More St. Patrick's Day photos and WW2 re-enactment

Do you remember with old film cameras we took 12, 24 or if we were lucky 36 photos over a period of time? We removed the roll of film from the camera and we took or sent it to Spectra and we waited 48 hours to see the finished result. There was the eager anticipation of wondering what the photos would turn out like and the frequent disappointment when they were overexposed, had heads cut off or were otherwise ruined.
Nowadays you take a photo and the subject is straight round to take a look and accept or veto the finished result. There are cameras which have a screen at the front so that the subject can see how he looks before you click the shutter. There is a new camera, the Lytro which allows you to edit and enhance photos in the camera. We used to say "The camera never lies." Well it does now!
This preamble is by way of introduction to today's photos. They are James Kenny's photos from the St. Patrick's Day Parade. They are a bit late for today's audience so used to instant gratification but they are worth sharing nonetheless.

BTW this camera will soon be available in Ikea. It's made of cardboard, takes 40 photos to an internal memory, runs on 2 AA batteries, and has usb connectivity. And it will be cheap as chips. It was only a matter of time......

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Louis le Brocquy R.I.P.

I first heard of Louis le Brocquy, who died yesterday aged 95, in Listowel Writers' Week. Mairead Pierse was in charge of art in the 70's and she had a great eye for talent.  She was responsible for bringing many artists to us. Some of these, like Louis le Brocquy went on to greater things.

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Take a look at the promotional video for the May weekend. It's really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZCehy0ImOY&feature=plcp&context=C45c18deVDvjVQa1PpcFOQZw1sPySZJMQ6MZx6FX_TcxruzYw5F38%3D

Official opening of Listowel Family Centre

Frances Fitzgerald T.D. officially opened the centre on Monday.

The centre is located off the John B. Keane Rd. in Stokers Grove.

It is a magnificent purpose -built building and it is really busy every day and night. It is a gem: a huge asset to us in Listowel.

Here are some of the hard working staff and volunteers as well as some of the service users and guests at the opening.

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May day mayday

The location looks familiar but who are these motley crew?
The men are Cornelius O'Sullivan, Kieran Barry, Conor O'Donoghue, Cormac Heffernan, Pat O'Sullivan and Gerald Forde.
 Padraig Nolan took the photo to publicize the May Day high jinx in Listowel. There will be vintage everything on that weekend including a swing dance in The Listowel Arms. Vintage dress is optional.

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Calling all graduates of UCC

Dr Michael B. Murphy

President

University College Cork

is pleased to invite graduates and friends to

A Lecture Evening & Reception

To Celebrate UCC’s Connections with County Kerry

A Great Kerry Academic & Public Man: President Alfred O’Rahilly, UCC

by Professor John A Murphy, Emeritus Professor of History, UCC

&

Reflections of a UCC Graduate

by Dr Denis Brosnan, Founder Kerry Group Plc

with guest of honour,

Mr Jimmy Deenihan TD,

Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

from 7.30pm – 9.30pm

on Monday, 28 May 2012

in St John’s Theatre, The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry

A Reception will follow the Lecture at 8.30pm

Please forward this email to any UCC graduates you know who may be interested in attending.

RSVP by 22 May 2012 (as numbers are limited.

Please include your home address)

To:   Ms Caroline Waters, Development & Alumni Office, UCC

Email:  graduates@ucc.ie

Tel:  021 490 2040

Looks like we could be in for a good night.  

Read more about Alfred O'Rahilly here

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My Cork roots are showing  bit lately!! But I have to mention this young lady. I know that people like Joanne shun the label "inspirational".  Joanne is playing the hand she was dealt, but boy! is she playing those cards well:


"Cork teenager Joanne O'Riordan, who was born with no limbs, will travel to the United Nations in New York today to address the ITU conference.

Joanne, 15, is to give a key note speech to the International Telecommunication Union on how technology has helped her advance her life through both education and the social environment around her.

