Market Street, Tarbert Bridewell the Convent Chapel and The Big Fight at Ballyeigh in 1834

Market Street, Listowel in June 2019

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Tarbert Bridewell, the Keepers Quarters

The family who looked after the bridewell lived upstairs.

They kept the prisoners locked up except when they were allowed into the exercise yard.

They cooked their meals and swept the floors and kept the jail in good order.

This is a selection of their cooking pots and irons.

A Bath

A settle bed


I think children would really benefit from a visit to Tarbert Bridewell to see for themselves history brought to life and to give them an insight into life as it was long ago.

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Memories, Memories

Do you remember the lovely convent chapel?

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A Faction Fight

from the Dúchas Schools Folklore Collection

On the 13th of May fair in Listowel some time previous to 1830. some Magheragh men (Ballyduff, Causeway, Ballyheigue, Killanhan, etc) were selling potatoes. A discussion arose as to the comparative merits of the potatoes between the Magheragh men and the cúl-na-lín (Culeen near Listowel) men. The discussion ended in a fight, where the Magheragh men got off the worst as they wouldn’t have the backing in Listowel that the others had. At the Whit Monday fair in Ardfert the fight was renewed. Practically every man in North Kerry took one side or another and for years after whenever people assembled at fair or market on Sunday after mass the fight was renewed.

The biggest fight of all took place at (Ballyduff) Ballyeigh on the 24th June 1834. The North Kerry race meeting was then held in Ballyeigh Strand (opposite the Cashen School) but was eventually transferred to Listowel (1870). The races were held on the right hand side of the River Cashen on the strand where the school is now and when some of the combatants tried to escape by crossing the river in boats and swimming, they were attacked by their opponents with stones, bottles, sticks and so on at the left side of the river. A terrible fight ensued in which about thirteen people were drowned and very many injured.

As far as I know there was only one man arrested for it, a well to do man named Leahy of Ballinorig near Causeway. Many others went on the run but were never arrested. He was tried and sentenced to be transplanted to Freemantle.

For three quarters of a century afterwards the people in this district and in North Kerry generally recorded events from the year the boat was drowned” or from the night of the big wind”. After the tragedy the faction fight slackened and died down and the famine helped to put an end to it altogether.
Even some old people take pride in the fact that their ancestors took one side or the other in the faction.
Collector, 

Murtie Dowling, 

Informant

Denis Lawlor, Address, Causeway, Co. Kerry

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Listowel Tidy Town People

The trophies are gone back but the good folk of the Tidy town are working as hard as ever to present Listowel's most beautiful face to the visitor

Photos from Listowel Tidy Town on Facebook of some of the volunteers at last Tuesday's cleanup on the Tralee Road.

Michael D is due in Town, Police Mutiny in 1920, Nora Moriarty's lace

                                    Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland's Tidiest Town 2019

They say the queen thinks the world smells of paint. She'd feel right at home in Listowel this week.

Such a busy weekend we have in store, folks.

Today is Friday May 24 2019. 

It's polling day in the local and EU elections.

At 7.00 in The Listowel Arms Robert Pierse is going to launch his autobiographical work, "Under the Bed"

And its MS busking day (weather permitting)

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Tomorrow Saturday May 25th

It's counting day in the election centres.

President Michael D. Higgins will unveil the plaque celebrating Listowel's win in the 2018 Tidy Town Competition. There will be music, speeches, celebration and TV cameras. Promises to be great day.

Then after 7.oo mass we will have the annual eucharistic procession from St. Mary's  and finishing with Benediction at the Presentation Secondary School

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Ballybunion

A ship sailing on the Shannon Estuary.

Ballybunion is a pollinator friendly town.

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At Listowel Garda Station

This plaque at the Garda Station remembers those RIC officers who took part in the barrack mutiny of 1920.

There is a full account of the mutiny in the Garda Síochána history page.

Listowel Barrack Mutiny

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Exhibition of Lace

Listowel Writers' Week is always ready to try something different and this is truly different. In Kerry Writers Museum, beginning on Thursday May 30 2019 Listowel Writers' Week will host an exhibition of the lacework of talented local lady, Nora Moriarty.

