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
The lovely 5 year old Kerrie Browne and her dog, Milo, pose for the camera beside Paud Pelican’s skilfully constructed turf stuaics.
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Ballincollig, Supporting Cork, Win, Lose or Draw
The bunting is still up. The pain of what might have been still being felt.
The real winner on Sunday July 21 2024 was hurling. The game was broadcast by the BBC and the reactions of this new audience say so much about hurling as the best game in the world.
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The Big Fair
We have had a very interesting email from Kay Caball.
Mary, your readers might be interested in this significant piece of Listowel history recovered by the Virtual Treasury.https://virtualtreasury.ie/ It is the Licence granted on 13th August 1688 by William [20th] Lord Baron of Kerry & Lixnaw to hold a Wednesday Market, & two Fairs on the Feast of St. Swithin (15 July) & St Luke (18 of October) on the day before each, at the Town of Listowhill.
I am sure many of your older readers will remember the ‘Big Fairs’ that took over the town each May and October.
I don’t have to tell you of the great work being done by the research partnership of the Virtual Treasury recovering and reconstructing, through digital technology many of the records destroyed in the disastrous fire of our national archives in 1922
Kay
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A Definition
From The Devil’s Dictionary
by Ambrose Bierce
circus, n. a place where horses, ponies and elephants are permitted to see men, women and children acting the fool.
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A Fact
In 1981 in Florence, Sebastian Coe set a world record for the 800m. that stood unbeaten for 16 years.
1916 commemorative garden in Childers Park in February 2024
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From Pres. Secondary School Yearbook 1988
The story of Kilmorna House
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A Poem
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Turf Cutting
Talk of turf cutting prompted an email and a grainy old image;
Hi Mary, Thanks for Listowel Connection ,
I really remember now from reading Jerry Twomey explaining.
So below is a photo from 8mm film taken from my brother Thomas back then.
Tullamore Bog Photo: is not great in focus.
I am cutting,my father is spreading to Jay ,that he spreading sods further. It also reminds my age ,when we only wore short pants . “John-Anthony Hegarty,Thomas Christopher Hegarty ,James Joseph Hegarty “ was taken from Tullamore bog road by Thomas Hegarty. Regards John-Anthony Hegarty.
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A Fact
In 1886 The Times of London published the the world’s first classified advertisement.
Bringing a dead loved one to life in a poem is such a cathartic experience.
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Bastables
Bastables were our great grannies ovens. They were suspended on a crane over the open turf fire and the families’ meals were cooked on them. Bastable cooking skills were passed down from generation to generation. The round bottomed pot was for boiling. Potatoes and other vegetables were cooked in this. Sometimes it just boiled water for various tasks. There was a kettle for the tea (no one had coffee) but boiled water was needed for mixing food for animals and certain washing tasks.
The flat bottomed bastable was for roasting and baking. A skilled bastable chef could roast a chicken to perfection, she could cook a stew or even a loaf of soda bread. The cook adjusted the heat by placing burning sods of turf (gríosach) on the lid.
How far we have some with our microwaves and air fryers! If our great grandmothers saw an induction hob at work, they woiuld be gobsmacked.
This is a griddle. Also for cooking over an open fire, This was great for frying of fish . Remember at Phil the Fluter’s Ball the dancers were “hopping in the middle like a herring on the griddle”? The griddle was used for baking of thin breads and scones as well.
The coming of the range put an end to this hit and miss cooking. The range brought the thermostat which cut out much of the guesswork. That said, I remember my late mother having to open the oven door when the turf or timber had heated the oven that little bit too much.
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Important Discussion about Girls and Sport
Friday June 2 10.30 in The Plaza
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A Blast from the Past
This is a picture of Cork in 1969 from a website with old photos of Ireland.
Recently people have been making a big hoo ha because they have identified the bridge behind the Mona Lisa in the painting. Well, I recognise Western Road in this picture because I can see the gates of UCC in the background and the big building on the right is the Eye, Ear and Throat hospital. The filling station on the left is long gone. Traffic on that road is now one way,
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A Fact
Many people know that the sandwich was named after an English earl (1718 -92) but how did the Fourth Earl of Sandwich come to give his name to this meal which is the favourite lunch of so many today.
