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: Templenoe

Football in Pres. Growing up in the 40s and 50s, Pink hats in Kenmare and Cork says Shalom

By

On February 10, 2016

In Uncategorized

Storm Imogen in Ballybunion



(photo: Mike Enright)


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Another Prizewinner from Jim MacSweeney



This one won second prize in Southern Association of Camera Clubs Photographer of The Year Competition. Projected Non Advanced. Theme People in Their Environment 

Silver Medal Photo Winner. Scored 26 out of 27.


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Football in Pres 

The photo was taken by Tom Fitzgerald. The teacher/coach is Eileen Keane. The girls are;

Back: Mary Buckley,Leona Fitzmaurice, Paula Canty, Niamh Bambury, Carol Collins, Brigeeta Mulvihill, Sharon Canty, Theresa Cronin, Eimear O’Connor, Katie Dillon, Eileen Kilgallon, Margaret Reen, Louise Murphy

Front: Joanna Fitzgerald, Audrey Harrington    ………., Regina Harrington, Mary Ita Mc Elligott, Máire Guiney, Sinead Bunyan, Treacy Bunyan, Sarah Fitzgerald, Aoife MacMahon    

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Random Memories of Growing up in the 1940s and 50s Listowel





For Junior Griffin growing up in the Bridge Road was a happy experience. One of
his neighbours was Fr. Kieran O’Shea. When Fr. Kieran was ordained in 1961, as
well as his family, he was allowed to invite two friends. He invited Junior and
John B. Keane. Many years later when  Fr. Kieran delivered the eulogy at John B.’s funeral he
remembered that day when he was ordained. For some reason he was ordained by
the papal legate, Cardinal Agaginian. John B. used to tell a tall tale that a
woman in Dublin was heard to say that the Agha Khan was ordaining the priests
in Maynooth that day.

Other neighbours whose names spring to mind were Enrights,
Moloneys, Buckleys, O’Connells and Hassetts. Thomas Hassett, his old neighbor,
was buried on the same day as Bert. Griffin. The boys fished, played Cowboys
and Indians and went to the pictures. Later they spent hours on end in the ball
alley but when they were younger the ball alley was the location a bit of early
entrepreneurship. After mass on Sundays the alley used to be packed with
people. Bert and Junior had a family friend who allowed them to pick apples in
her orchard. They sold these in the ball alley. Their sales targets were 3d
each for Junior and Bert. The price of the pictures was 2d and 1d for slab toffee in Sheehy’s meant
your afternoon’s entertainment was secured. Junior usually went to the Plaza
picture house but he went to the Astor as well on occasion. 

Junior remembers street fairs.
Cattle were lined up all the way down Bridge Rd as far as the old library.
Sometimes farmers would give the young boys a few pence to mind their cattle
while they went for refreshments. The boys had the day off as the big fair days
were all school holidays. Shops erected 

protective barriers outside their windows.
The footpaths and roads were filthy in the aftermath of the fair.

Junior remembers The Races when
they were held over 2 days. He remembers the meat pies. There was a certain
rivalry between purveyors of these pies and recipes were closely guarded.
Jackie Sharry said of 

Curly Connors pies that they wouldn’t break the Friday
fast.

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Creamery Social in Moyvane 20 years ago



Moyvane Social

Watch out for some well known faces in this short clip.

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Programme from a Doodle Frolic




Photo: Junior Griffin

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Cork’s Synogogue Closed



The Jewish community have been part of Cork life for generations. Sadly, this synagogue on The South Terrace closed its doors at the weekend. With just 3 adult male members there was just not enough to sustain it. Many Cork Jews are dispersed around the world. There are seven families from Cork in Israel.

“The synagogue on South Terrace was consecrated
in 1905. Today, it hosts its last ever prayer service, with a rabbi and 14 men
travelling from Dublin to ensure there are enough people present. 
At its
height, the Jewish Community in Cork consisted of 65 families with as many as
400 members. They first arrived in 1880 as migrants fleeing persecution in
Russia. It is believed they were initially heading to America, but were won
over by the warmth and welcome of Cork people.
The artefacts from the synagogue
have been    

temporarily given to Cork Public Museum while members look for a new
centre of worship.”

(Source: Evening Echo Monday Feb 1 2016)

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Pink Hat Day at Kenmare Mart



Pretty in Pink, World Record.. 

