Polio, Fags and a Listowel version of English

Wintry Cork

Street Photography by John Tangney

<<<<<<<<

Another Time, Another Epidemic, Polio

<<<<<<<<<

Coffin Nails

 <<<<<<<

William  Street

Photo: John Hannon R.I.P.

<<<<<<<<<

The Kerryman Memory Lane

Listowel Youth Club photo by John Cleary reprinted this week in The Kerryman

<<<<<<<

Irishisms

We are all watching lots of television and films during lockdown. We are told that the English language is morphing into a midAtlantic dialect. We are all beginning to sound the same. we use the same vocabulary and the same idioms. All the local colourful phrases that distinguished our brand of English are being lost.

Her Marie Nelligan Shaw remembers phrases common in Listowel in her childhood.

Hi Mary, 

Was just remembering old expressions.
A Muller= A pot
That fellow will end up at the back of Shaw’s=Limerick jail
Hope he gets some cop on= sense
You are wrong as Moll Bell = No idea who Moll Bell was
Don’t eat that apposite me = Opposite
There’s fear of you= stop complaining
She’s a real shaper= A show off 
Knock up (name) and she will open the shop for you= knock at the shop door and the shopkeeper will give you what you need.
He went fast in the end= somebody who died after a long illness.
I left the bicycle right outside and when I came out, there it was, gone!
There are probably a million more and I’m sure I will remember more as my Covid-19 mind thinks of something to keep my mind operating.
Stay safe,
Marie

A Strong Man, A Parish Souvenir Mug and Thought for the Day

Cork Street Photography by John Tangney

<<<<<

from the Internet

<<<<<<<<<

ACC Bank on Church Street in 2004

<<<<<<<<<

Parish Mug

<<<<<<<

Writers Week 1973

Cathleen Mulvihill posted this on Facebook. It was taken in Listowel Town Square at Writers Week 1973. If you recognise yourself, tell us or if you remember the yoke the boys are on tell us the story please.

<<<<

The Strongest Man in Kerry

(From Dúchas, schools' folklore collection)

Shone Burns was the strongest man ever heard of in North Kerry. Some say he was born in Ardraha in the parish of Abbeydorney, and others say he was born in Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick. In any case he was well known all over Kerry, Cork, and Limerick, for his feats of strength. 

My father who is 58 years of age told me that his deceased father, Michael O'Connell told him that Shone's shake hands was so strong that it made strong men wince. He had a very strong brother too and they often tested one another's strength.

 One day both of them went to Cork with a load of butter. The journey was long and tiring and the horse got tired and refused to climb the hill as they neared the end of the journey. The brothers decided to unyoke the animal and when they did so the brother went between the shafts, putting the backband of the car under his arms and across his chest and he pulled with all his might, while Shone placed himself behind the car and pushed it forward with all his strength. 

They worked together for some time and all went well till they approached the brow of the hill. Then Shone thought to prove whether he, or the brother, was the stronger, and instead of pushing the car at the back, he threw all his weight on it and kept it back as well as he could. The brother pulled and pulled with all his force and succeeded in getting over the brow of the hill. Then Shone admitted that the brother was a better man than he, but the brother strained his heart in pulling and from that out he pined away day by day until he died.

COLLECTOR

Kit O' Connell

Gender

female

Address

Ballyreehan West, Co. Kerry

INFORMANT

Michael O' Connell

Relation

parent

Gender

male

Age

58

Doing the Rounds at St. Michael's well and O'Connell's Avenue Grotto

Photo taken on a Cork Street by John Tangney

<<<<<<<<<

What a Night was Promised

I hope it lived up to expectation.

Photo from Cathleen Mulvihill on Glin Historical Society on Facebook

<<<<<<<<<

The Marian Grotto in O'Connell's Avenue

This grotto evokes fond memories of Listowel for many people around the globe. In the 1950s O'Connell's Avenue was loud with the laughter and play sounds of the many children who grew up there. If Our Lady could speak what a tale she'd tell. Those children of the 50s have been blown all over the world by the winds of emigration. I hope that this image today will bring back happy memories of their childhood community.

