Babe Jo again and Kennedy's Pet Farm

Remember my pictures of Babe Jo last week? They prompted Jer Kennelly to root out this from his trove of photos. It has Babe Jo on a holiday with Listowel Macra. Of course it leaves 10 more unanswered questions. Anyone know who, when, where, and why?

>>>>>>>>>

I have my grandchildren with me during school holiday time. We took our usual trip to the pet farm.

The two girls are animal lovers so they enjoyed feeding the deer and the lambs. As you can see, all the animals on the farm are child friendly. We met calves, pigs, chicks ducklings and many more.

The Kennedy connection

In the 70s and 80s a family called MacNamara ran a tourism business,  Shannon Horsedrawn Caravans. The tourists (mostly from the U.S.) flew into Shannon, picked up their horse and barrel -top caravan in Adare and sauntered off to tour a little bit of West Munster. There were pit stops along the way for the horse to take a rest and the visitors to get to see some aspects of Irish life.

One such rest stop was on the farm of the O'Connor family in Springmount, Duagh, the family of our parish priest.  Canon Declan O'Connor, P.P. Listowel has shared some of his photographs from that time with us in listowelconnection.

The visitors loved the fact that they were on a  real working farm with fresh milk for tea and free range eggs for breakfast.

And of course there were the picture postcard Irish children in the form of the O'Connor twins.


Once a very illustrious family of visitors overnighted with the O'Connors while on their Shannon Horsedrawn Caravan tour . They were Patricia Kennedy Lawford and her niece, Cora Kennedy, sister and niece of John F. Kennedy. Cora was the daughter of Ted Kennedy.

In this photo, Declan and his sister, Valerie are enjoying a cuppa with the sister of the late President Kennedy just visible in the background.

Thank you Declan for sharing these precious memories from your family album.

>>>>>>>>

I told you last week about the Remembrance tree.

Each yellow ribbon represents someone's loved one who has passed away or who is very ill.

Easter, a moveable feast, Horsefair

Today is Good Friday. In ancient Ireland this was a time of great austerity. Holy week was given over to cleaning and whitewashing inside and out. Easter was a feast of newness. New clothes were bought and gifts of wearables such as hats, caps and ribbons were given to children by relatives and friends.

On Good Friday many of our ancestors voluntarily exceeded the rigorous fasting prescribed by the church. According to Kevin Danaher in his book, The Year in Ireland, many people ate nothing until mid day. Many took nothing more that three mouthfuls of bread and three sips of water in the whole day.

No work was done on the land.

Girls let their hair hang loose as a symbol of mourning.

Everyone went barefoot.

No one would move house or begin a new enterprise on Good Friday.

No animal would be slaughtered.

No wood would be worked or burned

No nail would be driven.

No boats put to sea.

From noon until 3.00 p.m. (the period on which it was believed Jesus hung on the cross) silence was observed except for prayers which were said by the whole household together.

Cold and wet weather were expected and accepted a sign of nature mourning.

Water taken from the Holy Well on Good Friday was thought to have curative properties and was kept for the year.


After all this deprivation and fasting, Easter was a joyous festival. Danaher describes a custom on Easter Monday which was observed in places as far afield as Drogheda and Cork of "Whipping the herring". This was a procession through the streets of people who worked in slaughter houses and butcher shops. They carried a herring on a pole and ceremonially beat him to symbolize an end of fish and a return to meat. Sometimes a collection was taken up to compensate these people in the meat trade for their loss of earnings during Lent.  I don't see  any reference to this custom in Kerry.

>>>>>

See the best of Barney McKenna R.I.P. on The Green Linnet here;

http://www.rte.ie/player/#s=search&q=the%20green%20linnet

Only yesterday I was reading this on twitter. It's worth zooming in, if you can.

>>>>>>>>

In St. Mary's yesterday, no flowers no candles in preparation for Good friday.

>>>>

Yesterday we had a horse fair on Market Street. I took a few snaps.

I ran into two of my collaborators, Jer and Ger.

I'm not sure if this fellow was for sale. He certainly looked a fine specimen.

€350 the boys were asking for their pony.

This man had some beautiful ducks and ducklings.

There were horses too,

and tack.

There is a lovely video from Fealegood here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQI_XHu6fNI

Special Olympics

Special Olympics is a movement which is well supported in Ireland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Olympics

Visit the local Eagles page here

https://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Kerry-Eagles/200229436658775

In 2003 Special Olympics came to Ireland and we, in Listowel got a chance to be part of it when we played host to Jordan and the torch passed through the town, carried by Gardaí.

Boys from Scoil Realta na Maidine waiting for the torch.

The torch arrives.