His lordship was a gambling addict. He ordered that his food be brought to him between slices of bread so that he could eat his meals without leaving the gaming table.
This is the Darby O’Mahoney window in the sanctuary of St. Mary’s Listowel. Fr. Darby O’Mahony was a much loved parish priest during the worst of The Famine years in Listowel. He brought four sisters from Milltown to establish a Presentation Convent to help the starving people of North Kerry. The nuns set up a soup kitchen and they spent hours making simple garments for the poor inhabitants of the workhouse to wear. Very often people arrived at the workhouse, destitute, starving and in rags.
Once when the starving people threatened to storm the workhouse in their demented search for food, Fr. O’Mahiny addressed them until he himself collapsed from exhaustion. He succeeded in quelling the riot.
The people of Listowel donated a stained glass window and a memorial to him in his church. The scene depicted on the window shows Fr. O’Mahony ministering to a dying famine victim. As far as I know he is the only person who is not a canonised saint whose image is commemorated in a memorial window in our church.
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Footing the Turf
This photo was uploaded by Myles Campbell. It’s obviously hand cut turf and there’s acres of it. Could it be a Bord na Mona bog in early days?
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Memories, Memories
Knitwits in happier times in Scribes Café in Church Street.
R.I.P. Anne and Joan, friends gone before us.
Paudie sent us this obituary to remember his mother, Joan, by.
Joan Carey (Nee O’Connor) was born on the 22 October 1945 to Thomas O’Connor and Mary (Moll) Looney at Boltons Cross, Skehenerin, Listowel. She was the youngest of 6 children and the last surviving sibling.
She attended the Presentation Convent in Listowel and after completing a secretarial course in Tralee, she worked as a shorthand typist initially at Raymond Solicitors, and subsequently at Robert Pierse’s, Listowel before meeting her husband and moving to London in 1970. In Oct 1972, she married Gerald Carey and worked in Central London at such famous streets as Dover Street, Bond Street and Oxford Street.
After a number of years in London, residing at 45 Blawith road, she and Ger returned to Listowel, settling initially in 7 Holytree Drive and finally at 105 Church Street, Listowel. 105 Church Street was to be the family home for over 40 years.
In 1982, she opened her little grocery shop, very popular with the children from the Boys National School nearby. In 1987, she opened a larger premises in 107 Church Street. Over the years, she built up a loyal following of Customers, many of whom became friends from all over Listowel town, Cahirdown, Skehenerin, Clounmacon and Kilmorna.
Her greatest achievement were her 3 children, Paudie, Thomas and Siobhán. She was equally proud of a all three. As a mother she was loving, caring and affectionate. She had a great sense of humanity and compassion and was always concerned when she saw a fellow human being troubled or in distress. She always did what she could to help, living the true Christian message.
In 2002, with the shop closed she worked at Galvin’s off-licence in Lower William Street and knew all the goings on the centre of town. Since retiring, she had the joy of seeing two wonderful grandchildren been born, Séan and Paddy Hand. She was always looking forward to the next picture or video of them on Whatsapp, drinking her Glass of red wine in the evening.
She enjoyed a good murder mystery on ‘Albi’ and had a keen interest on current events. In addition, what gave her great pleasure was meeting her Knitting friends (Knit Wits!) at Scribes in Church once or sometimes twice a week, where she developed many friendships.
With the arrival of Covid, a very difficult two years begin in her life, and it was the great care she received in Kilcara Nursing Home, that her suffering and pain was made bearable for her to endure. She bore her illness with remarkable humility, dignity, and courage. To the end she showed concern and love for her family and that will always be her greatest legacy.
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People I Met
Jed Chute and Maria Fitzgerald in Main Street last week
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A Fact
If Monaco’s ruling house of Grimaldi should ever be without a male or female heir the country will cease to be a sovereign state.
This annual display on the side altar, as well as all the symbols of Easter includes animals. flowers, water and light.
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Commemorative Manhole Covers
These permanent memorials of 1916 are literally under our feet in town. I photographed this one on Church Street. Try to notice them next time you are out and about.
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Memories of an Influential Teacher
“And still they gazed and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew.”
Oliver Goldsmith’s The Village Schoolmaster
The late John Molyneaux had a wealth of knowledge and he imparted it to cohorts of pupils in St. Michael’s. He had a prodigious knowledge of football, running and later golfing strategy.
