Lartigue, Listowel Food Fair and Bord na Mona workers in 1934

Banemore, November evening 2014

Photo by John Kelliher

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A Kind of a Listowel Connection……..not!

My son, who is currently living in France, brought me this present on a recent visit home. The item is not a cap as I thought at first. It is a receptacle for putting your pocket contents in; keys, loose change, rosary beads etc. It is manufactured in Southern France in a factory called Lartigue 1910. The factory is in business since 1910 and even though it now imports the raw cotton and linen from China, all the weaving is done in the factory in the Basque area of southern France.

The people who worked in the factory had never heard of the other famous Lartigue or his railway and they were fascinated to hear that in a little corner of southern Ireland there was another Lartigue weaving its way into the fabric of the local community.

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Dates for the diary

November 22 is The Day for the switching on of the Christmas lights. More details later



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From the Bord na Mona Archive

This photograph from 1934 shows Bord na Mona employees digging a trench in a bog in the midlands.

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Micheál O'Suilleabháin

Michaél OSuilleabháin has been nominated by Ard Cúram for an award from Volunteer Ireland. He is one of 30 short listed and he will know in early December if he is to receive the award.
An award would be a well earned recognition for all his volunteering work in Listowel over many years.

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(photo: Christmas in Listowel)

Jackie McGillicuddy and fellow William Street traders are gearing up for Christmas.

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Ard Curam, the convent chapel, a Limerick limerick and the good life in St. Jean de Luz

King of the Stags

Timothy John MacSweeney photographed this magnificent brute in the National Park last week. This bucko is a twenty pointer and is the most mature dominant stag in the herd of red deer in Killarney.

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Ard Cúram, Listowel

In May 2014 Jimmy Deenihan and Micheál OSuilleabháin turned the sod to launch the building project of Listowel's dedicated day care centre for the elderly, Ard Cúram

One of the recent planks of the fundraising drive was the participation of the charity in The Ring Of Kerry Cycle. As you can see above the sponsors contributed a massive €149k. The project is well on target for a 2016 opening.

Ard Cúram website is at: http://ardcuram.com

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Presentation Convent Chapel

In response to a request, here are some more memories of the convent chapel. This lovely prayerful space is sorely missed by some people in Listowel.

 Our Lady's Altar; This altar was at the left hand side beside Sr. Consolata's organ.

Calvary in the grounds.

 The centre aisle

The choir gallery

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The return of the bicycle

This bicycle park in Drury St. Dublin (photo: Twitter) is testament to the growing popularity of cycling to work.

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Dublin 1958

(photo from Old Photos of Dublin on Facebook)

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A Limerick limerick

Recently I bought a book of limericks in the NCBI shop in Listowel. They have a great offer at the moment of 3 books for €1.
The little book I bought was called The Book of Limerick limericks and its by a man called Pat Brosnan. He has written limericks for lots of Limerick towns. Here's one;

Coming home from the mart in Listowel
A limerick man crashed in a hole
But the Council he blamed
And was no way ashamed
Of his gross overdose of the bowl.

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Meanwhile in St. Jean de Luz

The EPIC adventure continues for my lovely grandsons. They are enjoying temperatures of 24 and 25 degrees in their house on the beach.

I'm reminded of the song lyrics, "How will we keep them down on the farm….?"

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Well done, Fiona

(photos Irish Independent)

In The Irish Independent is this great story of generosity on the part of Listowel teenager, Fiona Murphy. Fiona has donated her hair to make a wig for Keeva, who suffers from alopecia. It's all organized by The Rapunzel Foundation

Flowers, flowers and more flowers, July horse fair and an air show in Foynes

Ard Curam volunteers working hard to keep their cyclists watered and happy on their journey on The Ring of kerry cycle last weekend.

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Flowers in Listowel 2014…….a truer picture

A few weeks ago I had the misfortune to say that I thought that Listowel had less floral displays than other summers. How wrong I was.
 Okay, okay, you can stop pointing them out to me now. I know that I was not looking in the right places.
There are loads of flowers in town. In fact Listowel is like a veritable garden centre these days. To make up to all the people I upset by failing to see all the lovely flowers, here are some photos of town with flowers in every one.

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From The Advertiser

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Sundaes in Ballybunion

Just the ticket for these sunny days

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Horsefair July 3 2014

lorry load of logs for sale

Trading a goat

A turkey, a hen and some ferrets

goat

Admiring not buying

footwear

On Thursday last the horse fair followed a growing trend in recent years. There is so much other livestock and goods for sale that the name horsefair now seems inappropriate.

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Footage from last Sunday's airshow in Foynes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8zk0wmjL54&feature=youtu.be

Kingdom County Fair and three successful Listowel ladies

Kingdom County Fair

I had one of the best days out this year at this event on May 11 2014.

My niece's lovely horse, Mr. Riordan won his class and then went on to be reserve overall champion of the show. I was delighted to be there to record the event.

Showing animals is all about obedience and a willingness on the animal's part to respond instantly to his master's command. This was obvious in the horse showing ring but it was even more obvious in the sheep rounding up competition where the teamwork of man and dog was thrilling to watch. The sheepdog trials took place in a remote corner of the show field and I don't think it got the exposure it deserves.

Mr. Riordan tried his hand at the show jumping as well and he scored two clear rounds. Maybe a future as a show jumper awaits him.

 There were competitions for all sorts of animals, skills and crafts. I took the photo below from The Kingdom County Fair's Facebook page. It shows the enormously talented Philomena Sheehy from Duagh receiving one of her many prizes. Philomena has "a gifted pair of hands". She has been winning  prizes at this fair for years.  2014 was no exception.

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Car Boot sale…….Community Centre 

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

May 25 2014 in Listowel Community Centre. Drop in and pick up a treasure.

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"Oh stony grey soil of Monaghan 

You burgled my bank of youth."

Patrick Kavanagh picking spuds  (photo from The National Gallery)

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Rhona Tarrant

This Cinderella got to go to the ball. Rhona Tarrant of Listowel is currently on an internship in New York. She recently got to go the Gala Ball for the American Ireland Fund. The famous Kerry fashion designer to the stars, Don O'Neill lent Rhona this fabulous dress from his Theia collection.

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Kay Caball

Kay is always a powerhouse of information. Her latest blogpost about thinking outside the box when it comes to researching your ancestors is entertaining and informative.

http://mykerryancestors.com/blog/

Kay writes as she speaks, in an easily accessible narrative style with lots of interesting anecdotes to illustrate her point. This is why I know that her book:

The Kerry Girls: Between the Famine & The Crown

The Story of 117 Kerry Girls sent to Australia on the Earl Grey Scheme

will make fascinating reading.

Kay will launch her book at Writers' Week 2014 on Saturday May 31st. in Scoil Realta na Maidine at 2.00 p.m.

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Jimmy Deenihan and Micheál OSuilleabháin turn the first sod in the Ard Curam building project.