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: William St. Page 2 of 3

Drama,Rock Concerts in Gaelic Park in 1969 an old post box in Cashel and a Deed of Blood in North Kerry

By

On May 27, 2016

In Uncategorized

Listowel Town Square


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Another Old one from a Kerry’s Eye supplement



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They Rocked Gaelic Park in 1969



Talk about the summer of ’69. What a line up of concerts!

Where did I find it?

Ciarán Sheehan shared it on Facebook

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William Street


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Singing his Heart Out

Photo is from Belfast . The photographer is unknown.

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This Edward V11 postbox is in Cashel.  Photo from Twitter

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A Deed of Blood




Land has always caused trouble in Ireland and in the not very distant past dreadful deeds were done in the name of our right to land. We all know the story of John B. Keane’s The Field and nowMark Holan in his latest blog post has nosed out another gory story from our recent past. Mark writes a great Irish American blog and, because his Irish roots are in Kerry, he often writes about our neck of the woods.

Let me here apologise to any descendants of the people named. I don’t post this to malign anyone or to dig up painful family history, merely to recount historical facts and to remind ourselves of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man.

Land-related violence in
late 19th century Ireland were euphemistically known as “agrarian outrage.” …

For several years now I’ve
been exploring Ireland’s Land War period, 1879-1889. In particular, I’ve
focused on the 1888 murders of farmers James Fitzmaurice and John Foran, which
occurred within six months and just a few miles of each other in the northern
section of County Kerry, home of my Irish ancestors. Both men were condemned as
“landgrabbers” for leasing property after other farmers were evicted. In the
case of Fitzmaurice, the previous tenant was his brother.

In the 1880s, the Irish
National League (or Land League) was waging a campaign to break the grip of absentee
landlords, who controlled tens of thousands of acres. Farmers were called to
refuse paying their rents until lower rates and other rights could be
negotiated. When tenants were evicted for these or other reasons, the League
declared that the acreage should remain fallow and not be leased by other
locals.


Because Fitzmaurice and
Foran did not abide these strategies, they were condemned by League
officials and subjected to social and economic ostracism, known as boycotting.
Notices of their offenses were posted near the leased property and at local
market places. Each man received limited police protection, but both of them
fatally waved off the security.


The 68-year-old
Fitzmaurice was shot point blank by two assailants near Lixnaw, Kerry, on 31
January 1888. His daughter Nora, about 20, witnessed the murder in the “cold
grey dawn of morning,” according to a 16-page political pamphlet titled,
“A Deed of Blood,” published a few weeks after the crime.


“A Deed of Blood” was
produced by the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union, an alliance
of Irish businessmen, landowners and academics who sought to preserve the
existing political ties with Great Britain. The group was formed in 1885 to
oppose efforts by Charles Stuart Parnell and the Irish Parliamentary Party of
to win land reform and limited domestic autonomy, called home rule.


The pamphlet quoted from
newspaper coverage of the Fitzmaurice murder, as well as original reporting.
It appeared in mid February 1888, shortly after two men were charged with
the murder, but before their trial, conviction and execution by hanging at the
end of April. For the ILPU, the crime was “yet another link … added to the
strong chain of evidence connecting the National League with the latest murder
in Kerry.”……………..Mark Holan



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Did I ever think I’d live to see the day?


This is Seamus Eoinín, the oldest man living at the foot of Ceann Sibéal. Seán Mac an tSíthigh took this photo of him last week as Seamus was out enjoying the Star Wars buzz.

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Annual Eucharistic Procession tomorrow 


Our Eucharistic Procession, this year, is to take place after the Vigil Mass of the Feast of Corpus Christi on Saturday next 28th May after the 6.15pm. Leaving the Church at 7.00pm. proceeding through the Square, William Street, turning left at McKenna’s Corner, through Market Street, Convent St., keeping left at the Convent Cross, past the Presentation Secondary School and turning right into the Hospital Grounds and ending outside the Árd Cúram Centre (North Kerry Day Care Centre) where Benediction will take place. There will be an opportunity to visit this beautiful Centre also after Benediction. All are welcome, refreshments will be served after in the Centre.