Nora passed away in 2018 but she left behind a treasure trove of beautiful lacework. Her family have kindly agreed to display some of her beautiful pieces during this year's festival.

Nora was a member of the first committee of Writers' Week and it's first Honorary Secretary.

Gurtinard Wood, Tidy Town seat, Frank Sheehy and Finuge's New Jersey

Remembering a popular teacher and a great servant of the GAA who died in Nigeria.

I previously published the below biography in 2013

Who was Frank Sheehy?

The question is answered by Vincent Carmody 

Frank was born in 1905 to John J.(b 1870) and Annie Sheehy.(b 1874) His father served as a drapery assistant in the Listowel and his mother was a native of Tipperary. Frank was the youngest of 4 children, with a brother John (b 1898), Margaret(b 1899) and Ellen ( b 1901).

He received his primary education at the Boys' National School, only 3 doors up the street from his home,. After this he attended St Michael’s College where he was a classmate of Seamus Wilmot among others.

 Having achieved an M.A. at University College Dublin he then applied for and was accepted to attend at St. Patrick's Training College 1932-1934 to complete his studies to become a National Teacher. Among his colleagues at this time was the redoubtable Sean O Síocháin, later to become a long time General Secretary to the Gaelic Athletic Association. OSíocháin, in a tribute to Frank in 1981 wrote, ‘I first made his acquaintance in 1932/1934 as a student teacher in the Primary School attached to St. Patrick’s Teacher Training College, in Drumcondra, Dublin, where Frank had established himself as one of the great primary teachers of his time. In the following years, through the thirties and into the forties, we worked in after-school hours for the Comhar Dramaíochta, in the production and promotion of plays in Irish, he as runaí and I as a junior actor and sometimes Bainisteoir Stáitse. His high efficiency, his drive and his sense of humour streamlined many a situation for amateur actors which, otherwise might have been chaotic. During the forties, as Principal of an Endowed Primary School in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, gave him a distinction enjoyed by few in Primary Education, while his period in that part of Co. Meath, which coincided with that of the incomparable Paul Russell as Garda Sergeant, transformed the town and the district into a mini-Kingdom all their own’.

He returned to his native town in the early 1950s and quickly immersed himself in the local club and county GAA scene. He became Chairman of the county board in 1953 and many would say that he indeed was the spark that ignited the Kerry Senior team to regain the Sam Maguire, the first since 1946. That year he also organised the golden jubilee of the county’s first All Ireland success in 1953 and he was also instrumental in initiating the scheme that allowed Kerry All Ireland medal holders the right to apply for two tickets whenever the county reached the final. 

He was appointed as principal of the senior boys’ school on his return to Listowel, a position he held until 1960. He served as Munster Council President from 1956-1958 and was narrowly beaten for the Presidency of the GAA by Dr.J.J.Stuart. 

In 1961 he went to Nigeria, Africa, to take up a position of Professor of Educational Science at a training college in Asaba. He died there in 1962.

Listowel sports field is named ‘Pairc Mhic Shithigh’ in his honour.

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Gurtinard Walk

It is lovely to walk in Gurtinard Wood at this time of year.

This set is surrounded by wild garlic.

This new seat by the pitch and putt club hut is a gift to the town from the Tidy Town Group.

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The Most Stylish team in the North Kerry Championship

When you have a fashion designer in your club.....

Photos and text from Paul Galvin on Facebook

Finishing up the Finuge senior club jerseys for 2019. Under-designed so as to promote color, meaning & identity. 
•Deep green & gold color combination. 
•Finuge Cross printed on the sleeves where 4 sides of the parish come together to play shoulder to shoulder.
•The parish map co-ordinates sit alongside to drive identity.
•Sampled 3 different sleeve lengths, went for a half-sleeve covering the bicep to the top of the elbow which I think is under-utilized in jersey design. Finished product to come

Holocaust Memorial, Community Fruit, Nut and Herb Garden and Juvenile Tennis in 1988

This is the Holocaust Memorial in Listowel's lovely Garden of Europe. It is made from old railway sleepers, a reminder of the railways that carried so many condemned people to the concentrations camps of WW2. The sleepers are bound together with steel bars and surrounded by chains, reminding us of the inescapable horror that faced Jews, gypsies and anyone else who fell foul of the Nazi regime.

