Young Scientists in 1983, landlords and Tenants and Extension planned fro Pres. Secondary School

January with the ladies in Ballincollig Regional Park

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From the Archives

Young Scientists in Listowel in 1983 pictured in The Kerryman

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Some Facts Stranger than Fiction

The oldest bridge in Paris is Pont Neuf meaning new bridge.

The first woman to play golf was Mary Queen of Scots.

Agatha Christie was a keen surfer.

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Landlord and Agent

Kay Caball is the acknowledged expert in the area of Kerry ancestors. Her book, Finding Your Kerry Ancestors and her website, My Kerry Ancestors and her blog

Kerry Ancestors blog

are required reading for anyone researching their Kerry roots.

Here is a small section of a series of blogs on Landords and Tenants;

"In Ireland we are very much aware of the importance of ‘the land’.  Who owned the land? Who rented the land? How  did the system work ? These are just some of the questions that my colleague Jim Ryan of Flyleaf Press and Ancestor Network has answered in his definitive article on Irish land records or Rentals in his recent blog.   

Jim has kindly given me permission to reproduce his blog in sections. I will publish these over the next few weeks, finishing with a list of surviving Kerry land records and where to access them as in my book Finding Your Ancestors in Kerry.

Agents.  The practical day-to-day management of estates was usually the work of land agents,  also known as estate agents.  These could be hired by large estates as members of staff, or contracted as  external estate managers.    There were several large land or estate management companies that  could be hired to perform this role.  Some of these external companies managed hundreds of small estates on behalf of their owners.  Agents provided the estate owners with regular rental reports detailing rental income due and received.  These reports were particularly important for ‘absentee landlords’ who did not reside in Ireland.   These were entirely reliant on their agent to manage their estate business and to keep them informed of issues that might affect their income.  Land stewards, sometimes referred to in documents,  were staff who worked under land agents.

Agents were generally reviled by tenants.  A popular contemporary quote was that ‘Landlords were sometimes decent men,  but agents were devils one and all’.   This is not entirely fair as there were many agents who were respected by their tenants,  but a larger proportion performed their function through coercion and threat of eviction.  In their defence, the historical evidence suggests that most were not provided with the funding or authority which might have allowed them to assist their tenants to improve their farming methods or land,  or to facilitate access to markets etc. Further background to the complex roles and circumstances of the land agent can be found in 2 books:    Landlords, tenants, famine:  the business of an Irish land agency in the 1840s.  Desmond Norton. UCD Press 2006. ISBN 978-1-904558-55-2;  and  The Irish Land Agent 1830-60:  the case of Kings County.    Ciaran Reilly, Four Courts Press 2014.  ISBN 978-1-84682-510-1

Observations.   Most rentals have an ‘observations’ column which is variable in its use.  Some rentals contain no observations,  others are used by the agent or landlord for their own accounting notes, while others are used by agents to provide information to their landlord on the circumstances of a particular tenant.   These include brief comments such as ‘good tenant’,   ‘lazy tenant’,  ‘promises to pay’, ‘pauper‘ etc,  but may also contain more valuable family history information  such as  ‘died in August‘,  ‘emigrated in December‘,  ‘a son of Luke Murphy of Ballinamore’ etc. "

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Good News for Pres. Secondary School

Chairperson of the Board of Management, Shay Downes with Principal, Eileen Kennelly following the announcement this week of Department approval for two state of the art science labs, specialist rooms and classrooms. Exciting times ahead!

Gleeson's now Jumbo's, Garden of Europe, Fitzmaurice ancestors and The Harp and Lion

Property House, Grand Parade, Cork

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Jumbo's Then and Now

Eddie Gleeson and Edward Gleeson at the door of Gleeson's, now Jumbo's

photo: Eileen Sheridan

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Garden of Europe in August 2019

View from the entrance

 New flower border

 Schiller

 Montbretia

Roses

Guide to the Garden by Amy Sheehy

 Geotagging

 Holocaust Memorial

John B. Keane

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Old and New

The newly restored and painted stucco looks a bit different to the old one.

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In Search of Fitzmaurice Ancestors

Carol Burns wrote to us following her visit to Kerry;

We visited the Fitzmaurice castle in August. 

There were 10 of us from the United States. 

My husband's grandmother was Johanna Fitzmaurice. 

This is some of what we know about the family. 

The name begins with Walter who was a Norman 

and royal officer for William the Conqueror who invaded

England in 1066.  They were invaders of Ireland in 1169. 

Johanna's parents were Michael Fitzmaurice, born in 1834 in Ardagh and died in Renfrew, Canada in 1910.  Her mother was Johanna Culhane, born in 1836 an died in 1920.

Johanna’s grandparents were John Fitzmaurice born in 1807 in Ardagh  and died in Renfrew, Canada.  Her grandmother was Johanna Holly born in 1797 in Ireland and died in Renfrew, Canada. 

Our Fitzmaurice ancestors lived in Rylane, Duagh.

Members of the Fitzmaurice family were blacksmiths and moved 

to Renfrew, Canada in around 1860. 

A few of the Fitzmaurice ancestors attended St. Brigid's church 

in Duagh, County Kerry. 

Is there more information about members of this Fitzmaurice ancestors?

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Were you a Basketballer?

A Pres. Listowel winning basketball team. I need help with names and dates.

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My Last Guided Walk of 2019

Only four lovely English visitors for my walk on August 31 2019. Small but mighty as they were interested and engaged and we had a lovely stroll around town. I think they will return home to install some jostle stones at the entrance to their London home.

St. Patrick's Day 2019, Death of a Rev. Mother, Pres. footballers and a poem for Mothering Sunday

Ballybunion in March 2019

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Some Stalwarts of Listowel Parades

Seán Moriarty provides a running commentary in The Small Square.

Charlie Nolan recording it all from the viewing platform.

Listowel 2019 Parade by Charlie Nolan

Denis Carroll records the day for us on the street. His lovely video of this year's St. Patrick's Day  is at the link below.

St. Patrick's Day 2019 in Listowel

Billy Keane was back on the stand in 2019 doing his MCing.

Tim O'Leary and Donal O'Sullivan

Liam Brennan as St. Patrick blesses us all.

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St. Patrick Joins in The Fun

 St. Patrick dances with Mary Twomey  on St. Patrick's Day 2019

 Meeting and greeting

And we all head home, St. Patrick's Day done and dusted for another year.

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Death of Rev. Mother in 1919

Kerry News, Friday, August 01, 1919
(An Appreciation by a grateful patient) Condensed

DEATH of Rev Mother Michael, Superioress of St Bridgid’s Convent of Mercy, Listowel. Requiem High Mass was celebrated on Sunday 13th at the lovely little-church attached to the Mercy Convent, by the Most Rev. Dr. O'Sullivan, Lord Bishop of Kerry, with the Very Rev. Fr. Breen, S.T.L., President St Brendan's Seminary, Killarney, and the Rev. T. Trant, P.P.,Ballymacelligott, her nephew, as deacon and sub-deacon ; Very Rev. Canon O'Riordan, P.P., V.F., Boherbee, as Master of Ceremonies. There was also present in the Sanctuary the Very Rev Dean O'Leary. P.P.. V.G.. Tralee, and the Rev. Fathers , Ferris, Behan and Conlon, O.P. Several members of the Christian Brothers from the Industrial Schools were also in attendance.
Amongst the chief mourners were- Sisters Benedict and Catherine (nieces) Rev. T. Trant, P.P.: Dr Trant. J.P. : Mr. P. Trant, J.P., and Mr Michael O’Connell, Clerk of the Union (nephews) Miss Danagher, Mrs O’Connell (sisters) Miss M. A. O'Connell, Miss B O’Connell, Miss N O’Connell, (nieces); Miss Nora Trant. Mrs. S. Fuller and the Misses O'Connell (grand nieces); Messrs P. Trant. junr., and D Trant (grand nephews} : etc.. etc. A full list of the general public is out of the question.

Rev Mother Michael came to Listowel some 36 years to take over charge, of the Union Hospital and let it be said that from the very start her work was cut out for her, for the Hospital Buildings though large enough were anything but sanitary or comfortable. Uninviting, rough, whitewashed, walls, straw beds, small apertures in the Walls instead of windows a room only fit for a stable to hear mass in were only a few of the many unsightly objects that met the view of Rev. Mother Michael and her faithful little band of nuns when first she entered the then unhallowed walls of the Listowel Workhouse. The change for the better which she wrought in this establishment would if described fully read like a chapter from Fairyland. The sisters transformed the place.

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Presentation Secondary School Team

I think this is a football team back in the day

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Richard Moriarty sent this poem home to us for Mothers' Day

MY MOTHER

DEDICATED TO MOMS EVERYWHERE

WHILE WE’RE TOLD IN SONG AND STORY

OF PEOPLE OF RENOWN

BE THEY WRITERS, POETS OR CONGRESSMEN

OR KINGS WHO WEAR A CROWN

IT’S INSCRIBED THERE IN THE PAGES

THEIR NAMES AND WHERE THEY’RE FROM

BUT I BELIEVE THE UNSUNG HERO

IS THE PERSON KNOWN AS MOM

SHE’S THE ONE WE ALWAYS TURNED TO

WHENEVER THINGS WENT WRONG

THE GENTLE HAND THAT DRIED OUR TEARS

WHILE SHE HUMMED SOME SILLY SONG

SHE WAS ALWAYS THERE TO GREET US

AND HELP US ON OUR WAY

WITH THAT SPECIAL TOUCH

THAT MEANT SO MUCH

AND A GENTLE WORD TO SAY

AND THERE WERE TIMES WHEN

WE CAUSED YOU PAIN

AND TREATED YOU UNKIND

BUT ALL THE WHILE YOU’D SOFTLY SMILE

OH, HOW COULD WE BE SO BLIND

BUT YOU ARE THE ONE WE DO ADORE

AND LOVE LIKE WE COULD NO OTHER

WE THANK YOU GOD FOR GIVING US

SUCH A SPECIAL CARING MOTHER

Richard G. Moriarty

Listowel men in drag in 1974, Pres. girls, Tennis Players in Action in 1987 and Poetry in the Park in 2019

Listowel Town Square February 2019

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Someone will surely give me a year for this group of lovely young ladies who were my 1 Aodan class when I took the photo.

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Remember that Panto in 1974?

One of the highlights of that first pantomime was the interval drag act when some very unlikely local business men dressed up á lá Danny La Rue. Jimmy Moloney Sr. has very kindly shared a press cutting.

The lovely "ladies" are

Vincent Moloney, The Square, R.I.P., Jimmy Moloney, Gurtinard, Kieran Moloney, The Square, Tony Faley, Small Sq. R.I.P., Jerome Murphy, Charles St. R.I.P., Paudie Fitzmaurice, Cahirdown R.I.P.

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Now and Then

2019

2004

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A Little Poem for you

"No place like home, "she said

Eighty, in her rocking chair,

"where you can spit in the fire

Saucer your tea

and call the cat a bastard."

Brendan Kennelly

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Poetry In the Park

A group of local writers gathered in the Seanchaí on Sunday February 17 2019 for their regular Poetry in the Park event. The change from the park to the Seanchaí was necessitated by the weather.

I enjoyed the poetry stories, song and banter. If you are a writer, watch out for their events. They are very welcoming

These are some of the lovely writers who were there on the day.

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More action shots  from the tennis courts