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: St. Patrick’s Day 2016 Page 1 of 2

Flags,Boat on The Cashen, Aras Mhuire and The Ring of Kerry and Listowel’s Video Masters


Some Tricolours flying in Listowel This week




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Sailing on The Cashen


A local photographer snapped these two “messing about on the river”.

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A Last Few from St. Patrick’s Day 2016




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Aras Mhuire and The Ring of Kerry Cycle




Aras Mhuire is one of 2016’s chosen charities for The Ring of Kerry Cycle on July 2


Established in 1971 by members of the local St Vincent De Paul that included Mary B Keane, John B Keane’s wife, for a number of years it operated as a welfare home to accommodate the needs of the elderly in the North Kerry area. It was only in 1992 that it officially became registered as a nursing home.

The nursing home has an extensive waiting list of people who require long-term nursing care in the area. Because of this, they desperately need more space. They are in the process of building an additional three ensuite bedrooms to try to meet the demand and keep people near their family, friends and community. One of the three new bedrooms is being designed specifically for residents with an acquired brain injury. This requires additional funding for specific requirements which is why the money you’ll donate this coming July will make such a difference.

“This is a golden opportunity to raise much-needed funds for our nursing home which at the moment provides residential care for 35 residents,” said manager Trish Joy. “We are a not for profit organisation and for us to maintain the high standards of care we provide then we must raise much-needed funds for some projects. The money raised will go towards the building of a seven-room extension including a purpose-built room for people with acquired brain injuries. We also plan to build four self-contained apartments and we need to raise €350,000,” adds Joy.

The four apartments on the grounds of the nursing home will be built for people in the local community who can no longer live alone but who do not require nursing home care. This allows people to maintain their independence in a safe and purpose built environment in their own locality and will provide the residents with a much-improved quality of life.

The homely safe and stimulating environment in the nursing home supports resident’s’ desire for independence and personal freedom. It also allows residents to remain active in their social, religious and recreational activities and connected to their family friends and community that is vitally important in their later years.

It’s their commitment to enhance the quality of life of the residents, by delivering care with dignity and compassion that makes Aras Mhuire Nursing Home such a special place.





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Recording the Parade 2016



Listowel videographers, John Lynch, Charles Nolan and Denis Carroll




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Remember the Lumber Jacket?


Patrick J. O’Shea found this one




St. Patrick’s Day 2016 at home and abroad and a little known 1916 fact

Easter Window




In St. Mary’s Listowel, Easter 2016



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St. Patrick’s Celebrations in New York and Shawnee


Denis Hegarty of Tullamore and Glin and the Mayor of Kerry on  5th Ave , NYC .

Timmy Hayes Gortaminch, Listowel and Denis Hegarty took in  another Parade on March 19th,The Yonkers Parade on McLean Ave .

These photos were sent to me by Antony Hegarty, brother of Denis. The two above are photos of the two sides of the Kerry Association banner. One side in Irish features Thomas Ashe and the other side in English shows Saint Brendan.

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Meanwhile in Shawnee




Jimmy with Michelle Distler, Mayor of Shawnee


Damien Stack and Jimmy Moloney with Renee Kelly, Grand Marshall of the Shawnee parade. Renée is a resteraunteur and a contestant on the state’s equivalent of Masterchef.

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St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Main Street, Listowel






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Occupations of people as stated in the British census of 1881




From an1881 London census some things people listed as occupation: “Knight of the Thimble,” “52 years an imbecile,” “turnip shepherd” — something tells me maybe folks didn’t take the census 100% seriously.  (Information from the internet)



It will be interesting to compare our 2016 census occupations



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A Little Known 1916 fact

(Information from Ireland’s Own)




Bovril operated a distribution warehouse at Eustace Street, Dublin. In the aftermath of the Rising there were grave food shortages, caused mainly due to the forced closure of bakeries. Many Dublin people were starving. Bovril was distributed free to the citizens to ease their hunger.

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2016 Easter Display at The Listowel Arms



St. Patrick’s Day, A win for Pres girls and a little known 1916 fact

Cormorant


photo: Mike Enright



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St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2016






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Colbert St., 2003

The big blue building is Listowel Garda Station. This unusual view of it was exposed during the construction of Aras an Ghabha on Colbert Street.

