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: Sarah Fitzgerald

After the Snow

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On November 22, 2024

In Listowel

John Kelliher’s photo of snowy Listowel on November 21 2024

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Meeting Eleanor

In Manor in Tralee earlier this week I met this lady for the first time. This is none other than Eleanor (Walsh) Belcher whose vivid memories of a happy childhood growing up in Listowel have entertained you all. It was great to meet a very popular contributor to Listowel Connection. I hope that meeting her has stirred up the memory bank and maybe she will put pen to paper while she is in Kerry. She has the writing gene and her reminiscences are a pleasure to read.

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Young Entrepreneur

On my way home from Tralee I popped in to Kelly’s to buy the great Lyreacrompane Journal and I was impressed by this display outside the shop.

These beautifully crafted and painted flower boxes are the work of an enterprising young man. I’ll have to call back to get more details.

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The Recipies

A novel way of cooking your turkey from Mary Lavery

And for Margaret here is the plum pudding recipe…

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More from the Food fair Craft Fair 2024

Olive Stack, artist has turned her hand to wearable art. Her charming, unique micro mosaics are little keepsake pieces, ideal for gifting to someone away or at home.

Delia O’Donoghtue always has lovely pots. Her wildlife collection is absolutely beautiful.

From wearable art we go to edible art. Fifi Shades of Cake’s pieces have to be seen to be believed

When I met Sarah for the second time she had a bevy of female relations gathered around her stall.

Copies of the Foodfair calendar were available to buy.

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Promoting my book on Talkabout

I had a great chat with Deirdre on Talkabout on Radio Kerry last week. I told her all about Thade Kelly’s Hen as well as rabbiting on a bit about pet funerals and useless but precious tat.

Here is the link…

My Interview with Deirdre Walsh on Talkabout

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A Fact

Elephants can hear one another’s trumpeting calls from a distance of up to 5 miles away.

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A Christmas Story, a Craft Fair and a New Poetic Voice

By

On November 20, 2024

In Duagh, Listowel, Poem

Church Street, November 2024

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Kerry in 1901

I found this picture of a market day in Killarney in 1901 on the internet. Houses are thatched. Horses and carts are where tractors would be nowadays.

Meanwhile in Tralee

The local painting and decorating firm of John J. Foley painted this magnificent ceiling in the convent chapel at Balloonagh.

The market place is constantly changing. Art is forever.

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A Christmas Story

By Maura Laverty

Charity shops are full of treasures. This is the marvellous Christmas book I found in St. Vincent de Paul charity shop in Listowel. It dates back 50 or 60 years and is an insight into a world that is fading into memory.

The following story from Maura Laverty is a gem.

Turron is very like nougat. It is thought to originally be a kind of halva brought to Spain by the Moors. It was a confection of honey, egg whites and nuts.

Now read on.

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Listowel Food Fair 2024 Craft Fair

On the Sunday of the Food Fair there is always an exceptional craft fair held in The Listowel Arms. Here are just a few of the highlights.

The lovely entrance bower set the scene for the picturesque displays within.

Mom’s Porter Cake business is about so much more than just porter cake. The mom here, Sherley, is not the mom who gave her name to the business. Sherley’s mom inspired her and now she is passing on the skills and the recipes to the next generation. She sells every kind of confection from Christmas cakes the size of cupcakes to huge celebration cakes. I bought a little porter cake and it was delicious.

Josie is always a pleasure to meet at a craft fair. I raised a false rumour here that she was retiring from knitting. She told me she was. But thanks to the miracle of cataract surgery she is back in business and knitting more than ever. Her babies’ cardigans and toys are heirlooms to be treasured by generations. Lovely lady and lovely craftwork! If you want a unique handmade baby present, Josie is the woman to meet.

I love this man’s honey. He is Jean louis Valentin and his honey is called Trieneragh Honey, after the home address of his bees. He is also a skilled craftsman in wood, producing beautiful wooden products. He is a previous winner at Listowel Food Fair. Jean Louis is always up for a chat. He is a great people person and his stall is always a treat for the eyes as well as the taste buds.

The hard working Sarah Fitzgerald took a minute off from organising Food Fair 2024 and selling her Green Green Gate Kombucha. Sarah posed for me with mom, Peggy, and aunt, Carmel, three lovely ladies, always a pleasure to meet.

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A Poem

Today’s poem comes from a lovely new anthology by a new poet, Anne Donegan.

This beautiful stylish little book is in the local shops now. It has many charming poems, some with a local flavour, that will bring a memory, a tear or a smile.

Here is an example;

It took a poet to see the potential in this heart shaped stone and to craft this lovely thought provoking poem.

