Daffodil Day, Mike O'Donnell's Covid 19 cartoons and a poem from "a heart heavy with helplessness"

Photo: Chris Grayson

<<<<<<<<<,

No Clowning Now

I came across this when I was looking for something else. I include it here just for the laugh.

<<<<<<<<

The First Daffodil Day Committee

This year's Daffodil Day fundraiser had to be cancelled  This is a photo of the first committee, some of them sadly no longer with us. In their honour and with the help of the present super committee we'll do it all again as soon as the doors open.

<<<<<<<<

Mike O'Donnell is telling the story  of Covid 19 in pictures

He captioned this one "The Catch".

Mike is a genius. I hope when this is over he brings out a book of these...the first draft of history.

<<<<<<<<<<<

In Time of Loss

Irish people are traditionally the best at supporting friends and neighbours when they lose someone. It is one of the hardest parts of our Covid 19 deprivations that we cant show or see that traditional support.
John McGrath wrote this poem for a grieving friend.  It is particularly apt for these troubled times when we can't be with our friends on their grief journey.

Dear Friend...

My heart is heavy with helplessness.
I would gladly take the weight from you,
Share your loss. But you are there
And I am anywhere but there.

Yet even if I walked beside you
You would need to walk alone.
Losses are like fingerprints, each one different
As every breath we take, and each our own.

But know dear friend, if love can lighten
This burden you endure, if love can share
One tiny step with you, look to your heart,
Be sure you’ll find me there.

John McGrath October 2014

<<<<<<<<<

Food for Thought

The chances of the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 coming up in that order in the Lotto draw are the same as any other combination of numbers.  It's a lottery.

Ball Alley, Mike O'Donnell Cartoons and A Little Known Fact

Blue tit photographed byChris Grayson

<<<<<<<<<<

Listowel Ball Alley Remembered

Memories of the ball alley in Listowel

When school was o’re, our hearts would soar,

At meals we would not dally,

With homework done, to seek our fun,

We’d wander to the alley.

To toss that ball against the wall,

And combat every rally,

With pouring sweat we’d play‘til death

Those games within our alley.

With left hand or right we’d try our might,

Until the grand finale,

But win or lose, how we’d enthuse

On those games played down the alley

Each game was fought, the prize was sought,

The marker counts his tally,

The match was won at twenty one,

‘Twas victory in the alley

But time moves on, the youth now gone,

No more do young men sally

To toss that ball against the wall

Of my beloved alley

Yet, memories hold of comrades old

Until the last reveille,

Of times gone by which brought such joy

Those days spent down the alley

Junior Griffin

<<<<<<<<<<

 Mike O'Donnell Cheers us in Lockdown

We are familiar with Mike O'Donnell's artwork in murals all over Tralee. During the Covid 19 emergency he is confined to his desk but he is continuing to entertain and enthralling us with daily cartoons on Twitter. When the book of this unprecedented time in our history is written, Mike's illustrations would be the ideal accompaniment, telling the story in sketches.

<<<<<<<

A Bit of Home Schooling

I intend to tell you a fun fact or two while we're all in isolation.

 Can you test if a "gold" coin is fake by biting into it?
The answer is no.

The theory behind this old trick in pirate movies is linked to the fact that gold is a soft metal.

Gold, indeed, is a soft metal but gold coins are never pure gold. All gold coins minted in the U.K. and the U.S. since 1538 contain copper.

St. John's. School photos, A Covid 19 card, a Covid 19 poem and Easter Ceremonies in Listowel 2020

St. John's in Lockdown

I took these photos a day or two before  I was locked up.

<<<<<<<<<<<<

Newspaper photo of the opening of Tarbert Comprehensive School

<<<<<<<

Senior Infants 1986

<<<<<<<

Being a Nana during Lockdown

An Post has given us free postcards to send to people to cheer them up. I haven't sent mine because I'm not allowed to leave the house. I was delighted to receive one last week.

To explain, Róisín doesn't have a phone and you need a phone number to associate with  a Tik Tok account. She can text and use the account from her iPod. 

Sometimes its easy to make someone happy.

<<<<<<<<<<

A Poem from Róisín Meaney

To Venice the fish are returning,
Down under, the bush has stopped burning.
When humans stay home,
And leave nature alone,
The world gets the break it’s been yearning. 

