Tag: St. Michael’s graveyard Page 1 of 2

Running and Musing

On January 17, 2024

Path through the trees, Listowel Town Park, January 2024

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Park Run, Saturday January 13 2024

The weekly park run is a bit (a lot actually) outside my capability. I was walking in Listowel Town Park on a crisp dry January morning. I was in search of “content” for Listowel Connection. Then I saw this.

Lidl is obviously sponsoring the Parkrun.

Nearby was my friend, Jimmy Deenihan, beside a stall laden with fruit and bottles of water. Participants in the Parkrun are refreshed with fruit and water, thanks to Lidl.

Roibeard Pierse and friends were manning the finish, timing participants and welcoming strays like myself.

What a lovely way to start a Saturday. If you are thinking of joining them, do. They are very friendly and welcoming and the run didn’t look too taxing.

If I was 50 years younger…….

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Public Road Maintenance in the 19th Century

Source; Tralee Mercury, Wednesday, 03 February, 1836;

21 William Connor for keeping in repair 1162 perches of the road from Tralee to Listowel between the Ford of Killocrim and the street of Listowel, his half years salary.

22 Same for keeping in repair 280 perches of the road from Tralee to Listowel between the West Bounds of Killocrim and Poulnahaha, his half years salary ….

23 Cornelius Quin for keeping in repair 514 perches of the road from Listowel to Glinn between the cross of Darragvone and the cross of Newtownsandes his half years salary.

24 William Sandes Jun. Esq. for keeping in repair 2115 perches of the road from Listowel to Tarbert and Limerick between the Bridge of Gale and the County bounds near Tarbert his half years salary

25 Adam Fizzell for keeping in repair 1668 perches of the Road from Ballylongford to Tarbert, between the cross of Ballylongford and the Mail Coach Road at Tarbert. His half years salary.

26 . Timothy Finnerty, for keeping in repair 669 perches of the road from Listowel to Ballylongford between the Bridge of Kilgarvan and the cross of Ballylongford. His half years salary.

27 John Sandes Esq. his salary at 9d in the pound for collecting and paying the Treasurer as per receipt.

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Celtic Crosses in St. Michael’s Graveyard

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Mick’s Daily Musings

Thursday January 11 th Day 5 of my poetic challenge

Weather is the buzz word all this week.

It’s the only topic when neighbours speak.

Chilly today, cool last night,

Those northeast winds are really a fright.

My old chest is killing me with the chilly air.

I must rub on my Vick for my menthol air.

Flurries of Snow are forecast to hit high ground

Whitening every hillock and mountain mound

Now we are full of anticipation.

Longing, dreaming about, expectation,

For snowball fights, making snowmen, snow women too.

Slides on slopes for me and you

Northerly Arctic freezing air attacking us.

Its chilly, houses are cooler, warm woollies are needed.

Give the heating another blast

And keep us comfy and snug while it lasts.

I’ve been busy this morning.

As I headed downtown for the post office

And the January sales

The last of the big spenders was on the way.

I enter the door of Jack Dunnes, a local store

Inspecting shirts, jackets, jumpers, and more

And then I cast my eyes on what I needed today

Soft top socks which were on display

With cottons and woollens gaining equal sway

I purchased six pairs of varying hues.

With navy, blacks, greens, and blues

To keep toes and footsies snug and warm

As I tread the paths and parks around town.

Now that my shopping spree is over.

It’s time to face the hill for home.

I later went for a good lively walk of 8000 steps

With lively rhythm and full of pep.

I was well layered up and felt no chill

As I clocked up my steps on Gorey Hill.

Mick O Callaghan 12.00 noon Thursday Jan 11 th 2024

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When is an Emmet not an emmett?

I can’t believe that I have been looking at this word everywhere this week and I didn’t notice that I had the wrong spelling all the time. I apologise to everyone in the football club.

Thank you, Vincent, for setting me straight.

“When I was growing up, a nail bar was a bar for pulling nails from timber.

Once, the late Bryan McMahon, called me aside when he saw that I had written Emmett with two TT,s, he explained that the football club was named after Robert Emmet,(with one T). Bryan said an Emmett (with two TTs) was an Ant or Beetle.

Emmets abu”

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A Fact

Peanut Butter can be converted into a diamond.

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Listowel’s Back Lanes

By listowelconnection

On September 18, 2023

In Listowel, Schools' Folklore

Listowel Credit Union building in Sept 2023

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A Stroll Through a Back Lane

In these days of modernisation and urban renewal it is great to see so much of Listowel’s history preserved in the back lanes.

