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: Robert Pierse

Then and Now

Childers’ Park entrance March 2023

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Last of Tom O’Halloran’s photos

These look like celebrations in the Pitch and Putt clubhouse. Sorry I can’t name all the people. R.I.P. those gone from us. A big thank you to Tom’s family for sharing the photos. They brought back memories to many.

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Some People I met on St. Patrick’s Day 2023

Robert Pierse and Sally O’Neill
Peter and Mary McGrath
Mary and Matt Mooney

Dancing is always a huge part of the parade. This year, with all the schools and sports clubs taking part it was hard to put a cohort of dancers together. Fair dues to Johnny Cronin for representing as best he could the dancing community.

He also had the smallest cutest dancer of them all.

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Tony O’Callaghan, Artist in Copper

The late Tony O’Callaghan’s artwork hangs in more Listowel homes than any other artist. He is also well represented further afield.

Here is a still from a You Tube video Dave O’Sullivan found. It’s from 1984 and it is in Ballyporeen. Derek Davis, M.C. is presenting a Tony O’Callaghan copper plaque to President Ronald Reagan of the USA.

Full video here;

Reagan in Ballyporeen

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Toddy’s Seat

In Childers’ Park, Listowel

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New Potatoes, A Book launch remembered and train Station memorials


A Cottage Window

This is one of the lovely traditional sash windows in Sheahan’s Thatched House in Finuge.

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The Humble Spud


(Photo and text from Raymond O’Sullivan on Facebook)

Midsummer’s Day and the first of my own new potatoes. Modern potatoes mature much earlier than their antecedents which were not ready until around Lá Lughnassa, 1st August. In the time of our grandparents and great grandparents, when potatoes were the staple diet of the Irish people, it was a very fortunate family who had enough to last from one harvest to another. By the middle of June the potatoe pit would be empty or whatever was left uneatable. ‘The bitter 6 weeks’ they called the period from Midsummer’s Day to the 1st August. ‘Iúil an Ghorta’, hungry July, that’s what they called it, when all they had to eat was kale, cabbage and onion dip (if they were lucky). I count my blessings on this Mid Summer’s Day. 


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Launch of Robert Pierse’s Book


Robert Pierse lunched his memoir, Under the Bed, on the same evening as President Michael D. Higgins and Sabina Higgins came to town. So I was late to the party. There was a great crowd gathered in the back bar of the Arms and a lively and entertaining launch was in full swing. I took a few pictures and then forgot all about them. Here they are at last.

Eibhlín Pierse and friend

Old friends, Kay Caball and Danny Hannon

Section of the large crowd

Billy Keane who launched the book, Cyril Kelly who read from it and Jeremy Murphy who edited it.

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Train Station Memorials


In Cork



In Portlaoise

Women in Media 2019, Lartigue reopens and an old photo of Listowel UDC

William Street, Listowel in April 2019

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Writers’ Week folk at Women in Media 2019


Laura Enright, former intern at Listowel Writers Week and now an aspiring journalist, David Browne, chair of the Board of Directors of LWW, Katie Hannon with Catherine Moylan chair of Listowel Writers’ Week.

Two very successful North Kerry women have a chat.

Mary Rose Stafford, Head of the School of Business at IT Tralee was one of the contributors to the panel discussion on Opening Night of WiM 2019. On the left is Catherine Moylan.

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Snake in a Tree


I was walking on the path behind the Dandy Lodge recently when I spotted this. It’s a big long blue snake wound around a tree. I’m guessing he was left behind after some children’s event. If anyone is missing a bright blue cobra look no further. I’ve located him.

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It’s Open




2019 Operating Schedule
• May 1st to September 8th, daily 1pm to 4.30pm
• September 16th to September 30th, daily from 1pm to 4.30pm

Admission: Adult 6. Senior 5
Children 5yrs + 3. Kids under 5 yrs Free
Family 15. Group rates on request



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Downpatrick Twinning



This photograph of Listowel UDC at the ceremony to mark the twinning of the towns will feature in Robert Pierse’s upcoming memoir :

Under the Bed: Stories & Thoughts from a Desert Island

The book will be launched by Billy Keane and Cyril Kelly in The Listowel Arms Hotel on May 24.

Opening Night Listowel Writers’ week 2018, Elizabeth Stack’s New Post and Emmetts Under 16s

Charming mosaic picture in the window of Olive Stack’s Gallery

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Photos taken at Opening Night, Listowel Writers’ Week 2018

Niall MacMonagle was here to work, but not tonight. Also working were Máire Logue, Maria McGrath, Maria Leahy, Noel Twomey and Louise Lyons.  Eddie Moylan came to support his daughter, Catherine who introduced proceedings on the night and Robert Pierce and the Walshes of Aspire Technology were there to present their prizes. The rest were heading to the Listowel Arms for a night out, one of the highlights of the Listowel season.

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Emmetts Abú


I spotted this story and photos on Listowel Emmetts’ website

Emmets U16’s choose the bog over the beach 😀

Fair play to our U16 team and mentors who spent this evening in the bog with Seamus Stack. It was all for a great cause too as the turf will be sold to raise much needed funds for The Nano Nagle School here in Listowel. 



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 Listowel Lady doing well



This is the account in this week’s Kerryman of Elizabeth Stack of Listowel and her new job.

This is what it says in The Irish Echo;

The Irish American Heritage Museum has a new director.

Elizabeth Stack has taken the helm and has plans to extend the reach of the museum beyond its physical location in New York’s state capital, Albany.

“I have lots of plans for the museum and am excited to settle in to the capital region,” said Stack, who previously worked at the Institute of Irish Studies at Fordham University.

“I am looking forward to meeting the wider community,” said Stack who indicated her intent to extend the museum’s activities beyond its home city.

The museum describes its educational mission as “To preserve and tell the story of the contributions of the Irish people and their culture in America, inspiring individuals to examine the importance of their own heritage as part of the American cultural mosaic.”

The museum was first organized in 1986 by the New York State American-Irish Legislators Society and was initially financed by the State Natural Heritage Trust, the State Council on the Arts, and private donations.

Initially, and after it opened in June, 1990, the museum was located on the grounds of the Irish Culture and Sports Center in East Durham, in New York’s Catskills region.

In 1992, the museum was permanently chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The museum was relocated to downtown Albany in 2012. The 3,250 square foot space opened on January 17, 2012 and includes the Paul O’Dwyer Library and the Ancient Order of Hibernians’ archives.

Exhibits at the museum have included: “Irish in the Civil War,” which looked at Irish Americans in the American Civil War; “The Irish and the Erie Canal,” which highlighted the contributions of the Irish in all phases of the Erie Canal construction, and “Dublin: Then and Now,” which included photographs of the streets of Dublin in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

States the museum on its website: “Our museum….provides year-round access to our exhibits, our Paul O’Dwyer Library, lectures, presentations, film screenings, book signings and other special programs and events.

“The Museum was an integral force in providing instruction in New York State’s public schools about the Irish Famine of 1845-1853.  Further, we are the first Museum of its kind here in America to have exhibited at the National Library in Dublin.”

The museum is located at 370 Broadway in Albany.

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Remembered with Love


Sunday, June 10, would have been Fr. Pat Moore’s birthday. In this age of social media, people find solace in posting messages on a dead loved ones’ page. I visited Fr. Pat’s page on his birthday and it was lovely to see the old pictures of his smiling brave presence among us.

Ní imithe uainn atá sé, ach imithe romhainn.





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