Some recent local photos

Signs of Spring spotted on Market St.

 Seed potatoes

Lawn mowers lined up outside McKenna's

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Three local Historians

Snapped on the street on Ash Wednesday 2015, Jer. Kennelly, Denis Carroll and Damien Stack, my fellow keepers of the flame of Listowel memories.

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Then and Now

Below are the three most recent locations of Listowel post office in chronological order

Upper William Street is very quiet these days. Getting a parking space to visit the shops here is no bother at all these days.

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At Craftshop na Méar

If you would like a novelty tea cosy, these beautiful creations, all hand made, including the rosary beads are available in the craftshop in Church St. Lots of other beautiful things on offer as well.

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Parking in Super Valu

These signs have appeared recently. I don't know what the punishment is for exceeding the 2 hours.

There car park was very busy on the day I visited, with big lorries delivering and cars everywhere.

This is a new one on me. Again I don't know what the penalty is for exceeding the time.


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Emigrant Girls From Killarney

Thirty five Killarney girls were meant to sail on the Elgin from Plymouth to Adelaide, (Southern Australia) on 31 May 1849.   Finding the identity of these thirty five girls has been a major problem for me, since starting the research on the book The Kerry Girls:  Emigration & the Earl Grey Scheme. 

Thus begins another great essay on the fate of some Kerry girls during The Great Hunger. 
Read Kay Caball's blog post here;

   My Kerry Ancestors 

Local heroes, collectors and sharers of our heritage

Doesn't this photo take you back? I have no idea where it was taken. The picture is part of a huge collection of  memorabilia amassed by local historian, Jer Kennelly of Knockanure.

Jer has done us all a service in collecting materials over the years. Much of this archive stuff would have been lost were it not for collectors like Jer and Vincent. Now Jer is making his photos available to us in NKRO. We are really excited about sharing them with a huge audience. Thank you, Jer.

Another woman with an appreciation of the value to us all of collecting old photographs is Nancy McAuliffe and she has just brought out a magnificent book of photographs of Ballylongford. She has a huge number of quality pictures and, better still, she has told us who they all are.

Tonight the NKRO website will be going live. It's just at the beginning stage but we are hoping that you will all help us is collecting and sharing a photographic, audio and video treasure trove. I'll tell you the link tomorrow.

Our NKRO postcards are available now in shops and credit unions. We want people to send them to the diaspora to make them aware of us and hopefully to encourage them to share their photographs and stories with us. When our website is up and running, my friend Maria Leahy, another adopted daughter of Listowel, will blog about North Kerry. So we hope to bring you news of Listowel and the whole of North Kerry on a regular basis.  Exciting times indeed!

Jer Kennelly's mart photos

Jer Kennelly of Knockanure, a great archivist and preserver of our heritage has shared these photographs taken in Listowel Livestock Mart with us.

If you recognise someone or if you know who this group is and why they were at the mart, please email me at   listowelconnection@gmail.com