April Horse fair, The Kindness of Friends and St. Senan's Well

Celtic crosses in St. Michael's  Cemetery, Listowel

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It's a Good Day When

Your friend brings you scones, just because.......

A U.S. friend sends a card to say she appreciates what you do.

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I wasn't the only one taking photos at the horse fair. I ran into Steve and Helena on Market Street.

 sellers, buyers and some of the goods and animals for sale on April 4 2019

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Spotted on a Listowel Window

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St. Senan's Well

Tarbert School collection. Nora Scanlon Dooncaha.

Our Holy Wells

There is a well in Tarmons known as St. Senan’s. It is in the corner of Buckley’s field in Ballintubber.

This well is not deep and a stream flows out of it. Always in the month of May people pay rounds at this well on every Saturday of the month.

This is how people pay rounds. People pick up seven pebbles out of the stream and then kneel down at the well and start reciting the Rosary. Then they start at the right hand side of the well and walk slowly all round reciting a decade of the Rosary while going round. At the end of each decade they throw one pebble away. Then when the seventh round is paid they kneel down and finish the Rosary. Then they take three drinks out of the well and wash their faces at the stream. Then they usually tie a piece of string on an overhanging bush. It is said that according as the cloth wears away the disease wears off the patient.

It is called St. Senan’s well because it was St. Senan who blessed its waters. From the well you can see the ruins of seven churches and round tower in Scattery built by St. Senan.

There are no fish in the well and the water is not used for household purposes. Once a woman went to fill her kettle at the well. She forgot to bring a vessel with which to fill her kettle. She left her kettle at the well and went back for a saucepan. When she returned the well had disappeared and the bush with it. It went from the top of the hill to the side where it is now.

Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

Collector- Bernadette O’ Sullivan- Informant Gerald O Sullivan, Age 60, Address, Tarbert, Co. Kerry

Convent Cross, 1916 Commemorative Manhole Cover, Kennedy Home, Holy Wells and Buying a Duck

 Calvary at Convent Cross

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Manhole Cover

Because Listowel was undergoing road repairs in 2016 when these special commemorative manhole covers were commissioned we have a few of these at locations around the town. This one is on Upper Church Street.

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Kennedy Home Then And Now

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Holy Wells on the Move

( from Dúchas school folklore collection)

Local Place Names
Collector Jeremiah Clancy- Age 11-Informant, Patrick Ahern, Age 70, Occupation, labourer
In a farm in Gortdromagowna owned by Thomas OConnor there stands a well called St. Mary’s well. The field is known as the Blessed Well Field. People from this parish and the surroundings go there to pay their rounds in May.

The Blessed Well
Collector Annie Heffernan, Tarmon West.
There is a blessed well in Mr. John Buckley’s field. It is St. Senan’s Well. There is a story connected with this well. First it was situated in Kelly’s land and now it is relocated to its present loacation.

It is said that the servant of the house took water from this well to wash clothes and next morning it had disappeared.

Many people go to the blessed well during the year to pay rounds. They go on the Saturday before May, and on the Saturday before St. John’s Day.

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Buying a Duck at the April Horsefair

On April 4 2019 on Market Street Listowel I came upon this family taking a great interest in the poultry seller and particularly his ducks. He had  a variety of healthy looking young ducks for sale.

This little man was very adamant that this was the one he wanted. Even though the duck was heavier than he anticipated, he was delighted with his new purchase.

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Good Job, Firemen

Photo; John Curtin

Extensive damage was done to this Ballybunion premises on Friday night. Our hard working fire  fighting personnel did a good job and thankfully there was no loss of life.

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Women in Media

The full programme has been revealed.

official promotional photo

See what's in store;

Women in Media 2019

Ballybunion. Little Lilac Studio, April 2019 Horse Fair, the public loo in 2019

Ballybunion in March 2019 photographed by Bridget O'Connor

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The Last Project

I have sadly delivered the last Little Lilac Studio project to my grandchildren

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Listowel's Public Convenience

Listowel's public toilet on Market Street has some state of the art features that are meant to make it attractive to patrons.

It is wheelchair friendly. It costs 25cents to spend a penny. It has instructions in several languages including Braille. For hearing impaired people there are audio instructions.

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Wells and Place Names from Dúchas School Folklore Collection

There is a well situated in Mrs. David Dillon's farm. At this day the well goes by the name of Tobair na Giolláin. The people say the English of it is the well of the flies. At first the well was situated near a hedge in the field but one morning a woman rinsed clothes in it and when the people came to the well it was dried up but it sprang up about four perches from the place. The people are still taking water out of it but the old people always said it was a blessed well.

Collector- Martin Connelly,Address, Kilteean, Co. Kerry. From Drom Muirinn School

Informant, Mrs K. Quilter

GLEANN na BRÓN

The name is still used by the local inhabitants and probably means the Glen of the Quern. It is beside this glen the “brittlen” woman used to be heard.

In the farm of Pat Trant Jnr, Behins, there was a blessed well. This was known to the older people as Tobar Uí Leidhin. There was an old midwife living in Behins named Moll Barry. One May morning she went to the well for a can of water. She had hardly reached the well when she was lifted off the ground and the next place she found herself was below at the monument in Lixnaw, spirited away by the good people.

Beside the well there was a graveyard. A glen beside it is still known as Gleann Dóighte.

Beside our house is a place called Pike, on the main road between Listowel and Castleisland. Old Ned Prendiville use to say that there were two gates here and everybody who passed the way with cattle or cars had to pay a toll of a halfpenny. There was also a pound there. There is a Dispensary at Pike. In this building was the old National school whose first teacher was John O’Connor. O’Connor was not long there when he had to flee the country owing to his connection with the Fenians. Then came my Grandfather old Master Lynch who taught there for six years and who opened the school at Rathea in 1875.

My Grandfather was a native of Knockanure. He used to tell stories about a woman name Joan Grogan of Knockanure. This woman used to be “out” with the good people. One night they were on their way to Castleisland to decide whether a girl there name Brosnan was to be taken away or not. On their way they called in to my grandfather’s aunt the wife of Michéal Ruadh Kirby of Behins and took her snuff box as a joke. Micéal Ruad’s wife met her a few days after at the big fair in Listowel (13th May). Joan asked her did she miss her snuff box on such a morning and she said she did. Micheal Ruadh’s wife told her she heard them laughing in the kitchen that night.

Maureen Lynch

M’athair Muiris Ó Loingsig O.S a d’innis an méid sin dom. Rathea Listowel.

April Horse Fair, Tidy Town Judges favourites and a Holy Well

Minnie posing in Ballybunion at evening time.   Photo by Bridget O'Connor

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April Horse Fair 2019

Market Street was busy on April 4th as a big crowd attended the street fair.

Cabbage plants

Scealláns or seed potatoes. I remember long hours spent cutting them and preparing them for planting.

Saddles and other assorted horse related tack.

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Mentioned in The Tidy Towns Judges Report

The Tidy Towns adjudicators had mostly positive things to say about Listowel. A few places in particular they loved. They loved the Pat MacAulliffe plasterwork and they praised the people who preserve it. 

They loved the houses along the John B. Keane Rd by the Lartigue museum. The one below, No. 6 was a favourite.

Their report mentioned this tribute to Ireland's most popular car.

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A Holy Well, a moving experience

(from the Dúchas folklore collection)

There was a blessed well in Jim Woulfe’s field and one day they washed clothes in it and that night the well changed out to Tom O’Connor field which was two fields away. People used go there on Sundays and especially Sundays of May. Some people used go there to get cured from some disease they had and they would leave a piece of cloth on the bushes round the well. They used also go around the well three times to every rosary they would say. It is called Sunday's Well. If you were to be cured at some wells you would see a fish.
Eileen Shine
Address
Gortdromasillahy, Co. Kerry

Holy Well in Coolard, The Ball Alley, the Vincent de Paul shop and Michael Healy Rae in Woulfe's

Sunday Morning Walk

Childers' Park, Listowel Co. Kerry November 18 2018

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Well in Coolard  (Dúchas Collection)

There is a holy well in Coolard and many people visited it on certain days. The same prayers are said at every well and whilst saying it they make nine rounds. When people visit the well they take a bottle of the water home with them and some moss. The water of the above well cures sore throats and rheumatism. The water of the well is never used for any domestic purpose. There was a scarcity of water and the people took the water from the blessed well. They couldn’t get it to boil.

Rinn Tuirc School collection 10 5 1938.

St Bartholomew’s Well, Coolard, Lisselton

Collector Nancy Hanrahan-Informant- Michael Hanrahan, Age 60

The blessed well is situated in a thick wood near Coolard. The well is shallow and a stream of fresh water flows from it. Many people in the district visit the well three times a year, to pay rounds. They go around the well nine times and they say three rosaries. If they have not the rosaries finished when going around, they kneel by the well and finish them. When they are going home they leave money or holy pictures or pieces of cloth on the tree beside the well. Anyone having sores washes them in the water. They also take three sips of the water and also some water with them. The people living near the well use the water for household purposes. It is said that the well was situated farther up on the wood once. A woman washed clothes in it. Then it moved down to where it is at the present time.

Holy Wells 17 – 11- ’38

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Woodford Pottery Nativity

I love my Woodford Pottery crib. I will light a tea light in it every evening from now to Christmas.

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The Ball Alley

Listowel men of a certain age remember the ball alley with great fondness. There have been essays and poems written about the exploits of Listowel's handballers. I don't know if the Sheehy brothers who are commemorated on this seat were among the champions but they would have certainly enjoyed being reminded of the days when the ball alley was the centre of young men's social calendar.

Some years ago in a project undertaken by the young people of Xistance Youth Café the walls of the now disused alley were decorated with graffiti. Over time the pictures have taken a battering from the weather but most are still intact and looking beautiful.

These Pictures are on the side walls. The end wall has had to be replastered.

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Second Time Around

One of my favourite Listowel shops is Second Time Around, the St. Vincent de Paul shop on Upper William Street. It is always staffed by smiling friendly volunteers and there are always great bargains to be had from the stock donated by some really kind  (and stylish) donors.

On Wednesday week when I called in I met these two lovely ladies, Ingrid and EileenR looking after the shop.

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A Booksigning at  Woulfe's

Michael Healy Rae signing John Hartnett's copy of his book, Time to Talk

Michael with John and the shop staff, Fiona, Mary and Brenda

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Lyre Postman Retires

(Photo and text from Joe Harrington on Facebook)

Our Postman, Seán O'Connell, on his last day as Lyreacrompane Postman delivering the mail to Norrie Connell, Carrigcannon on Friday November 30 2018. Seán has been the postman in the Lyreacrompane district for 38 years! Happy retirement Seán.