One of his past pupils, David Kissane, published an obituary to his former teacher on line. I am including it here. As it is very long, I will give it to you in instalments.
Semper Invictus
A tribute to Mr John Molyneaux, St Michael’s College, Listowel
By David Kissane, Class of ’72
It is fifty years ago since a group of about thirty young fellas headed out the gates of St Michael’s College, Listowel and into the wide, wild and wonderful world of the 1970s. As a member of the class of ’72, there is a compulsion to remember the year and its hinterland. Its place in our layered lives. What contributed to what we are cannot go uncelebrated. It just keeps on keeping on.
But how can one capture the colours and contours, the shapes and shadows of half a century ago when the world had a very different texture to what we perceive now in the bóithríns of age? The ships we sailed out in may be wrecked or dismembered. The ports we set sail from are hidden in the mists of time and memory, and our fellow sailors are scattered.
So where does one begin?
The writer Colm Tóibín once asked the artist Barrie Cooke how he began his paintings. Cooke answered “I make a random mark on the canvas and see what happens”.
Just as I follow Cooke’s suggestion and type a random “J” on the screen, the phone rings. It is Jim Finnerty from Glouria. I look at my J and wonder if Cooke was right! “There’s a man you knew well after passing away in Listowel” Jim announced. Listowel, I thought out loud as Jim let the news simmer in the wok of my memories. A number of names came to mind before Jim said “John Molyneaux”.
And then my canvas began to fill in. I write the name of Mr John Molyneaux, my Latin and English teacher, my athletics and football coach, and the dam opens. For the five years I spent in St Michael’s College, Listowel, he was an enduring presence, a multi-dimensional man who had a huge influence in our lives for those budding years. An icon.
Of course the first question that challenged my memory was “when did I last see John Molyneaux?”
About three years ago I parked my van down by the Feale off the Square in Listowel. Near Carroll’s Yard. Near the entrance bridge to Listowel Racecourse where you’d hear “Throw me down something!” on race days in sepia Septembers. As I returned to the van with a brand new chimney cowl, I saw him coming along the bank of the river. Lively as always, thoughtful, loaded with intention, energised quietly by the magic of the Feale walk, eyes down. I knew immediately if was him although I hadn’t met him in thirty years or more.
I almost said “Sir”. There is something un-shielding about meeting our old teachers. For us teachers, there is often a similar feeling when we meet former students.
“Hallo”, I said. He looked up and at me and it was that same look that I had forgotten with the passing of the years. Stored in the subconscious though. A moment of silence. I heard myself say my name. “I know” he said and a pathway opened up between the two of us and five minutes of reacquaintance. The older face transformed itself back through the years and the voice reframed its undeniable Mr Molyneaux-ness.
“We might have a chat about athletics sometime?” I broached timidly and he nodded. I was talking to the man who helped discover Jerry Kiernan and a host of other athletes. We parted and my day was enriched and changed.
Time and Covid played their cruel games and the chat never took place.
I will regret that for as long as memory is my colleague.
A group of raw first year students entered St Michael’s College in September 1967 having done an entrance exam the previous May. From the hinterland of Listowel and the town itself. There were only two from Lisselton NS some eight miles away off the Ballybunion-Listowel road. Francis Kennelly and myself, coincidentally from the same townland of Lacca. And distantly related as well.
The novices of 1967 were the first beneficiaries of Donagh O’Malley’s free education bill with free transport and no fees. Up to then second-level education was the premise of the wealthy. Now we were part of a historical educational development which would change the face of Ireland forever. Educate that you may be free, Pádraig Pearse had said long before he was executed in 1916.
In we went to the famed, and sometimes feared St Michael’s College, imposing and immobile. Two storeys of history and education above the ground and one storey below looking out on our little minds. Long walk in like an estate house with manicured lawns and apple trees. We were told by those in the know that if we picked the apples that were growing on those trees that autumn that it would have worse repercussions than when Adam was persuaded by Eve to prove his manhood by picking the Granny Smiths in the Garden of Paradise. The principal, Fr Danny Long would punish the picker with impunity. We were herded up the spotted clackety marble stairs and looked down on the trees to our right and pondered the decree of ne tangere. Do not touch.
