Monday, 6 November 2017

Ballybunion, A Horse Train to Listowel Races and an Elegy to John B.




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A Few Ballybunion snaps







The good work of the local Tidy Town Committee is everywhere to be seen.



Recent storms have snapped off this sign.


It's an ill wind.... Looking for treasure among the flotsam thrown up by storm Brian.




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In 1899 they had a Horse Train


Kay Caball found this marvellous old poster online. Weren't The Races very late in the year back then?

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A Song written in tribute to John B. Keane on hearing of his passing in 2002



JOHN. B.

By Mattie Lennon.

Chorus
Before you went you told us not to cry.
On that sad night.
"Let the show go on" you said and then "goodbye".
We shouldn't question why you had to die
Before you went you told us not to cry

As Writer's Week had opened,
For it's thirty-second year,
Where poet and peasant mingle
To absorb Listowel's  good cheer.
A cloud crossed hill and valley
From Carnsore to Malin Head,
As news went 'round our island
"The great John. B. is dead"

Chorus.

He who walked with King and beggar
Will lift his pen no more,
To bring out the hidden Ireland
Like no one did before.
He banished inhibitions
To put insight in their stead.
The world stage is brighter
But The "Kingdom's King" is dead.

The dialogue of two Bococs
Is known in every town.
Now the Ivy Bridge links Broadway
To the hills of Renagown.
While men of twenty emigrate
And Sharon's Grave is read,
Or a Chastitute 's forlorn
His memory won't be dead.


Chorus.

They stepped out from the pages
Of The Man From Clare and Sive
To walk behind his coffin
Each character alive.
His Soul, with One-Way Ticket
To The Highest House has sped,
And this world has lost a genius;
The great John. B. is dead.

Chorus.                  

   © Mattie Lennon 2002. (Put to music by John Hoban.)
               
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How they used to Build a GatePost 





I took the photos on The Sive Walk.

Friday, 3 November 2017

Craftshop na Méar is closing, Maidhc Dainín again and aspects of Ballybunion

Magnificent Stag


Photo: Jim MacSweeney

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End of the Road for Craftshop na Méar








If you want to pick up your Michael Tea tea cosy or a beautiful Claddagh Design Listowel pendant, do drop in to Craftshop na Méar on Church St. before it closes its doors at Christmas 2017.

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Maidhc Dainín ÓSé;  Another Listowel Connection


Local writer and musician, Neil Brosnan sent me this photo. It was taken in Dingle in 2010 when Maidhc Dainín OSé launched Neil's first anthology, Fresh Water and Other Stories. Maidhc and Neil played many a tune together over the years.

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Ballybunion After the storms

Having been confined to the house during storms Ophelia and Brian, it was a great pleasure to go to Ballybunion and take the bracing cliff walk.





Those white specs and the smudge on my lens is foam churned up by the rough seas.



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Doon Sculpture





Thursday, 2 November 2017

Belling Stags, Clounmacon GAA 1966 and Stained Glass Windows in Tralee


Belling Stags


Remember this gorgeous fellow in Chris Grayson's photograph. Well, he is not "braying" like a jackass.


I got it wrong. Mea culpa, mea culpa. Someone who knows about these things tells me that stags don't bray. They bellow. Their sound has been described in literature as the "belling of stags". This great picture was taken in The National Park recently by Chris Grayson.

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Clounmacon GAA

Noreen Keane Brennan shared this photo from Clounmacon GAA.

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St. John's Tralee

While I was in Tralee recently I went to see the new stained glass window I had heard about in St. John's. It's unusual now to hear of a new stained glass window in a church. Well I was a bit too early to see the new one. It was just being installed. So I took the opportunity to photograph the other windows. St. John's has them in all shapes and sizes.

















I'll be back when this one is finished. It looks to be more modern than the others. I'll be interested to see how it fits in.

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Every Bank is now the "Bank of You"



My bank is literally pushing me out the door. I am now being asked to lodge and withdraw on the street and I'm being encouraged to do as much banking as possible on the internet.

