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: Woulfe’s Bookshop Page 2 of 3

Woulfe’s, Listowel Sporting Ballads, Carnegie Library and Tralee

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On March 8, 2018

In Uncategorized

Woulfe’s Bookshop

This is Woulfe’s Bookshop in Church Street Listowel

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Listowel Football and Sporting Ballads


 Vincent Carmody gave us an essay on some of the sporting ballads written by Listowel people. I will serialise it over the next few days.

Listowel and the written word have been synonymous over the years, so it
is of no surprise that many of the town’s penmen have at various times put pen
to paper to record in verse form for posterity the deeds of man and beast.

One of the earliest pieces that I know of is a short unrhyming lament by
a player who had played for Listowel against Tralee. We do not know the result
of the match, nor the name of the writer,

Likewise, the Painach Somers,

Near his eye he got a kick,

Saying, “For we are shamed, lame and blind,

Since we played in sweet Tralee”.

The Somers referred to was a Tom Somers from Convent Street, a local wit
and all-round sportsman. He was once asked if he ever score a point.  “I did once”, was his answer, having paid Mrs
Grady for a pint, she gave me the pint, then after a while, she put up a second
pint thinking I had her paid for it, I sang dumb for once.

At an athletic meeting he won a race for the first time. As he was
congratulated on coming first, his answer was, “I am first at last, I was
always behind before.”  


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The Carnegie Library 

 All the talk of the library prompted people to look up the origins of the Carnegie in Listowel. Here is the result of some delving into the archives.

Not great but the best we could do

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The Mall, Tralee


The Mall Tralee is pedestrianised. It is now a lovely space.

On the Saturday I visited it even had its own preacher.

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St. Patrick’s Day in Listowel



Colm Cooper in Woulfe’s, Memory of My Mother and Jowika in Germany

By

On November 24, 2017

In Uncategorized

Wintry Morning in Listowel

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Colm Cooper in Listowel

Never meet your heroes, they say. People were not taking that advice in Listowel on November 17 2017 as we waited for Colm Cooper, one of the greatest footballers ever to wear the green and gold, to arrive in Woulfe’s Bookshop.

These little boys waited patiently at the head of the queue for their hero to appear.

Brenda, Kevin, Maura, Mickey and Mary were also waiting patiently as the VIP guest was being given a tour of the racecourse by David Fitzmaurice. Colm hopes to be able to come to Listowel Races next year, an outing he has missed through footballing commitments for many years.

The queue was 3 deep snaking through the shop by the time Colm appeared escorted by Stephen Stack, an old friend and footballing and banking colleague.

Stephen introduced the footballer turned writer. He had to have his list of Colm’s achievements written down for him for it would be difficult for anyone, even Colm himself, to remember them all.

Stephen told us a story that was related to him by Shane Quinn. Shane got the job of marking Colm, then only 18, in a local game. Shane was taken off at half time as it was clear that he couldn’t cope with the rising star of Kerry football. 

“How did you feel about being taken off.” 

According to Stephen’s story, Shane said that his head was in such a reel that he climbed over the wall and went home to bed.

Colm didn’t delay us long with speechmaking.

Colm was here to sign his book and sign he did, patiently and tirelessly and he was more than willing to chat to everyone, to listen to stories, to send greetings to friends and to pose for endless photographs. He is a lovely man.

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A Poem for November 

We all have memories of our mothers. In my mind I can hear my mother singing 

“Let him go, let him tarry, let him sink or let him swim

He doesn’t care for me and I don’t care for him.”

or the plaintive Teddy O’Neill

as she went about her daily chores.

Patrick Kavanagh’s poem recalls the simplicity of rural life and the ‘countless, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love” that we can all recall about our mothers.

My final choice from The Irish Hospice’s Stories of Love and Hope is

In Memory of my
mother

Patrick Kavanagh

I do not think of
you lying in the wet clay

Of a Monaghan
graveyard; I see

You walking down a
lane among the poplars

On the way to the
station, or happily

Going to second
mass on a summer Sunday

You meet me and you
say,

“Don’t forget to
see about the cattle.”;

Among your
earthiest words the angels stray.

And I think of you
walking along a headland

Of green oats in
June,

So full of repose,
so rich with life-

And I see us
meeting at the end of a town

On a fair day by
accident, after

The bargains are
all made and we walk

Together through
the shops and stalls and markets

Free in the
oriental streets of thought.