Wiliam St., St. John’s and summer entertainment in John B.’s

By

On May 24, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s Barbecue Weather…..Some Days

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Upper William Street, Summer 2016



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Remember These ?


God be with the days before mobile phones. I grew up in a house with no phone, mobile or otherwise, so when these came in I thought they were a brilliant innovation. Those were the days when public phones were easily found in most towns. Callcards got rid of the necessity to have pocketfuls of change in order to make a phone call.  

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Weather in Ballywatticock


We are all familiar with amusing place names like BallyJamesDuff, Effin, Knockdown, Horse and Jockey etc. but Ballywatticock has to be in the hunt for the most outlandish.

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St. John’s



Remember last week I was looking for a photograph of the interior of St. John’s. Anne Moloney unearthed one. Unfortunately for my purposes, we can see more of a cute younger Jimmy Moloney than we can of the church.

The search continues. I can’t believe that no one took a photo of the interior before it was remodelled.

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Summer Entertainment in John B.’s



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Kanturk, March 2016, the census and an old Listowel family.

By

On April 7, 2016

In Uncategorized

A Sight for Sore Eyes










William St. April 6 2016

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A Walk around Kanturk with a camera

One of the events as part of the Kanturk Arts Festival is a walk around town with members of Mallow Camera Club. These experienced photographers help us to look out for likely shots. They help us with settings on our cameras and generally open our eyes to the joys of photography. Here are some of the photos I took on my Sunday morning tour of some of the streets of my home town.

The Cinema is now closed. Ironically the last two films advertised were Last Stand and Die Hard.

This colorful wool shop is in Watergate Street.

There was a lot of dereliction and locked up properties in the more rundown part of town we visited.

 Shops in The Square

Once upon a time when I was young in Kanturk this premises was where they used to pluck the turkeys at Christmas. Fitzpatrick’s had a hatchery nearby. This is the same Fitzpatricks which had a hatchery on Church Street Listowel.

 Main Street, Kanturk

 John O’Connor and his wife Sarah lived here up to recently. This building was once a school. John and Sarah were very involved in everything that was going on in town and are much missed.

 Strand Street

Another of the uglier aspects. This one was in a back lane.

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Interesting Facts from the last Census



Census night is April 24 2016. It will be the 27th census of Irish population.

Traleetoday.com brought us some interesting facts about Kerry from the 2011 census

AGE/SEX

• In April 2011 Kerry had a population of 145,502, consisting of 72,629 males and

72,873 females.

• The population of pre-school age (0-4) was 10,025, of primary school going age (5-

12) was 15,326 and of secondary school going age (13-18) was 11,177.

• There were 20,988 persons aged 65 years and over. The number of persons aged 18

years or over was 110,562.

MARITAL STATUS

• Of the 116,150 persons aged 15 years and over, 44,862 were single, 57,914 were

married, 3,377 were separated, 2,866 were divorced and 7,131 were widowed.

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS

• There were 53,306 private households in Kerry in April 2011, of which 14,038  were

single person households. Of the 37,248 families in the area, 11,153 were couples

with no children. The average number of children per family was 1.4 compared with

1.4 nationally.

MIGRATION AND NATIONALITIES

• 94.4 per cent of the usually resident population aged over 1 lived at the same

address one year before the census.

• A further 3.6 per cent lived elsewhere in the same county, 1.1 per cent lived elsewhere in the State while 0.9 per cent lived outside the State twelve months before the census on April 10, 2011.

• Non-Irish nationals accounted for 11.2 per cent of the population of Kerry compared

with a national average figure of 12.0 per cent. UK nationals (5,191 persons) were

the largest group, followed by Polish (4,048 persons).

LANGUAGES

• 64,105 persons could speak the Irish language and of these 21,792 spoke the

language daily. 13,109 persons spoke a language other than Irish or English at

home and of these 2,507 could not speak English well or at all. Polish was the most

common foreign language spoken at home with 3,942 speakers.