The convent school band

Local Gardaí waiting to run along with their colleagues bearing the torch.

Teachers, Madeleine O'Sullivan, Cathal Fitzgerald, Tom O'Connor and P.J. Kenny.

>>>>>>>>

A recent sports story from Donal Nolan of The Kerryman

By DÓNAL NOLAN

Wednesday April 04 2012

A LARGE contingent left Listowel on Wednesday morning to support local girl Savannah Mccarthy in her debut as Republic of Ireland captain against England in an international under-15 girls' schools soccer tournament in Dublin.

Clubmates and mentors at Listowel Celtic said it was a massive honour for the town to have a local girl as Irish captain. Savannah has long been one of the club's outstanding female players and was central also to the successes of the Listowel Community Games team in recent years.

"For Savannah and her family it is a great honour that she's captain," Dominic Scanlon said. "It is actually amazing to have someone from the town of Listowel captaining Ireland. On behalf of Listowel Celtic we're extremely proud of her and wish her the very best of luck in the tournament. She has been outstanding for us over the years."

The tournament is taking place in the Amateur Union League complex in Dublin and Savannah and her teams faced England in their first match on Wednesday morning, with a massive swell of Listowel support behind them. A busload of the young soccer star's school pals was among the supporters.

- DÓNAL NOLAN

This girl is amazing. I can't find any match report online but hopes were high, fueled by an early success, as reported in Radio Kerry.

2 Apr 2012 Soccer-Kerry Player Skippers Ireland To Success

Savanah McCarthy's debut as Republic Of Ireland captain has turned out to be a winning one. The Irish Girls Schools have beaten the FAI selection in the Bob Doherty International Cup. Listowel Celtic player McCarthy's team won 4-2 on penalties after the match ended 1 all.

>>>>>>>>

Also from The Kerryman this story of Listowel's greatest athlete, Jerry Kiernan:

Wednesday April 04 2012

IT was one of those unforgettable and wonderful Kerry sporting occasions. As an invited guest to the Kerry AAI awards on recently in the River Island Hotel, Castleisland I found myself in the company of many of our county's greatest athletic sportsmen and women, young and old. A host of awards were presented and I was afforded the great honour of presenting the Hall of Fame award to one of this county's greatest ever sportsmen and a hero to me, Olympian Jerry Kiernan.

The huge crowd rose to their feet to give this unassuming and pleasant North Kerry man a standing ovation. It was a long overdue accolade for this remarkable Kerry man whose achievements have never been fully acknowledged within his own county. Well done to the Riocht Athletic Club for hosting the event and those who organised this glittering occasion. Sheena Brosnan was responsible for a superb commemorative booklet of the occasion. Gneeveguilla's Paddy O'donoghue and Kerry AAI chairman Martin Fitzgerald were also deeply involved, and in his role as MC Denny Mcsweeney, one of the great athletic warriors in this county, ensured that everything ran like clock work. The whole night was a credit to one and all.

Jerry Kiernan was born in Brosna, where his father was a member of An Garda Síochána. A very promising footballer in his youth, he won a County Minor championship medal with Feale Rangers and also played for St Michael's College, Listowel. However, his great love for athletics was born as he watched the best runners in the world compete in the Tokyo Olympics of 1964. He was simply, as he says himself, 'born to run'.

He won his first medal in Duagh when he

fini s h e d second at a local sports meeting. Little did he realise that this was the beginning of what was to be one of the greatest running careers of any Kerry man. In fact Jerry's ninth place finish in the Los Angeles Olympic Marathon is the second highest placing ever achieved by an Irishman. John Tracy won the silver in the very same race.

As a youth Jerry won all the major underage titles, Kerry, Munster and All-ireland; his career was blossoming. He left Kerry at eighteen years of age to begin a teaching career in Dublin and joined the famous Clonliffe Harriers Athletic Club, with whom he won a host of All-ireland championships. His ability at a range of distances was astonishing. He was fractionally outside the world record for the ten miles, running this in 46.5 minutes. Jerry ran in four Dublin City Marathons, winning twice and setting the record time in 1982. Then, in a classic mile race in June 1976, the he became the first from the county and only the seventh Irishm a n to run under four minutes for the distance. Rod Dixon was the winner.

Kiernan competed all over the world despite his commitment to his teaching career. Halfmarathons, full marathons, 10km, the mile or 3,000 m (he held the then Irish record for this distance), Jerry took them all in his stride. He excelled at cross-country running and won All-irelands at Under-18, Under20 and senior level in 1984. He was a regular on the Irish team, winning close to sixty green singlets: a magnificent achievement. When the book of Kerry's greatest athletes is finally written, Jerry Kiernan will be right there at the very top.

