Philip O'Carroll of Cahirdown

Three from the internet to start your day!

I wonder how much it made?

>>>>>

This has to be the dearest carpark in Ireland.  It's in Dublin.

Adds a bit to the day's shopping bill!

>>>>>>>>>>

A giraffe Mammy kisses her new baby in Dublin Zoo last week.

>>>>>

Why did I put three instead of two or one?

Here's why.

The "rule of three" is a principle in writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. The reader/audience of this form of text is also more likely to consume information if it is written in groups of threes. A series of three is often used to create a progression in which the tension is created, then built up, built up even more, and finally released. –Wikipedia

>>>>>>>

There is a good piece in last week's Kerryman about Dr. Philip O'Carroll, another very talented son of Listowel. Philip is a brother of the late Louis. Philip now lives in a prestigious area in California, a world away from his native Cahirdown where he grew up in a family of 15. Like many of his siblings, Philip is multitalented and has risen to the top in his chosen profession; neurology. His main area of interest is Alzheimers Disease. He calls it the "revenge of unexpected consequences for modern medicine." More people are living longer and so more people are getting diseases usually seen in the elderly.

But this is not why he is in the news. He has co written a screenplay and we could be seeing it on our screens in years to come.

<<<<<

I found the following photo on the internet, Do you remember when Lower William Street looked like this? Was Centra Crowleys?

Memorial Day and Writers' Week

Today is the last Monday in May, Memorial Day in the U.S. Memorial Day pays tribute to all the servicemen who fought in all the conflicts in which the U.S. has taken part. It is usually celebrated with flags at half mast, veterans' parades and the laying of wreaths.

>>>>>>

They did their best. They took their beating, congratulated Sweden and have now moved on. They are praising their fans and planning their world tour on Twitter. Not a word of regret, no looking back. We could all learn from Jedward.

>>>>>>>

posters spotted in town.

Wednesday is Writers' Week opening night, a highlight of the year in this literary town.

This is the first committee. As usual not everyone was present for the photo. Mrs Corridan gave me the picture. Someone else might name them all for us.

This is the 2012 committee.  Here I am taking a really lazy option. I have copied the names of the committee from the Writers' Week website. Not everyone was present on Tuesday night for Ann MacNamee's photo.


President Vice-President
Chairperson
Vice Chairperson Treasurers Directors
Literary Advisors
Administrators Secretary Festival Team

Colm Tóibín
Very Rev Dr J Anthony Gaughan, Michael Barry
Seán Lyons
Lisa Fingleton
Rose Wall, Anne O’Sullivan
David Browne, Madeleine O’Sullivan, Joanna Keane O’Flynn, Michael Lynch Sean Lyons
Lawrence Block, Seamus Hosey, Brendan Kennelly, Colm Tóibín, Michael Collins
Eilish Wren, Máire Logue
Lisa Dennehy
Margaret Broderick, Bríd Leonard, Bernie Carmody, Veronica Cotter, Jackie Goodall, Kieran Gleeson, Noel Keenan, John McGrath,
Jean Allen-Goggin, Joe Murphy, Deirdre O’ Brien, Máire O’ Connor, Anne O’Neill, Marian Relihan,
Cara Trant, Brenda Woulfe,
Norella Moriarty, Maria Doyle,
Gerry McDaniel, Mary Cogan, Vincent Carmody, Eamon Dillon,
Ann McNamee, Aisling Wren,
Bridget Curtin, Noel Twomey, Mairead Costelloe, Annette Fitzgerald, Orla Mulvihill. 


>>>>>>


I forgot my roundup of posters on Friday so some of these are a bit late. Others are extremely early.

And finally in poster parade, a Monday laugh from a restaurant in Carlingford.

>>>>>>>

Tonight I intend going to St. John's to celebrate the life of one of the greatest Listowel academics, Alfred O'Rahilly.

The extraordinarily talented O'Rahilly family were born in this house in The Square, Listowel. The above plaque commemorates them. Tonight we will have a lecture from John A. Murphy of UCC and a bit of a hooley to celebrate the great man.

>>>>>>

Who'd have thought it?  BAFTA for best sit-com.

Old photos and Jedward

Dolly Parton in Páidí O'Sé's in 1990

Kate Kearney's Cottage Killarney in 1900

Photo from Jer Kennelly Nonie O'Flaherty at age 100

John O'Connell, Tony Rohr and Colm Meaney on the set of P.J. Dillon's Most Important


On the subject of local films don't forget Stella Days and Listowel's own Vintage Wireless Museum in the cinema tonight at 8.15


>>>>>>>

Then and Now

Remember these: another pair of Eurovision brothers. They came 9th.

Can we do better ?  Jedward bring the phrase 'giving it sox" to a new level.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I was out bright and early with camera.

Danny made an extra effort for the big day. He was rocking the Jedward look today.

Evanna and Angelica made the effort as well and came in green.

I'm off now to the parade and later to the Tea Dance so I'll have lots of snaps for you on Monday.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Meanwhile a little light reading for you:

I took this from CNN on the web in an article about Irish writers returning home.

Returning to a literary hometown

Although he now lives in England, poet John McAuliffe often returns to his childhood home in Listowel to visit family and to recharge his writing. On the surface a typical North Kerry market town, Listowel has a literary tradition inspired by the playwright John B. Keane and fiction writer Bryan MacMahon. Keane ran a pub where writer Michael Hartnett and other writers and townspeople would gather, now operated by his widow and son.

To a young boy, Keane and MacMahon both seemed of the town and outside it. "They were after something penetrating, subtle and comprehending when they wrote, unsentimentally, about the town's hinterland of farming villages and about the positive impact of modernity on old hierarchies: wised-up insiders with a natural sympathy for the outsider," says McAuliffe, co-director of the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, editor of "The Manchester Review" and author of "Of All Places."

For the visitor: "When I'm at home I walk Market Street, past John B's (pub) and into the redesigned town square where the terrific converted church, St. John's, hosts theater and music every week," says McAuliffe. "I walk past the Listowel Arms Hotel -- where Charles Stuart Parnell made his last public address -- under Listowel Castle, whose ruin is now attached to an interactive museum, which documents and celebrates the work of John B. (Keane), (Bryan) MacMahon and other writers from the area."

>>>>>>>>>

In case you missed this lovely photo on NKRO 's Facebook page

 Timothy J. O’Neill , pictured in 1876, was a fireman in New York for 40 years. He was born in Lisselton. The photograph was sent to NKRO by Kathleen Price.