St. Bridgit's Duagh, Presentation Convent , Listowel and Badminton in the Community Centre

Wind Turbines on the hills behind Duagh, Co. Kerry, January 2017

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Memorial in Castle Island

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St. Bridgit's Duagh

Some more photos from my visit to St. Bridgit's in Duagh in early January 2017.

This is the view from the altar.

The stations of the cross were all sponsored by benefactors.

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Presentation Convent Then and Now

Another reminder of what we have lost.

This photograph was taken by the late Tim Griffin who looked after that lawn and flower beds so well.

This magnificent horse chestnut tree stands outside Toirbheart, the old primary school.

I think we'll see these before we ever see it returned to its former glory.

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Listowel Badminton Club Invitational Tournament 2017

Junior Griffin is Mr. Badminton in Kerry. He is always coming up with new plans to promote the game. I met him in the community centre on Sunday last and he told me about a new fun sideshow he had introduced this year. The photographs tell the story. The rhymes are Juniors.

No, I didn't win the cup or any other prize for badminton ever. It was Junior's idea that we pose with it in the absence of the Junior Griffin cup which was played for on Saturday and was on its way to Cork.

Junior showing how its done.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again. Mark, despite his admirable record of Saturday, had to take a few goes on Sunday but he did succeed in getting the shuttle in the bucket.

St. Bridgit's Duagh, A Poem by Pat Given and some old photos

My Favourite Art Galleries

My favourite art galleries are all free to enter and they hold some of the finest frescoes, mosaics, woodwork, statuetry and architectural features you will see anywhere.

We, in Listowel, need to look no further than our own St. Marys

Recently I visited Duagh's St. Bridgit's. It is lovely compact little church beautifully looked after by the local congregation.

There is a collection box in the hallway for used stamps and for old Christmas cards.

St. Bridgit's has many many statues, pictures and some beautiful stations of the cross which were sponsored by kind donors.

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A Poem from Pat Given's October Stocktaking

Philosopher

Pat Given

I’ll tell you what it is to be

A philosopher. To be able to recall

A personal feud of lasting enmity;

And smile on your tormentor after all.

To follow ambition with unswerving intent

From youth to middle years and onward still,

To know at last it’s unattainable,

And yet remain impassively content,

To make it mere routine to contemplate

That one day soon –too soon- you must forsake

The loved ones that your life illuminate;

And when the culmination comes, not break.

This is a philosopher, as I would think,

And, oh how far short of it I sink!

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Listowel Photos from the 1940s

I'm returning now to some old photographs which have featured here before. The story is that a Galway photographer came to town in the 1940s and he positioned himself on William Street across from McKenna's Corner and he photographed everyone who came within his orbit.

Years later, this photographer died and his family discovered all the old photos among his possessions. They sent the photos to Bryan MacMahon in Listowel. When The Master passed away his son Maurice undertook to try to identify the people in the photographs. We have had some success with a few of them but a few have remained elusive.

Margaret (Dillon) Ward has been diligent in the pursuit of the identities of these local people. Ned Sweeney has helped her to identify the people in three photos. I have also posted again a man whose identity still eludes us. As they say on Crimecall, its a good likeness. Someone must know him. Of course he might not be a Listowel man at all. Like the photographer, he might just have happened to be in town on that day.

David Bunyan of Convent Cross

David Bunyan and John Allen

Ned Faley and Jimmy (Salmon) Roche

This man's identity is still a mystery to us. All we know for certain is that he walked outside McKenna's one day in the 1940s.