<<<<<<

St. Michael's Well

This is situated in the lowland of Ballinageragh about a quarter of a mile from Lixnaw village. The well or the bed of it is deep and is surrounded by high mounds of earth. Worn steps lead down to the well which runs dry in warm summers. It has no visible outlet though a dyke of water runs along the south side about 15 yards distant from the well. 

The mounds of earth are said to be the remains of an early church which was dedicated to St. Michael who is patron of the Parish of the present Roman Catholic Church there. His feast day is celebrated on 29th September and in the last generation that day was held as a parish holiday, no work was done, and the people dressed in their best assembled in Ballinageragh after hearing mass in the village church. 

Ballinageragh is a little village in itself, bounded on the western side by the marshes which lie along the River Brick. The name is supposed to mean the townland of the berries (sloes are plentiful there) or the townland of the marshes. Others say a pattern was held there on the 29th Sep. Plays of all kinds, tinkers, thimble men, "Maggie Sticks," Pie shops and SHEBEENS (Irish: síbín) were general features of the pattern. Pipers also attended, McCarthy the Piper (R.I.P) being the last piper to attend there. Roadside dances were carried on to the strains of music, and that night he retired to the house of a neighbouring farmer and dancing and music were carried on to the small hours of the morning.

The waters of the well are believed to cure toothache, sore eyes and general complaints including nervousness and mental trouble. An elderly woman, Mrs Dan Quilter, Gurthenare (Gortinare - Gortaneare) Lixnaw, Co Kerry, still living who had mental trouble paid several rounds at the well and was finally cured. She then put up a statue of St. Michael on a slab over the well in thanksgiving for her cure. Some years after she got another attack of this same disease but it did not last long. 

The round at the well is paid as follows. Kneel in front of the well and start one round of the beads. Then stand up and walk round the well three times, finishing the fifth decade in front of well. Then start another round of the beads and walk three times round the well and finish 5th decade in front of well. The third round of the beads is started in the same way and finished in front of well. This means 3 Rosaries and 9 rounds of the well. You then wash affected part in the water of the well getting the water in some vessels. Some of the water is also taken home in a bottle.

There is a tradition that you should leave 3 tokens at the well after you; it may be 3 hairpins, 3 matches, 3 strings, etc. for fear the Saint would not know you were there until he would see the tokens, one for each "round".

M. Shanahan
Clandouglas N.S. Lixnaw Co Kerry
Information got from Mc Tom Lawlor aged 70
Irribeg Lixnaw Co Kerry

A Glin Tennis Player, A water Pump and A Holy Well

Cork Street Photography by John Tangney

<<<<<<<<<

From Glin,  A Heritage Town

Kit Kelly was born in 1925 in Kilteery. Kit was housekeeping for Fr. O’Connor in the late 1940’s. Her friend Bridie Carroll from south Limerick was housekeeping for Cannon O’Carroll. Glin Tennis Court was in front of where she worked and tennis was played in her spare time. Kit married Mick Reidy from Broadford and they had three children. Thanks to her son Gerard for a beautiful photo.

<<<<<<<<<

A Water Pump

Do you remember these? 

This sort of pump usually belonged in a field. It pumped water from a spring well that the farmer had sunk. We had one in what we used to (unimaginatively) call the pump field. It was useful drawing bucketful of water to fill the cows drinking troughs before we had piped water. I remember it was prone to drying up and took a lot of cranking and priming to get started. Priming involved pouring water into the pump.

<<<<<<<

Treat Your Children Well

Mary Boyer found this on a Facebook page called Daily Diva Diary. It seems timely at the end of Mid Term and a return to remote learning.

A  Holy Well   (from Dúchas, Schools folklore collection)

There is a holy well, and close by a burial ground, in the townland of Kilsheanane or Kilsenan about 5 miles west of Listowel on the road to Tralee. Both are called after St. Senan who was Bishop's Abbot of Scattery Island on the Shannon in Co. Clare, in the VI Century. He built many churches and had a monastery on the Island. His feast day falls on the 8th March.

On that date in former times, people came long distances, even outside of Kerry, to pay rounds at the Blessed Well. It is said to be powerful in many complaints but especially in eye trouble, and running sores. 

