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: Poetry Town

Sand Art, The Races and Memories of a First Dance

By

On September 22, 2021

In Ballybunion, Festivals, Listowel Races

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How it used to be

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Ballybunion Sand Art festival 2021

This is an intriuging and fascinating craft, drawing pictures in the sand. The annual festival in Ballybunion on the weekend of Sept 10 to 12th was as brilliant as ever. I took a few photos but Pixie O’Gorman and Wild Atlantic Way posted these much better ones on the internet.

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A Hawney Legacy

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This is Hawney Way in Ballybunion. If you walk down this passageway you will come to this lovely little children’s picnic area. It is laid out with tables, in the centre of each is a draughts or chess grid and benches.

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Some of the tables are sponsored by local people.

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Tidy Town’s Vintage Day

One of the highlights of Listowel Harvest Festival of Racing every year was Tidy Town’s upcycle, recycle vintage day. Below are some of the organising committee.

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Every year this competition turned up some fascinating stories. The outfits themselves were often stunning but the accompanying stories never failed to entertain us.

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Frances O’Keeffe and her daughter, Edel

Edel is wearing a dress her mother restyled from a dress given to her by her friend, Suzie Moore.

Suzie was a matron in a London hospital. The queen was due to visit and Suzie felt that she needed something special for this meeting with her majesty. She had a dress especially made.

When she retired to Listowel she brought the dress with her and she gave it to her friend Frances. She knew that Frances would appreciate the material she had chosen so carefully and paid so much for. Frances never found an opportunity to use the material over the years . When she heard of this up cycling event she knew that this was just the ticket for Suzie’s dress. She remodelled it to fit Edel. Edel wore it with the pill box hat her mother wore at her own wedding and the pearl encrusted bag she carried.

Mary O’Halloran and Maria Stack are great supporters of Listowel Races. They usually pull out all the stops for Ladies Day and Vintage Day.

One year, Maria carried this vintage bag that she had bought in a charity shop.

When she got the bag home she found inside the original price tag.

And she found a ticket to the Empire State Building. Surely this bag was bought by someone as part of her trousseau and she honeymooned in New York.

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A Listowel Dance in 1960

Philomena Moriarty kept this souvenir of her very first dance and she shared it on Facebook. The Super Ballroom was later rebranded as the Las Vegas.

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Listowel Poetry Town 2021

As part of the Poetry Town initiative, Listowel got its very own Poet Laureate, Dairena Ní Chinnéide.

Part of her job was to write a Listowel poem. Dairena was great value for money.. She wrote two.

Brilliant!

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Hay time, a reunion and Poetry Town

By

On August 11, 2021

In History, Listowel

Listowel Community Centre in 2021

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In the Meadow

Photo from the internet

This photograph will bring back memories to many of you. The four men are almost certainly neighbours because haymaking required manpower and that’s when comharing came into its own. You helped the neighbours in their meadow and they came and helped you in yours.

Fine weather was extremely important when you had “hay down”. This is the time when the hay is mown and lying flat in the meadow. It is at its most vulnerable. Heavy rain at this juncture meant the hay was drenched and had to be tossed and turned to try to dry it. Wet hay would rot and sour and the cows would refuse to eat it.

Two days of sunny weather after the hay was mown was ideal as on the first day the hay could be turned and raked into rows and on the second day the wynds could be made. Once the hay was in wynds, the farmer could relax as even if it rained then it would run off the cock of hay without damaging it.

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Reunited

I hadn’t seen my friend, Liz Dunn since the first lockdown. Ansence makes the heart grow fonder but I’m glad to be reunited.

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Nature Takes its Course in 2021

Crabs (at Carrigafoyle)

By John McGrath

By Carrigafoyle I found them on the shore,

catastrophe of crabs at Shannonside,

a hundred thousand corpses, maybe more,

abandoned high and dry by ebbing tide.

So small and white like pebbles by the sea,

I wondered what disaster had ensued,

what plague or poison shaped this tragedy

that wrought misfortune of such magnitude.

No massacre, I learned, but nature’s ways.

Somewhere beneath the wild Atlantic swells

these tiny creatures shed their carapace,

together they cast off their outgrown shells

and then, on cue, the mating games begin,

those age-old ecstasies of skin on skin.

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Listowel has been chosen as one of Ireland’s Poetry towns.

Here is what it says on the website;

“The people and communities of each Poetry Town will celebrate poetry in their everyday lives and surroundings, create communal experiences, and celebrate the pride, strength and diversity of each town. Watch this space for more, including the announcement of each town’s Poet Laureate in mid-August, and upcoming details on events. Poetry Town is an initiative of Poetry Ireland in partnership with Local Authority Arts Offices and is made possible with funding from the Arts Council of Ireland’s Open Call funding, and is also supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.”

I’ll keep you posted.

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