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: turf Page 3 of 5

Turf, Peas, Hopscotch and Revival 2019




An old advertising sign at a pub in Kildare



<<<<<


Stockpiling Turf



I found this picture on the Bord na Mona Living History page. It shows BnaM workers covering the pile of turf. The practice of covering the stockpile started in 1961 after the damage done by Storm Debbie.

<<<<<<<<



Peas in a Pod



Raymond O’Sullivan is a great one to follow on Facebook. He is full of interesting information. The following photo and text is his.

Shelling peas for the dinner, thinking about old ways: does anyone believe in marriage divination/prediction anymore? Does this age old custom/superstition still survive in the rational and pragmatic 21st century? Invariably practiced by young girls, you know what I mean, getting the ring in the barm brack at Hallowe’en, putting a piece of wedding cake under your pillow to dream of your future husband, eating a salted herring at bedtime for a similar result, plucking an even ash leaf and reciting certain verses and hundreds more. If a young girl finds 9 peas in a pod the next single male she meets will be her future husband, or, at least, have the same initials.

It depends on the strain of peas, but the average seems to be 6-7 peas to the pod. 9-pea pods are not all that unusual though, and, if it were not for sexism and ageism, I might be Sultan of a handy harem before the year is out. A word of warning to any young lady contemplating a raid on my garden in search of a 9-pea pod, the first single male you meet will probably be a very disgruntled and grumpy old gardener.

I (your blogger) grew up not far from the Erin Foods factory in Mallow. In summertime during the pea harvest, lorries piled high with pea vines passed by our house several times a day. If two lorries passed at our gate, they were forced to pull in close to the roadside in order to pass safely. Invariably the overhanging branches of our trees would dislodge some of the vines and we, children, loved to retrieve these before they fell to the ground and were rolled over by traffic. I can still taste the delicious raw peas.  Happy days!


<<<<<<<


Hopping in for a Cuppa


Bitesize ias a busy friendly cafe in Ballincollig, Co Cork. it always has a saying to make you smile on its sandwich board and invariable a bowl of water for the pooches. Now that the children are off school it has a hopscotch grid at the door. Here is my granddaughter, Róisín, hopping in for a milk shake.

<<<<<<<



Great weekend of Music in Store



Listowel Singers, turf cutting and Roly Godfrey, Painter and Jim Quinlan R.I.P.

Minnie in Ballybunion at sundown photographed by Bridget O’Connor

<<<<<<<<<<

Listowel Singers



This old photo of the Listowel Singers was shared on Facebook by Ned O’Sullivan. He enjoyed the joke of the seagull on his head.

<<<<<<<,


Changes to Tralee Streetscape




I took these photos just before it was completely demolished

PHOTO; Historical Tralee on Facebook



<<<<<<<<


A Day in the Bog


Many people will remember this, a barrow load of turf. I remember that when we cut breast slane turf on our own bank, we used to load the barrow with 2 rows of four sods, then three sods, then 2 and 1 on the top, making 20 sods per barrow. The wheeler would empty the barrow on the spread ground and when you came in the next barrow was ready to go. No rest, you had to keep going. Of course there were different traditions and ways of cutting and spreading turf around the country. This photo dates from the 1940s.

Photo and text from Tony McKenna

I wonder if these barrows were used in North Kerry. I certainly don’t remember them and my recollection of the bog was that the ground would be far too soft to roll a loaded barrow on.



<<<<<<<






Roly Godfrey, Painter


We know the subject but we don’t know the artist yet. Patrick Godfrey came across this portrait of his grandfather, painter Roly Godfrey. It was painted by a local artist and the setting is The Harp and Lion bar and the year is sometime in the 1980s.

I came to Listowel first in 1975. One aspect of the town that fascinated me was the number of painting and decorating firms it had. I came from a place where everyone seemed to so their own painting. I remember two professional painters but they were mostly employed by businesses with high outside facades to maintain.

In contrast, everyone in Listowel seemed to employ professionals to paint their shops and businesses. I think it is a mark of the pride people took in how their shopfronts looked and a desire to always put on a show for the visitor. It is this pride in the town and this desire to employ the best people to decorate it that has eventually led to the winning of Ireland’s Tidiest Town Award in 2018.

