Tom O'Connell, builder, E.J. Stack's then and now, and a story of a Blasket connection

Picture of a hard working man

This is Tom O'Connell hard at work this week. It's not all work and no play for Tom though, I took the below picture when I met him out walking his dog in Listowel Town Park in 2009.

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Then and Now

E. J. Stack;  The Arcade

(photo: Damien Stack)

Horan's

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Listowel connection with the Blasket Islands

A story from this week's Kerry's Eye

This is one of the photographs on display in Saint John's as part  of the exhibition of photos depicting life on the islands. Below is an account of the Listowel connection.

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Flowerbed on Convent St.

New sacristan, James O'Carroll and WW1 and grandchildren in France

Film Crew at work in Ballybunion yesterday

(photo: The Mixing Bowl on Facebook)

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Then and now

Dare I say it?
I prefer the old one

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Ballybunion Road road works

A footpath is being made all the way from Convent Cross to the girls' primary school. The buildings you see on the left belong to the secondary school. This measure, when completed, should make the walk to school a lot safer for some girls.

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Our new sacristan

This is St. Mary's new sacristan pictured with Canon Declan O'Connor at a recent wedding. She is Helen Moylan, a counsellor, a nurse, a super volunteer, a carer, a wonderful cook, a singer, the best and most generous neighbour and an all round good egg. In case you haven't guessed it already, she is also my great friend, trusted confidante and best buddy. I wish her many happy years in her new post.

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Two  WW1 stories from Kerrys' Eye

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Reality Bites

Sean and Killian Cogan, my two lovely boys, head out for their first day in French school. There is no uniform but Killian chose to go with the comfort of the familiar; his school tshirt from Scoil Barra in Ballincollig.

A whole new world opens for them in this French classroom with their new teacher.

Bon chance, mes petits!

Don't forget to follow their adventure on their blog

http://discoveringbasque.blogspot.ie

Ballybunion sunset, Confessions of a tyre kicker and Duagh Sports Complex nearing completion

Stunning Ballybunion Sunset witnessed by Mike Enright….a side benefit of fishing.

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Tyre kicker; This term apparently came from the car selling trade and it is used to denote a person who comes in, wastes the salesman's time by looking at everything, asking lots of questions and leaves without buying anything.

The term implies that the person in question never intended buying anything in the first place and was just a time waster,  so, in that sense, I was a tyre kicker by accident for I did intend buying, I just left without doing so.

What am I talking about?

Let me explain that Billy Keane took part in a RTE1 radio show last week with Derek Mooney when the subject of tyre kickers was the topic of the day. Derek had; a car salesman, an estate agent and a publican (Billy Keane) in to discuss the phenomenon. Billy was discommoded by visitors to John B.'s who come in, take photographs and ask lots of questions but buy nothing. He told us that it upsets his mother even more than it does him.

If the cap fits, as they say, so here is my new culpa.

On Thursday nights they do a marvelous theme night in Allos Bistro. Last Thursday night week the theme was Indian. The meal was delicious, the servings generous and a bottle of wine was imbibed by myself and my two dining companions.

The night was still young when we left Allos so we decided to take in the pub theatre in John B.s and to have our nightcap there.

We arrived just as the play was starting so we decided to wait until the performance was over to order our drink. The play was great. I enjoyed it immensely and took lots of photos for the blog,  but old age, early mornings, hard work and a full belly were combining to cause my friend to nod off.  I suggested that we head for home and the leaba and come to John B.s another night. Without thinking, I had become that pariah of the car, house and drink trade…a tyre kicker.

So there it is. I put my hand up to my sin. I have publicly confessed. I have made a firm purpose of amendment and if you see me in John B's in future, I'll have a drink in front of me.

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The Play

John B. Keane's puts on some great shows during the summer months. This one was a performance by the Athea Drama Group of John B.'s Backwater. The play explores themes close to the playwright's heart; love, emigration, family conflicts and the small pleasures of life in a rural Irish backwater. The inexperienced actors coped well with performing in a very tight space with their audience close enough to touch them. It was a lovely intimate occasion and an honour to see his play performed in the great man's own home just below the room in which the play was written.

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That was then, this is now

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The lights are on in Duagh Sports Complex

Isn't it fabulous, a credit to all involved.

