Showing posts with label Listowel Arms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Listowel Arms. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Brides Night Out at The Listowel Arms, the 1950s in Asdee and Fr. Pat Moore R.I.P.

Seán McInerney of Mallow Camera Club took this picture of People at Work

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The Wedding Saga Continues

The next step in our family’s wedding journey saw us back in The Listowel Arms Hotel on Friday evening April 21 2017 for Brides Night Out.



We nearly missed this one as our bride had deemed it too close to the wedding to be going to a Wedding Fair. We already  have most of the requirements in place. Luckily as we were in Finesse for a dress fitting, the lovely Mags and Liz persuaded us that we would be missing a great night by foregoing this one. They were right.

Here we are, mé féin, Cliona, the bride to be, with Mags and Liz Horgan of Finesse Bridal Wear

The hotel fitted us in at short notice and we were ready in jig time for a lovely night.

This is Clíona at our lovely sunny table

Firstly there was the wedding fair part with lots of exhibitors and lots of  tips. Clíona got her make up done at The Vanity Case stand and she looked a million dollars for the rest of the evening.




We met Siobhán with her eye poppingly artistic cake creations. They tasted delicious as well.




These ladies had a great idea worthy of Dragons’ Den. Anyone at the wedding  downloads their app. You take  photos and then you load them into the app and press print. The person who took the photo gets a printed souvenir photo/photos of their day at the wedding and the happy couple get all the printed photos on a memory stick. I thought this one was much better than a photo booth or the old  camera on the table lark.

Brendan Landy held a pop up workshop. He gave us loads of tips about posing for photos. Here’s a few free for you.

Don’t lean back. It gives you a double chin.
Bend your elbow out from your body.
Bend your wrist back and your hand will look better.
Don’t face full square to the camera.  Etc., etc.


Stylish Eilish was there. We met her chatting to the beautiful Maria Keane of MK Beauty.

The Listowel Arms as a wedding venue was on show and it looked absolutely stunning. We are so lucky to have everything one needs to hold a wedding at out fingertips in lovely Listowel.





Then it was time for the taster menu and the fashion show.






Finesse Bridal opened and closed the fashion show and their stunning dresses set the scene for the Mother of the Bride or Groom and wedding guest style which followed. There were some really  glamorous outfits on show. If I hadn’t bought mine already I saw lots that I would have liked.













The food and wine were top class.

If you have anyone in your family getting engaged this year, tell them to go to this before they make any decisions. It’s an annual event and a great night out.


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The 1950s  as remembered by Jim Costelloe and told in his book, Asdee in the 40's and 50s



... At that time in Asdee there were no Costelloes- they were all Custelloes, MacMahons were Mickmahons, O’Connors were simply Connors, McElligotts were Elligotts, Ruddles were Riddles and Moriartys were Maraartys. There were no cars then, they were all motors, a barrel of stout was a quarter tierse, hayforks were pikes and a dung fork was a four prong pike. There were high shoes and low shoes and we didn’t know which were boots. A stripper was a cow, a gallon was a container for sweets and a muller was an aluminium pot. We also had the skillet, the black pot with its three legs which hung over the fire with the pot hooks. The bread was baked in the oven which was placed on the brand over the coals.

These were the days of the settle beds, the po ( politely known as the chamber pot), the ticks of feathers, the straw mattresses and the  iron beds with the brass knobs at the four corners. The parlour was the sitting/dining room which was rarely used except on the morning of the Station when the priest dined there. It usually smelled of dampness and had old, decaying furniture with limp curtains and wallpaper with a flowery border which was almost always discoloured at the corners.

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eCar Parking and recharging


In the Square in Listowel there is this car charging station and it now has a dedicated parking bay for your  electric car.

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"...the best labourer dead, and all the sheaves to bind."



Fr. Pat Moore, R.I.P. and yours truly in happier times


Fr. Pat with his great friend, Mary Fagan


Fr. Pat in his element among his own at the great barbecue in Duagh

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North Kerry will be a duller place without him.

This is the poem Fr. Pat wrote after his mother died.

This Much I Will Remember   _______ for Peg

It was a bright August morning, sunlight filled the kitchen.
I sat next to you remembering my birth.
Your heartbeat the first sound I heard.
A home you made around us, people you are now welcoming,
Alive and some dead.
And as I look past your shoulder at the glass on the windowsill,
That captures the sunlight inside the garden you once tended,
Which also drinks in the light.
Everything I see converges into a random still light,
Fastened together by colour.
It is fixed behind the foreground of what's happening around you
As you are now being looked after.
And I can feel it being painted within me,
And brushed on the wall of my skull.
Then all the moments of the past begin to line up behind that moment,
And all the moments to come assemble in front of it in a long long row.
It gives me reason to believe that this is a moment I have rescued
from the millions that rush out of sight
into the darkness behind the eyes.
When I forget I will still carry in my skull
the small coin of this moment
Minted in the kingdom that we pace through everyday.

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

A tale of St. John's clock, a few Listowel photos and John Relihan at Fifteen in London


Great Hunting Weather


Duhallow Hunt       Photo; Willie Nunan


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A Tale of Protestants and Catholics United by a Clock


 My story started with this old postcard. I posted it here a few weeks ago. On the same day as it appeared I was on Radio Kerry giving my Just a Thought. Just a Thought is a minute's reflection broadcast on Radio Kerry on weekday mornings. It is broadcast first at 7.30 a.m. during Kerry's Full Breakfast. One of the presenters of this programme is Elaine Kinsella. Elaine heard my "Thought" and realised that it was her old teacher whose blog she now follows. So Elaine opened the blog and the first thing she saw was this old picture of Listowel Town Square. "I wonder," says she, "when this photograph was taken."


