Life before Alarm Clocks, A Listowel Drama Group Production and some boyhood friends meet up

Popular Doctor Retires

Photo; Paper Hearts

Dr. John Halkett of Church St. has retired from practice after 30 years. He and Ann will now have time to travel, to visit family and maybe he will get to see some cricket.

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Some of our ancestors were "knocked up"

A knocker-up (sometimes known as a knocker-upper) was a profession in Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution and at least as late as the 1920s before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. 

A knocker-up's job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. The knocker-up used a truncheon or short, heavy stick to knock on the clients doors or a long and light stick, often made of bamboo, to reach windows on higher floors. Pea shooters were also used. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week. The knocker-up would not leave a client's window until they were sure that the client had been awoken.

Text and photo from:Rare Irish Stuff

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The Shaghraun

This is a photo of a photo that hangs in The Horseshoe Bar and Restaurant. Thanks to Owen and Máire MacMahon for providing us with the provenance and the photos of the original programme.

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Holidays Remembered

In response to my bit  about local holidays, Liz Chute shared this lovely memory;

I went on my holidays from 57 Church Street to 17 Charles Street to my uncle Francies . ( Landys now ) 

My great grandfather Roland built the house plus the two other small houses just above it .  The boys would have a pillow fight and whoever lost had to share their bed with me !, 

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School Friends Reunited

At The Lartigue some years ago Vincent Carmody, Tony Barrett, Mike Sheehy R.I.P. and Paddy Keane

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Ireland of the Welcomes

Sonder Ireland

Make yourself a cup to tea, relax and click on the link above. This drone shot video of our fair land will make you so want to get in the car or the plane and visit every corner of Ireland. This is so beautiful.

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Meanwhile in the USA

 photo: Today Fm

 Liam Murphy

Maura Nelligan Shaw

3 photos from Maura Brennan

Our thoughts are with our US friends who are looking out on this blizzard landscape.

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I was in the INEC yesterday

Mags and Liz of Finesse, Listowel were at the wedding fair too

Brooklyn….the Listowel Connection, water from a pump and Shane Enright gets an All Star

Listowel Writers' Week Brochure ….The Winning Cover Design

The brochure cover design for Listowel Writers' Week 2016 programme was chosen by competition. The winning artist is Edain ODomhnaill from Clonakilty.

The design is a totally new departure from Writers' Week's previous covers, but, I'm sure you'll agree its beautiful and very apt.
The cover design says to me that a book has endless possibilities. If you are a reader, it can lift you off the page high into the clouds and beyond.

If you are a writer, a book can also offer infinite possibilities. This is aptly illustrated this year in the case of Colm Tóibín's Brooklyn.

Tóibín  is a great friend of Writers' Week. He wrote Brooklyn. It is the story of a girl who emigrated from rural Ireland to the U.S in the nineteen fifties. It is the story of many such girls. We all know an Éilís. Éilís's adventure is nothing out of the ordinary, involving seasickness, homesickness, a bossy landlady, Irish priest, night classes, dances etc., etc. It is this very ordinariness that gives Brooklyn it's universal appeal.

Tóibín published his book to great acclaim and then the magic happened. One of the endless possibilities that blow characters and plot off the pages and into the stratosphere opened up. Brooklyn, the movie, came about. Saoirse Ronan was an inspired choice for the leading role and then another magical possibility came about….three Oscar nominations.

Edaín had none of this in mind when she entered the competition to design a cover for Writers 'Week's 2016 programme. But there is a magic that a painting shares with a book. Once it leaves the creator's hands, it's ours. We can all interpret it in our own way and take what we want from it.

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Back to the Washing Board

Nicky Leonard added this tuppence worth to the washing debate. A washboard was a wooden appliance with a ridged surface at one side. You stood it in the was tub and you rubbed the soaped clothes up and down the board to get the dirt out.

Nicky found the above washing board on the internet. It's not your usual wooden one. It's made completely of glass and was intended for washing lingerie only. The term midget refers to its mall size.

Nicky also sent us this photo of a woman at a pump filling a gallon of water. These gallons used to contain sweets in the days when sweets were sold individually or by weight. We used the empty sweet gallons for everything; tea in the meadow or bog, milk, water, collecting eggs or blackberries, bringing feed to hens etc, etc. I haven't seen one in years.

We used to have a pump just like this one in a field we called the pump field. It was very handy for watering the cattle and I suspect that the big bath of water under this pump might be for just that purpose, a water trough for cattle.

Interestingly the top is off this pump as it usually was in ours as well for the pump had to be primed before it would give you any water. Priming was done by pouring water into the pump from the top.

