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: Presentation Secondary School ListowelPage 3 of 10
This was taken early in the morning on January 26 2022. I was on my way to mass. The Small Square was quiet. Listowel is easing its way out of Covid restrictions and we are taking cautious steps back too normality. We have had the mildest and driest January in my memory. Hopefully the blue sky is a portent of better days to come.
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From the 1990 Pres Yearbook
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Our Lovely Back Lanes
One of the suggestions for our upcoming “reimagining” of Listowel is upgrading and preserving of the back ways. Listowel’s back lanes are not like the ginnels of Coronation Street but wide streets capable of renewal and promotion.
Look at the beautiful stone work on these old buildings in Mill Lane. The walls are the work of ancestor craftsmen. The bricked up window serves as a stark contrast.
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Ship at Night
Ita Hannon is a superb photographer. Here is another of her excellent captures of a ship on the Shannon estuary.
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Old Dublin
From a website called Photos of Dublin
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From the Mailbag
Dear Mary,
Again, thank you so much for the interesting article about the Presentation Sisters and their history and dedication to Listowel.
I grew up in NYC. My father was from Listowel. He was committed to our family both here and in Ireland. When it was time for my secondary school in New York City, we went to St Michael’s Academy on 33 street and 9th Avenue in the city. He understood what the education by the Presentation Sisters offered me. The school was a bus and 2 train rides away from my home in Flushing, New York but his commitment to the best education for me overcame the long commute each day.
Because of the guidance and education of the Presentation sisters, I thrived both academically and socially. I am 80 years old and still in active contact with many of my classmates. Until covid time about 16 of us would meet for lunch in New York and we continue to keep in contact on line. We have never lost sight of what was blessedly given to us by the Presentation Sisters in those 4 years.
I learned a good deal from your article and thank you so much for your commitment to Listowel.
In the 1983 yearbook, we got a potted history of the early days of Pres. Listowel
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A Nice War Story
During World War II, Steinway & Sons air-dropped pianos with large parachutes and complete tuning instructions into the battle for the American troops. Called the Victory Vertical or G.I. Steinway, the pianos were to provide a bit of relaxation/morale booster. The pianos came in olive, blue, and gray drab.By the end of the war, Steinway & Sons had provided about 5,000 pianos to the U.S. military around the world. They had 4 sons and a few cousins who served. (Source: Love Classical Music)
This is a jostle stone. It’s been here since the days of the horse and carriage. You’ll see them in every town. Their purpose was to protect the corners of a house or other property from damage by the wheels of carriages as they entered a lane or avenue. The stone jostled the carriage away from the wall and into the middle of the road.
Here there is a jostle stone on either side of the road.
This is another more simple example on Church Street.
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“Fond Memory Brings the Light of Other Days Around Me”
Nathalie Léger spent a year of her young life in Listowel. The town and its people made a lasting impression on this young lady.
My own time in Pres. Secondary School did not overlap with Nathalie’s. She discovered me much later through this blog. In response to my request, she has written this essay about her time here.
I came to Listowel during the last week of September 1988. I needed a little while to settle before getting ready to start work on October 1st at Presentation Convent as the French language assistant.
Finding a lodging was made easy with the help of Sr Consolata and some teachers, and I moved in to Market St Apartments.
As I had to buy some tableware I went to Carroll’s on the Square. Then I purchased two extra blankets at Moriarty’s on William St – Irish winters can be so cold !
I also opened a savings account at the Bank of Ireland, where they had very few French clients at the time I believe. The welcome was professional but very friendly.
At Presentation Convent I discovered a different education system that I would call holistic, not just academic. I was particularly impressed by the students and staff’s commitment in the operetta “South Pacific”. I took part in it too, helping with makeup and supervising. This was very enriching as I intended to become – and I have indeed – a teacher of English as a modern language.
I miss the friendly atmosphere and the fits of laughter in the staff room – I soon learnt quite a few “Kerry jokes” !
I really enjoyed working with the staff, who gave me the opportunity to discover what working with teenagers was like. Thank you everyone, particularly Noreen McCarthy, Geraldine O’Connor, Colette Daly, Bridget O’Connor, and of course Sr Consolata.
I would like to give special thanks to Joanna Keane who was replacing her sister-in-law Elaine at the time. Joanna showed me around – I remember a day trip to Dingle with lunch at The Forge – and she naturally introduced me to John B and Mary.
Since John B did not speak a lot of French he nicknamed me “la belle Parisienne”, which I found quite funny as I am not from Paris at all.
Not only did I meet lovely people but I also got the opportunity to read great novels and plays which helped me understand Irish people’s attachment to their land. John B’s pub became the perfect place to meet those people and have a good time chatting and laughing.
Thanks to Mary I saw “The Year of the Hiker” on stage in Tralee, which was a great moment for me.
Before leaving Listowel at the beginning of June 1989 I asked John B if he could sign the books I had bought. He very kindly wrote a different autograph in each of them. God knows how much I have treasured these books since !
Although many years have passed, I have never forgotten lovely Listowel and all the fantastic people I met there. Reading Listowel Connection every week is a means to not only remember the good old times but also discover today’s Listowel.
Thanks to social media I am in touch with Bridget and you, Mary. Now my dearest wish is to come back to Listowel, as real meetings will always be the best.
All of you take care and stay safe !
With my best regards,
Nathalie Léger.
( Explainer; The reason Nathalie didn’t start work until October is that nothing in Listowel started in earnest until “after The Races”. In those years the Races were always on the last full week in September.)
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Like Old Times
I made a rare foray to Tralee and I was surprised to see that Dunnes Stores seems to have morphed into Marks and Spencer’s since I was there last.
It has a real butcher’s shop with butchers butchering away before our eyes.
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Meanwhile in Tralee Town Square
This shop is closing down. Looks like the old order yielding place to the new.
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More Listowel Christmas Windows
The theme, this year is Toy Story.
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A Meeting on Church Street
Clíona (Cogan) McKenna and Joan Kenny in late November 2021
Taken on a rainy day in Mount Usher Gardens by Éamon ÓMurchú
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In Gurtenard Wood in Winter 2021
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Staff of Presentation Secondary School in 1986
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Tom Linnane’s memories of Fireside stories in Littor Long Ago
(From Shannonside Annual 1956)
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Tae Lane
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November, The Month when we Remember
Cyril Kelly’s poem remembers his parents, a devoted couple. and his mother’s inconsolable grief when, without warning, she lost her “heart’s best treasure”.
John L’s Irish connection was with Abbeydorney from where his parents emigrated to Boston.
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Kanturk 1900
In these days of calls to reduce the national herd by 30%, I was amused to see this old picture of Strand Street in my native Kanturk on the mother and father of all fair days in 1900