<<<<<<<<<

Jill Freedman Subject identified

"That’s Mikey Faulkner , a much loved traveler in North Kerry in the 1940s and 1950s"
 Jim MacMahon.

<<<<<<<<

St. Mary's , Listowel, Holy Week 2020

Thank you Canon Declan and Denise

Listowel ICA at St. Patrick's Day, St. Michael's and Malahide Castle

An Old Gate

This gate is a kind of folly. You can see it on the John B. Keane Road near the Ballygologue Crossroads. It is beside a back lane into Ballygologue. It serves no purpose except to remind us that this was once the countryside and this was a gate into a field.

<<<<<<<<<

John B. Keane Road in March 2020

Cahirdown in lockdown

<<<<<<<<

St. Michael's extension

This is the newly built extension to St. Michael's College. It's quiet and deserted now but will see teenage boys enjoy its facilities in the not too distant future.

<<<<<<<<<

Listowel ICA in St. Patrick's Day Parades

(Photos provided by Máire MacMahon)

<<<<<<<<<<

The Healing Hand of Nature

(photos from Eamon Ó Murchú taken in March 2020 before the lockdown)

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

A Poem from John McGrath

Missing the Last Waltz

My mother wears her bitterness
Like a dark shawl tonight.
Turf-smoke curls about her smoke-grey hair.
'Your father had two left feet,' she spits
Grasping the tongs with blue-veined fingers,
She pokes the fire to coax the dying flames.
'I should have married a dancer,' she sighs
And now her eyes are filled
With the hornpipes of memory
As the ghosts of a thousand hopefuls
Swirl her round the room.
'O, how we loved to dance.'
We lose her for a moment
In the ashes of lost chances,
Until once more the fading embers flicker.
'We could have had our pick,
Kathleen and me.'
Twin heartbreakers in pleated dresses.
They left the dancers standing,
Dashing down Oxford Road
For the last train home,
Missing the last waltz.

John McGrath

Old Indian Marriage Customs, Holy Water, Pres. Girls and a John ODonoghue poem

Ita Hannon took a great photo of this beautiful pheasant.

<<<<<<<<

Indian Marriages in the late Nineteenth Century

Lyttelton Times, 21 July 1882
By Kbor. (Adelaide Observer)

The wedding season in India lasts two months. The number of marriages which take place there may be guessed when it is remembered that the population in British India alone is nearly 200,000,000, and that marriage is practically universal there. The happy months—the merriest time of all the glad new year—are February and March, whose every day sees a thousand hearts plighted and a thousand couples bound by the bonds of law if not by the silver cords of love. From morning to night the sound of marriage music strikes upon the ear.

<<<<<<<

Malahide

When we were free to wander around, Eamon Ó Murchú went to Malahide Castle.
Here are a few of his photos.

<<<<<<<

This is the Time to be Slow

<<<<<<<<<<

Pres. Girls

Sixth class 97/98 Presentation Primary School Listowel

<<<<<<<<<<

The Benefits of Holy Water



There is a most interesting and edifying notice on Holy Water in the porch of Castleisland Church, just above a Holy Water font. It reads as follows:


“Untold spiritual wealth is concentrated in a tiny drop of blessed water… and we give it so little thought!


Did we realise now, as we shall realise after death, the many benefits which may be derived from holy water, we would use it far more frequently, and with greater faith and reverence.


Holy water has its great power and efficacy from the prayers of the Church, which its Divine Founder always accepts with complacency.


FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE PETITIONS THE PRIEST MAKES TO GOD WHEN HE BLESSES WATER.


“O God… grant that this creature of Thine (water) may be endowed with devine (sic) grace to drive away devils and to cast out our diseases , that whatever in the houses or possessions of the faithful may be sprinkled by this water , may be freed from everything unclean, and delivered from what is hurtful… Let everything that threatens the safety or peace of the dwellers therein be banished by the sprinkling of this water, so that the health which they seek by calling upon Thy Holy Name may be guarded from all assault.”


PRAYERS EFFECTIVE.


These prayers ascend to Heaven each time you take holy water and sprinkle a drop either for yourself or for another, whether he be present or absent; and God’s blessings descend for soul and body.