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Tarbert All Star …with a Listowel Connection

Photo: John Kelliher

Marty Morrissey of Rte presented his All Star award to Shane Enright in The Swanky Bar, Tarbert last weekend. Shane's mother, Stella is from Listowel.

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Savannah McCarthy, International Footballer

Savannah McCarthy formerly of Listowl Emmetts is traveling to California with the Irish Senior Ladies Soccer team

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Fr. Pat Moore

As he continues his recovery, Fr. Pat has found a new way to talk to his friends and followers. He has his own Website

Fr. Pat Moore - Between the Hills and The Sea

He finishes his first blogpost with these quotations;

“Sometimes the wrong train will take you to the right place ”

“We forget things if we have no one to tell them to ”

We are all looking forward to Fr. Pat's telling us unforgettable things.

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Yesterday's Indo

This is the Pat Healy photograph I mentioned yesterday.

St. John's, Berenice Holmes visits her Listowel Connections and I saw Room and was Wowed

From Time Travel Kerry

-St Johns Church Listowel-

This is a former Church of Ireland Gothic style church, located in the centre of the Town Square. In 1814 the site for the church was presented to the community by Lord Listowel. A Cork architect, James Payne designed the church and it was used by the faithful of North Kerry as a place of worship from its completion in 1819 until its deconsecration in 1988. The Church of Ireland community and the people of Listowel were keen to preserve the building and make it a centre for local cultural activities and heritage.
It now houses a fine Theatre & Arts Centre and also a Tourist Office. St. John's Theatre & Arts Centre features an annual programme of performances including theatre, music and dance, exhibitions and educational programmes and an annual summer school.

(Original photo, late 1800s, unknown)
(Modern photo - July 2014)
(Historical ref - Listowel.ie)

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A Visitor Who Fell in Love with Listowel

Berenice Holmes sent me this account of her very enjoyable trip to Ireland in 2015. It's lovely to hear a first hand account from a visitor who had a great time here. 

My name is Berenice Holmes and I get your Listowel Connection every day and enjoy reading through it. I thought it was about time I managed to share my wonderful trip to Ireland and Listowel with my husband Lionel last September 2015..

I started out a few years ago now asking on your blog how I could find out about my ancestors from Listowel. My Mum was always telling me all my life I needed to go to Ireland to see where her Grandmother came from in County Kerry which she was told was the most beautiful place on earth.

For a long time I had no idea where in County Kerry she came from but gradually I got more information and getting my Great-Grandmother’s Marriage and Death Certificate they both said born in Listowel. (Abt.1850).  My Great Grandmother was Mary McKenna and she emigrated to Australia around 1871
and married William Ives in Queensland in 1877. My relatives are the McKenna’s of Listowel. My ancestors go back to Thomas McKenna and Joanna Ffoulkes who have some stories written about them and the uprising around 1879.

I have always had a longing to come to Ireland but could not make the trip as I needed to look after my Mother who passed away on the 1^st November 2014 at 94 yrs.  She would have been 95 in January 2015.

We had the most wonderful 2 weeks driving around Ireland and looking at places where my ancestors had lived on my Dad’s side in Northern Ireland.  We eventually arrived in Listowel on the Sunday of Race Week in September.  We stayed for 4 days with Kathy Walsh at Gurtenard House.

That was wonderful. Kathy is just a great person.

Then we got to meet Jack and Sue McKenna.  Jack is Mum’s second cousin and mine as well.  We spent the afternoon with them and it was the highlight of my trip to Ireland to meet them both I just couldn’t believe we were finally here.  It felt like I had come home even though home for me is Australia.

It really added a another dimension to my family and for me filled in some of my missing relatives.  We spent the next morning with Sue and her son John and they took us to the old Kilshenane Cemetery to see some of the McKenna graves and up to see the old farm house.  This was again another wonderful experience for us.  The warmth and friendliness that we both felt from family, friends and anyone we met in Ireland was wonderful and really blew us away.

We had a wonderful time at the Listowel Races on the Wednesday for the Kerry National.  I have attached a photo of us at the races.  We really enjoyed being in Listowel over those 4 days and it was hard to leave.  We got to meet a couple of people while we were there – Damian Stack and

Billy Keane (outside his pub) and also Gerard Greaney of Forur Genealogy while we were at Gurtenard House with Kathy. We got to go out to Ballybunion and along to the Bromore Cliffs which we loved as we were there on our own and no tourist crowds crowding out the place.  We met the

Farmer and a good chat with him and got to give some attention to the beautiful grey horse out there.