She is the only person with a disability to be invited to this exclusive conference entitled "Girls in Technology".

Some of the world's leading women in technology will also attend the event which Joanne hopes will empower others to realise the importance of technology in their lives.

The Irish Film Board has granted Joanne's brother Steven O'Riordan and 2000 AD Productions in Galway funding to produce a documentary charting his sister's extraordinary life story.

The working title "No Limbs No Limits" is to highlight the positive and lasting effect on how people perceive those with disabilities in Ireland and beyond.

Mr O'Riordan's debut film, "The Forgotten Maggies", was a documentary charting the human rights issues surrounding the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland."

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Remember these?

Nuns in Tralee in 1952 - location unknown

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“If everything you try works, you are not trying hard enough.”

This is a quote from Gordon Moore, founder of Intel. I read it today in an article from Tom McEnery. The article is  here and it is well worth reading as it contains much food for thought.

Look who's coming to Writers' Week

In 6 weeks time it will be Writers Week in Listowel. One of the writers who is coming is John Lanchester I looked him up to get a flavour of what he does and I read this really interesting article by him in The London Review of Books. Towards the end of the article he mentions a U.S. oceanographer called Don Walsh who has explored the depths of the seabed at the Mariana Trench.

"The Mariana Trench is 10,994 metres deep – 36,069 feet – and the pressure there is 1072 atmospheres. That’s 1072 kg pressing down on every square centimetre of its surface, more than 16,000 pounds per square inch."  
This is the deepest level ever reached by an air breathing animal.


I found the article fascinating and I think some of you will too.
John Lancashire will be in Conversation with Colm Tóibín on Thursday My 31 in The Listowel Arms.
http://writersweek.ie/john-lanchester-in-conversation-with-colm-toibin


Now this Don Walsh, oceanographer, is also a fascinating guy. Would he ever have an Irish connection, I wonder?

Co -incidentally the winner of this year's Irish Post creative writing competition is also a member of the Walsh clan. She too sounds like a very talented lady. We will have to persuade her to pull out that tin whistle and give us a few tunes when she comes.


From The Irish Post

Carmel Walsh and her daughter Isla

A mother-of-two from Brighton has won this year´s Irish Post Listowel Writers´ Week short story competition.

Carmel Walsh´s tale From A Land Beyond The Wave was chosen for the top accolade from scores of entries.

Her prize includes a trip to next month´s prestigious Listowel Writers´ Festival in Co Kerry with travel courtesy of Stena Line and a cheque for 500.

Carmel, 35, graduated with a Masters in Creative Writing and Authorship from The University of Sussex in 2010 .

She is currently writing her first novel.

The story, which is based around her own London-Irish experiences and the 1994 World Cup, is an edited extract of the book.

"The story is called From a Land beyond the Wave and is based on a line from the Soldier´s Song," Carmel said. "It is based around my own experiences of growing up in a London-Irish community and the joy of the 1994 World Cup.

"Whilst doing my Masters I interviewed my family and many people from the London Irish community about what it was like travelling over from Ireland in the 1950s and the struggles that they faced when they got here."

She added: "I am absolutely over the moon about winning this prize. I couldn’t be happier."

Born in North London to parents from Newmarket, Co. Cork, Carmel says she grew up with Irish traditions and spent every spare moment in North Cork.

"My house was always filled with Radio Erin, Calvita cheese, Barry’s tea, the Corkman, posters of Daniel O’Donnell in a jacuzzi and the Sacred Heart picture looking down, disapprovingly," she joked.

Having studied English and Classics at St Mary’s University, Carmel moved to Prague in 1997 where she taught English at the University of Economics and the Ministry of Finance under the reign of dissident poet and President Vaclav Havel.

She also co-edited a Czech-English text book for Polyglot.

"But throughout my travels I always wrote and carried a tin whistle wherever I went," she said.

