St. John's. School photos, A Covid 19 card, a Covid 19 poem and Easter Ceremonies in Listowel 2020

St. John's in Lockdown

I took these photos a day or two before  I was locked up.

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Newspaper photo of the opening of Tarbert Comprehensive School

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Senior Infants 1986

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Being a Nana during Lockdown

An Post has given us free postcards to send to people to cheer them up. I haven't sent mine because I'm not allowed to leave the house. I was delighted to receive one last week.

To explain, Róisín doesn't have a phone and you need a phone number to associate with  a Tik Tok account. She can text and use the account from her iPod. 

Sometimes its easy to make someone happy.

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A Poem from Róisín Meaney

To Venice the fish are returning,
Down under, the bush has stopped burning.
When humans stay home,
And leave nature alone,
The world gets the break it’s been yearning. 

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Jill Freedman Subject identified

"That’s Mikey Faulkner , a much loved traveler in North Kerry in the 1940s and 1950s"
 Jim MacMahon.

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St. Mary's , Listowel, Holy Week 2020

Thank you Canon Declan and Denise

Launch of Mary Lavery Carrig's Haiga , Listowel St. V.de P. shop and some folklore

Dogs in Banna; Bridget O'Connor

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People at a Launch

Here are a few photos I took at the launch of Mary Lavery Carrig's exhibition which is currently hanging in St. John's, Listowel

Childhood friend, Declan Downey launched the exhibition.

Jim and Susan are artists and came to lend their support.

John McGrath was Mary's teacher back in the day.

Art lovers and artist, Mary, Matt and Maeve Mooney

Family, friends and neighbours were in St. John's to support.

Máire Logue was our hostess and Mary provided us with a sumptuous feast. There was food for the body and soul in St. John's on Feb. 1 2020.

I have never before got a chocolate covered strawberry at a launch! Thank you, Mary

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A Charm, a Cure and Unhappy Priest

A Tale from a Rathea child in the Schools' Folklore Collection

Mickey Hussey was a native of Banemore. He was a charm setter. He was a small man with a hump. He used to be going round with an ass and car. He was well liked by everybody.

He always obliged his neighbours as far as he could. One night there was a woman living in Gleannaléime and she was very bad. A varicose vein bursted in her leg. The priest was sent for and he only gave her a few hours to live. After the priest was gone her son made for Banemore to Mickey. 

Mickey was not inside he was at Jerr Finnerty's house. The son had only such a limit of time and he told his story to Mickey. Mickey went out and brought in two dog-briars. He split them into two and set them apart in the table. As he was saying the words the briars were drawing close to each other. And at that moment the cock flew out through the coope and crew three times up in the table in front of Mikey. There was neigbours inside and they got in dread when they saw the cock. And Mickey said you amadán if he didn't do that sure my work would be no good. 

Before the son arrived home the Mother was alright. Next morning the priest came and he was surpised when he saw her. So they told him their story and he became very angry. He said he would excommunicate him from the Church if he would not give up this work. All Mikey said was "I saved her life and let you save her soul". When the Fennertys went out the cock was dead outside the door.

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Vincent de Paul Shop Makeover

Listowel's St. Vincent de Paul shop looks twice the size since its recent revamp. It still has all the same lovely smiling faces to greet you when you shop there. It's open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

Above are just some of the friendly hard working volunteers. I'll have to call in again to catch the rest of them.

New Director at St. John's, Church Street girls, Owen Family of Ballyhorgan Cycling and the Crown Jewels

Wildflower meadow at Ballincollig Regional Park

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They're Changing the Guard at St. John's

Máire Logue is the new artistic director of St. John's Arts and Heritage Centre, Listowel. I photographed her in St. John's with Joe Murphy, the retiring director.

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Church Street Girls

Eileen Sheridan shared a photo memory

Clementine Crowley Ann McSweeney, Gertie Kennelly, Mary OSullivan, Eileen Scanlon, Ann Ryan

Mary Fitzmaurice Mary Walsh , Eileen McSweeney,  Alice Gleeson.

Sadly three of the girls have passed away.