At the present day people, principally locals within a five mile radius, come to pay rounds on St Senan's Day 8th March. The path of the "round" follows a well beaten track around the well. The "Round" itself consists of 3 Rosaries, one to be said while walking round the well 3 times, therefore it takes 9 rounds of the well to complete the 3 Rosaries. The round is started by kneeling in front of the well and beginninghe Rosary there and after some time stand up and walk round the orbit 3 times completing the round of the Beads in front of the well. 

Then start the second Rosary and walk round orbit 3 times and complete Beads at front of well. Do this the third time and your round at St Senan's well is completed. You then take a drink of the well water from the well itself (a small mug is always there for the purpose).

Next you wash the afflicted part in the stream running out of the well. Also people usually take home with them a bottle of the well water for that purpose. Many white and black thorn trees grow adjacent to the well and strings of all kinds, tassels of shawls etc are left tied to the branches in token that the particular complaint is also to be got rid of. Sometimes Coppers and hairpins etc are left.
Within the last dozen or more years an elderly lady teacher Miss M OConnell now deceased, got a cement slab or altar-like construction built at the back of the well. In this there are three niches, one holding a statue of our Blessed Lady, another a statue of the Sacred Heart and the third a statue of St Bridget, each enclosed in a glass shade.

Miss Glavin a retired teacher of 66 years of age told me that she often heard her mother (R.I.P.) who lived about 4 miles from the townland of Kilsenane, tell a story of how a Protestant family residing near the well, took some water from the well home to their own house and put it in a pot or kettle to boil, but if it were left over the fire for ever it would not boil. The ancestors of this family were Roman Catholics but in the bad times they turned 'Soupers.'
Those who came to pay rounds at the well, usually enter the burial ground by the stile and pray for the dead in general and their own deceased relations in particular. This is done on the way to and from the wall.

COLLECTOR

M. Shanahan

INFORMANT

Miss Glavin

Gender

female

Age

66

Address

Knockburrane, Co. Kerry

Winnowing, Listowel Street Names, Shebeens here and in South Africa

Cork street photography (2021) by John Tangney

<<<<<<<<<<

Chalk Sunday

When the Catholic church didn't perform marriages during Lent, all sorts of customs grew up aimed at shaming spinsters and bachelors who had not married before Ash Wednesday.

The first Sunday in Lent was Chalk Sunday when mischievous children were encouraged to nark a cross with chalk on the jacket of eligible but unmarried neighbours.

This is one of the many incidents of bullying and shaming that were part of Irish culture long before we ever heard of social media.

<<<<<<<<

Winnowing in West Kerry

Grianghraf na Seachtaine ~ Photo of the Week

Fear i mbun cáiteacháin i gCom Dhíneol, Co. Chiarraí ~ A man winnowing (and onlookers) at Com Dhíneol, Co. Kerry.

Grianghrafadóir ~ Photographer: Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh

This is the caption on this photo in the Dúchas collection. I suspect the hens were not merely onlookers. Hens around grain are surely doing their own bit of winnowing.

{To winnow is to separate the grain from the chaff, usually by blowing air through a handful of it}

<<<<<<<

An Old Listowel Postcard

<<<<<<<

Oh the days of the Kerry Dances

From The Kerryman

<<<<<<<<<

More on Street Names and Shebeens

Denis Quille has written to us from Doha.

Good Morning Mary from a glorious day in Qatar. 

 

On the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising, there was an effort in Listowel to de-anglicise the street names. Church St. was to become Ashe St. after Thomas Ashe. It caught on for a while but the old English names re-emerged. Some of the Irish names remain. To my knowledge, the only one that succeeded was Colbert St., after Con Colbert from Athea. Older people from the town of which I am now one would have referred to this street as Forge Lane. There was a niece of Thomas Ashe living in Church St., she was married to Dr. Toddy Walsh but I doubt if that had anything to do with the choice of Ashe in renaming Church St. They lived next door to a chemist, Connie Keane, whose wall featured in your blog within the past few days.

 

On the word 'shebeen', this word is used extensively within English-speaking Southern African countries chiefly in the townships. These are illegal but very prevalent in these areas. What is mostly drunk in these establishments is a beer called Chibuku, made from sorghum, this has a consistency of watery porridge. For many, this is their chosen source of daily nourishment and by the look of many patrons, there would seem to be some truth in the qualities they advocate of this refreshment. In many places this drink is delivered to the shebeens by tanker, noticeable by the froth spilling out over the tanker on to the roads from the vents. Well worth a visit to one of these places once a person knows where they are going.

