More from Listowel Races Friday Sept 16 2016

Handsome Couples at The Races

And the winners were local couple Anthony McCarthy and Sharon Heffernan.

This handsome pair were the judges.

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More Local People Enjoying Ladies Day

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Ladies Day at The Races is the new Easter Sunday

"In my Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it,
I'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.
I will be in clover, when they look me over......"

So sang Judy Garland. The sentiments in the ditty were echoed on Listowel racecourse on Friday last as hats which were everything from the demure to the brash were paraded for the appraisal of the judges and the amusement or awe of racegoers.

(In some cases I've included the outfit so you can get the full picture.)

 Maura Derrane sported a very snazzy pillbox.

This one won. I think the category was the daftest or the jazziest or something.

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Harvest Knots at The Ploughing

You know the way you don't think about a thing for years. It pops into your mind. You mention it in a blogpost and suddenly it's everywhere.

My above photo was posted by the Dept of Arts Heritage and The Gaeltacht. It was taken in their stand at The National Ploughing Championships 2016.

At the National Library stand they were helping children to make them. 

Hats, Hats and more Hats from Ladies Day

Look away now if you have no interest in millinery.

 Fashion designer, Orla O'Connor, Milliner, Aoife Hannon and modelling Orla's design, Miriam O'Connor

 This talented lady from Killarney made her own and her friend's hats.

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Do you remember The Gleasure letters ?

In case you have forgotten, here is the story in a nutshell. The Listowel Gleasures were a merchant family who lived in The Square. They emigrated to Canada and then to the US and following the death of old George Gleasure's wife the family returned to Listowel. The eldest son, Frank did not settle in Listowel and returned to the US. The family and particularly Frank's sister, Mai wrote to him faithfully and kept him abreast of happenings in Listowel.

The extraordinary thing is that Frank kept every letter, postcard and photo that he got from home. Frank's collection of letters dates from 1897 to 1955. A young relative, Ben Naylor, discovered them by chance when he was clearing out some old stuff and he is putting them all on line at the link above.

Ben and his wife Kathleen are making their first ever visit to Ireland and Listowel this week. I'm looking forward to meeting them and photographing them at the old homestead. The Gleasures were Church of Ireland and so attended St. John's, which thankfully is still there for Ben to see. Not so the old Church of Ireland school.

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On Friday evening last we celebrated two retirements from Pres. Listowel, Geraldine O'Conor and Dolores O'Connor.