We went down to Newmarket in County Cork for a visit to where my G.G.Grandfather John McAuliffe was born in 1836.  He emigrated to Australia around 1867.  He is my Mum’s G.Grandfather on her dad’s side.  While we were in Newmarket we were introduced to Maurice Angland and he took
about 2 hours of his time to take us around Newmarket and show us things about the McAuliffes the cemetery, the McAuliffe crest on the outskirts of the town and the new Clann Building they are restoring as a community centre there as well as use by the Clann and then shared coffee with us.
That just blew us away again on how people would go out of their way to help us.  It seemed every time we turned around someone was there to welcome and help us.

This trip has not satisfied my hunger for coming back to Ireland.  We are hoping to get back again maybe sometime next year and if so we will make Listowel our base and stay with Kathy at Gurtenard house again and get to see more of County Kerry and the locals in Listowel and get

to feel like a local.  We would dearly love to catch up with Jack & Sue McKenna if we can.  The only thing that would stop us coming back would be our health which is very good at the moment.  Lionel is 80 yrs and I am 75yrs. We don’t feel old.  It is a very long haul trip by plane from Australia but I am

sure we can do it.  Kathy is very keen for us to come back again.

Berenice and Lionel at Listowel Races.

Berenice's photo of Bromore.

Bart gives Lionel a warm Kerry welcome.

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Presentation Convent, Listowel had a really beautiful front garden

(Photos: Tim Griffin R.I.P.)

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Room is Brilliant

photo; Official poster

I saw Room this week. It's a long time since I was so blown away by a film. If the Oscar for best film was in my gift, there would not be a moment's hesitation before I awarded it to Room.

Jacob Tremblay as Jack stole the show. The twists and turns of this story of an exploration of human relationships was brilliantly depicted in this masterpiece.  See it.

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Done it Again

In the very competitive world of press photography Listowel's own Healy Racing are up there with the best.
The photo above shows a racehorse being hosed down after a race. It's this eye for the unusual shot that makes these superb photographers stand out from the pack.

Today, January 21 2016,  the Irish Independent have a heartwarming Healyracing photo on the front page. Once more this Listowel photographer has shown that unequalled eye for  spotting "the money shot".
The photo in today's paper is taken at the Races but not on the track. It's a heartwarming human interest photograph of a jockey signing an autograph for a young fan .   Respect!

Wash Day, Boycott in St. Michael's, Bill Maher, US media star and KCC appoint new communications officer

In Listowel's Garden of Europe

The Holocaust Memorial  constructed from railway sleepers, iron bands and chains.


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Washday Blues

Do you remember last week I had all this talk of washing by hand? Vincent Carmody, from his huge archive of old billheads found a few for us that will bring back washday memories.

 As well as Lifebuoy soap , there was Ivy soap and carbolic soap.
Ivy was definitely used for washing clothes. I think carbolic was for bodies. Later when flake and powdered soap came in we had Rinso, Lux, Omo and Washing Soda.

 Ah the blue bag "with five testimonials from Royal Laundresses." No doorstep challenge here.  I wonder what the magic ingredient was that made whites even whiter.

I don't remember ever encountering this product. As I said before, we made starch using flour and water. This Colman's branding looks very like the mustard people. Even in 1898 companies practiced a bit of product diversification.

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Extraordinary Occurrence in St. Michaels in 1885

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Bill Maher…The Causeway connection

Bill Maher is a huge TV star in the US. He hosts a political chat show, does stand up comedy and political satire. He is described in Wikipaedia as "an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, media critic, and television host."

Kathy Taylor was watching a US who do you think you are type show and she learned that
"Denis & Margaret Greany from the Parish of Killury, Causeway were in Bill's father's maternal line. A 1855 NY bank record was the clue to the Parish. Then Irish researchers found a church record there. Maher had been in Ireland 1999 but said he wanted to go now that he has this info."

All we need now is some enterprising Causeway person to invite him.

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The New Voice of Kerry County Council

Owen O’Shea with Radio Kerry colleagues Fiona Stack, Jackie Carlos and Deirdre Walsh at Owen’s farewell dinner in Bella Bia on Friday night. Photo by Dermot Crean

I saw this photo and read this story on Tralee Today which is a great site for all Kerry news. 

Owen O'Shea is taking up a new role as Communications Officer with Kerry County Council. He will now be responsible for bringing us news of any decisions the council makes.

O'Connell's Avenue folk, A Sad Poem and The Square in summer

Photo Memories of O'Connells' Avenue

Maria Sham grew up in O'Connell's Avenue. Her father was Timmy Canty who worked in the creamery. Maria has fond memories of her old home, her family and neighbours in Listowel. She rooted out a few old photos.