In the Los Angeles Olympic Marathon of 1984 he proved beyond a doubt that he was equal to the world's very best. Finishing ninth, despite cramping a lot towards the finish, was an astonishing achievement when you consider that this was one of the greatest fields of marathon runners ever assembled: Carlos Lopez of Portugal won the gold in a new Olympic record time, John Treacy was second for Ireland, and Charlie Spedding of England was third. Other legendary names in the field of 105 athletes running shoulder to shoulder with the Brosna man that blistering hot day in Los Angeles included Alberto Salazar (USA), Takeshi So ( Japan), Rob de Castella (Australia), Joseph Nzau (Kenya) and the legendary Toshihiko Seko ( Japan).

We can only speculate what further greatness Jerry Kiernan would have achieved had he gone to America and become a full-time athlete.

St. Michael's staff 1989

This is a poor quality photograph of the staff of St. Michael's College on the occasion of Fr. Seamus Linnane's retirement, May 18 1989.

Front: Jim Cogan, Mick Mulcaire, Inez Toal, Declan Rowley, Fr. Linnane, Paddy Rochford R.I.P., Jimmy Harman and Joan Regan

Back: Fr. Jack Fitzgerald, Pat Given, John Moynihan, John Burke, Donncha Crowley, Tom Healy, John Regan, John O'Flaherty, John Molyneaux (Junior)R.I.P., John Molyneaux (senior) Brian O'Brien and Gay Brennan

Only two are still on the staff of the college.

                  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In the states they are celebrating the release of the 1940 census records. We soon may too have something to celebrate:


From Claire Santry on Irish Genalogy News::

1926 Census gets green light

Legislation to allow the digitisation and release of Ireland’s 1926 census will be passed within three to four months, according to Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan TD.

In a response to a question raised this week in the Daíl, he said: ‘The legislation [to digitise the 1926 census] has been approved by the Cabinet. Following its enactment, I will have to come up with the resources to implement it. I cannot start the process until the enabling legislation has been passed. It is hoped it will be ready in June or July.’

The release of 1926 Irish census has been the subject of a long campaign by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO).

Steven Smyrl, CIGO’s executive liaison officer, was delighted to learn of the Minister’s statement. ‘This is terrific news and more than justifies the long campaign which CIGO had led to convince those responsible that the 1926 Irish census returns are an invaluable source for the history and genealogy of the Irish people.

‘The returns, compiled 86 years ago, amount to a ‘family snapshot’ taken just after a succession of tumultuous events in the history of this island. First the Great War, then the 1916 Rising, quickly followed by the War of Independence, partition and the creation of the State and then the fateful civil war!‘

Exactly where family historians will be able to access the 1926 census returns remains to be seen although it is thought unlikely that free online access won't be part of the package. As to the timescale, the Minister has previously expressed a desire to see the release completed by 2016, in time for the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Whether or not any redaction of information (to obscure personal data of people who were children when enumerated) will be insisted upon, is another detail yet to be confirmed.

What is important right now is that plans to release these records have shifted from the ‘wish list’ to enactment.

So what information will the 1926 census returns reveal when released to eager Irish genealogy researchers?

In addition to the usual name and surname, relationship to head of household, marital status, language, religion and profession, this census collected the following:

• Age in years and months 
• Town or townland of birth
• ‘Orphanhood’ ie whether a child had lost one or both parents
• Name and address of employer
• If unemployed, normal profession/trade plus period of unemployment
• Present marriage duration (both men and women to answer)
• Total number of children born in present marriage (both men and women to answer)
• Number of living children and step children under 16 for all marriages (both men and women to answer)
• Size of the household’s landholding, if any, in acres.

Obviously, questions like these help provide us with fabulous detail about our ancestors and may well help many Irish genealogists break down brickwalls or solve family mysteries.

Altogether now: Hurray!!!!!

Postcards

This is a picture postcard image of Listowel.

I have been learning a bit about postcards recently.
Deltiology is the name for the hobby of postcard collecting.

Did you know that the first postcards were issued by the Post Office in the UK in 1870? They were plain on both sides and were pre stamped. They were used mainly for short messages like "Meet me from the train at...." They were cheaper than a telegram and less bother than a letter.

In 1894 permission was given to other publishers to produce postcards and the first picture postcards appeared.

In 1899 the postcard as we know it today came into being. The standard dimensions for a postcard are 5.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Before this time postcards were smaller. There was very little room for a message but it would have been thought unseemly to write anything remotely private in such a public missive.

In 1902 the postcard with the divided back came into being.

1902 to 1914 is regarded as the golden age by postcard collectors. Thousands of postcards were sent in those years. There were usually two postal deliveries per day so the postcard was the ideal vehicle for a cheap short message.