<<<<<<<<

+ Jim Quinlan R.I.P.+

Kerry Crusaders running and cycling clubs were founded to remember a man who died while he was out cycling, Howard Flannery.

There was a poignant scene on Church Street Listowel on Monday April 1 2019 as cyclists in Crusaders cycling gear peddled slowly in front of the hearse carrying the coffin of their fallen comrade, Jim Quinlan.

Jim’s cycling brothers gave him a great send off. His friends in the Listowel Folk Group sang him to his rest.

Jim was one of those people who are the salt of the earth. He was a great community and parish man, contributing always with a will and a smile. His adopted Listowel is diminished by his untimely passing.

Happiest in the company of his beloved Nóirín, I snapped Jim on a chance encounter in Ballybunion last year.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.

New York, Ballybunion, Red Cross and Turf

January 2018 in Midtown Manhattan

The temperature was -12 when Danny O’Connor, formerly of Gurtinard, took this photo.

<<<<<<<<<

Old Ballybunion

The Ladies’ Beach back in the day.

<<<<<<<<<<

 Listowel Red Cross in the 1960s. Does anyone recognise anyone?

<<<<<<


Turf Then and Now



These are stooks of turf standing drying in the bog fadó.

This is the scene in the bog at the end of summer as the turf is saved and ready to be bagged and brought home.

Machine cup turf drying in the bog.

Sods of machine turf.

<<<<<<<


My Own Micko Story


Dave O’Sullivan found this in The Kerryman archive from 1981

For those who don’t remember the controversy, it concerned commercial sponsorship of county . teams.

Kerry was one of the first counties to accept endorsements and to do media ads.

The reference to stripes is to the famous Adidas three stripes logo. 

The Mulvihill was Liam Mulvihill the then director general of the GAA.

The Bog, The Children, the nuns and Ryan Tubridy at Writers’ Week

It’s That Time of Year


Photo by Jason of Ballybunion Prints Beach

Not everyone can lie all day on the beach. For some people the fine weather means one thing…a trip to the bog.

 Bog cotton photographed by Maire Logue

Turbery and turbines photographed by Maire Logue


Some people are a little further along with the turf harvest. The Hartnett family of Upper William Street have their turf home and stowed.

<<<<<<<


The early days of Presentation Presence in Listowel



The cross gave its name to the first convent here. It was known as The Convent of the Holy Cross.

Here is a newspaper account of the death of one of the founding sisters

Irish Examiner , Friday, October 21, 1864

DEATH OF REV. MOTHER TERESA KELLY PRESENTATION CONVENT,
LISTOWEL.

NOT only the religious and Catholic laity of the diocese
of Kerry, but the large circle, besides, by whom she was known and venerated,
will feel with regret that the blank left in her community by the death of
Reverend Mother Teresa Kelly on Wednesday last, will be long before it ceases
to be suffered from. A long life of activity, intelligence and holiness, under
trying circumstances, endeared her to all who know her personally or by report.

Upwards of fifty years ago Miss Kelly entered the
Presentation Convent, Killarney, and soon after passing through an edifying
novitiate was appointed superioress. In this important office she distinguished
herself by bar prudence and zeal alike; her charity knew no limit, and yet she
never involved her community in embarrassments. During her term of office in
Killarney, the first of the monks of La Trappe, whose abbey is now so well
known at Mount Melleray, near Cappoquin, came to this country from France. They
were penniless, and depended for support on the charity of the people. The
first of those who stretched out the hand to help them was Rev. Mother Teresa,
her influence procured them a house to live in, and her pecuniary aid to their
establishment in Ireland was important. Visitors to the Abbey of Mount Melleray
may hear of a lady who is publicly prayed for by the monks as a great benefactress
to their order, well-known to the older brothers, this lady is Mother Teresa.
All, but a few old monks on crutches, have died, of the brothers who came over
from France, and as silence is one of the chief disciplines of La Trappe, few
of the present community know the name of the lady for whom the public prayers are
offered.

