Sunday Morning in Listowel and photos from the Launch of The Personals and he Jimmy Hickey DVD

Rutting Season 2019

Photo: Chris Grayson

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Sunday Morning, Coming Down

" There ain't nothing short of dying half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalks, Sunday morning coming down."

The streets are quiet in Listowel too on Sunday mornings. It's a good time to snap the streetscape. The light wasn't great on the morning I took my stroll so the photographs are a bit dark.

Eileen O'Sullivan was coming from mass. She stopped to offer a few words of encouragement.

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Launch of The Personals

I have a few photographs for you from the launch of The Personals in Waterstones on October 3 2019


This book by RTE journalist, Brian O'Connell, is a look at the stories behind the small ads; the classifieds as we called them.


Brian bravely contacted the sellers of interesting items he spotted in his trawl through the small ads in the papers and on Done deal and he met with them and more often than not, got an interesting story.


The launch drew a a packed house with a few celebrities in attendance.

Seán O'Rourke told us a few tall tales of a great grandmother who regularly washed her burial shroud or habit and hung it out on the line to air it so that it would be ready whenever.... He told us of a mother who made sheets from flour bags, and he mentioned a few of the more unusual items for sale that Brian tells us about in The Personals.

The author, Brian O'Connell watching on as his book is launched.

Will you look who I met. Evelyn O'Rourke is a colleague of Seán's and Brian's. She remembered our time making a programme for TG4 with great fondness. It was she who presented the programme where Julie Evans came from Australia to research her gr. gr grandmother who had left from the workhouse in Listowel under the Earl Grey Scheme. Below is the link to the story which was picked up by the makers of the Tar Abhaile programme.

Earl Grey Story

Me in  between Evelyn O'Rourke and Sean O'Rourke.

Brian O'Connell signing my copy of The Personals. Look what he has in his left hand. I invited him to the launch of A Minute of Your Time. You'd never know. He just might come.

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Jimmy Hickey's DVD

This DVD has been years in the making. It was a labour of love for Jimmy Deenihan and a few more and I'm delighted it got such a good reception in The Listowel Arms on Sunday last and I am so sorry that I couldn't be there.

John Kelliher took some great photos on the night. These are just a few, click on the link for more.

The man himself enjoying his big night.

Jimmy in the company of his friends and fellow dancers with the North Cork music maestro, Liam O'Connor