Football in Pres. Growing up in the 40s and 50s, Pink hats in Kenmare and Cork says Shalom

Storm Imogen in Ballybunion

(photo: Mike Enright)

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Another Prizewinner from Jim MacSweeney

This one won second prize in Southern Association of Camera Clubs Photographer of The Year Competition. Projected Non Advanced. Theme People in Their Environment 

Silver Medal Photo Winner. Scored 26 out of 27.

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Football in Pres 

The photo was taken by Tom Fitzgerald. The teacher/coach is Eileen Keane. The girls are;

Back: Mary Buckley,Leona Fitzmaurice, Paula Canty, Niamh Bambury, Carol Collins, Brigeeta Mulvihill, Sharon Canty, Theresa Cronin, Eimear O'Connor, Katie Dillon, Eileen Kilgallon, Margaret Reen, Louise Murphy

Front: Joanna Fitzgerald, Audrey Harrington    ………., Regina Harrington, Mary Ita Mc Elligott, Máire Guiney, Sinead Bunyan, Treacy Bunyan, Sarah Fitzgerald, Aoife MacMahon    

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Random Memories of Growing up in the 1940s and 50s Listowel

For Junior Griffin growing up in the Bridge Road was a happy experience. One of his neighbours was Fr. Kieran O’Shea. When Fr. Kieran was ordained in 1961, as well as his family, he was allowed to invite two friends. He invited Junior and John B. Keane. Many years later when  Fr. Kieran delivered the eulogy at John B.’s funeral he remembered that day when he was ordained. For some reason he was ordained by the papal legate, Cardinal Agaginian. John B. used to tell a tall tale that a woman in Dublin was heard to say that the Agha Khan was ordaining the priests in Maynooth that day.

Other neighbours whose names spring to mind were Enrights, Moloneys, Buckleys, O’Connells and Hassetts. Thomas Hassett, his old neighbor, was buried on the same day as Bert. Griffin. The boys fished, played Cowboys and Indians and went to the pictures. Later they spent hours on end in the ball alley but when they were younger the ball alley was the location a bit of early entrepreneurship. After mass on Sundays the alley used to be packed with people. Bert and Junior had a family friend who allowed them to pick apples in her orchard. They sold these in the ball alley. Their sales targets were 3d each for Junior and Bert. The price of the pictures was 2d and 1d for slab toffee in Sheehy’s meant your afternoon’s entertainment was secured. Junior usually went to the Plaza picture house but he went to the Astor as well on occasion. 

Junior remembers street fairs. Cattle were lined up all the way down Bridge Rd as far as the old library. Sometimes farmers would give the young boys a few pence to mind their cattle while they went for refreshments. The boys had the day off as the big fair days were all school holidays. Shops erected 

protective barriers outside their windows. The footpaths and roads were filthy in the aftermath of the fair.

Junior remembers The Races when they were held over 2 days. He remembers the meat pies. There was a certain rivalry between purveyors of these pies and recipes were closely guarded. Jackie Sharry said of 

Curly Connors pies that they wouldn’t break the Friday fast.

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Creamery Social in Moyvane 20 years ago

Moyvane Social

Watch out for some well known faces in this short clip.

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Programme from a Doodle Frolic

Photo: Junior Griffin

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Cork's Synogogue Closed

The Jewish community have been part of Cork life for generations. Sadly, this synagogue on The South Terrace closed its doors at the weekend. With just 3 adult male members there was just not enough to sustain it. Many Cork Jews are dispersed around the world. There are seven families from Cork in Israel.

"The synagogue on South Terrace was consecrated in 1905. Today, it hosts its last ever prayer service, with a rabbi and 14 men travelling from Dublin to ensure there are enough people present. 
At its height, the Jewish Community in Cork consisted of 65 families with as many as 400 members. They first arrived in 1880 as migrants fleeing persecution in Russia. It is believed they were initially heading to America, but were won over by the warmth and welcome of Cork people.
The artefacts from the synagogue have been    

temporarily given to Cork Public Museum while members look for a new centre of worship."

(Source: Evening Echo Monday Feb 1 2016)

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Pink Hat Day at Kenmare Mart

Pretty in Pink, World Record.. 