 

Best regards

 

Denis

<<<<<<<<

In Memory of a Friend

Photo; Ballybunion Tourist Office

Ballybunion beach on Saturday Feb. 20 2021 had this lovely artistic tribute to the late Dr. Emer Holohan, wife of Dr. Tony and friend of Ballybunion.

Robin, McKenna's, Certified Seed Potatoes and Wintry Weather on the Coast

Mallow Camera Club Image of the Year 2020/21 Competition

Grade 1 : Image Title " A Robin's not just for Christmas"

1st Place : Brian Power.

<<<<<<<<<

Portmarnock in February 2021

Rough Seas at Portmarnock recently photographed by Éamon ÓMurchú

<<<<<<

McKenna's in 1901

Photo shared on the Glin Historical Society page

<<<<<<<

Certified Seed Potatoes

In a post last week I remembered The rituals involved with planting the studs. It was very important to use only certified seed potatoes. I never knew who certified them or how the certification process was carried out. Then I got an email from a blog follower, Ken Duckett.

Ken Duckett	7:49 AM (7 hours ago)
to me

Hi, I was very interested to hear of Dan Keane’s book of The Placenames of North Kerry, Tralee and Ballymace Elligott. Is it possible to find a copy of this publication still?

 

I was also interested in your passage on the certified seed potatoes. I used to inspect these in the growing season by walking through the rows looking for signs of pests

and diseases. This was part of the certification process and mainly to ensure that viruses were not present for the new crop. There were different grades of certification 

and the very best actually came from usually high altitude Scottish farmers that were able to keep their crops aphid (greenfly) free. The aphids were the pests that spread

the viruses. This enabled good stocks of potato seeds to be planted each year giving good domestic potatoes with good crops.

 

During the training to work on these inspections we had a gruff Scotsman we had to also identify the different varieties by their growth habit and colours of the leaves. To

learn this we had to walk from bed to bed of potato varieties and write down the name. He would blow a whistle and we moved to the next one! At the end he would walk 

through them and get us to shout out to see if we had the correct variety. If you got it wrong he would call you over and point out the minor details saying very firmly in his

Scottish accent ‘Do you not see that?!’.

Ken

( By the way, can anyone help Ken out with a copy of Dan Keane's book?)

<<<<<<<<

A Pismire

Have you ever heard this word? It has nothing to do with urine. It is in fact an ant like insect. We were quite familiar with them in my youth but I haven't heard of or seen one for years.

Pissabed was the word we used for the dandelion. I suspect this was to keep us away from it so we wouldn't be tempted to pick it and blow the gossamer seeds all over the place, thus spreading the weed.

Piss poor, I'm told, referred to the custom of having a chamber pot under the bed for the purpose of nocturnal micturation. The urine could be sold to the local tannery for curing animal hides.  Some people were so poor they didn't have a pot to piss in and so were piss poor.

Turf Selling in 1905, Ashe Street and Shebeens

Mallow Camera Club Image of the Year 2020/21 Competition

 

Grade 2 : Image Title " Horizontal"

1st Place : Peter Tips.

<<<<<<

Turf Sellers in Killarney

Photo and caption from Vanishing Ireland site

Young Kerry lads in from the country selling turf in Killarney, about 1906. 

This lantern slide was produced by the Keystone Photographic Co.

They like to carry as much as possible on their donkey carts, with turf neatly stacked on top.

<<<<<<<

St. Michael's College, Listowel on a Cold and Frosty Morning in Feb. 2021

<<<<<<<<<

Church Street or Ashe Street?

What's in a name? We have bigger things to trouble us in February 2021.

<<<<<<<<

A Shebeen

Does this word for an illegal pub exist anywhere outside Ireland? Once upon a time in Ireland shebeen's were popular. They were often places where póitín was sold.

During the recent lockdown, shebeens are having a revival. The Gardaí have raided quite a few recently.

The word shebeen comes from the Irish sibín meaning a mugful.

Only a mug would visit one nowadays but that's a whole other word altogether.