O, you are not
lying in the wet clay

For it is harvest
evening now and we

Are piling up the
ricks against the moonlight

And you smile up
at us – eternally.

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Jowika in Germany


Philomena Moriarty Kuhn recently posted some photos on Facebook. They were taken on a trip by workers at Jowika Listowel to Germany. I’m sure many of my blog readers will recognise people. If you see your self or someone you know, I’d love to identify people.

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Holidays are Coming




Free Parking in Listowel from Friday 1st to 16th Dec from 1pm each day, then Free Parking from Monday 18th until Monday 1st Jan subject to a 2hr parking limit in a parking space.




NKM in Listowel, Playboy and Woulfe’s Bookshop

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On October 4, 2017

In Uncategorized

Looking towards St. John’s from St. Mary’s

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Old NKM tin


It seems that there are quite a few of these still about. Helen Gore bought this one on the internet.

Vincent Carmody posted this old postcard with a picture of the NKM sweet factory as well as the below pictures of his two tins and a brief  account of the factory in Listowel

The tin box is an original from Listowel’s sweet factory which traded from the old mill building, which occupied the site where Carroll’s Hardware providers is now located. The mill, a fine, six floor, cut stone building, was originally owned and operated by the Leonard family of The Square. It was powered by water from a millstream, which ran from near the old ball alley to the mill. The mill closed in the mid 1800’s, despite an effort by John Latchford of Tralee to buy the property. He subsequently build a mill back in Greenville.

The building served for a time in the early 1900’s as a creamery, this was owned by George R. Browne. He also had a creamery at his property at Cahirdown. He had in his employment an Englishman, Thomas Armstrong. When Brown decided to sell his interest in the business, it was purchased by Armstrong. Shortly afterwards, Armstrong went into the manufacturing of ‘Irish Cream Toffee Sweets’ 

The tin carries the initials N.K.M on the cover, with North Kerry Manufactory at the side, however with a play on the initials, the legend “Nicest Kind Made” also appears on the cover.
There is not much information on the business, however, we know that after a period of industrial unrest, Armstrong closed the factory in 1921. The Mackintosh sweet company bought the brand and continued making these sweets at Rathmines Dublin, under the brand name,’The North Kerry Manufacturing Co Ltd’


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Playboy and Ireland

On hearing of the passing of Hugh Hefner, Mark Holan, in his great blog, wrote this insightful piece about our own playboy.

BTW Synge’s Christy Mahon was a Kerryman

Synge’s ‘Playboy’ arrived in Ireland long before Hef’s mag

by admin

The New York Times proclaims: “Hugh Hefner, the Original Playboy, Is Dead at 91.” Vanity Fair describes the dearly departed (27 September 2017) magazine publisher as “the indefatigable (albeit Viagra-enhanced) Playboy of the western world.”

We can only wonder what the late Irish playwright John Millington Synge would have thought. His play, “The Playboy of the Western World,” debuted in January 1907 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin,  well before the December 1953 appearance of “Hef’s” Chicago-based skin mag. As The Washington Post reports:

Hefner had planned to call his magazine Stag Party, but when the publishers of another men’s magazine named Stag threatened to sue, a colleague came up with an inspired afterthought: Playboy.

The Online Etymology Dictionary says the term for a “wealthy bon vivant” dates to 1829.

Synge died in 1909, two years after his play offended Irish moral sensibilities and sparked riots. In a 2011 theater review, The Guardian noted:

Synge had clad his maidens in shifts, presumably to mollify strict moralists among his Abbey audience. But perhaps he half-suspected a truth which Hugh Hefner would later turn into a different Playboy business: that a scantily clad woman can be even more inflammatory to the jaded imagination of male puritans than one who is wholly naked.

Playboy magazine was banned in Ireland until 1995. Twenty years later, Ireland became the first nation in the world to legalize same sex marriage by popular referendum.

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Woulfe’s Bookshop


Woulfe’s Bookshop is one of Listowel’s gems. It is a rarity nowadays to find an independent bookseller. This shop stocks a wide variety of titles for adults and children. Books of local interest are a speciality.