RELIGION

• There were 127,637 Roman Catholics in the area at census time. A further 9,075

were adherents of other stated religions (e.g. Church of Ireland, Islam, Presbyterian,

Orthodox), while 6,884 persons indicated that they had no religion.

For those whose first language is not Irish or English, a translation of the census form is available in 21 different foreign languages.

Other resources which are available to assist people with filling out the census form include large print, Braille and audio versions of the census form and a video step-by-step guide to completing the census form.

All of these resources and much more information about the census are available on the census website at www.census.ie.

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The Things You Find on the Internet!


This is a photo of Grace Kelly and Prince rainier of Monaco meeting for the first time.

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Tackaberrys of Listowel



Dermot Tackaberry who lives in the U.K. is doing some work on his family tree. The name Tackaberry is Cornish, he has discovered.  Dermot has made good progress is tracing his Kerry ancestors. Now, to give him a better idea of who exactly the Tackaberrys were he would love to hear stories from anyone who remembers them. In Junior Griffin’s account of the badminton club’s history he discovered that one of his ancestors was a committee member of the club. Did they belong to any other club or organization?

If you remember the Tackaberrys, will you email me your story at listowelconnection@gmail.com please.

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Organ Donation


This is an organ donor card and everyone should carry one. This is Organ Donation Awareness Week and as an awareness raising exercise various organizations have asked people who have been recipients or donors to share their stories.

Two such people are Alan Gleeson, pictured below with his parents and Anne Egan who lost her husband, Philip, tragically but Anne is consoled by the fact that Philip’s organs have gone on to help other people live.

This is Alan’s story 

Garda Alan Gleeson
(34) from Listowel, Co Kerry received his first kidney transplant at the
age of 16. His transplant eventually failed when he was in his early 30s and he
commenced dialysis treatment at Beaumont
Hospital.

Discovering his kidney had failed
came as a “hammer blow” and he wondered whether he would lose his job and how
his family would cope with the news.

Garda Gleeson, who is based in
Dublin, rises at 2.50am three days a week for the four-hour treatment, then
returns home to sleep before he goes to work.

He praised colleagues for their
support and said he was lucky his job was not 9-to-5. But life on dialysis was
“very restrictive”.

Most days, following the “harsh and
tough” process, he would feel sick and fatigued.

He urged people to speak to their
loved ones about donation.

Organ Donor Awareness Week runs
from this Saturday, April 2nd, to April 9th. See ika.ie

(source: The Irish Times)

Philip Egan died suddenly while out on a cycling spin with his club, Finuge Freewheelers. His young wife, Anne , made the decision to donate many of his organs. Philip was a fit and healthy young man and his organs have helped many people live a fuller life. Anne told me that she got a letter from the man who received Philip’s heart. That man has now taken up cycling. 



This is a photograph of me and my sister, Ina, taken when I was about 2. Ina and I were Irish twins, born 14 months apart. She was my only sister.


When I was 13 and Ina 14, Ina died of kidney failure as a result of kidney disease. In those days organ donations were rare and dialysis was only available in Dublin.


I believe organ donation should be an opt out rather than an opt in decision.

Surfing in Ballybunion, William St. in the sixties and Knockane

By

On April 17, 2015

In Uncategorized

Sign of summer?








Surfing in Ballybunion: April 2015


Photo: Ballybunion Prints

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Upper William Street in the great bye and bye


A previous posting of this photo on the internet drew this response from our great local historian, Vincent Carmody.

“The old home town looks the same

As I stepped down from the train,”

This is  part of Upper William Street (or as real
townies would call it, Patrick St. or Pound Lane). I have a good idea that
Neddy, the ass, tied to the pole belonged to a really nice lady from Dirrah East
called Han Synan. The pole was (and is) situated outside the late
Nora(Lynch)Buckley /the late Lil Mai O Sullivan’s houses.

