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: Tae Lane Store

Kanturk Remembers the Famine

By

On December 11, 2024

In Listowel, Listowel Writers Week, Personal, Poem, Schools' Folklore

Upper Church Street in December 2024

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In Ballincollig

Castlewest shopping centre, Ballincollig

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Remembering Hard Times

When I was in Kanturk I went to see the Famine Pot in St. Patrick’s Place.

This pot was still intact when a local farmer dug it up. Kanturk Tidy Town committee have placed it at the entrance to the site that once housed the Kanturk Union workhouse.

Six acres were donated by the Earl of Egmont, the local landlord, to the Board of Guardians to erect a workhouse and fever hospital.

The workhouse was built to accommodate 800 people but during the tragic period of the famine almost 1,800 people lived there. North Cork was thought to have suffered some of the worst effects of famine during this catastrophic period of history.

Many of these large cauldrons were donated to the Irish People by the Quaker community during the height of the famine in 1846.

They were used to make soup or stirabout, a kind of porridge made from the cheap meal that was imported to feed the starving hordes who converged on the workhouses.

This is still a health centre. It used to be a dispensary.

It’s worth enlarging this to read about the full horror of those awful years. The pot is a timely reminder of what our ancestors came through.

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A Poem

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Ushering

As essay by Mick O’Callaghan

 Ushering in and out

I was reading in the papers that the election of Donald Trump in America would usher in a new era in American/China relations as Donald was proposing the introduction of a 60% surcharge on all goods entering America from China.

I also saw that all our own political parties were promising that if elected to government that they were going to usher in new priorities in Housing, Education, Health and many more areas of government. This word usher was an ‘in’ word which I just had to explore.

The word usher has been around a long time with God being the very first usher – as he ushered in day and light (Gen. 1:3-4). God ushered man into the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:15). Ushers or forerunners are depicted throughout the Bible.

In the New Testament, Temple ushers were given unusual authority as uniformed guards. In Acts the “captain of the temple” is referred to in connection with arrests and general handling of crowds. It was these ushers who carried out the orders of the high priests to persecute the apostles.

The word comes  from the Latin ostiarius (“porter”, “doorman”) or the French word huissier. Ushers were servants or courtiers who showed or ushered visitors in and out of meetings in large houses or palaces.

My first encounter with usher was in the 60’s when we went to the Picturedrome Cinema in Tralee to see a film or a movie as they call them nowadays. We bought our tickets at the little box office in the hall and waited to be admitted. Sam from Ireland ushered everyone to their seats guiding them down the steps with his long torch. If there was any play acting or noise during the film, he shone the torch on the person involved. Any couples who were getting too close, as they said in those days, got similar treatment.

In those pre-equality days, the usherette sold the tubs of ice cream from her usherette tray during the intermission.

Then of course there were the church ceremonies, particularly at Christmas when the big crowds turned up for midnight mass. There were quite a few people who went straight from the pub to church. The church ushers went around trying to get a seat for everyone. They also had a role at the front door discouraging those whom they adjudged to be carrying a sup too much on board to go home rather than heading up the aisle. This became a problem and mass time was changed to 9 o clock. I don’t think they have that same overcrowding situation today with less people attending services.

I was recently at a funeral of a relative in Kinnitty, County Offaly. The church was in a small rural area named Cadamstown and I just loved it when the parish priest and the usher went around getting people a seat .It was a fine day and there was a reluctance of locals and others, including myself, to be ushered up the church and so there was a sizeable group in the church grounds discussing local topics and the state of Offaly hurling and football. It was a nice social occasion despite the circumstances.

Later when the funeral was over, we were all invited back to the community hall where 140 people were served a beautiful meal. Local people acted as ushers, finding seats, serving desserts and making everyone welcome. It was all so nice, friendly, sociable and a relaxed civilised occasion.

I noticed ushers at a few weddings I was at recently and their names were noted in the wedding booklet. They were all young men who were family members or close friends of the groom who were showing people to their seats but were not members of the inner bride and groom party.

I just love those scenes in films when in a courtroom a male attendant leads in the judge. I looked up the dictionary for a fuller meaning of court usher and found this” Court ushers ensure that everyone involved with a court case is present, that they know what they must do during the hearing, as well as providing personal assistance for the judges to whom they are assigned”.

 We all encounter occasions when people are ushered into meetings or concerts because the event is just about to start. The ushering is usually preceded by an announcement over the P.A. 

In newspaper accounts we regularly read that officials and security personnel have quickly ushered the protesters out of the hall after a protest or interruption at a public meeting.

 We have of course got Usher’s Quay in Dublin which reputably is named after a prominent Dublin family named Usher/Ussher who were supposed to be descended from Gilbert de Neville, admiral of William the Conqueror’s fleet in 1066.