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Owens of Ballyhorgan

Harriet Owen with Tom Fitzgerald and Jimmy Deenihan in The Listowel Arms on one of Harriet's frequent trips to Kerry to reconnect with her family home in Lixnaw.

Harriet sent me a short version of her family history which I published in Listowel Connection. John Stack of Kildare and formerly of Duagh was interested to see that an Owen had married into the Ellis family of Abbeyfeale. Ellis was a family John had encountered when researching his own family as these Ellises were his mother's people's landlords.

He sent us a newspaper cutting

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Resurgence of Cycling

In our cities nowadays you have to be struck by the numbers of people cycling to and from work. I took these photos on Cork's Grand Parade recently. There seems to be bicycles everywhere.

The bike scheme stand was almost empty.

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The Theft of The Irish Crown Jewels

A friend lent me this book. The story of the disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels and its disastrous consequences for North Kerry is a fascinating one.

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In Dublin Yesterday

Kerry has survived to fight another day. I don't know if the supporters nerves will survive another one, though.

Turf Cutting in the 1930s, The Square and other street names and The Acting Irish Festival 2019 in Listowel

In Listowel's Garden of Europe in April 2019

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Wing Sleán Turf cutting Competition

Information from Tony McKenna, Bord na Mona archivist.

The first All Ireland Turf Cutting Championship was held on 21st April 1934 at Allenwood, Co. Kildare. From the late 1600s to the end of the 19th century around 6 to 8,000,000 tons of turf were cut each year for home heating and sale. The industry in the 1800s mainly produced moss peat for animal litter and some briquettes. However by the early 1900s the amount of turf cut each year had fallen to around 3,000,000 tons. The turf cutting championships were organised as part of a campaign to increase the amount of turf cut and reduce the imports of coal. Eamon De Valera and other Ministers attended each year. The competitions ran from 1934 until 1939. When the war started everybody went back to the bog so the competitions were no longer needed. This photo shows the wing slean competition in 1934.

When Tony published this post on his Facebook page he received some interesting responses. Here are two;

On June 2nd in Ballyteague at the All Ireland turf footing championship we are commentating the 85th anniversary of this event all descendants of those who participated are invited we have done a huge amount of research and have a vast collecting of photos and memorabilia it promises to be a great day

Denis Linehan : I believe Christy Daly from Gneeveguilla Co. Kerry was the best turf cutter in Ireland. He came from a stone throw of Eamonn Kelly story teller.

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Parnell Square?

I took this photo on April 24 2019

In Irish and English it's just the plain old Square

I'm having a hard time convincing people that there is no Patrick Street in Listowel.

We have St. Patrick's Hall with its big statue of St. Patrick but, sorry folks, no Patrick Street. Despite the proper name of the street being William Street or Sráid an Phiarsaigh many residents of the street give their address as Patrick Street.

Mike the Pies, probably the best known business on the street, is at 28 Patrick Street  and Casa Mia, a few doors down on the same street is at 38 William Street. Across the road Listowel Chitropractic is at 49 William Street and Halo Health is at 7 Upper William Street.

The length of William Street was originally known as Pound Lane. There was an animal pound where The Mermaids is now. For those who never heard of a pound, it was a place where animals which were found straying or which were confiscated were kept until the owner was found and any fines owed were paid.
Lord Listowel is was who changed the name to William Street. His own name was William and it is alleged he called the street after himself.

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A Feast of Theatre

In the space of a few days last week you could have seen six excellent plays all performed by superb actors from the American continent. All of this was because 
Acting Irish International Theatre Festival 2019 was in town.

I saw three of the six productions including Long Day's Journey into Night which blew the adjudicator away. She gave it all the big prizes.

This play was great.

Here is the cast. The two oder players played the parts of the younger ones 35 years later.

My theatre companions posed with Jimmy Deenihan who was part of the local organising committee.

I also saw Spinning but I took no photos. The actor who played Conor in this production was my pick for best actor but what do I know?

I also saw Long Day's Journey. It was a tour de force of acting and I'm glad to have seen it but unlike several in the audience I wouldn't go to see it more than once. One man told me it was his fourth time seeing the play. 

