Photo; Blue Tit by Chris Grayson
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Roof Collapse
One of the most disastrous impacts that the snowfall had on life in Kerry was the collapse of the roof of the Tralee Sports Complex. Thankfully it happened at nighttime and there was no loss of life of injury to anyone. The Complex is a very very busy place and many many North Kerry clubs and groups depend on it.
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A Poem for Parents
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Kanturk looked Beautiful in the Snow
Photos by Adrian Angelina on Facebook
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Growing up in Listowel in the 1960s and 1970s
Concluding part of Carmel Hanrahan’s reminiscences…
The Races – a week off school, what bliss. Returning from Summer holidays a week early seemed a small price to pay. We went to The Market where the amusements were. It was never going to the amusements but going to “The Market”. We saved whatever money we got through the year –my savings were in a Band-Aid Tin – white with a picture of a plaster on it. I remember once having a Ten Shilling note in it which seemed like a fortune. I’m wondering if it was possibly the year I made my First Communion. On our way from Cahirdown to town there was a small shop quite close to the boys’ National School – I can’t remember the name of the owner, where we regularly bought Slab Toffee – Cleeve’s – and which you would then break on the edge of the path. Speaking around the lump of toffee was a skill in its own right. She also sold sweets in paper cones.
Burning question here!! Does anyone, apart from me that is, remember Penny Cakes? –. My sister also remembers them so I know I haven’t imagined them. The closest I can come to describing them is that they were like a rusk and I adored them I think there was also a variation with fruit. You could buy them out of big boxes which were placed just inside the door of Miss Molyneaux’s shop, (pronounced Munnix), across the street from Michael and Delia Kearney. Biscuits in large tins with glass panel on top sold loosely resided just at the door. Nobody I’ve ever spoken to from anywhere else knows what I’m speaking about when I mention them. Tile loaves are another mystery to people – I learned that in Dublin they are called Turn-overs but will always be a Tile loaf to me. Lynch’s bakery used to sell them and I would pick my way through one on the way home from the Square. I often thought I should have bought two, one to hand over at home and the other for me. My greatest regret about Listowel is that Lawlor’s Cake Shop closed. Oh, my goodness, what cakes, never since matched or beaten. The coffee cake in particular – there’s a surprise!
The Convent Primary school was where the girls all started off. Some boys attended until senior infants when they then transferred to the Boy’s National School where Brian McMahon was Principal. We learned to knit and sew in Primary School and the highlight of the whole enterprise was the visit of the Sewing Inspector. There were two maybe three weeks with minimal schoolwork done as we were preparing for “The Visit”, getting our various projects completed. Playing in the Schoolyard seemed to have a Seasonality to it. There was a time for chasing games, then Hopscotch and Piggy (??) were de rigueur, Skipping and then Conkers. Our Skipping Ropes generally came from Carrolls in the Square – a length of rope with a knot tied at either end.
Then came Secondary School when we strolled from one building to another without another thought. How lucky we were – none of today’s angst trying to ensure a place and wondering if you qualify for the school of choice. Everyone transitioned together with a few exceptions, and some new classmates joined us. We had some interesting teachers in Secondary. Tony Behan who was our history teacher and approached the curriculum in his own inimitable way, and who gave us the time and space to think things out for ourselves and draw our own conclusions. But the best by far was Sr Carmelita who lived on a reputation for being very fierce and indeed, she presented as such. However, once you engaged with her and got into conversation, she turned out to be an incredibly inspiring person. Indeed, I met her a few times in Cork when she was visiting and went to tea with her in the Imperial Hotel where we continued our long and rambling conversations. It is she I must thank for my love of English and language in general.
There were some Characters in Listowel as we grew up. One of these being Babe Jo Wilmot. What a larger-than-life personality. She always struck me as being a very warm person, and had I been old enough at the time, I suspect she would have been great fun to socialise with. We, of course, had the aforementioned Bryan McMahon whom I occasionally engaged in conversation with on my walk home from school and John B Keane. John B used to walk up our road many evenings setting a ferocious pace with one of his sons struggling to keep up. Billy told me recently that he was the walking companion in question. Dr McGuire also walked up Cahirdown for his constitutional. Many a fright he got when “Mac” (the Weimaraner) came bounding down the road to land with his front paws on my shoulders. He hadn’t realised that Mac and I were ice-cream sharing partners on the occasions when Mike (his son) brought him to hang out. What a handsome dog.
So, with my rosy glasses removed I am still firmly of the belief we were blessed to grow up in Listowel. When I’m there now I can see so many changes to the place and yet, there is an underlying familiarity. When I think of Listowel my immediate image is of standing on the river bank looking at the bridge. I’m not sure why the bridge made such an impression but there you are.
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A Few Food Related Brehon Laws
Couldn’t find any meaning for withe on the internet but looking at the illustration, it looks like a spancel.
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A Fact
Bloomsbury, the publishers offered £2000 in advance for the first Harry Potter book, The Philosopher’s Stone
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