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Bill Dowd of Ballydonoghue and Pittsburg passes away



Monday, October 02, 2017

William “Bill” Dowd, Age 94, of Shaler Township, formerly of Penn Hills, peacefully on Monday October 2, 2017 with his children at his side.  Bill was born and raised in Ballydonoghue, County Kerry, Ireland in 1923.   After spending time in County Kildare cutting peat and as a coal miner in Sheffield, England, he came to the United States in 1949 and was welcomed by his cousin Molly (Dowd) Devine and her family in Pittsburgh. Bill was a player and faithful long-time supporter of the Pittsburgh Gaelic Athletic Association and a proud 60-year member of the Plumbers Laborers’ Union. He was the beloved husband of the late Mary (Grills) Dowd; loving father of Tom (Maria) Dowd, Kathy (John) O’Connor, Mary Beth (Dean) Reynolds, and the late Jack Dowd;  cherished grandfather of Michelle (Brad) Tresky, Katie (Brendan) Dowd-Dusette, Kevin, Deirdre, and Ryan Dowd, Sinead, Ciara, and Sean O’Connor,  Laura (Tyler) Tarney, and Dean and Brennan Reynolds; proud great-grandfather of Kaelyn, Liam, Ciara, Meghan, Keagan, Maggie, and soon-to-be baby Tarney.  Dear brother of the late Tom, Jack, and Jim Dowd.  Also survived by nieces and nephews in Pittsburgh, Ireland, and England. Friends will be received on Tuesday from 6:00 to 8:00 PM and Wednesday from 1:00 to 3:00 & 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Bock Funeral Home, Ltd., 1500 Mt. Royal Blvd., Glenshaw. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Bonaventure Church, Glenshaw, on Thursday at 10:00 AM. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Pittsburgh Gaelic Athletic Association, 1203 Woodbourne Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15226 or Elfinwild Meals on Wheels, 3200 Mt. Royal Blvd., Glenshaw, PA 15116

M.S. Busking, Listowel for Writers Week 2017 and more from that wedding

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On May 30, 2017

In Uncategorized

With all the excitement of the wedding I forgot to mention that May 19th 2017 was the annual busking day in town. This event is organised every year by the local branch of the M.S. Society. It is a cause close to my heart but this year I only managed a few photos as I had other things on my mind.

Barbara Walshe and Bridie O’Rourke were collecting at Super Valu.

Batt O’Keeffe joined Noelle Hegarty and Bridie O’Rourke in The Small Square.

Jimmy Hannon has been playing on busking day for years.

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Preparing for Writers Week 2017


The ladders are out and painting is underway at several locations.

The welcome banners are hoisted.

Essential maintenance is going on.


Allos was painted recently and it is looking smashing.

Eason’s has a new sign and Woulfe’s Bookshop has got a complete new look.

We are all ready for Writers’ Week which opens tomorrow evening. I’ll be busy with that for a while so posts will be sporadic. I’ll be taking lots of pictures, so bear with me and all will be revealed in due course

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Some More tales from the wedding



Clíona had three of the most gorgeous flower girls ever in her three nieces. Here they are before their moment in the limelight.

Here they are again with their cousins dabbing at the church.

Róisín Cora and Aisling….butter wouldn’t melt……

Cliona with her brother, Bobby and his handsome family

My neighbours and great friends, the Moylan family played a big part in our wedding. Above is Mary Moylan who chose and sourced all of the music. On the big day, she sang all the songs accompanied by  Áine Murray. Mary’s mother, Helen Moylan made the wedding cakes which were scrumptious.

I’ll let you in on a secret. The “cake” you see here is not a cake at all but styrofoam iced to look like a cake. The real cakes were traditional wedding cake, a chocolate biscuit cake and a lemon drizzle cake. This way the real cakes were kept clean and safe and no one had to eat the plastic icing.

These two lovely ladies are Cliona’s good friends, Martina and Gillian. They played traditional tunes to accompany the communion reflection which was written and delivered by Sinead O’Neill, sister of the groom.

Sinead is on the right in this photo with her sister Aisling and brother Seán.

At the top table we remembered two men who would have loved to have been with us. We lit a candle to remember Cliona’s dad and we brought Fr. Pat Moore’s book with us. Before his final illness Fr. Pat was looking forward to doing the wedding. He had baptised Cliona in the Erinville hospital in Cork when she was only three days old and struggling to hold on to life. He told me that he was honoured to be there at the start of her life and it would have given him great pleasure to marry her. Alas it was not to be.

