Kerry County Library, Listowel Branch
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Changes at Sextons
This well known William Street facade is changing. The overhanging canopy is gone.
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More Photos from St. John’s at the launch of A minute of Your Time
A lovely former pupil and now teacher herself, Julieaane Galvin.
Support from the North Cork contingent, Breeda, Margaret and Gael
Kay Landy
Keelin Kissane, former pupil and chair of the Dublin Kerry association
Anne Darby and her nephew, Killian Cogan
Lily Nolan
From Kanturk, a stalwart of Kanturk Arts Festival and friend, Lisa Egan
Lisa Whelan
Liz Dunne
Madeleine O’Sullivan
Máire Logue
Margaret O’Connell
From Galway, my old friend, Margaret O’Sullivan
From Kildare and Castlelyons, a loyal friend, Margo Spillane
Doreen came from Ballyduff to buy a book for her sister in England
Marie Lucid
Mary Catherine Sheahan
Mary Dillon
Mary Fagan
Mary and Mairead meeting Cora
Another old friend and former colleague, Mary O’Connor
Clíona’s Kildare family who now regard Listowel as their second home, Tony and Mary McKenna
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A Writers’ Week Memory
I’m still welcoming memories or photos of Listowel Writers’ Weeks past. Here his a lovely memory all the way from sunny South Carolina
I’m Robert Koch, the husband of Maeve Moloney of Skehenerin. We are retired and live in Columbia, South Carolina. I read your Listowel Connection regularly, as does Maeve, and she explains to me all the details about people and places in her beloved Listowel.
I want to relate to you my fondest recollection of Writers Week. We attended Writers Week events in the 1970s and 1980s during our visits with our two sons to Maeve’s parents from our home in Washington D.C. My fondest recollection relates to a conversation Maeve and I and the children had with the well-known, now deceased, Offaly-born, professor and literary critic, Vivian Mercier.
During the 1960s in NewYork I had met and studied under Professor Mercier, but I had not seen him again until his appearance at Writers Week circa 1980. The moderator who introduced him mentioned that Dr. Mercier had retired from his professorial position with the University of California at Santa Barbara and that he and his wife, the well-known Irish novelist and author of children’s books, Eilis Dillon, were living in London and Dublin.
At the conclusion of his presentation, I reintroduced myself to him and introduced him to Maeve and our sons. Much to my surprise and pleasure, he actually remembered me! We talked for several minutes about our lives, and he was very much the friendly down-to-earth conversationalist with Maeve and the children.
I then remarked how the climate in Santa Barbara was so lovely-warm and sunny- that I wondered how he could have possibly abandoned living there. At that point his demeanor changed. He became very professorial, pointing at me with his index finger, and he said what I have never forgotten and have been ever heedful of since: “Yes, but what about the intellectual climate.” “Enough said”, remarked Maeve, and we all smiled, talked for a few minutes more, and then parted.