We do well to remember these horrors lest they happen again.

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Judgement Day is Nigh

The Tidy Town judges could arrive in town at any minute so we must be vigilant. Town is looking absolutely resplendent but I read last year's judges' report and it would appear  now that so many towns are so beautiful that they have to find tiny little things to separate them.

 Tiny little things like a carelessly discarded plastic bottle in the beautiful riverside community garden could just make that tiny difference.

I was amused at the name of the drink as I threw it into the bin which was not 3 feet away from where it was discarded. Litter certainly won't boost our Tidy Town mark.

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Fruit, Herbs, Bees and  a Picnic

The area beside the old ball alley is now a beautiful peaceful picnic area. The good folk of the Tidy Town committee have planted fruit trees and herbs. They have erected bee boxes and planted trees to shade the picnic tables. It is a truly lovely corner of town now. I urge you, if you are in town, to go and take a look. 

Those of you who are far away will have to make do with my photographs

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I was at the Cork Summer Show

The sign on this scarecrow said, "If you ate today, thank a farmer"

This is my family's newest hope, EPA Murray. Here he is being ridden by the judge. His usual rider is Felicity Ward. He behaved impeccably for both of them.

Everyone was delighted when he won his first rosette.

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One from the Archives

Listowel young tennis players in 1988

Back row, L. to R. John MacAulliffe, John Finnegan, Seamus Cronin, Catherine MacAulliffe, Clodagh Finnegan, Ruth Kelly, Kathleen Cronin, Louise O'Shea, Karen Carmody and Sharon O'Mahoney

Front L. to R. Bobby Cogan, Neil O'Sullivan, Dan Browne, Declan Kenny, Anne Cogan, Maeve Queally, Fiona O'Sullivan, Ursula Carmody, Catherine Moylan, Valerie Queally and Yvonne Croghan.

Listowel Tidy Towns and Scoil Realta na Maidine Walk

Photo: Lisa Egan of Mallow Camera Club for their People at Work project

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Listowel Tidy Towns Committee working tirelessly...as usual.

One morning while on my morning walk I happened upon this group of Listowel Tidy Town Folk with ecologist Aoibhinn down by the river.

They were planting nettles!

That is not the whole truth. They were planting meadowsweet as well as the nettles, herbs and other wild flowers to attract the birds and the bees to our community fruit and nut orchard.

 The week before they had been out cleaning all the approach roads as part of the County Clean initiative. Above is the pile of rubbish they collected.

Ever so often I come across another little garden that they have planted. This one is by the river at the corner of the picnic area.

This perfect picnic area is in the garden by the old ball alley.

In a few years time you will be able to pick some apples and nuts for your dessert from the nearby trees.

This bed is by the arch.

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Scoil Realta na Maidine

On Easter Saturday 2017 they had a great time at the boys school. They had a 20 k and 10k walk and they had an old style town league.

I encountered some of the marathon walkers as I was strolling with my Easter visitors. Here for you is just a very small selection of the many people who walked on this lovely spring morning.

(more tomorrow)

By the way, Country won the town league.

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Believe it or Not

I learned a fascinating fact as I was listening to the radio at the weekend.
Bowls are the fastest selling pieces of crockery or some time now. The sale of plates is at an all time low.
Is this a fashion fad?
Partly but people who study these things think that the rise in the use of bowls rather than plates is due to the change in the way people eat meals nowadays. Sitting at the table together is a thing of the past. People eat on their own on the sofa or in an armchair. Even if they sit at the table, they are checking in on their social media feed as they eat. Bowls are more convenient as food is less likely to spill from them.