We remembered the words given to Billy Keane as he mourned the passing of his mother; 

When those we love and lose are not where they used to be, they are everywhere we are.

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Tomorrow evening May 31 2017 is opening night of Listowel Writers Week 2017. I’ll be busy taking lots of photos and helping out with events so I’ll be off the radar for a while.  Enjoy Writers Week, The Races or the Seán McCarthy festival. I’ll be back soon.

Clounmacon, a brush dance and times of last mail collection in Listowel

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On February 26, 2015

In Uncategorized

The following is from an old commemorative journal published to celebrate the opening of the GAA sports field in Clounmacon, near Listowel


HIGH
DRAMA IN CLOUNMACON

By
Gabriel Fitzmaurice

Arguably
the first time I heard of Clounmacon was when they won the North Kerry Senior
Football Championship in Tarbert in 1954. Footballers to me in my youth were
gods and duly took their place in my youthful pantheon when they were
celebrated in Dan Keane’s famous ballad, “Ball, Battle and Bucket”. Football and
poetry ..the poetry of football  ..the
football of poetry   .. Clounmacon.

The years
went by and I qualified as a National Teacher in 1972. I took my first
teaching  post in Avoca. Co. Wicklow.
Another poetic (and local) connection: Thomas Moore’s famous “meeting of the
waters” is in Avoca where the Avonmore and Avenbeg  rivers meet to flow together to the Irish Sea
at Arklow, a few miles distant. Thomas Moore’s father, John Moore, is reputed to
have hailed from the banks of the Annamoy in Clounbrane, Moyvane, and to have
been educated at John Lynn’s hedge school at Trien, Knockanure about 1750. From
Avoca I came south to Limerick City in 1974 where I taught for a year in
Caherdavin. And, in 1975, the year Dwyer’s Babes won their first All-Ireland, I
was appointed assistant teacher in Moyvane N.S.

I duly
began to involve myself in the community – training under-age football teams,
being a selector for the senior team, becoming chairman of Knockanure
Comhaltas, involving myself in local development etc. All that was in the
Moyvane/Knockanure parish.

Then one
day an invitation came to attend a rehearsal for a John B. Keane one act
play(its title now eludes me) to be performed in Clounmacon. We were to meet at
Toddy and Maureen O’Sullivan’s and to proceed from there to Clounmacon N.S., the
Community Centre for rehearsal. Margery Long was to produce. Having assembled
and having been assigned our various roles, we met regularly thereafter for
rehearsal.

Jackie
Carmody of Listowel had the major role of the tramp in the play – and a very
good tramp he made! However, on the eve of the first performance, he fell ill.
Consternation. What were we to do? Who would (and could) fill in at such short
notice? Liam Hanrahan of Kilbaha, of course. The redoubtable Liam, a seasoned
Thespian, agreed at once and, in a Herculean feat of  memorization, had the part off on the night.

One
incident from that play sticks in my memory. Liam Hanrahan’s character dies on
stage and had to be borne off in great solemnity by my character and another –
played by Liam Keane of Gale Bridge, Clounprohus (I’m almost certain). Liam
Hanrahan, a fine sturdy specimen, duly ‘died’. The solemn moment of his removal
arrived. Tragedy turned to comedy as Liam Keane and I, two scrawny striplings,
caught him by the arms and legs and staggered gingerly across the stage barely
able to make the wings! Still, the play went down well and I had acquitted
myself competently in my first adult stage role.

After that
we had many concerts and Irish nights in Clounmacon. I remember them with
affection, driving to Clounmacon School, meeting old friends, singing and
playing till morning. Those were the days! I cut my teeth as a performer in
places like Clounmacon Community Centre. For which I am truly grateful.

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Happy Days!



The Brush Dance at a Parents’ Dance in Pres. Secondary School, Listowel in the seventies. Innocent fun!

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Books Now, Pints then

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Our new postal arrangements


You can still post a letter at the old post box outside the old post office.

The collection time for mail posted at the old post office is 4.15p.m.


At the new post office, mail will be collected at 5.30

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Thought for the Day



If your lips would keep from slips, five things observe with care;

Of whom you speak, to whom you speak and how and when and where.

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