This is a Listowel group on an outing in Killarney. Maria thinks that the man was a driver from Malone's on Church St. Maria is sitting on the grass with the ribbon in her hair .

The others are:

Left to R, Nan Canty, Maria's grandmother, Betty Clancy, Molly Cooperager,  Driver for Malones Church St,  Maria's aunty Sarah Clancy, Joan Dillon they had a barber shop in the Small Square, Maria and Conny Clancy

Mam Dad uncle Peter and neighbour Jack Hurley; R.I.P all

Friends and neighbours in O'Connell's Avenue.

Maria writes:  I am going to name what I can.   
Back Row left to R , Mrs Mary Galvin and Paddy Galvin,Tadhg Murphy with the fork,  Mrs Murphy, Elly Nolan, man on right home from UK,  Derick Woods,

next row my Mother, Birdie Canty,next to her woman with dark hair Nan Murphy, children boy on left Andy Hayes, Sheila O'Connor with arm around her sister Marie, Kay Galvin, next is Taig Murphy's Daughter cant remember the name, then a Flaherty, Breda Woods hollidaying from UK, in the pram might be Mars Fitzmaurice, Junie Canty my Brother,  Noleen Reidy, little boy is Hayes cant remember the first name, lovely Neighbours

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Nancy

Do you remember my Christmas card story from December 22 2015?

This is the sender, Nancy Kelly, formerly of O'Connell's Avenue and now living in England.

Nancy is legally blind but she loves the internet and particularly Facebook. She likes nothing better than to travel down memory lane to her childhood in Listowel.

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This lovely little poem I came across lately will bring a tear to your eye

Father’s Day    by Leo Cullen

Now he had pneumonia,

“Old man’s friend,” said the neighbours.

It was time to go.  His doctor insisted,

So did his three daughters.

They hunted out his best clothes-

The previous year’s Christmas presents

He hadn’t worn since they’d bought them

Preferring the bunched up woolens

And suit waistcoats. Now he was decked-

Looking more washed out then snow-

In loose fawn gansey and pink shirt,

Standing for the last time at his door,

Quivering into his walking stick,

The door he’d passed through for forty years

Through which he’d carried shopping bags

And coal and schoolbags and medals and girls.

He saw the hospital up on the hill.

It didn’t have the big extension

Those times he’d visited. His daughters stood

Unrelenting in the room behind him.

The ambulance drew up, the attendant got out,

Opening the door on high hinges,

Lowering the trolley, and he heard

“This one is his house, this is.”

He drew himself up, his mouth forming

Words, his shadow growing thinner,

Slicing the sunlight on the hall floor. “I’m not,”

He said, “leaving here on a stretcher.”

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Listowel Town Square

I took this photo in summer. St. John's is in the background and between the two leafy trees is Tony O'Callaghan's Feale sculpture.

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Notices from the Parish Newsletter

LISTOWEL FAMILY RESOURCE CENTRE talk on effective communication with children and teenagers will be given by David Coleman at Listowel Family Resource Centre on Thursday. February 11 from 7-8,30pm. Booking - 10 euro per family/student/carer/guardian and 15 euro per professional person. Further details from (068) 23584. Names are currently being taken for a new five-week course entitled 'Parenting when separated' commences at Listowel Family Resource Centre on February 22 at 7pm

LISTOWEL COMMUNITY CENTRE FREE 30min Taster Classes on Monday 18^th Jan. Spinning 7.00pm and 7.30pm, Kettlebells 8.00and 8.30pm. Nutrition Workshops with Kerry Senior Team Nutritionist Kevin Beasley starts 7.00pm Monday 25^th January. FREE for members. €10 non-members. Massive gym Membership Sale…WAS €360 NOW ONLY AN AMAZING €277 Special Offer on Fitness Classes…Buy 7 and get 1 FREE!

KERRY STROKE SUPPORT GROUP  for those who have had a Stroke Meet the last Friday of each month  from 11.15 am  to 1.15 pm in  Baile Mhuire Day Care Centre, Caherslee Tralee Kerry. Various activities ; For  further info contact  087 3586451.

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Name the Stars

I posted this yesterday because of the David Bowie connection. I didn't know who all the others were but ,in response to a request, I looked them up on the internet and here are the names;

Bob Geldof’s wedding to Paula Yates in 1986. Back row, from left: Johnnie Fingers, Garry Roberts, Tony Hadley, John Taylor, Simon le Bon, Martin Kemp, George Michael, Gary Kemp, Simon Crowe, Steve Norman, Aled Jones. Seated, from left, Midge Ure, John Keeble, Paula Yates, Bob Geldof and David Bowie