Listowel Canada, A New Shop, Doon Church and Biden Inauguration

Blessington; Early Morning

Sean Farrington rose early to take this photo. He posted it on the Men's Shed's Group page.

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Listowel Fire Fighters 2008

Photo; John Kelliher

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One of the Other Listowel's

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A New Shop

While I was locked down this new shop appeared in Main Street. It appears to be a general clothes shop with garments for women and children, closed now obviously.

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Doon Church, Ballybunion

Pictures and text from Kilcooly's  Country House

Doon Church, Ballybunion, was built by Father John Buckley around 1830-1834, shortly after Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Local people say it was the first post-Emancipation church built in Munster.

The ruins are halfway between the River Cashen to the south and Beal Point to the north, at a point where roads met from the north, south and east. Because of this key location, some people speculate that it may have been a Mass site in the Penal days.

The church was built of stone and mortar, without internal lighting or hearting, on a site owned by Mr William Gunn. But in its time it was a ‘state-of-the-art’ church building.

The church was a ‘barn-style’ church, cruciform in shape, with three galleries, one in each transept and a third gallery at the back of the church. The doorway was arch-shaped and the walls were pierced with two-light windows.

It is said a local landlord, George Hewson, built a gate at the Cliff Road side of the new Catholic church to screen it from the view of its local Protestant neighbours.

When Father Mortimer O’Connor was appointed parish priest of Ballybunion in 1866, one of his first actions was to remove the Cliff Road gate. His action made it easier for people in Ballybunion to get to the church, and Hewson never replaced the gate.

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Amanda Gorman, Poet

This oh so stylish young lady was the big star of Joe Biden's inauguration. I hope I am not breaking any copyright laws by printing her moving poem. She delivered it beautifully  and her delivery is part of the package. It's good to read the words too.

The Hill We Climb

by Amanda Gorman.

When day comes we ask ourselves,

where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry,

a sea we must wade

We've braved the belly of the beast

We've learned that quiet isn't always peace

And the norms and notions

of what just is

Isn’t always just-ice

And yet the dawn is ours

before we knew it

Somehow we do it

Somehow we've weathered and witnessed

a nation that isn’t broken

but simply unfinished

We the successors of a country and a time

Where a skinny Black girl

descended from slaves and raised by a single mother

can dream of becoming president

only to find herself reciting for one

And yes we are far from polished

far from pristine

but that doesn’t mean we are

striving to form a union that is perfect

We are striving to forge a union with purpose

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and

conditions of man

And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us

but what stands before us

We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,

we must first put our differences aside

We lay down our arms

so we can reach out our arms

to one another

We seek harm to none and harmony for all

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:

That even as we grieved, we grew

That even as we hurt, we hoped

That even as we tired, we tried

That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious

Not because we will never again know defeat

but because we will never again sow division

Scripture tells us to envision

that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree

And no one shall make them afraid

If we’re to live up to our own time

Then victory won’t lie in the blade

But in all the bridges we’ve made

That is the promise to glade

The hill we climb

If only we dare

It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,

it’s the past we step into

and how we repair it

We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation

rather than share it

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy

And this effort very nearly succeeded

But while democracy can be periodically delayed

it can never be permanently defeated

In this truth

in this faith we trust

For while we have our eyes on the future

history has its eyes on us

This is the era of just redemption

We feared at its inception

We did not feel prepared to be the heirs

of such a terrifying hour

but within it we found the power

to author a new chapter

To offer hope and laughter to ourselves

So while we once we asked,

how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?

Now we assert

How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

We will not march back to what was

but move to what shall be

A country that is bruised but whole,

benevolent but bold,

fierce and free

We will not be turned around

or interrupted by intimidation

because we know our inaction and inertia

will be the inheritance of the next generation

Our blunders become their burdens

But one thing is certain:

If we merge mercy with might,

and might with right,

then love becomes our legacy

and change our children’s birthright

So let us leave behind a country

better than the one we were left with

Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,

we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one

We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,

we will rise from the windswept northeast

where our forefathers first realized revolution

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,

we will rise from the sunbaked south

We will rebuild, reconcile and recover

and every known nook of our nation and

every corner called our country,

our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,

battered and beautiful

When day comes we step out of the shade,

aflame and unafraid

The new dawn blooms as we free it

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it

If only we’re brave enough to be it

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Meanwhile in Cahirciveen

In Devlin's Centra in Cahirciveen, they were supporting a more local hero.