Bertie Ahern in St. Michael's, Art in Pierse and Fitzgibbon

Sundown in North Kerry

Photo: Mike Enright

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Tongue in Cheek poem of advice for Poets

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When the taoiseach came to town

When Bertie Ahern who was the taoiseach of the day opened the extension to St. Michael's, the media were out in force. That's Pascal Sheehy with the furry mike.

Local politicians were out in force as well.

2010 I think

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If the cat had kittens, I'd be blamed.......



This was a favourite saying of a lovely old man I knew one time. He felt that he could never do right for doing wrong. Don't we all feel like that some times?


I brought you last week a little summer story about the relocating of the Infant of Prague statue in St. Mary's. Now the poor Infant popping up in a more prominent position is being blamed for the drought.....

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Listowel Visual Arts Week 2018

This was the beautiful still life installation in John R.'s window during the visual arts festival.

One of the lovely events that took place during that week was a tour of Pierse and Fitzgibbon offices in Market Street. Robert Pierse has gathered some incredibly beautiful artworks over a lifetime of collecting. We were allowed to see some of the treasures, including a replica of The Book of Kells.

This is an early mural by Olive Stack depicting a Fair Day scene in Market Street. The works of several local artists are on display on the walls and even the furniture and lighting is by Irish designers.

This beautiful celtic name plate is the work of the multi talented Paddy Fitzgibbon.

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Facelift for Church Street

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Molly at The Dandy Lodge

A Morning walk in The Garden of Europe, Listowel, Co. Kerry

I often walk in the Garden of Europe and I often post pictures of it here. I took it for granted that everyone knew what I was talking about. That is until Joan Quilter contacted me and alerted me to a whole swathe of my readership who have never been to Listowel let alone to this particular beautiful corner of our fair town. So this is for you, Joan and everyone who loves Listowel from a distance.

This is the Tarbert Road out of town. I usually walk to the Garden from this side. You can also access it from the Bridge Road side.

Pass the Topaz Garage on your left.

The local Emmets Clubhouse and grounds is on your right.

Next is St. Michael's College, the alma mater of so many famous Listowel men.

After St. Michael's you take the next right turn into Gurtinard.

Straight in front of you is the entrance to the old golf course.

Turn right here into the road behind St. Michael's and the graveyard.

You are now in Gurtinard Wood.

Listowel Tidy Town Committee have done a great job of laying out trails for us to explore.

At this junction we choose to go left because that way lies our destination, The Garden of Europe.

If we were to go right we would eventually get to the town park and the pitch and putt course.

When we turn left, straightaway we have a choice again. Right leads to the park and left leads to the Garden of Europe.

This is the entrance.

At either side of the entrance some people have been given permission to plant a tree to commemorate a loved one.
Below is the link to the little video I made. (Yes I do know that an acorn grows into an oak and a conker is the fruit of the horse chestnut tree. I wasn't prepared to do the whole video again because of a slip of the tongue.)

October walk through the Garden of Europe

The Holocaust memorial

The garden is a delightful public tree filled space filled with peace, tranquility and birdsong. Listowel owes a huge debt of gratitude to Paddy and Carmel Fitzgibbon who worked so hard to get this beautiful place up and running. This was once the town of Listowel's rubbish tip.

When you leave the garden, you may turn left into the path to the river.

This is the entrance to the garden from the Bridge Road side.

We are now beside the River Feale.

The river on a lovely crisp October morning.

Listowel people often refer to this as The Big Bridge.

This tree is magnificent.

The old handball alley is here too.

Beside the ball alley is the area under development by The Tidy Towns people as a community fruit and nut garden.

Then we come to the Millennium Arch, through which we can see Bridge Road.

The path leads us to the Square. Ignore the horrid building on the right (pictured below). That is the old Neodata building which was used for a while by Kerry County Council but is now lying unused. It is earmarked for demolition.

The houses on Bridge Road have a touch of old world splendour about them.

The Town Park is more correctly known as Childers' Park. It is on our right as we walk up Bridge Road. Kay Caball told me its history and I told you before, so you'll have to look it up if you want to know all about it and why some local people still call it The Cows' Lawn.

On our left is the presbytery and St. Mary's

And now we are back into Listowel Town Square.