The play is three and a half hours long. It's theme is beyond sad. It is three and a half hours of unrelenting misery, no uplift at all. However it is a classic and people who know so much more than me about these things think really highly of it.

If you want to see more about the festival, including more photos and an account of who won the prizes here is the link

Acting Irish International Theatre Festival 2019

Faction fights, Listowel Town Square and a 1916 commemorative manhole cover

Listowel's Holy Square

Listowel Town Square was once a Protestant enclave. St. John's, the Church of Ireland place of worship dominated the landscape. It's central position today is reflective of Listowel's role as leader in the field of Irish Arts and Theatre. This little theatre is one of the huge assets Listowel has which set it apart from other towns of similar size. If you dont go regularly, make a resolution to go in 2019. You wont be disappointed.

St. Mary's is across the road.

The clock on St. John's needs attention. It's about 6 hours fast. God be with the days when people depended on public clock's like this one to tell them the time.

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A Manhole cover on Church Street

These manhole covers were designed to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. They were put down in 2016 celebrating the anniversary.  I don't think they replaced all the manhole covers, but if one needed to be replaced they put in one of these commemorative ones. This one shows Eamonn Bulfin raising the flag at the GPO. It's on Church Street.

I was standing by the manhole cover when I took this to give you an idea of where to look for it.

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Faction Fighting in North Kerry

There was a time when every fair ended in a fight. Here is an account from a local child of the great faction fights in North Kerry in the 19th century.

Faction Flights

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 (transported?) 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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Little Known Fact about Listowel

Two martyrs are mentioned in connection with Listowel. Thaddeus Clancy of  Co.Limerick was arrested, speared and beheaded on September 15 1584, on refusing to renounce his religion. His head was taken to Listowel and exposed to the mockery of the heretics.

In 1691 Fr. Gerald Fitzgibbon,OP,  superior of Kilmallock was captured by Williamite forces near Listowel and summarily executed.

Source: The late Fr. Kieran O'Shea.

Elizabelle, Jazzy Halloween in Cork, Table to Tidy Towns and The North Pole express 2018

St. John's from the grounds of The Seanchaí

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Stylish Shop at Halloween

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Thought for the Emigrants

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Christmas Comes Early to Cork

Brown Thomas on Patrick Street, Cork, skipped right over Halloween and went straight to Christmas. I took this photo on October 26th 2018. 

Meanwhile on the street the Jazz Festival Halloween Parade was getting started.

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Sowing the seeds of Tidy Town Success.

Before there was a Listowel Tidy Towns Committee there was TABLE.

This picture from 1994 shows Ned O'Sullivan, chairman of TABLE planting a tree in Feale Drive. He is watched by JoanMcCarthy, John O'Keeffe, Bill Walsh, Michael O'Connor, Krystal and Jackie Stack, Ann Sloan, Christy Hartnett and Eileen Worts.
TABLE was established in 1992. It was the Listowel Tidy Town Committee in all but name. It's first work was flower baskets and tree planting and the encouragement of everyone to get behind the movement to promote  Listowel and to do well in the then Bord Fáilte Tidy Town competition.
The officers of TABLE in 1994 were Ned O'Sullivan, Cathal Fitzgerald, Mary Hanlon, Anne Hartnett, Sr. Kathleen and Louis O'Connell.
( Information and photo from Kerryman Christmas supplement December 1994.The photograph was taken by Brendan Landy)

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Planning Ahead?

You will need to book if you plan on taking the páistí to this.

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Moyvane in Mourning

DEATH took place of David Stack, Keylod, Moyvane, on 27th October 2018 peacefully at the University Hospital, Kerry. Beloved brother of the late Tommy. Deeply regretted by his loving parents Michael & Mary, brother Daniel, grandparents, uncles, aunts, relatives, neighbours and friends. Reposing Tuesday October 30th from 5pm to 7pm at his home. Requiem Mass for David was celebrated by Fr. Kevin, assisted by Fr. Brendan on Wednesday in the Church of the Assumption, Moyvane. In the choir were Mary and Selena Mulvihill and Laura Stack.