The stone walls were built by Listowel craftsmen in a bygone era.

We can’t hold back the march of progress. For me the stone walls hold far more charm and history.

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St. Michael’s Graveyard

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Progress Report on the John B. Keane Mural

Martin was painting the first letters of the quotation on Sept 10 2023

Sept 13 2023, Martin Chute, muralist and Pat Nolan, wall owner at Listowel’s newest mural in the Creative Walls initiative by Listowel.ie

This John B. Keane quotation from his song, Sweet Listowel, will be very well received by everyone with a Listowel connection.

Here is the full song from Listowel Emmets website

Sweet Listowel

A song by John B. Keane as promised to Eric

Oh sweet Listowel I’ve loved you all my days

Your towering spires and shining streets and squares

Where sings the Feale it’s everlasting lays

And whispers to you in it’s evening prayers

Chorus

Of all fair towns few have so sweet a soul

Or gentle folk compassionate and true

Where’er I go I’ll love you sweet Listowel

And doff my distant cap each day to you

Down by the Feale the willows dip their wands

From magic bowers where soft the night wind sighs

How oft I’ve roved along your moonlit lands

Where late love blooms and first love never dies

Chorus

Of all fair towns few have so sweet a soul

Or gentle folk compassionate and true

Where’er I go I’ll love you sweet Listowel

And doff my distant cap each day to you.

(A link to one of the best singers of this song…Louis O’Carroll R.I.P. recorded and produced by Denis Carroll of Fealegood Productions ….

Sweet Listowel by John B. Keane)

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A Story about Marriage

From the School’s Folklore Collection, Boy’s National School, Listowel

There was three sisters in one house and no one would marry the old one. The two young sisters got married and she was culled. There was one man and he said she would make a good wife so they got married and those days they used ride side saddle after being married behind the husband.

They all raced to be at the house the first and he rode too fast. There was a big ditch near the house. The horse would not leap the ditch. He came off and he told her to come off too. So he pulled out his gun and shot the horse. She asked him why so did he do that. “That’s what I do to anyone that wouldn’t be said by me” said he.

So at the wedding the three were drinking in the room. The three wives were playing cards in the kitchen. The three husbands were having a conversation on which of the wives would come to them at their first call.First girl that married her husband was to be called. The man that was married second was to be called second.

The first one that was called said she was dealing out the cards. The second one when she called she said she would when she have these five cards played. The man who shot his horse when he called her, she ran to him and he won the price of his horse back.This wife always answered his call when he called her.

COLLECTOR Joseph Cahill

Address Curraghatoosane, Co. Kerry

INFORMANT John Carmody

Age 81

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A Fact

The tern canter to describe the easy comfortable speed of a horse is thought to have come from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It described the slow measured pace of the pilgrims as they made their way to Canterbury.

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Teachers

By listowelconnection

On April 13, 2023

In Ballybunion, Listowel, Personal, Schools

April 2023

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April Horsefair 2023

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My Brave (aka Foolhardy) Easter Visitor

Cora felt that a trip to Ballybunion would be wasted without a bit of a dip. Her mother assures me she was well away from those dangerous looking waves. The camera foreshortened the distance.

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Listowel’s Presentation Sisters

Once upon a time the sisters used to be buried in a cemetery in the convent grounds. A nun’s funeral was a solemn ritual, full of ceremony and singing, her sisters chants accompanying their departed loved one into eternity. Now the local convent building and grounds, including the graveyard, is no longer sacred ground and the remains of the sisters are now interred in St. Michael’s Cemetery.

Many of the names on these simple stones are names of great women I knew as friends and work colleagues. They sacrificed much and their legacy will benefit Listowel and beyond for years to come.

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Retirement marked with a Tony O’Callaghan plaque

When Jim Cogan retired from St. Michael’s he was presented with a beautiful piece of Tony O’Callaghan’s artwork adorned with symbols of family, Jim’s work life and his interests. It is a treasure.

In the photograph with Jim are Bill Walshe and Fr. Seamus Linnane on behalf of the Board of Management and John Mulvihill, principal, St. Michael’s.

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Beautiful Signwriting

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A Fact

Both Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same day, April 23 1616

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St. Michaels Graveyard, the Ball Alley and my day in Philip’s Bookshop, Mallow

By Listowel Connection

On November 4, 2019

In Uncategorized

November 2019

November is the month when we remember our loved ones who have gone before us.

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Listowel Ball Alley

For many men of a certain age, growing up in Listowel is narked by memories of hours spent in the town’s ball alley. Below is the poem Junior Griffin wrote, remembering those halcyon days when his childhood entertainment revolved around the alley.

