Asdee, West Clare Railway and Memories of a Book Launch

Lower Church Street Listowel in January 2020

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Asdee from the air

I found this photo on the lovely Asdee website

Asdee Village 


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On This Day

Today is January 27. On this very day in 1885 Charles Stewart Parnell turned the first sod for the West Clare Railway.

You may talk of Columbus's sailing

Across the Atlantical sea

But he never tried to go railing

From Ennis as far as Kilkee.

The train ran from Kilkee to Moyasta and from there the traveller could go  west to Kilrush.It was the last operating narrow gauge passenger railway in the country . It closed in1961.

The train was notoriously unreliable. Percy French who wrote the famous satire about the line sued The West Clare Railway for loss of earning because he arrived  four and a half hours late for an engagement in Kilkee on August 10 1896. He won £10 plus costs.

The Railway appealed the case and lost. French arrived one hour late for the appeal and he explained to the judge that he came on the West Clare Railway.  In the course of his submission in the case French famously said

"If you want to go to Kilkee

You must go there by sea."

At the same court on the day of French's appeal Mary Anne Butler from Limerick sued the railway alleging that she had been attacked by a malevolent donkey on the platform at Ennis.

If you're not familiar with the Percy French song here are a few verses.

Are ye right there, Michael, are ye right ?

Do ye think that you can get the fire to light ?

Oh, an hour you’ll require

For the turf it might be drier

Well it might now, Michael, so it might

Are you right there, Michael, are ye right ?

Do you think that we’ll be there before it’s light ?”

It all depends on whether

The old engine holds together

And it might now, Michael, so it might, so it might

And it might, now, Michael, so it might

( information from On This Day Vol. 2 by Myles Dungan)

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Generosity in Lyre

Garda Sgt Jim Foley Tralee, a trustee of The Irish Pilgrimage Trust accepts a cheque for €1,910 proceeds of the hampers raffle at Christmas. Hampers sponsored by Lyreacrompane Community Development. €955 raised through your generosity and matched by Lyreacrompane Community Development.

Photo and caption from Lyreacrompane Community Development on Facebook

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Memories of  great Night

On October 19th 2019 we launched A Minute of Your Time in St. John's Listowel. Lots of friends came and we had a mighty night. Breda Ferris took the photos.

Helen Bambury and her husband, Aidan

Alice Moylan and my nephew, William Ahern

Barbara Walshe

Betty and Maria Stack

Billy Keane

My son, Bobby and his wife, Carine

Robert Beasley

Brenda Enright

Bridie O'Rourke

Canon Declan O'Connor

Caroline Reynolds

Catherine Moylan

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Revival 2020 Planning Meeting

I spotted Aiden and Gerry in Thew Horseshoe last week planning another super music festival.

Daithí OSé, Listowel a "pauperised town" in 1831, Mill Lane and a poem by Alice Taylor

Chris Grayson was in Barrow

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Before He was Famous

From The Kerryman archives...August  2001

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Poverty in 1831

(Extract from a debate in The houses of Parliament discovered recently by a blog follower)

…..The electoral division of Listowel as defined by the a commissioner consisted of the town and parish of Listowel, the parish of Finuge, including a small portion of the parish of Dysert. Mr Hawley, in the course of his observations called Listowel a “pauperized town” and such, Mr. Collis was sorry to say, was the case. In confirmation of that statement, `Mr. Collis held a document which was put into his hand previous to his coming into the room, by his friend Rev. E.M. Denny.

This document detailed the state of poverty in the town of Listowel and its minuter districts during the trying and scarce summer just past- a period of famine he might call it. It appeared from that document that in one locality, Glounafous, consisting of 236 houses, 1175 paupers had received relief through the medium of the charity meal while 4,000 paupers in the town and the immediate vicinage, had daily obtained relief. He found that the entire of the parish consisted of 4,300 acres, which, with Finuge gave an area of say 6,000 acres for the electoral division of Listowel. The population in 1831 was about 4,900 souls, considerably exceeding the adjoining parishes: although these parishes contained a much greater amount of surface, equaling Listowel in quality of soil. This position Mr. Collis illustrated forcibly by interesting statistical details, contrasting the quality of the soil and population.

Mr. Collis went on to show that the population of the town of Listowel alone exceeded in 1831 that of the parish of Knockanure and Lisselton, and nearly equaled Killeheny, Galey and Murhur. Of the entire parish of Listowel the preponderating proportion was in the town of Listowel. Of these residents in the town the majority were paupers migrating from other districts- very generally from the surrounding parishes. He was, he thought, justified in assuming that in the district proposed for the electoral division a relative proportion of the lands to the population would be one acre to one individual.

Mr. Hawley; You calculate according to Irish acres?

Mr. Collis said the comparison still held. Finuge, a poor district was added to Listowel; but the addition would rather prove an incumbrance than a means of lessening the burden that threatened to press upon Listowel. Finuge was a miserable parish. Galey with its population of 2,900 souls and surface of 1,300 acres, had no pauper population. The average in that parish would be as four acres to one inhabitant – in Murhur two to one. In the other parishes to which he referred the proportion was equally favourable; while in Listowel with its dense and pauper population the proportion was as one acre to one individual.


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Fresh Flowers by Alice Taylor

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Mill Lane in October 2017

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International Soccer in Listowel

It was the occasion of the official opening of the new soccer pitch at Tannavalla. Aiden O'Connor, who was chair of Listowel Celtic at the time came into the secondary school to tell the girls about the game and to introduce the two local lads who were to play on that evening.

Guess what year?