was educated at Blackrock College and Rockwell College. He qualified as a doctor in 1917. He married Anne Elizabeth Bulloch in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1914. He entered the British Army in 1917 as a Medical officer serving in Egypt and Turkey.

He returned to Ireland around 1918 and became a General practitioner in Blackrock, County Dublin. He also became Coroner for South County Dublin. Brennan was also involved in the Republican movement sometime in 1918. He was Head of Medical Services during the Irish Civil War. During the civil war, a group of insurgents that included Brennan occupied part of the Gresham Hotel in O’Connell Street and were holding out against the Free State army. Their position became untenable and the group decided to surrender. The surrender was underway but Cathal Brugha refused to surrender himself came out brandishing a revolver and was shot by the Free State troops. Brennan attended his wounds but Brugha died two days later.

He was Vice President of the Irish Christian Front which held its inaugural meeting at the Mansion House, Dublin on 22 August 1936. The Irish Independent invited the formation of a committee to make a decision to support pro-Franco citizens of Spain in their war effort. Support was also given by the Catholic Church.

Brennan was a founding member of Clann na Poblachta. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1948 general election as a Clann na Poblachta Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown constituency.1 He stood as a Labour Party candidate at the 1951 general election but was not re-elected. He also stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate at the 1954 general election.2

He presided over the International Congress of Catholic Doctors which took place at University College Dublin in 1954. He was President of the Irish Bridge Union in 1955. He was elected as the first President of the Medico Legal Society of Ireland in 1956.

He died in 1968 at the age of 78 and is buried at Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin.

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Anyone know who these ‘hens’ are at a party in the Square in 2010?

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This is the Blessingtom tram photographed in Templeogue. South Dublin Libraries are looking for information on the car.

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This is what a Dublin bus looked like on 1988

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Fashion Forward or Fashion mistake?



Dan Linehan’s picture of former Kerry football player, Paul Galvin, at Ronan O’Gara’s black tie testimonial in London recently

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Bord na Mona hostel at Clonsast

The following is an extract from John Kearns account of life in Clonsast  (source : Scéal na Mona)

As soon as the season commenced each year there was a substantial influx of “imported” workers from various parts of Ireland, but mainly from the West ­ from such places as Kiltimagh; Faugh-Finney, Castlebar and Connemara. These workers were brought by rail to Portarlington Railway Station where they were collected by the TDB lorry and brought to the reception office at Clonsast. With the numbers of Joyces, O’Malleys and McDonaghs confusion was inevitable, but to eliminate this each worker received a control or Works’ number. This made him identifiable at least on pay day and I was fortunate in being able to memorise all of their control numbers.

Each worker was given Hostel Accommodation on the basis of 17 shillings and 6 pence [87.5p] per week, which included breakfast sandwiches for lunch, and an evening meal, all of which were deductible from the wages. There was a shop attached to the Hostel, where the workers, if they had any money, could buy cigarettes, tobacco, minerals, sweets, toilet requirements and tea cakes – there was no alcohol. Before they could work however they had to purchase rubber boots, tools, etc., hip boots cost 15 shillings [75P] knee rubber boots cost 10 shillings and 6 pence [52.5p] and shovels cost 4 shillings and 6 pence [22.5p]. In many instances the net pay after deduction for these items, together with deductions for Unemployment and National Health Insurance, was very small indeed. All pay was by cheque, which could be cashed in the Hostel shop – it was therefore not unusual to draw cheques for as little as 10 pence [4p], which of course caused problems in bank reconciliation in the office.

As soon as the cut turf was partially dry, local workers, with the help of their wives and families, and casual workers, would undertake the back-breaking, skin splitting, fingernail breaking task of “footing” the sods. This too was a piece rate operation, paying in the region of 15 shillings [75p] per plot of a given dimension. It was therefore possible for these employees to earn what was considered “good money” when the weather was suitable. I too tried doing that job during my holidays, but I have no doubt it once again cost more for my sandwiches than what I earned -also I had to get up at 6:00 AM to catch the locomotives and be taken to the bog location when the footing took place – an experience I was loath to try again. Unfortunately mechanisation for this operation was yet to be invented.

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Carine Schweitzer took this lovely postcard photo in Ballybunion on Sunday Feb 23 2014 as a lone rider and horse enjoyed the calm after the storm.

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This is a phenomenon known as a Brocken Spectre at The Cliffs of Moher. The photo was posted on the Facebok page of The Wild Atlantic Way.