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A Fact

The name of the legendary Lady Godiva’s horse was Aethenoth.

(You can thank me when it comes up in the table quiz.)

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Faces of Listowel

By

On November 4, 2022

In Listowel

Feale Sculpture, Listowel Toin Square, October 2022

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Listowel Pitch and Putt Club, The Beginning

The club is celebrating 50 years this year, 2022, but according to these press clippings unearthed for us by Dave O’Sullivan, it was founded in 1968 and “reformed” in 1972.

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Faces of Listowel

Daria Piaseczna is a Polish photographer living in Listowel since 2014.

Daria has 2 areas of special interest to her as a photographer, food and people.

In conjunction with Listowel Food Fair 2022 she opened her exhibition, Faces of Listowel, in St John’s Arts Centre on Saturday October 29 2022. The exhibition has now moved to Kerry Writers’ Museum so you can see it there.

Jimmy Deenihan did the official opening.

Here are my photographs of the photographs of some of the “faces”

I asked my friend, Catherine to pose with her photograph and with the photographer.

Here are some of the audience who attended the opening. Some of the audience were also subjects of the portraits.

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Food and Craft Fair in Listowel Arms

Sarah Fitzgerald of The Green Green Gate was getting a helping hand from her mother, Peggy. Her delicious Kombuchas were selling fast.

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Scarey Times 2022

Halloween Mid term break has been a scarey old week in Listowel. We’ve been in the national media every day for reasons we’d prefer to forget. So I’ll leave you this Friday November 4 2022 with a few images from my granddaughter’s holiday. She dressed up as a clown, played old fashioned Halloween games, bobbed for apples and traipsed the neighbourhood Trick or Treating. Oh to be 11 again!

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Ballybunion Oasis, A Frog on TV, Ancestors, Writers’ Week 2019 and Bridal Dress Hire in 2021

By

On May 31, 2021

In Ballybunion, Festivals, History, Listowel, Listowel Writers Week, Personal

Road from Athea in Springtime 2021

Photo: Athea Tidy Towns

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A Lovely Corner in Ballybunion

This lovely little spot by the playground is set out with tables and benches complete with chess or draughts grid. It is a godsend in these times of outdoor living.

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Headstone on my maternal ancestors grave in Knawhill in North Cork.

The author of the poem is unknown but it speaks to anyone who dabbles in genealogy

BTW I asked Kay Caball about the symbol over the names on the stone and here is the meaning of it.

The Christogram IHS is a monogram symbolizing Jesus Christ. From Greek it is an abbreviation of the name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Jesus). In Eastern Orthodox Church the Christogram is composed with letters X, P, I and X arranged into the cross. They are the first letters of one from two words in Greek language: Christ and Jesus Christ
Kay

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Listowel Writers Week 2019

Back when we could do things in a gang, this crowd of us congregated on the steps of Kerry Literary Museum to show off some award LWW had won. I’ll credit Maire Logue with the photo simply because she is not in it and I can’t imagine who else would have taken it.

This year’s programme is here; https://writersweek.ie/

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The Champion Frog…a sequel

In response to enquiries, here is David Kissane’s account of what happened to Mossie Walsh and the famous leaping frog when they got to RTE.

Off went Mossie, wife Nodie, a number of friends and relations, and the champion frog in a biscuit tin with holes and a leaves, to Limerick by cars to catch the train to Dublin. Introduced to Gay Byrne and then lights, camera, action. The frog jumped higher and further than ever and became the first and only frog to jump on the Late Late Show. Fame forever for Guhard Man and Mossie.After that, the frog retired from jumping to a river hole in Guhard and Mossie retired from frog-coaching with a European title in his CV.

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North Kerry’s Sarah Fitzgerald’s New Business Featured in Saturday’s Irish Independent

What a surprise to open the newspaper and see an account of a brave new business in these parts.

The photoshoot for the launch took place in the Listowel Arms Photo: Rubistyle

If a preowned vintage dress is your dream wedding attire, be sure to check out Sarah’s rent and return option at https://thesustainablebride.ie

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When I was a Muse

Very briefly on a happy morning last week I felt like a muse.

Cyril Kelly, formerly of this parish, wrote Listowel Connection (me) a little stanza of greeting on my return to blogging.

Waiting

’twas like waiting for swallows and swifts in April,

’twas like waiting  for Brent geese in September, 

’twas like  the fisherman waiting for  Mayfly,

’twas like the gardener waiting for the January snowdrop,

’twas like woodlands waiting for the call of the cuckoo in April,

’twas like the children waiting on the conker-plop in September,

natives in distant domiciles waiting on listowelonnection’s return.

Cyril

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