Having filled with honour the office, of superioress at
Killarney for several years, Mother Teresa, with a few sisters, left the
community to found a convent at Milltown, a small town at the bend of Dingle
Bay. Under her able government, this undertaking prospered, and the schools
attached were filled with the children of the peasantry and townspeople. Here
Mother Teresa remained until she had passed her fiftieth year. At this period
of life few men or women undertake new and important works, but Mother Teresa,
hearing of the great want of educational establishments in North Kerry,
consented to break her attachments to the convent she had founded and made
prosperous, and begin anew in Listowel. She founded the convent of Holy Cross
in that town onwards of twenty years ago, with three assistant sisters. Of her
acts of charity during the famine, years no praise could be too loud. She was
the chief reliance of priests and people in that district during that dreary
period. Her small community gradually gained accessions, and on the day of her
death she had the happiness to see it one of the most prosperous and beloved of
the Presentation Convents.

Many priests on the foreign and home missions owe the
means which enabled them to prosecute their studies to this holy woman, and
would regret her loss were they not assured that she has passed to a place where
the virtues she practised and the peace she loved and taught here are eternal.

<<<<<<


The National Children’s Literary Festival at Writers’ Week

Here are some of the marvellous events which the lucky children enjoyed.

RTE Juniors held a very popular workshop.

Here are the RTE Junior stars with Norella and Maria of Listowel Writers’ Week.

Singer/ Songwriter, Enda Reilly held two songwriting events, one as Gaeilge and one in English.

Kenny the Clown made balloon animals for the children.

Children’s author, Sarah Webb was omnipresent during the festival.

Ryan Tubridy and P.J. Lynch told the children about how they came to work together on the popular children’s book, Patrick and the President. They signed and posed for photos and were gracious and patient with all their young admirers.

Ballybunion From the Sea, an old cottage and a cottage industry

A Different Aspect of Ballybunion

Photographer, Marie Rohan, posted this image on Facebook. She took the stunning photo during a boat trip at last year’s Seaweed Festival


<<<<<<



Preserving the Memories


( Photos from the Connemara History and Heritage Centre)

A man sits on a súgán chair outside a modern recreation of an old stone cottage.

There would have been no home drinking in those days.

Apart from a table and chairs the dresser was usually the only good piece of furniture in a 19th. century cottage. Delf was wealth and it was valued and displayed. To the left of the dresser is a creel for turf and a griddle pan for cooking bread etc. To the right is the butter churn.

 The hearth with black pot hanging on the crane over the fire. As was common there is no fireplace as we know it today, just a shelf well up above the fire and a line like a clothes line on which clothes and horses’ tackling were hung to dry.

Hand cut turf, unlike today’s machine cut uniform sods. This turf does not look black enough to be considered the best. Turf is judged by its dryness and darkness of colour.

<<<<<<<<



Craftshop na Méar’s New Look



Crafters have been busy painting and rearranging the shop. They would love everyone to pop in for a look. There are some lovely things on display. All craftwork is done locally.


Cushions, quilts, clutch bags and jewellery

Books and puzzles for sale include my own Listowel Through a Lens which I am now selling at the knockdown price of €5. All proceeds from the sale of my book  now go to Listowel Chapter of St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Sharyn makes beautiful vintage style jewellery.

The shop is still the sole stockist of the beautiful solid silver My Silver River Feale range.

Viveca’s gorgeous lamps can be custom made two your own design.

<<<<<<<<

Aran Knitting



Long before there was ever a craftshop, Listowel women were knitting and sewing beautiful creations. One of these ladies, Dolores Carroll, was an expert knitter of aran jumpers. She send many of these to her sister in the U.S. who sold them on to her work colleagues. Many people, even some with no Irish connection were eager to wear a genuine Irish sweater. The pictures below show Dolores’ sister and her husband wearing some of Dolores’ handiwork.

Right now Dolores would prefer that I was reminding Listowel people that The Country Boy with The Lartigue Theatre Co. opened its run  in St. John’s on Thursday night, March 31 2016 . It runs until April 4 and there are still a few seats available.

 John Murphy’s comic drama reflects 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. Dolores is doing as great job on the  publicity.



Page 3 of 5

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén