Listowel from John Kelliher's Drone, A Poem from Noel Roche, 1992 panto in Pres. and Speed Cameras

Swans at Rattoo

Photo: Bridget O'Connor

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Listowel in Lockdown

Drone photos from John Kelliher

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HMS Pinafore 1992

Presentation Secondary School, Listowel operetta

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Another Poem from Noel Roche

This poem needs no words of introduction or explanation. Noel says it best in his own words. And remember he is 40 years sober this year.

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Bet You didn't know this

The speed camera was invented to speed cars up not slow them down. A Dutch rally driver and engineer called Gatsonides wanted to take corners faster. His first device was 2 strips across the road. The first strip started a stop watch. The second stopped it. Then he thought of adding a camera so he not only had a record of the vehicle's speed, he also had a picture of the car. He could see how much extra speed he could squeeze out of a corner by approaching it along a different line.

His invention was called the Gatsometer and speed cameras are often still referred to as Gatsos. He realised its application in the detection of speeding offences when he replaced the pressure sensitive strips with a radar beam.


Of course the Listowel connection is our own Irish GoSafe speed camera network has its headquarters in Listowel.

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"Oh, lest the world should task you to recite...."

Ursula Stack sent us this Covid fact.


Dame Judi Dench has tasked herself with learning all of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets during Covid 19 lockdown

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From Isolation -Inspiration


Thank you, Nan Bailey for the heads up on this marvellous resource.


This is an initiative of the Irish Embassy in London.

From Isolation – Inspiration involves a series of short videos posted on the Embassy social media channels which feature individual Irish artists currently in domestic isolation performing their art – a musician, singer, poet, novelist, actor etc. The videos are filmed by the artist in their home or garden and are designed to inspire and bring solace and cheer in these testing times.

Access the recordings    HERE

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A (very late) Message from Listowel Celtic PRO

Our own Barbara Mulvihill is nominated for the Best Actress Award in the Kevin Rowe Events Oskars.  She is raising money for St. James hospital.

If you want to vote for Barbara here is the link.

Best Actress at Kevin Rowe Events Oskars

Martin McCarthy is up for Best Actor. He is raising money for the Mercy Hospital Foundation.

A vote costs €1

NNB Voting closes this evening at 5.00

Rattoo, Duhallow Knitwear, Lord Listowel and a Poem for our Times

Wolfhound at Rattoo

Photo; Bridget O'Connor

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Duhallow Knitwear

Do you remember this brand? The hosiery, as it was always called in Kanturk, made this great, hard wearing classic knitwear for many years. If you look closely at the advertisement you will see that Duhalow made "hose and half hose". This is probably why it was called a hosiery Has anyone any idea what hose and half hose stand for?

The Sheehan family who owned the business were one of the biggest employers in my home town and surrounding area in the fifties and sixties.

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Lord Listowel

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As Others See Us

Despite massive Famine-era emigration from the area, Kerry retained “in a great degree its peculiar and characteristic features,” Irish lawyer and author William O’Connor Morris wrote to The Irish Times in October 1869.

“The people of Kerry are a thoroughly Celtic race; and, though a variety of influences has injured in some measure their finer nature, they show all the marks of Celtic character. They are shrewd, quick-witted, fanciful, sensitive, affectionate if you touch their sympathies, prone to submission, and to respect those connected with them by ancient tradition. On the other hand, they are jealous and irritable, tenacious of custom, and unprogressive, and above all, impressionable and fiery, rather than persevering, steady and courageous.”

Source: Mark Holan's   Irish American Blog

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A Poem for a Pandemic

This poem was written in 1869 by Kathleen O’Mara:

And people stayed at home 
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.

Reprinted during Spanish flu pandemic, 1919 and again during the Covid 19 pandemic, 2020
Photo taken during Spanish flu

The Poor of Listowel, Ballygologue Park, Rattoo Round Tower and Ladies Bountiful in the 1870s

William Street Neighbours

Stacks of The Arcade and Keanes of John B. Keane's Bar have been neighbours and friends for years.

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The Poor of Listowel

(Kay Caball found us this one)

From The Kerry Evening Post Saturday January 11 1879

 Misses Harnett collected alms and purchased warm clothes for the poor. The warm clothes seem to have consisted of blankets and warm underskirts. I know which I'd prefer to receive if I was freezing.

So who were the Misses Harnett?

Dave O'Sullivan has the answer:

The Misses Harnett referenced were Mary and Florence, daughters of Richard Creagh Harnett and Robina Forbes. 

It seems they ran a successful campaign for clothing for the poor, blankets especially during these years.