She now plays regularly at sessions and gigs around Brighton and is in a band called the Celtic Ti-grrs.

They have played for the Ireland Cricket Team, the Royal College of GPs and supported the Saw Doctors at Fontwell Park.

But her main passion is writing.

Currently working as a secondary English teacher in Brighton, Carmel has two children, Saoirse, 3, and Isla, 1.

Isla´s middle name is Bridget, after Carmel´s friend and cousin, the late Bridget O’Connor who posthumously won a Bafta for the best Adapted Screen play Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

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On Thursday May 31, I will be pounding the pavements of Listowel with my good friend, Vincent Carmody. We will be retracing the footsteps of John. B. Keane in a memorial walkabout. Vincent has let me in on his plans for the walk. I assure you it is one not to be missed by visitor and native alike. We will be entertained with songs, stories and anecdotes and maybe even a bit of drama. I can't wait!!

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NKRO's Irish night in The Saddle Bar on Saturday night was a great success. Here are a few of the usual suspects dancing a set
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS3xc4bkWKE

Go maire sibh an céad!

Caged birds

This photo from the National Archives is described as a Kerry Peasant. We don't know where it was taken but he looks like a man who is setting out for a day in the bog. One thing that fascinates me is the birdcage on the wall to his right.

When I came to Listowel first in the 1970's practically every second house on Charles St. had a birdcage outside the door.

I looked up the history of caged birds as pets. It seems that as early as 4000 years ago people kept birds as pets for their beauty. Parrots were a favourite of the Greeks. In the Roman household one slave was totally employed looking after the family pet. Watching the parrot talking was the equivalent of today's television!

In Renaissance and medieval Europe birds were kept only by royalty and the wealthy. Bird cages were ornamental and often a focal feature in the family drawing room.

In the 15th century the humble canary became popular. Miners used this poor bird to detect poisonous gasses in the mines.

Nowadays some breeds of bird are bred only in captivity and do not exist in the wild. Keeping birds is still a popular hobby but not in Listowel I think.

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On a completely different topic; take a look at these photos. These are mugshots of Irish Australian criminals in the 1920s. You were obviously encouraged to "pose" for the camera. Any of these look familiar?

The photos were released by the Australian police Dept.

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Who is THE IRON MAN

A Kerryman in the news today is Mick Murphy. I looked him up and this is who I found, a living legend. He is in the news because he was robbed of a substantial sum of money by a conman. The following is from the Waterville GAA website.

Banteer is a small village, west of Mallow in County Cork, where the rich farmland

of the Blackwater Valley meets the Boggeragh Mountains. Two miles from the village,
where the road to Cork city begins to rise for Nadd mountain, lies the crumbling
and ivy-covered remains of a ball-alley at the side of the road. Here, in the
rural and parochial Ireland of the 1950s, the local men gathered in the summer
evenings when the day’s farm-work was done. Life didn’t change much in rural Ireland
in those times and anything out of the ordinary was a source of local interest
and speculation. In the spring of 1958, the curiosity of this gathering was aroused
by the regular appearance of an unknown cyclist, head down, and heading south
towards Nadd mountain. While his unfamiliarity was of interest in itself, the fact
that he didn’t return intensified the curiosity. Some, it is said, remained later and
later, until well into the dark of the night, but still, he was never seen returning.
The mystery rider was Mick Murphy, a 24 year-old migrant farm labourer from an
impoverished farming community near Cahirciveen in south Kerry. He was unknown
to the locals as he had come to Banteer to prepare for the 1958 Rás Tailteann,
and his regular evening spin past the ball-alley took him over the mountain
and back to Banteer, via Mallow, on a 50-mile (80 Km) circular route. However,
within a few weeks, local curiosity was to be satisfied when Murphy become a
national sporting sensation by emerging from nowhere to win the 1958 Rás in
such spectacular fashion that it created one of the most enigmatic legends in Irish
sporting history.

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