In Ashford in County Wicklow, the garden of Ireland, we have the lovely Mount Usher Gardens.

In literature many of us will have encountered that tragic short story by Edgar Allan Poe entitled “The Fall of the House of Usher” and first published in 1839.It was serialized for TV last year by Netflix.

Finally, I refer to the ushers in Dail Eireann who are always immaculately dressed in their state uniform.

I am now happier that I am a trifle more educated about the lovely word usher so whether you are ushering in or out or being ushered in or out there is an absolute certainty that we will all usher in the new year of 2025 at the end of December 2024 with the usual ushering aplomb. Nollaig Shona.

Mick O Callaghan 03/12/2024

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Some Listowel Christmas Windows

DIY Christmas Crafts

From the Schools’ Folklore Collection

Candles; “My grandmother used make candles out of the fat of cows.”
My grandmother used make candles out of the fat of cows. She used buy the fat from the butcher and after they killed a cow for their own use. First of all she used put it into a mould and put a cord in the hole at the end of it and knot it. Then she used pull the cord through the mould and pour in the fat and leave it so for a day or two. The candles are about as wide as Christmas candles now.
Patrick Fitzgerald used make baskets out of twigs. The twigs grew near his own house. He used pick them in the month of October and leave them so for a week or two.
My grandmother used spin and weave. The flax used be sown in Spring and pull it in August. They used take it to the bog and put it into a bog hole and leave it so for a couple of weeks. Then they used pound it with a mallet.


Collector- Nora Shine, Address, Derreen, Co. Limerick (Kilbaha School)
Informant, Patrick W. Shine. parent, Address, Derreen, Co. Limerick.

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Killarney at Christmas

Their bauble is bigger than ours. I was in this corner of Killarney yesterday dropping off copies of Moments of Reflection to the The Priory Bookshop.

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A Fact

Charles Dickens is believed to have popularised turkey as the centrepiece of the Christmas dinner. When the reformed Scrooge brings Christmas dinner to the Crachit family he brings them turkey.

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St. John’s, Fleadh 1972 and TaeLane Store

By

On February 24, 2015

In Uncategorized

St. John’s Listowel   by Nora Relihan


from a book published in 2001
by Radio Kerry.

Signposts to Kerry was a
little slot that Nora used to present on Radio Kerry. Here you have only the
text. Nora’s eloquent delivery was an integral part of the package.

“St. John’s is a dynamic
Theatre and Arts Centre which presides over the old Norman Square of the busy
market town of Listowel and its largely agricultural hinterland.

Built in 1819 to a design by
Cork architect, James Payne, the gothic style stone building served the local
Church of Ireland congregation for many generations. Bryan MacMahon would tell
the story of how, on Sunday mornings, before Independence, a platoon of British
soldiers billeted on the banks of the River Feale would march up the hill to
attend service in St. John’s with a few breaking away to go to mass in St.
Mary’s.

While growing up in Duagh,
famous playwright, George Fitzmaurice attended service in St. John’s conducted
by his father.  And more recently, during
its restoration period, Ted Hughes, who was later to become Poet Laureate to
Queen Elizabeth of England read his poetry there.

Now St. John’s is the Mecca
for a wide variety of cultural activities in an area already renowned for its
writers. New life was breathed into the old grey stone when it was officially
opened in 1990, having been restored and refurbished by a voluntary committee.
Stained glass windows are complemented by the restful blue furnishings in the
auditorium where adaptable seating and lighting provide a flexible space to
suit a variety of artistic activities. Local, national and visiting companies
from abroad provide theatre in its many forms. Such is their appreciation of
the venue that return visits have become almost the norm.

Ever since Listowel recorded
and forwarded its condolences to Warrington in Britain after the IRA’s tragic
bombing of that city, a Warrington company makes frequent return visits.

St. John’s Youth Theatre has
developed along the way and approximately one hundred children benefit from
regular teaching in different art forms. The annual summer school is a
highlight.

The visual arts find a warm welcome,
while music in all its variety can be heard – in fact St. John’s is fast
developing a high profile for World Music.

Bíonn ranganna Ghaeilge and
dramaí mar ghnathchuid den chlár.

A tourist information outlet
is accommodated in the foyer during the summer months.”

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Fleadh in Listowel ….the good old days





The below article is from  The Kerrymen, August 28 1972

ALL THE FUN OF THE FLEADH as All-Ireland Fleadh comes of age;

THE TROUBLE-FREE coming of age All-Ireland Fleadh Ceoil ended in Listowel last night with and attack on  the “little cliques of Irish intelligentsia” for always casting aspersions on things native.

Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann National Director Labhras O Murchu told crowds packing the north Kerry town for the final sunlit day of the Fleadh which was celebrating 21 years of Comhaltas activity: “The Fleadh is an opportunity for being ourselves “

But he declared: “There are people in Ireland, little cliques who all the time are casting aspersions on things Irish. There always are people—the influential and so called intelligentsia among them—who are forever casting their eyes and thoughts away from the shores of Ireland.

“These are the people who would forget that we had a great culture and tradition of our own which should always be promoted.”

Comhaltas president Seamus de Brun said this was a time when the national revival was being more openly and insidiously attacked than ever before. The latest attack on the revival of Irish was the “stupidly outrageous allegation that our children were being retarded by  Above: The Bishop of Kerry, Most Rev. Dr. Casey was an interested spectator as a piper led the parade during the Fleadh Ceoil in  Listowel.

As an organisation Comhaltas did not participate in the debate on the proposal to enter the Common Market. The organisation, however, did take a more practical step to ensure that due prominence would be given to the  importance of safeguarding the national identity in the context of that debate.

Undertakings had been given by the Department that views would be further considered, but regrettably nothing further had been heard  from the Government Department concerned. A great opportunity had been lost to lead a nation-wide crusade to stimulate a renewed interest in the national revival.

Mr. de Brun declared that entry to the Common Market would not necessarily mean that our national identity would be submerged. Its advent, indeed, might well be the stimulant required to allow our people to become truly conscious of this challenge.

Urban Council chairman Mr. John Pierse said the old-time image of the Fleadhanna should be gone forever and he asked other  towns in Ireland to stand up and be counted—because it was the duty of every Irish person to carry the torch into the next generation.

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Remember this?

Today it is the very stylish TaeLane Store.

Mai Naylor/ Aoife Hannon Millinery Yarns event Writers’ Week 2013

By

On June 13, 2013

In Uncategorized

Anyone who believes that a prophet is never appreciated in his own parish, has not been to Listowel. Listowel likes nothing better than to celebrate its own writers. Any Writers’ Week event featuring the work of a local writer is a guaranteed sell out.

Cyril Kelly may not be as well known nationally as John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon but he is huge in Listowel. Cyril’s style is conversational and confessional. He blends nostalgia with bemusement at the pace of change in the world. Growing up  in Listowel, family and particularly the joys of living in a mainly female household, the agony and the ecstasy of fatherhood, travel and teaching are among the themes he returns to again and again in his writing. All his anecdotes are told in a carefully crafted, learned yet accessible style. He delights in the well turned phrase; the well chosen adjective; the evocative metaphor. His word pictures are a delight to the eye. 

Cyril has another gift even greater than his command of the English language, that is his inimitable speaking voice. His essays are written for the voice….his own. Like  Dylan Thomas, another man who wrote for radio, his work is best  enjoyed when heard delivered by the writer.

Writers Week 2013 featured two Cyril Kelly events. The first was his reading in St. John’s. The second was an event he presented along with local milliner, Aoife Hannon. The happening took place in Tae Lane Store on Church Street and featured hats by Cyril’s mother, Mai Naylor and modern headpieces by Aoife Hannon whose star continues to rise among modern established milliners.

Cyril Kelly reminisces about Mai Naylor, Babe Jo Wilmot and her 2 pigs, Hansel and Gretel, milk delivered from cow to doorstep by the man who did the milking and the first Writers’ Week. He told us how Vatican 2 dealt a death blow to his mother’s milinery trade. Women were no longer required to cover their heads in church.

Aoife Hannon has little to do with cows and pigs. Horses are the animals most dear to the hearts of her customers. Aoife’s colorful and beautifully crafted hats are seen on racecourses and at weddings and glamorous social events here and in the U.K.

Hats by both Listowel milliners were on display in the shop and were a great talking point among the many ladies present.

Cyril Kelly, Kelly Browne of Tae Lane Store who organised the event and Aoife Hannon wearing one of her own creations.
Mirian Kiely, Bríd Kelly, Anne Moloney and Kay Caaball
Mai Naylor’s grandaughter models one of her grandmother’s hats.
 Moloneys; Anne, Maeve and Kay

 The three Kelly girls pose with their grandmother’s hats. Unfortunately there were none of her famous turbans among the hats that Kelly collected for this occasion from local women.

Mai Naylor’s three granddaughters in the Tea Lane Store at Writers’ Week 2013.

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Since it looks like this post will be enjoyed mainly by the ladies, here are a few fashon items from another era.

Dungarvan women in the fashionable attire  of the early 20th century
Bathing costumes from the same era

The Bantry Cloak.

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Business people in town made a great effort for Writers’ Week and The Races

The Horseshoe

Listowel Garden Centre’s display advertising Ladies’ Day at the races

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