Most of the postcards in this period were printed in Germany so that source dried up after 1914. Seaside holidays were no longer a concern and people had other things on their minds beside postcards.

John Hinde, Ireland's most famous postcard firm started operations in 1956. He perpetuated an image of Ireland with donkeys, turf creels and flame haired, freckle faced children. John Hinde  sold over 50 million postcards.

When the firm went into liquidation last year he confessed that many of the images were contrived. I think we always suspected as much.

>>>>>>>>

Listowel Town Council wishes to advise that roadworks will commence on Greenville Road on Monday 2nd April 2012 for two weeks.Revised traffic flow arrangements will apply during the roadworks.

Listowel Town Council apologies for any inconvenience caused during these works.

>>>>>>

Next is an unashamed plug

It's school holidays again and I'm on Nana duty so it is the very worst time for technology to be giving me headaches. One of the laptops in our house went on strike on Sunday and it was sorely missed.

John at Konnect in Church St. Listowel is your man if your computer is in trouble. He had the broken computer up and running in no time, peace was restored in our house and all with a touch of humour and kindness. Take a bow, John.

Headstone iconography

Yesterday was All Fools Day. I looked up its origins for you and here is what we all wanted to know:

April Fool's Day History

The history of April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day is uncertain, but the current thinking is that it began around 1582 in France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25 - April 1 (new year's week) to January 1. Send invitations to nonexistent parties and have other practical jokes played upon them. Communication traveled slowly in those days and some people were only informed of the change several years later. Still others, who were more rebellious refused to acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1. These people were labeled "fools" by the general populace, were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them. The butts of these pranks became known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish" because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke. This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way. In Scotland, for instance, April Fool's Day is devoted to spoofs involving the buttocks and as such is called Taily Day. The butts of these jokes are known as April 'Gowk', another name for cuckoo bird. The origins of the "Kick Me" sign can be traced back to the Scottish observance. In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called 'gobs' or 'gobby' and the victim of a joke is called a 'noodle.' It was considered back luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon. In Rome, the holiday is known as Festival of Hilaria, celebrating the resurrection of the god Attis, is on March 25 and is also referred to as "Roman Laughing Day." In Portugal, April Fool's Day falls on the Sunday and Monday before lent. In this celebration, many people throw flour at their friends. The Huli Festival is celebrated on March 31 in India. People play jokes on one another and smear colors on one another celebrating the arrival of Spring. So, no matter where you happen to be in the world on April 1, don't be surprised if April fools fall playfully upon you. >>>>>>>>>

Some of us in NKRO  are attending a really good workshop on genealogy and heritage. The lecturer, Lorna Moloney of   http://www.irisharc.org/index.cfm is  interesting and informative. Last week she was telling us about gravestones. I knew that there were lots of different designs but I thought that that was more to do with what one could afford than with fashion.
People who have made a study of gravestones can tell the date of a stone by its shape. The iconography on stones can also tell us a lot about our ancestors.

Anyone visiting St. Michael's graveyard in Listowel cannot but notice the amount of celtic crosses there. When I walked through the graveyard on Thursday last I took the opportunity to photograph a few of the different crosses. I could hardly believe that there were so many different crosses in one place.

When I took more notice I saw that no two were the same.

 These are but a small sample of all the crosses that were there. 

Celtic crosses have fallen out of favour of late. Polished marble has replaced granite. Inscriptions are less formal and a fashion has grown up of adorning graves with trinkets and symbols of the departed person. Were I to take my camera to John Paul cemetery I would be recording a very different scene.

If you are seeking to locate the burial details of a Listowel relative this site is very useful

http://www.kerrylaburials.ie/en/SearchBurial.aspx

>>>>>>>

Listowel Youthreach is planning to erect a Remembrance Tree in the Square. Currently cards are on sale in local shops with all proceeds going to the Bee for Battens charity. For each card sold a ribbon will be placed on the tree. The buyer of the card will sent it to someone who has lost someone or who is very ill to tell them that their loved one will be remembered in Listowel. The tree ceremony will be held in The Square on Weds. next April 4  at 1.00p.m.

>>>>>>>>

Random bit of silly news

Why are Jaffa Cakes cakes and not biscuits?

I learned the answer to this pressing question on the radio last week. Apparently, in Britain, cakes attract a lower rate of V.A.T. than biscuits. Cakes are essential, biscuits a luxury, is apparently the hard -to -understand rationale behind this one.

A million pound court case turned on this designation of Jaffa Cakes and the decision came down in favour of designating these edibles as cakes.

The Reason: Cakes go hard when they are stale and biscuits go soft. Ergo Jaffa Cakes are cakes.