DISPEL THE DEVIL.


The devil hates holy water because of its power over him. He cannot long abide in a place or near a person that is often sprinkled with this blesses (sic) water.


Do Your Dear Ones Live at a Distance?


Holy water, sprinkled with faith and piety, can move the Scared Heart to bless your loved ones and protect them from all harm of soul and body. When worry and fear take possession of your heart, hasten to your holy water font, and give your dear ones the benefit of the Church’s prayers.


The Holy Souls long for it.


Only in Purgatory can one understand how ardently a port soul longs for holy water. If we desire to make a host of intercessions for ourselves, let us try to realise now some of their yearnings, and never forget them at the holy water font. The holy souls nearest to Heaven may need the sprinkling of only one drop to relieve their pining souls.


Remits Venial Sins.


Because holy water is one of the Church’s sacramental, it remits venial sin. Keep your soul beautifully pure in God’s sight by making the Sign of The Cross carefully while saying, “By this holy water and by Thy Precious Blood wash away all my sins, O Lord.”






There is another notice underneath the above one; it covers over the empty holy water font, and reads as follows: “Holy water Fonts are empty due to COVID 19 Coronavirus.”

Old Photos, Nora Relihan and A Bridge that no one was allowed to cross

Photo; Christopher Burke

<<<<<<<<<

Jill Friedman's North Kerry Photos

I don't know whose  funeral is in the first one is. If you know, tell me. I think I recognise the man in the second photo. He is a fisherman from Finuge.  I have posted the last one before. I think the man with the harmonica is Faulkner.

<<<<<<<

Maharees

In those heady days before the lockdown, Marie Moriarty went walking in The Maherees. Here are a few of her photos.

<<<<<<<<<<

Nora Relihan as Mena in Sive

Prize giving at Scarriff

Photo; Paul O'Flynn
Nora Relihan played Mena in the original Listowel Amateur Drama Group production of 'Sive'. This production won the all Ireland drama award at the Athlone Drama Festival in 1959. When the play was produced by the Southern Theatre Group in June 1959, Nora Relihan was asked to reprise her role. Eibhlis MacSweeney later replaced Nora Relihan in the role of Mena until the end of the production. This production played in Fr Mathew Hall for 6 weeks, then travelled to the Olympia to play for 4 weeks before touring Munster

(photo and text from Cork County Library local studies section)

<<<<<<<<<<

The Forbidden Bridge over the River Feale

In the House of Commons on 1^st April, 1898, Mr. Flavin, M.P., (N. Kerry),  Listowel, Co. Kerry, raised the following issue and asked the following questions of Gerald Balfour, Chief Secretary: 

“I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,

(1) if he is aware that the Grand Jury of Kerry erected a bridge at a cost of £3,496 10s. over the River Feale, between Duagh and Islandanny, and that three-fourths of the total cost is now repaid out of the public rates to the Commissioners of Public Works (Ireland), but that the general public are not allowed to use the bridge, although it has been completed and maintained for the past seven years; and 

(2), what steps will be now taken to obtain access for the public to pass over the bridge?”

Mr. Gerald Balfour: “I am informed that the facts are correctly stated in the first paragraph. The line of railway from Tralee to Limerick crosses the road or approach, at one side of the bridge, and no proper crossing has been provided by the railway company at this point. The grand jury, moreover, state they have no power to employ a person to look after the gates at what appears to be a farm crossing. I am advised there is no legal provision under which the railway company or the grand jury can be required to provide a crossing, and the Board of Trade inform me they have no power to intervene.”

Mr Flavin, M.P.: “I should like to ask the right hon. Gentleman why the grand jury constructed this bridge—[Mr. SPEAKER: Order, order!] 

Mr. Flavin:  But, Sir, arising out of the question, I should like to know if the right hon. Gentleman is aware that a large number of people in the district are prevented from using this bridge.” 

Mr/ Speaker: “ Order, order! The hon. Member is continuing to argue a question which has already been fully answered.” 

Mr. Flavin: "I wanted to point out, Mr. Speaker-"  

Mr Speaker: “Order, order!” 

It would appear that no-one thought of the need for access to the bridge by those it was intended to carry across the river!  Could the bridge really have stood idle for seven years as a result of such incompetence?