Kissane Gathering, Some old ads and Listowel Post Office today.

Someone brought his tiger to the beach again.

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From Time Travel, Kerry

Bridge Road, then and now.

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Back to 1960

Kay Caball kept this programme from 1960. It was great value for two shillings. It is full of little interesting tidbits for the local historian.
I am fascinated by the language of the advertisements. Is there such a thing  as a Draper's Shop any more? My late mother served her time for 7 years in one such shop. If you told her the size of your window she could cut your curtain material ready for you to sew. She knew the "secret" price marking system so that she could calculate the discount for the regular customer.  She wrapped and unwrapped everything in brown paper and tied it up before returning it to the shelf. If she had a spare minute (which was seldom) she had knitting at the ready out of sight of the customers. There was a men's side and a women's side in Crotty's of Kanturk (that is where she worked). She never ventured to the men's counter except as a customer.

It seems now like another era.

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Kissane Gathering….the schedule

This is what Eamon Ó Murchú writes:

"The Kissane Gathering is commencing on Friday 7^th August with a banquet in the Listowel Arms Hotel when up to three hundred people, from home and abroad, gather to celebrate their Kissane connection. The Gathering continues on theSaturday with the launch of the family tree by Eileen Walsh, from Ballybunion.  This will also take place in the Listowel Arms Hotel.  Later on the same day we will have the celebration of Mass for the Kissane descendants in Ballybunion.  The Gathering concludes on the Sunday  (9^th)with the “scattering” in Coolahan’s bar in Tarbert.  Further information about the Gathering is available from Eileen Walsh, 087 981 7053.

It is my pleasure to hold a photographic exhibition to mark and celebrate the Gathering.  The exhibition will contain ninety photographs of the Kissane family – thirty from each of the three branches of the family, Kilcox, Kilgarvan and Lacca.  Some of these photographs date back to the 1800s and early 1900s, and is, a remarkable and valuable family archive that I have been collecting and editing for the past two years.

This exhibition will be on display before and after the Gathering.  It will be launched by Minister Jimmy Deenihan on Sunday, 2^nd August at 19.30 in the Gallery of the Horse Shoe Bar in William Street, Listowel."

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Listowel Post Office Then and Now

At the left in this photo are the remains of the two telephone boxes. These were later blocked up completely.

Today's much smaller post office in the foyer of Garvey's Super Valu

A Tiger in Ballybunion, Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Listowel and some old ads

Taming the Ballybunion Tiger

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Aah!

Jason of Ballybunion Prints took this lovely picture of a hen rearing some ducklings. He is also responsible for the tiger on the beach images.

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A Garden in Dubai

If you love flowers you'll love these photos from Maura Brennan Esmond. The garden is in the Dubai Desert and is watered by an intricate underground system of water recycling.

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Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann

Fleadh fever 2015 is gripping Sligo but Betty Stack remembers  1976 and 1987 when it was Listowel's turn.

 This is Betty's photo of the campsite in The Town Park in 1987.

Fleadh Committee 1976

Front: Michael Dowling, Donal Cantillon, --McCarron, Bernadine Gleeson, Christy Walsh, Seamus Stack,---- Garry Stack.

Second Row; John Gleeson, -----, Peggy Gleeson, Joan Curtin, Anne Kennedy, Maureen O’Donnell, Josie Molyneaux, Betty Stack.

Third Row: Christy Stack, Mary Broderick, Michael Stack, Peggy Cantillon, Mairead Walsh, Donal O’Sullivan, Sean Broderick, Mossy Molyneaux, Jackie Walsh and Breda O’Mahoney

Back Row;  Michael O’Connell, Joe Gleeson,-----O’Donnell, John Joe O’Donnell, Timmy Brosnan, John Joe Hartnett, Michael, McCarron, Betty Kirby and Jerry Keane.

(photos and names : Betty Stack)

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Don't Forget! If you have any connection with Clounmacon

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Trip Down Memory Lane

From a 1960 GAA programme

I love the references to mantles and frocks, two words you never hear nowadays. Would today's young ladies have any clue what the latest and loveliest nylons were?

Talk about everything from a needle to an anchor, and the shopkeeper only takes a small profit.

Now there's a puzzler. Where is Pearse Street, Listowel?

Ballybunion, Listowel, Lyreacrumpnane and Moyvane

Tiger on the rocks at Ballybunion

Photo;Ballybunion Prints

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From Time Travel Kerry

The link above will lead you to a great site which has then and now photos from all over Kerry. I've put just two of the many Listowel ones here. The site is on Facebook and I know that many of my blog followers "don't do Facebook" and so might miss these treasures.

Apart from the demolition of the house in white above, little has changed archictecturally in The Square.