The scene at Kenmare Mart Co Kerry on Monday, with Mart Manager Cllr Dan McCarthy and Templenoe GAA Club newly crowned All Ireland Junior Football Champions who broke the world record of number of Pink Hats worn at a Mart in aid of Recovery Haven, Respite and Hospice Care, Tralee. The Pink Hats were sponsored by Dairymaster. The Total tally was 517 hats.

Photo:Valerie O’Sullivan.

Eugene O’Sullivan, the oldest drover in Ireland was there to help reach the record. He got his hands on the cup as well.

Norma Moriarty dropped in to canvass for votes. She too donned a pink hat and

 a Kilgobnet Biddy hat for good measure.

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All that’s best about the G.A.A.

http://www.balls.ie is not a website I visit often. 

Regulars will know that Listowel Connection is a bit lacking in sports coverage. But the story of Templenoe’s victory in the Junior Club All Ireland 2016 is the stuff of romance and dreams, so when I saw a link to a story related to the game I was hooked.

Victory is sweet and Templenoe followers had every right to celebrate. In the midst of the celebrations one Templenoe man took time to send this Twitter message to the vanquished.



   and a noble Ardnaree man took a break from licking the wound to reply in kind;

Repairing the Clock in St. John’s,Writers Week 1976 and Templenoe are Winners

By

On February 8, 2016

In Uncategorized

Repairing the clock in St. John’s

Junior Griffin remembers that  when he was a boy, at the top of Bridge Rd., the protestant clergyman lived in
Gurtenard House. The Bridge Rd. boys had very little recourse to this property
except in Autumn to rob the orchard. The last vicar to live in Gurtenard House
before the church bought the rectory on Church St. beside the Kennedy Home, was
Archdeacon Wallace.

There was a problem with the clock in the spire of St. John’s
and Archdeacon Wallace called to Bridge Rd. to John Griffin to see if he would
undertake the job of mending the clock. There was a problem of access to the
clock. There was, and still is, a door in the building above and to the right
of the clock face which is visible from the Bridge Rd. but the problem was to
access this door from the ground. John Griffin was a resourceful man and he
welcomed the challenge this job offered.

In his own house in the Bridge Rd. John Griffin made a
wooden cage. This cage had to bear his weight as it was hoisted on ropes up the
spire of St. John’s. John had many of
the problem solving skills of a good engineer. He got the design right and,
hoisted aloft in this cage, he got up to the clock and effected the necessary
repairs.

Junior remembers that he or Bert went once a fortnight to
wind the clock and adjust its weights if it was gaining or losing time. He
remembers distinctly a brass plaque which said that the clock was donated to
St. John’s by the “protestant gentry” in 1845. Remembering his history, Junior
was surprised that so much money was spent on a church clock at a time of great
poverty locally.

The plaque has since been removed.

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The Kerryman April 16 1976


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Listowel in the rain

I took these photos on January 31 2016…last day of winter. It’s been a hard one. Few will be sorry to see the back of it.

Dowd’s Road deserted on a rainy Sunday morning.

Pitch and Putt game anyone?

The first of the daffodils

Looks like they are erecting new signage here.

One glimmer on the horizon…fuel prices are falling.

Rain has stopped play.

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Listowel Lady brings a touch of Style to Leopardstown



Eilish Stack looked lovely at Leopardstown at the weekend. Darran Kennedy wasn’t too bad either.

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Joy Unconfined…Templenoe are All Ireland Junior Club Football Champions



Look at this video….The Final Whistle or listen back to Pat and Mick Spillane’s interviews during the run up to this great victory on February 6 2016 and witness the best of the G.A.A.

 Pat Spillane described Saturday’s final as his best day in Croke Park. Pat has nine All Ireland medals.

Templenoe is a tiny club with no feeder national school. Only one of Saturday’s winning team works and lives locally. Most of the lads are students who will emigrate and scatter once their stint in college is over. What is keeping them together and connected to their home place is the G.A.A. 

Templenoe is a lake shore community and they suffered a tragedy recently with the death by drowning of a popular local man .

“Bill Topham, an electrician and the warden at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland in Kenmare, Co Kerry, died after the 17ft (5.2m) boat overturned a few hundred yards from shore. He was making his way with a friend to an island for a duck shoot.” ( Independent.ie)

Mr. Topham was not a member of the G.A. A. but the clubmen were among the 240 local people who formed the search party that eventually recovered his body. His funeral time was organized so that his neighbours and friends could attend before making the trip to Dublin for the game.

G.A.A. is about friendship, neighbourliness and community. Winning matches is just the icing on the cake.


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