Memories of the ball alley in Listowel

When school was o’re, our hearts would soar,

At meals we would not dally,

With homework done, to seek our fun,

We’d wander to the alley.

To toss that ball against the wall,

And combat every rally,

With pouring sweat we’d play‘til death

Those games within our alley.

With left hand or right we’d try our might,

Until the grand finale,

But win or lose, how we’d enthuse

On those games played down the alley

Each game was fought, the prize was sought,

The marker counts his tally,

The match was won at twenty one,

‘Twas victory in the alley

But time moves on, the youth now gone,

No more do young men sally

To toss that ball against the wall

Of my beloved alley

Yet, memories hold of comrades old

Until the last reveille,

Of times gone by which brought such joy

Those days spent down the alley

Junior Griffin

This is how the alley looks now, replastered and repainted in preparation for the light show that was part of Féile an tSolais 2019.

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What a tree!

On the banks of The Feale

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My Friends, Mary and Paddy

I ran into this lovely couple, Mary and Paddy McElligott on Bridge Road. They were in town for a wedding and were fitting in a quick walk before the wedding feast.

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A Minute of Your Time in Good Company

Flavins’of Church St. Listowel

I’m in the new Irish titles section in Philip’s Bookshop in Mallow, between Listowel’s Billy Keane who came to my book launch and RTE’s Brian O’Connell who didn’t.

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My Mallow Signing

Since I come from that corner of the world, many of my Cork friends and relations were in Philip’s Bookshop on Saturday to celebrate with me.

My two most loyal supporters and friends, Bridget and Geraldine came from The Kingdom to hang out with me in Mallow.

This is Marion Moynihan, my late sister’s great friend who has never forgotten her over all these years. Marion came from Ennis.

Margo Anglim and I met on our first day in UCC and we have been friends since. Here we are with her husband, Eamon Kelly. They came from Dublin to support me.

Anne Leneghan is the daughter of my old Kanturk neighbours, Peter and Rita. I used to drive Anne to school when she was a pupil and I a teacher in Scoil Mhuire. Anne, a nurse was just off night duty but she made it to Mallow.

Elizabeth Breen is my niece just back from the rugby world cup in Japan. Next to her is my first cousin, Norah Ahern Rahilly. Norah and I are doubly related. Our fathers were brothers and they married first cousins., Norah’s daughter is next and then me .

Darina Allen was signing her books with a sharpie.

There were 6 authors signing on the day. One of them was Darina Allen and she was also the judge of the Bake off. My granddaughter, Róisín, who was the youngest entrant won a special prize for her lemon drizzle slices . She got a big rosette and a copy of Darina’s latest book signed for her by Darina.

April Horse fair, The Kindness of Friends and St. Senan’s Well

By Listowel Connection

On April 16, 2019

In Uncategorized

Celtic crosses in St. Michael’s Cemetery, Listowel

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It’s a Good Day When

Your friend brings you scones, just because…….

A U.S. friend sends a card to say she appreciates what you do.

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I wasn’t the only one taking photos at the horse fair. I ran into Steve and Helena on Market Street.

sellers, buyers and some of the goods and animals for sale on April 4 2019

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Spotted on a Listowel Window

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St. Senan’s Well

Tarbert School collection. Nora Scanlon Dooncaha.

Our Holy Wells

There is a well in Tarmons known as St. Senan’s. It is in the corner of Buckley’s field in Ballintubber.

This well is not deep and a stream flows out of it. Always in the month of May people pay rounds at this well on every Saturday of the month.

This is how people pay rounds. People pick up seven pebbles out of the stream and then kneel down at the well and start reciting the Rosary. Then they start at the right hand side of the well and walk slowly all round reciting a decade of the Rosary while going round. At the end of each decade they throw one pebble away. Then when the seventh round is paid they kneel down and finish the Rosary. Then they take three drinks out of the well and wash their faces at the stream. Then they usually tie a piece of string on an overhanging bush. It is said that according as the cloth wears away the disease wears off the patient.

It is called St. Senan’s well because it was St. Senan who blessed its waters. From the well you can see the ruins of seven churches and round tower in Scattery built by St. Senan.

There are no fish in the well and the water is not used for household purposes. Once a woman went to fill her kettle at the well. She forgot to bring a vessel with which to fill her kettle. She left her kettle at the well and went back for a saucepan. When she returned the well had disappeared and the bush with it. It went from the top of the hill to the side where it is now.

Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

Collector- Bernadette O’ Sullivan- Informant Gerald O Sullivan, Age 60, Address, Tarbert, Co. Kerry