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Bord na Mona: a Lyre Connection

"We had a request for items about the former Turf Development Board and BnM works at Lyrecrumpane in Kerry. This photo was taken at the retirement of Harry Starken of Boora in 1958. Harry Starken, second left front row, was a German who brought the first machinery to the Turf Development Board in 1936. The machinery was used in Turraun, Co. Offaly. While assembling the machine, he fell in love (bet he didn't expect that to happen) and married a local girl, Elizabeth Cloonan from Leabeg. He remained in Ireland and was transferred to Lyrecrumpane in Kerry. "

photo and text from Bord na Mona Heartland

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GAA Nostalgia

From Twitter the 1972 Kerry Football team

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Moyvane Historical Walk

Despite the inclement weather, the planned historical walk through Moyvane went ahead on Sunday evening July 26 2015. Gabriel Fitzmaurice with the help of many local walkers relived old times in the village. People reminisced about characters who once enlivened daily life in Moyvane, shops and houses now closed up, blacksmiths, old schools and church, businesses selling all sorts, owners fondly remembered, and stories of life in a different era. 
I missed it but Elizabeth Brosnan took some great photos. Below are just some. Elizabeth has lots more on Facebook.

Listowel Railway, Cork Summer Sing and Tarbert then and now

Tiger on the Beach?

(photo and tiger; Ballybunion Prints)

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Denis Carroll on Facebook

-Listowel Railway Station-

In 1865 the Limerick and Kerry Railway was proposed and in the late 1870's the 43 mile line from Newcastle(West) to Tralee was built. It was opened on 20th December 1880 with intermediate stations at Barnagh, Devon Road, Abbeyfeale, Kilmorna, Listowel, Lixnaw, Abbeydorney and Ardfert.

The Lartigue (Listowel - Ballybunion Monorail) terminus was nearby to here too.

In 1963 the passenger service was withdrawn but despite this occasional passenger specials continued to use the line and then finally on the 10th of January 1977 the last goods train ran on the Listowel-Tralee section of the line. Track lifting began in January '88 and despite concerted efforts to use the track bed as a walkway/trail this never came to pass. The original picture here was taken around 1988 before the track was lifted. The station house is now in private ownership and has been restored to a fine standard, also note that the platform is still there on both sides, just the track bed has been filled in and made into a roadway.
No credit info on the original picture although I suspect it may have been Michael Geurin.

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Summer Sing Cork 2015

This is me with David Brophy. Those of you who watched the TV series, High Hopes will recognize David as the conductor who recruited and trained a choir of homeless people and in the process turned their lives around. The project was so successful that they repeated it in Cork and Waterford. David was in Cork  to film the Cork choir in action. I met him in Cork City hall.

This is my little group of singers, 3 family, 2 friends and chauffeur (also family). They are not part of the High Hopes Choir. They are Summer Singers.

This is the scene in City Hall Cork when the High Hopes choir sang to an audience of Summer Singers.

Cork High Hopes Choir under their conductor, Sonja Keogh.

(These 3 photos are from the Summer Sing website)

Summer Sing is a summer camp with a difference. 370 Cork children learned a repertoire of songs and then went out on to the streets of Cork to sing. There were two base camps for the children, Cork City Hall and The Triskel Arts Centre. My Aisling and Róisín were in City Hall. They started out each day there but they got to sing in The Crawford art gallery, St. FinBarre's Cathedral, The Freemasons Lodge and Bishop Lucey Park.

On the day I went to hear them, they had a special visiting conductor, David Brophy of High Hopes Choir fame. He conducted the children in their outdoor performance and then the children were treated to a concert by the Cork High Hopes Choir. This concert was being televised for the next series of High Hopes. Summer Sing is an absolutely brilliant initiative which should be held everywhere. It does take massive organizing and requires lots of volunteers.  Take a bow,  Music Generation Cork

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A Couple who made a big contribution

From an old Clounmacon magazine a lovely photo of Maureen and Michael Dowling R.I.P.

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Tarbert Now and Then

-Tarbert main St-
The name Tarbert is from the Irish 'Tairbeart' drawn from an Old Norse term meaning 'draw-boat'.
This picture is taken on the Listowel road into the village at the end of the 19th century and again in June '15. 
The thatched cottage on the left appears to still exist today albeit with a slate roof.

Photo and text from; Kerry Time Travel

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+  R.I.P. Sr. Nora Carmody  +

Sr. Nora Carmody, on left, with her sister, Maura on the occasion of Nora's final profession.

Nora was born in Upper William Street on 20th March 1938, she was the fourth of five children born to John and Josie Carmody, the others being, John P., Maura, Maurice and Vincent. She went to both Presentation Convent Listowel, Primary and  Secondary schools. Having completed her Leaving Certificate, she went to study nursing at Dollis Hill Hospital in London. Having qualified, she applied and was accepted as a novice in the English Province of the Little Company of Mary ( affectionally called The Blue Nuns). Nora made her final profession in 1970. As both a nun and a theatre nurse she served in Dollis Hill, Harrow, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Liverpool, West-cliff On Sea and finally in Ealing.

Nora passed to eternal reward at St David's Nursing Home, Ealing, on the 14th of July 2015. There was Requiem Mass for Nora at the nursing home oratory on Tuesday 21st, this was celebrated by Abbot Fr. Francis of Ealing Abbey, By strange coincidence, Fr. Francis also officiated at Nora's final profession in 1970.

Nora's body was brought back to Limerick on Thursday 23rd. There was visitation at Griffin's funeral home. Her funeral mass took place on Friday 24th at Castletroy. Her burial was afterwards at Milford House Convent Cemetery.  May she rest in peace.

Our sympathies to her brother, Vincent and her sister, Sr. Maura.