On the other side or the road the
house with the brown door was Dr.Tim Buckley’s surgery (he lived with his two
sisters Mollie and Delia across the road in a public house and which was
subsequently the Listowel Post Office). Above the surgery was a back lane which
serviced the rear of Upper William St. and Charles St . Up this laneway also
was the Powerhouse which served as headquarters for the local E.S.B. Up there
also were 2 forges, one belonging to the late Jackie Moore and the other to the
late Val Moore. On the other side of the laneway is St Patrick’s Temperence Hall
which was built in the 1890s. The hall had a major reconstruction makeover
1999-2002. At this time the house above the hall was occupied by an O’Sullivan
family who afterwards moved to Charles St. Next door, which at the time was
derelict, belonged to the late Mike Joe Hennessy of Ballyduff and formerly of
this street. The two houses above these belonged to Mary Moore who used let
them to various tenants. At this time the lower one was let to the town jubilee
nurse, a nurse Anne McDonagh, the upper house to Tom and Peggy Lyons, the two
remaining houses in the photograph belonged to John Francis and Maurice
Carmody. Hopefully this gives a little insight into part of the street of 40
years ago.

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Honesty at The Fair



Marina Stack contacted me after watching the Radharc film Honesty at The Fair

She says


Re the Radharc programme Honesty at the Fair , at 14 mins 13 in is John Stack,  brother of Bob Stack, Maurice Stack, Pat Stack and Mai Stack.  All originally born in Moyessa, Listowel. John later married in Castelisland.

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Cnochán

Today I return to the lore I learned when I visited the school children’s contributions to the National Archive’s Folklore collection in Kerry County
Library , Tralee. One category of the project concentrated on placenames and their
origin.

It is important to remember that the boys and girls recorded the
stories as they heard them from their elders. As we all known, folklore is a mixture
of fact and fiction distilled through the memories of generations who passed on
the information.

There is a townland in Listowel called An Cnochán or
Knockane and this is what an old man told an unnamed schoolgirl. Knockane is a
fairly large hill, made up of sand and clay. The hill is situated between the
rivers Feale and Gale. The story goes that the Danes brought sand from both
rivers to form the hill. The hill is located in a flat boggy plane. It commands
views over both rivers.

To the south of the hill is a spring well, continually
overflowing with clear spring water. This spring never runs dry, even in
periods of extreme drought.

One night a local man dreamed that there was gold in the
hill. He went in the morning to the spot indicated in his dream. He dug and dug
until he came to “the flag”. As he was about to dig up the flag, a bull came charging
towards him. He escaped with his life but he never again meddled with Knockane
Hill.

Sin é mo scéal agus má
tá bréag ann, bíodh.

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Green Shoots of Recovery in Church Street

New beautician’s opening on Church St. shortly. My mole tells me that Carmel’s in Bridge Road will also open as a beautician’s very soon. We’ll all be looking gorgeous!

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Women in Media 2015

I’m heading to Ballybunion at the weekend for this great event

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Snapped on Church St.




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Lartigue, Listowel Food Fair and Bord na Mona workers in 1934

By

On November 12, 2014

In Uncategorized

Banemore, November evening 2014




Photo by John Kelliher


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A Kind of a Listowel Connection……..not!

My son, who is currently living in France, brought me this present on a recent visit home. The item is not a cap as I thought at first. It is a receptacle for putting your pocket contents in; keys, loose change, rosary beads etc. It is manufactured in Southern France in a factory called Lartigue 1910. The factory is in business since 1910 and even though it now imports the raw cotton and linen from China, all the weaving is done in the factory in the Basque area of southern France.

The people who worked in the factory had never heard of the other famous Lartigue or his railway and they were fascinated to hear that in a little corner of southern Ireland there was another Lartigue weaving its way into the fabric of the local community.

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Dates for the diary






November 22 is The Day for the switching on of the Christmas lights. More details later







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From the Bord na Mona Archive


This photograph from 1934 shows Bord na Mona employees digging a trench in a bog in the midlands.

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Micheál O’Suilleabháin



Michaél OSuilleabháin has been nominated by Ard Cúram for an award from Volunteer Ireland. He is one of 30 short listed and he will know in early December if he is to receive the award.

An award would be a well earned recognition for all his volunteering work in Listowel over many years.

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(photo: Christmas in Listowel)

Jackie McGillicuddy and fellow William Street traders are gearing up for Christmas.

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