Sunday Miscellany 2009, Knitwits and Irish place names

Early morning in Portmarnock      Photo; Éamon ÓMurchú

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Listowel Writers' Week 2009

One of the highlights of Writers' Week was always the recording of RTE 1's Sunday Miscellany. This one in St. John's in 2009 had a star studded cast led by Hollywood icon Gabriel Byrne, who had just published his first book,  Pictures in my Head. He published his second one at the end of last year, Walking with Ghosts. He writes well.

Seamus Begley and Gabriel Byrne at LWW 2009

The same Seamus Begley and his brother Breanndán from Baile na bPoc were guests on the Tommy Tiernan Show last Saturday. They gave us an insight into a way of life that is dying out.

Begley Brothers on Tommy Tiernan

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Seems a long time ago now

Happy group of knitters and natterers in Scribes in Church Street, Listowel in summer 2019.

Left to right; Mary Boyer, Mairead Sharry, Mary Cogan, Maureen Connolly, Kathleen MacCarthy, Patricia Borley and Una Hayes.

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What's in a Name?

I got this book among my Christmas presents and I'm really enjoying it. It is full of little nuggets of information about Irish place names.

Did you know that places with 

Kill in their name once had a church?

Knock means they are on a hill

Derry means they had an stand of oak trees one time

Glen is from the Irish gleann meaning valley

Clon is from the Irish Cluain meaning meadow

Ben means the town was built on a peak

Lough means it was near a lake

Clock from cloch meaning a stone often refers to local ogham stones.