The scene at Kenmare Mart Co Kerry on Monday, with Mart Manager Cllr Dan McCarthy and Templenoe GAA Club newly crowned All Ireland Junior Football Champions who broke the world record of number of Pink Hats worn at a Mart in aid of Recovery Haven, Respite and Hospice Care, Tralee. The Pink Hats were sponsored by Dairymaster. The Total tally was 517 hats.

Photo:Valerie O'Sullivan.

Eugene O'Sullivan, the oldest drover in Ireland was there to help reach the record. He got his hands on the cup as well.

Norma Moriarty dropped in to canvass for votes. She too donned a pink hat and
 a Kilgobnet Biddy hat for good measure.

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All that's best about the G.A.A.

http://www.balls.ie is not a website I visit often. 

Regulars will know that Listowel Connection is a bit lacking in sports coverage. But the story of Templenoe's victory in the Junior Club All Ireland 2016 is the stuff of romance and dreams, so when I saw a link to a story related to the game I was hooked.

Victory is sweet and Templenoe followers had every right to celebrate. In the midst of the celebrations one Templenoe man took time to send this Twitter message to the vanquished.

   and a noble Ardnaree man took a break from licking the wound to reply in kind;

Repairing the Clock in St. John's,Writers Week 1976 and Templenoe are Winners

Repairing the clock in St. John's

Junior Griffin remembers that  when he was a boy, at the top of Bridge Rd., the protestant clergyman lived in Gurtenard House. The Bridge Rd. boys had very little recourse to this property except in Autumn to rob the orchard. The last vicar to live in Gurtenard House before the church bought the rectory on Church St. beside the Kennedy Home, was Archdeacon Wallace.

There was a problem with the clock in the spire of St. John's and Archdeacon Wallace called to Bridge Rd. to John Griffin to see if he would undertake the job of mending the clock. There was a problem of access to the clock. There was, and still is, a door in the building above and to the right of the clock face which is visible from the Bridge Rd. but the problem was to access this door from the ground. John Griffin was a resourceful man and he welcomed the challenge this job offered.

In his own house in the Bridge Rd. John Griffin made a wooden cage. This cage had to bear his weight as it was hoisted on ropes up the spire of St. John’s.  John had many of the problem solving skills of a good engineer. He got the design right and, hoisted aloft in this cage, he got up to the clock and effected the necessary repairs.

Junior remembers that he or Bert went once a fortnight to wind the clock and adjust its weights if it was gaining or losing time. He remembers distinctly a brass plaque which said that the clock was donated to St. John’s by the “protestant gentry” in 1845. Remembering his history, Junior was surprised that so much money was spent on a church clock at a time of great poverty locally.
The plaque has since been removed.

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The Kerryman April 16 1976

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Listowel in the rain

I took these photos on January 31 2016…last day of winter. It's been a hard one. Few will be sorry to see the back of it.

Dowd's Road deserted on a rainy Sunday morning.

Pitch and Putt game anyone?

The first of the daffodils

Looks like they are erecting new signage here.

One glimmer on the horizon…fuel prices are falling.

Rain has stopped play.

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Listowel Lady brings a touch of Style to Leopardstown

Eilish Stack looked lovely at Leopardstown at the weekend. Darran Kennedy wasn't too bad either.

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Joy Unconfined…Templenoe are All Ireland Junior Club Football Champions

Look at this video….The Final Whistle or listen back to Pat and Mick Spillane's interviews during the run up to this great victory on February 6 2016 and witness the best of the G.A.A.

 Pat Spillane described Saturday's final as his best day in Croke Park. Pat has nine All Ireland medals.

Templenoe is a tiny club with no feeder national school. Only one of Saturday's winning team works and lives locally. Most of the lads are students who will emigrate and scatter once their stint in college is over. What is keeping them together and connected to their home place is the G.A.A. 

Templenoe is a lake shore community and they suffered a tragedy recently with the death by drowning of a popular local man .

"Bill Topham, an electrician and the warden at St Patrick's Church of Ireland in Kenmare, Co Kerry, died after the 17ft (5.2m) boat overturned a few hundred yards from shore. He was making his way with a friend to an island for a duck shoot." ( Independent.ie)

Mr. Topham was not a member of the G.A. A. but the clubmen were among the 240 local people who formed the search party that eventually recovered his body. His funeral time was organized so that his neighbours and friends could attend before making the trip to Dublin for the game.

G.A.A. is about friendship, neighbourliness and community. Winning matches is just the icing on the cake.