And in the same spot today;

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Award for Social innovation for Pres. Girls




Katyann Barry Chute, Laura Sheehan, Mairead Brosnan and Mary Keane; These Transition Year girls from Pres. Secondary School, Listowel won the Positive Social Impact Award for their book, Gifted, at the Student Enterprise Awards Final in IT Tralee



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Dev nuair a bhí sé óg in Rath Luirc




photo: Footsteps to Freedom

Eamonn de Valera in a school photo from the Christians Brothers in Charlevile.

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1916, The Rising and The Irish Grand National



On Easter Monday 1916 as the Rising was taking place in Dublin, The Irish Grand National was taking place at Fairyhouse. The race was won by a horse called All Sorts. All sorts connections had a rude awakening in store for them. All the trains were stopped due to The Rising and so they had to walk all the way home to  The Bishopstown Stud in Streamstown, a distance of 60 miles.

It took them five days to get home.

( Information gleaned from Ireland’s Own)

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Harnett’s Pharmacy Commemorates the centenary of The Easter Rising 1916






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Miss Kerry 2016 is a Listowel Girl


photo; Evoque photography

Her name is Niamh Enright and she was chosen to represent Kerry in the Miss Ireland contest in 2016.

Horse Drawn Caravan Holidays in the 1960s and St. Patrick’s Day 2016

The Year has Turned; We’re in New Time

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Charles Street 2016

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Do you remember when Horse Drawn Caravan Holidays were all the rage ?


Photos from Historical Tralee and Surrounding areas

There is a Listowel connection. The following story and photos were shared by Canon Declan and featured on Listowel Connection in 2012. It is worth revisiting the tale again.

The most popular Kerry company running these holidays was Slatterys but other companies based outside the county had overnight stopping sites in The Kingdom. One of these companies was Shannon Horsedrawn Caravans owned by a family business, MacNamaras of Limerick. The tourists (mostly from the U.S.) flew into Shannon, picked up their horse and barrel -top caravan in Adare and sauntered off to tour a little bit of West Munster. There were pit stops along the way for the horse to take a rest and the visitors to get to see some aspects of Irish life.



One such rest stop was on the farm of the O’Connor family in Springmount, Duagh, the family of our parish priest.  Canon Declan O’Connor, P.P. Listowel has shared some of his photographs from that time with us in listowelconnection.



The visitors loved the fact that they were on a  real working farm with fresh milk for tea and free range eggs for breakfast.

Helping the O’Connor family to feed the hens and collect the eggs was a treat for children raised in cities and towns.

This photo would not have been out of place on a John Hinde postcard. It is the O’Connor twins from Springmount, Duagh 


Canon Declan remembers well the excitement when  a very illustrious family of visitors overnighted with the O’Connors while on their Shannon Horsedrawn Caravan tour . They were Patricia Kennedy Lawford and her niece, Cora Kennedy.  Jean was the  sister and Cora, the niece of John F. Kennedy. Cora was the daughter of Ted Kennedy.

In this photo, Declan and his sister, Valerie are enjoying a cuppa with the sister of the late President Kennedy just visible in the background.

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A few more from The Square on St. Patrick’s Day 2016


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Every Life is Precious



On Easter Monday 2016 as we commemorate the deaths of the rebels who were executed after The Rising, let us ponder this.

Five rebels were killed on Holy Thursday, April 27 1916. On that same day 538 Irishmen were killed by a German gas attack in Hulluch, France. The gas used was a mixture of chlorine and phosgene and it was of sufficient concentration to render the Irishmen’s gas masks unable to cope with it. These casualties and the thousands more who died in WW1 have been airbrushed out of our history. Many of them too were motivated by loyalty to their country.

Humans of Listowel on St. Patrick’s Day 2016, and The Country Boy in St. John’s

More from Listowel St. Patrick’s Day 2016


Some photographs of Listowel people on St. Patrick’s Day 2016



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Post Boxes


The old British post boxes are so much more photogenic the An Post ones of today. I’m so glad they left them behind.

This is Listowel’s example at the corner of The Square.

In Dublin they are painting them red for the commemorations of 1916.

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Something to look forward to


Next week all roads will lead to St. Johns from Thursday Mar. 31 to Monday April 4 for The Lartigue Theatre Co. present John Murphy’s comic drama reflecting on the social problems of emigration and rural life in the late 1950’s.  Directed by Denis O Mahony, the cast features; Lucille O Sullivan, Clare O Connor, Margaret Murphy, Robert Bunyan, Mike Moriarty and Con Kirby.

 



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