Later on the same day, I met my friend Junior Griffin. Junior didn't know when exactly the photo was taken but he was sure that it was before the 1940s because he had observed that the numerals in the St. John's clock were illegible and he knew all about their being repainted.


Junior is a great man for a story and he didn't let me down on this occasion either.


The man second from left in this photo (kindly given to me by Patsy O'Sullivan) is Archdeacon Wallace and he was the last Protestant rector of Listowel parish. Junior remembers him as a great community man and on the very best of terms with his Catholic neighbours.






































One of these Catholic friends was Junior's dad, John Griffin. Now John was the local expert at mending clocks and watches. So it was to Bridge Rd to the Griffin house that the archdeacon came to get his clock seen to.

Junior remembers the whole undertaking well.

In the 1940s it was forbidden for a Catholic to enter a Protestant church. Mending the clock would not involve entering the church as there was no access to the clock from the church. To solve this problem John Griffin constructed a kind of primitive cherry picker. This contraption was a kind of cage that he would enter on the ground and using pulleys and ropes he would hoist himself up to the clock in order to access the movement of the clock.
Junior's mother was worried sick that some harm might come to her husband in this makeshift hoist so she sent Bert and Junior to the Catholic church to light candles and to pray that no harm would come to their dad.



Bert, R.I.P. and Junior

Mr. Griffin repainted the numerals and he brought the two huge hands home to paint them. Junior remembers that the big hand measured five feet and the small hand was 3 feet long.

There remained one final problem to solve but John Griffin was a dinger at solving problems. If he couldn't do something himself, he knew someone who could.

The last piece of repair work needed was the vital pin that held the hands in place and allowed them to turn as well in order to tell the time. This was a job for an engineer and John Griffin knew just the man, his friend Michael Graham. Michael lived in Dublin but he had a Listowel connection in that he was married to a North Kerry woman.

Michael made the vital pin. The clock was in working order again. 
Now there is a lovely postscript to the story, Junior told me that Michael Graham, the man who made the vital pin was married to Canon Declan O'Connor's aunt.


Canon Declan with Jimmy Hickey.

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Listowel Arms from Convent Street


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St. Patrick's Hall, Listowel




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Star Pupil



Fifteen Graduates is a Facebook page for graduates of Jamie Oliver's apprentice programme. This is what it says about our own John Relihan

"Great to see graduate John Relihan at Fifteen today. John has become a Food Ambassador for Ireland and he has been busy travelling all over the world in that role. For St Patricks Day on the 19th of March this year John will be back cooking in Trafalgar Square again - we will send an email out soon as he will be looking for other graduates to come along and cook with him on the day as well. Keep up the great work John "

Monday, 15 February 2016

Listowel Arms, Badminton in Listowel and a few dates for your diary

Listowel Arms Now and 10 years ago

January 2016

2006

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Badminton, a shop refurbishment and an old dance card

Junior Griffin tells the story:
  
What, one may well ask, has the famed city of Jericho and the Listowel Badminton Club in common?


The Bible story tells us that Joshua and his Israelites marched around Jericho, then shouted and blew their trumpets so that the walls came tumbling down.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the writing of this history of the Listowel Badminton Club would never have been considered but for the destruction of another wall.

A few short years ago local business man and former badminton club member, Mr. Jimmy Halpin moved his fishing and shooting supplies business to number 24, Church Street, Listowel. The premises needed extensive renovations to cater for his business, which meant many of the inner walls had to be knocked, not to the sound of trumpets but with the use of jackhammers and the tools of today.

On examining the rubble, Mr. Halpin and his workmen found numerous newspapers, all tightly folded as if they were inserted for insulation. On checking the papers it was found that the headlines of most dealt with the earthquake and the destruction of San Francisco in 1906.

On turning over a page he saw something falling to the ground.  On examining it, Mr. Halpin found it to be a beautifully decorated and well preserved invitation card (illustrated) with a short pencil attached, to a dance under the auspices of the Listowel Hockey and Badminton Clubs to be held on Friday December 16th 1908.

The music listed was definitely different to the music that is heard in the dance halls of today with many classical pieces being to the fore and the pencil possibly used by the ladies to reserve a dance if asked by a gentleman. One wonders did that inspire the writer to pen the tune “ Save the last waltz for me”.

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A Few Dates for you to Pencil in


Make sure you catch Listowel Drama Group in St. John's from February 11 to 14 2016. Their Blithe Spirit is a must see. Listowel needs to get behind them as they head off to the tough world of drama festivals.




The Exhibition will showcase works of art, photography, felting & assemblage. Participating artists include, Rebecca Carroll, (not in photo), Liam Brennan (not in photo), Jim Dunne, Noreen Breen, Malcome Donald, Lisa Fingleton, Viveca Amoto, Susan Hitching, Marie Brennan, David Morrison, Mary Finucane & Arian Everson. This Exhibition is in co-operation with Newcastlewest Arts. For further details contact Rebecca Carroll (Colourful Spirits) @ 087 4577979 or Vicky Nash (Red Door Gallery) @ 086 2517086
The Exhibition will be official launched by Billy Keane (Journalist & publican)