Just in case you have no idea what a Brocken Spectre is, read al;l about it here;

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

Páidí ÓSé, Michael Holland and street scenes

I wish all my readers a very happy and a peaceful Christmas and a hope that 2013 will be good to us all. I wish to thank most sincerely everyone who helped and encouraged me during the year. Listowel connection is now a community and its success is due to all the people who send me stuff. I hope that our community will grow and prosper in the New Year and that even more people will share their photos, poems and stories with us all.

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O Christmas Lights

O Christmas Lights from Ireland’s
dells

How gently gleams thy glow

Like stars above Judean hills,

In Bethlehem long ago, 

Where angels sang and shepherds
prayed,

O’erpowered by wondering awe,

As Mary in a manger laid

Her Babe on stable straw

This verse is from a poem by the late Michael Holland of Ballybunion. I came across Michael’s poetry by chance. Many people in Listowel will remember him from his work with Kerry County Council and later in Listowel Community College. Michael was a man of deep faith. If you remember him this Christmas, please say a little prayer for his soul.

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Paddypower is getting a new sign.

This busker is getting into the spirit of the season.

Weds. Dec 19: I don’t know what the two on the roof were doing. The men with the tractor were straightening the sign.

The Square

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In Tralee one day recently Jer recorded this really good singer busking on the street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_kfyfQVrP0&feature=youtu.be

He is well worth a listen.

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Well done to whoever is responsible for the front cover of last week’s Kerryman.

Some lovely tributes in both English and Gaeilge too inside.

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This is Paul Galvin’s tribute to Páidí ÓSé from Paul’s website

Páidí. Mar focal scoir.

December
17, 2012

Three
short months ago I went west towards Gaeltacht Chorca Dhuibhne. Weeks spent in
Ceann Trá and Baile ‘n Fheirtéaraigh as a youngster left me with a fluency of
our native tongue and an affinity for the parishes that preserve and promote it
that hasn’t left me since. There’s a wildness about the place and its people
that I love.


I
was lucky to spend a few hours in Paidi’s company talking football and music
and photography and then more football. He was a cultured man and he
appreciated his own culture more than any other. Whilst I never knew Paidi as
well as someone like Eamon Fitz I always admired and respected him. I loved his
company and his stories often had me rolling with laughter. The more I laughed
the more Paidi enjoyed it. The O Se’s are like that.
We spoke about writers
too. Con Houlihan and Aengus Fanning came and went. We sat and listened to some
of John Spillane’s music. I remember Paidi being surprised that I knew some of
John’s songs. He spoke of his pride in Eamon Fitz in his new position. The two
share a special bond. Paidi trusted Eamon, Eamon delivered as Eamon does. He
spoke of his pride in Páidí Óg.

It
struck me how sharp he was regarding the game. He said two things to me about
my own game that only a really sharp football man would notice. He put me
thinking I must admit but then Páidí had a wit that could put anyone thinking.
He could provoke, but then leaders must.
 Those things will remain private of
course because some things mean more when you keep them to yourself. Whilst I
never soldiered much under him as a player I remember PO’s team talks vividly.
They were more than team talks really, they were a call to arms that you had to
answer and everyone answered the call for Paidi. His teams played football like
he did. With passion and purpose and all the skills. Anyway there are men better
placed than me to talk about his qualities as a manager.

As a
man I was drawn to him. He had courage and charisma and I’m glad of those few
hours we spent now. If Kerry football has a foundation then the four O Sé’s are
the cornerstones upon which it is built. Páidí passing won’t change that only
re-inforce it. Great men are an even greater loss I guess. We’ll shoulder this
one together. Páidí, I’ll take your words with me as I go. The wild west won’t
be the same without you.

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I got an email from Barry O’Halloran with his own Páidí memory:


“For Listowel people this must be one of the most liked photos of Paidi –taken immediately after the 1997 All Ireland Final with Stephen Stack.


Stephen gave an exhibition of corner back play that day to win his second All Ireland medal after a gap of eleven years. 


Kerry won 0-13 to 1-7.  Paidi was manager of course.

I grabbed the photo from the irishindependent.ie website – 1 of 67 Paidi photos.


http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/pictures-paidi-ose-19552012-3331294.html?ino=1(


As a footnote,  A few minutes later Stephen gave a brilliant sideline interview to Marty Morrissey,  which he opened by sending his best wishes to his god-mother (Eileen O Halloran – my mother) who was in her last few weeks of fighting cancer. Stephen brought Sam McGuire to her bedside 2 days later).”

(R.I.P. Eileen and Páidí)

>>>>>>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z-P1hZf4lM


Listowel’s second annual Christmas parade video


I should have the fireworks display video for you after the holidays


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I am going to take a holiday from blogging until after the New Year. See you all in 2013.

P.S. I had intended stopping today but I have so many photos that I will schedule a few of them to post on December 26th. Then I will definitely take a break.

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