They lived at 10 The Square, Listowel. Richard was a solicitor and coroner. He died in 1885 and is buried with his wife (died 1903) and son Thomas (d.1917) at St Michael’s cemetery. (Headstone photo attached)

It seems from an auction notice that they left Listowel in 1909.

Mary and Florence never married, Mary died aged 81 in 1926 in what was then described as ‘The Home for Protestant Incurables’ , now St Luke’s Home, Mahon, Cork. She lived at 3 Sorrento Villas, Old Blackrock Road, Co Cork, Florence died at 3 Sorrento Villas, Old Blackrock Road, Co Cork in 1937 aged 84.

And Mary’s bequest in 1926. Includes the Sustentation fund of the parish of Listowel.

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Ballygologue Park Junction in April 2019

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Rattoo

Photos by Elizabeth Brosnan on Facebook

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I learned so much about the great Fitzmaurice, Knights of Kerry clan yesterday in Lixnaw. Watch out for more on this topic later.

Rattoo Sunset, Bank of Ireland Mural and Pitch and Putt in the sun

Rattoo Sunset

Photo: Michael Pixie O'Gorman

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Olive Stack's Mural in Bank of Ireland, Listowel

The mural depicts The Square as it was. It's sad to see so many of the characters who have passed away

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Well Done Tidy Town's People

The old telephone exchange is not a particularly pretty building at the end of O'Connell's Avenue. My eye was drawn away from the industrial bleakness of it to the lovely flower tubs at the corner.

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Pitch sand Putt Course Looking Resplendent

As I was walking through the park last week I spotted three happy men out for an early morning game of pitch and putt.

Don't they look like photos from Florida?

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Ballybunion/ Ballybrown......Could be in Florida

These photographs of Ballybunion Golf Course this week were taken by Barry O'Halloran and he tells me that CTH stands for Closest To Heaven as it is on  the highest point on the course.

a Kingfisher, Washday blues, Rattoo Tower, Gaelscoil rebrand and Convent Memories

This kingfisher was photographed by Timothy John MacSweeney on the river Blackwater near Kanturk in Co. Cork.

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The Bad Old Days

This is a picture of a washtub and a washboard. This was the washing machine of your mothers.
I dont know any man who ever washed clothes in one of these.

Picture it for a minute and count your blessings.

Monday was washday. There was no running water so water had to be brought in buckets from a water barrel in the yard. The water was boiled in a Burko, if you were lucky, or a big pot on the range or over an open fire if you weren't. The boiling water was then transferred to the washtub. The clothes were scrubbed on the wash board, using a big bar of Ivy or Sunlight soap. There was rinsing, blueing an starching to follow.

Washing was a day's work and hard work at that.
Now don't you feel privileged to live in present times?

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Rattoo

Photos; Bridget O'Connor

Rattoo Tower

A Poem by Pat Given from his anthology, October Stocktaking

A slender pencil pointing to the skies

I see you there. The story that you wrote

Erased by time, by men forgot.

But still you stand and still you tantalise.

The leather books compiled upon this site,

Are no longer legible to human eye.

But you, clear stylus still, endure to write

Their meaning on the uncomprehending sky.

To all who pause and contemplate this scene

These silent stones become a speaking tongue

Of God and man and Christ between,

And toil transmuted when for Heaven done.

O Tower, to each succeeding age

You preach more eloquently than printed page.

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Beatha Teanga í a Labhairt

For a language to live it must be spoken

Gaelscoil Lios Tuathail has rebranded

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Convent Memories

Whenever I mention the convent or post a picture of it on Facebook, it always prompts a flood of memories. 

Not everyone is on Facebook, so here are a few recent comments;

Sr Dympna must be turning in her grave. Not a lady to turn lightly without 'having a word' with the Man on High. (Kay Caball)

Great memories of this little church, first confession etc . (Máire Logue)

What a waste! Sr Dympna loved the gardens, with the help of a man named Mackassey. I remember walking around the gardens following the Priest with the Blessed Sacrament all of us in our white dresses. It was Corpus Christi. We had another name for it. Does anyone know what it was ? (Maria Sham)

About 15 of us started our school days there. It was known as Babies and High Infants. Sister Claire and Sister Consolata. with Sister Frances keeping a very close eye on us. The down side was when we went to the boys school into 1st class we got a very frosty reception. It is so sad to see this beautiful building going to wreck and ruin. (Jim Halpin)

What a pity, such a beautiful church ⛪ and left there to rot. Wanted to get married in that church but it was bought before we started planning  (Catherine Nolan)

These are just a few samples of the many responses to the pictures. I think Liz Dunne's comment summed up how everyone feels about the convent: 

 So sad to see it falling into decline - I wish I had the pennies to save it!