This is not a good development. Banking is an area where lots of people need help and advice and most of all security.

As anyone who has ever booked a flight online for the wrong day or from the wrong airport will tell you, there is many a slip twixt the keyboard and the website.

We are moving into a world where face to face transactions are being phased out. Young people don't phone one another any more.  They shop online. I'm even reliably informed that we will soon order our meals online and have them delivered to our doors. Oh dear!

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A Shoutout to Listowel Molyneaux from an American Cousin


Hi Mary,

I'm originally from Holyoke, MA, birthplace of Volleyball and me but I now live in Hudson, MA. I love your blog...I saw the name Molyneaux and I have an interest in that surname as it connects to my Barrett family of Listowel and surrounding townlands...

Anyone whose surname is Molyneaux and who may know something of their family history is someone with whom I'd like to make contact..

Thanks for all that you do...

Ed O'Connor

If you can help Ed. email me and I will give you his details.

Wednesday, 1 November 2017

All Souls Day. Kefir, Dublin Footballers and some Australian tourists






Today is All Souls Day. Traditionally it is the day for visiting the resting places of our dead loved ones. It is a day for remembering those who have gone before us.

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The Square, Listowel in Autumn 2017

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New Local Health Product in Town


Elaine of Halo Health introduces customer, Carine Schweitzer of Cork to a new Moyvane product, Kefir Milk.
"What is Kefir ?" you ask

Wikipedia has the answer;

Kefir or kephir (/kəˈfir/ kə-FEER),[1][2] alternatively milk kefir, or búlgaros, is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus Mountains made with kefir "grains", a yeast/bacterial fermentation starter.[3] It is prepared by inoculating cowgoat, or sheep milk with kefir grains.[4] Traditional kefir was made in goatskin bags that were hung near a doorway; the bag would be knocked by anyone passing through to help keep the milk and kefir grains well mixed.[5]

Its health benefits are numerous and if even half of the claims are true we should all be drinking it.

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Something to Look Forward To



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Australian People with a Listowel Connection

This is what Fáilte Ireland refers to as "the shoulder season" between summer and Christmas. This time of year is a popular time for our friends from down under to visit us. Last week I met two families who have grown to love Listowel and Ireland because of some lovely welcoming local people.



Berenice and Lionel came to Ireland first to trace family and to meet Jack McKenna who is a cousin. They stayed with Kathy Walsh at Gurtinard House. They had a great time. It was Race Week but Billy Keane found them a seat in his packed pub, John McKenna took time out to show them the family connected locations his mother Sue had told them all about in a long and productive visit. They fell in love with Listowel and resolved to return.

Gurtinard House on their first visit was a work in progress so they were anxious to see what progress Kathy had made. They were well impressed with the changes to the house and garden.  They came this time during Storm Ophelia. Kathy lit a fire and they sat around like old friends and reminisced. Their trip to Ireland took them to locations all over the country, including a visit to prospective in-laws in Mayo.



These Australian visitors whom I met with their friend and mine, Mary Sobieralski, in Scribes had also explored Ireland, North and South. They are Trish and her granddaughter, Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane is on her grand tour. She has been all over Europe (a spell in Turkey was her favourite) and then her Gran joined her for the last leg in Ireland.

Why Ireland?

They came to visit Trish's friend, Mary . Mary and Trish met over twenty years ago when Mary and her late husband, Wulf, toured Australia. They have stayed in touch ever since and Mary visited Trish in Australia when she went there on a holiday with her son a few years ago.

These two stories are proof, if proof were needed, that lovely welcoming people like Kathy and Mary are our unsung tourism ambassadors.

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Brogans Boys Before they were Famous

Well, maybe one of them was already famous .


Photo: Kieran Cunningham on the internet

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KDYS Halloween Parade 2017

There was a greta turnout for this year's Halloween parade on October 31 2017. The weather was perfect for it.