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Listowel Emmetts U8 girls

photo from Listowel Emmets Ladies' Football page

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Drone view of Electric Picnic on Saturday last

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SItZgvYzLLU

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Extraordinary footage here of Ireland's strongest man, (Michael) Butty, Sugrue;

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/The-amazing-tale-of-Irelands-strongest-man-Michael-Butty-Sugrue-VIDEO.html

All Ireland semi final 2014 and Presentation Convent, Listowel, 2014 and Irish Famine Orphan Commemoration in Sydney

What a match!  All Ireland Football semi final 2014…the replay

Marc O Sé comes on as an impact sub.      (photo; John Kelliher)

A fact from Weeshie Fogarthy seemed sad before the match but was forgotten in the euphoria of victory;

"End of sequence stretching 101 championship matches an O Sé brother has started for Kerry. 

1995 Munster final v Cork last time."

Tralee Today.ie's photo says it all;  rolling back the years, Ogie Moran, is filled with pride and joy as he greets the Kerry players after the match. His son, David, was one of the heroes of the thrilling game.

Only in Kerry! In Listowel the score was announced at evening mass and in another neighboring parish the mass was delayed because the match went to extra time. Football is a religion in these parts.

All green and gold final in 2014

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Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness….

Today is Sept 1 2014. Autumn is upon us and soon it will be Race Week and summer will be officially over.

Above is the bridge connecting town to the racetrack.

Below is how the track looks this week.

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A poem for mammies at back to school time

Another tear jerker found by Doreen Buckley.

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Former Presentation Convent Listowel

I apologise to the people who will be greatly saddened by these images. This is how it looks today; a sorry sight.

The cross

From the chapel side

Gate from the old primary school into convent garden

convent chapel

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Irish Famine Orphans' Commemoration, Sydney, August 31 2014

Most of my blog followers will be familiar with the story by now so I'll just put it in a nutshell. During the Great Famine in Ireland young girls were shipped to Australia from Irish workhouses under a scheme called The Earl Grey Scheme.

The stories of the girls who left Kerry is well told by historian, Kay Caball, in her excellent book, 

http://mykerryancestors.com/kerry-girls-famine-crown/

The descendants of the "girls" in Australia have established a permanent memorial in Hyde Park Barracks because this is where the immigrants were held following their arrival in the colony.

Every year a commemorative event is held in Sydney.  Julie Evans, a descendant of Bridget Ryan and a keen family historian, goes there every year. She sent these photographs taken by her husband, Glyn, so that I could bring you a flavour of the event.

 This is a recreation of the dormitories in which the girls slept. Their belongings were kept in a trunk beside the bed. The room looks fairly spartan by today's standards but if we remember that these young girls were coming from overcrowded disease ridden workhouses in Ireland, we will understand that, by comparison, this was the lap of luxury.

This is the actual trunk which came with one of the orphans,  She was Margaret Hurley, from Galway. Julie found her details on the orphan database. She and her descendants treasured and preserved it.

• Surname : Hurley
• First Name : Margaret
• Age on arrival : 17
• Native Place : Gort, Galway
• Parents : Thomas & Mary (mother living at Gort)
• Religion : Roman Catholic
• Ship name : Thomas Arbuthnot (Sydney 1850)
• Workhouse : Galway, Gort
• Other : shipping: house servant, cannot read or write, relative in colony: uncle, Thomas Welsh. To Yass Depot. Empl as house servant by WH Broughton, 'Broughtonsworth', Burrowa, £7-8, 2 years; married at Yass on 7 Feb 1852 to Joseph Patterson [came free with brother in 1838 from Edenderry]; 7 children - two sons returned to Ireland, one took over the Patterson Funeral business in Edenderry; Margaret died near Parkes on 5 Sep 1922. c. 90yrs old. Beth Turner: maxbeth[at]one.net.au Pat Williams; spworner[at]bigpond.com; Rose Perry: inverness[at]bigpond.com; Joan Davis - email us please.

This is songwriter, Brendan Graham, who has taken a keen interest in the orphans and  has written a lovely song, Orphan Girl.  Here it is, sung by the UCD Choral Scholars;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZT4xKbn-Ts

This is the paragraph in Julie's email referring to Brendam Graham and the cd with the song.

"Today was the launch of a CD featuring Brendan Graham’s song Orphan Girl. It also has The Whitest Flower and You Raise Me Up.  Brendan Graham has given all royalties to the Irish Famine Memorial Commemoration Committee for their fund which supports the education of migrant women in Sydney today. Very generous I thought."

Thank you, Julie and Glyn