Molly's House, Kerry footballers in Clonakity, Weathering a Storm and a Law against Selling Fresh Bread

 Molly's House, Ballylongford

This picturesque house is in Ballylongford. Photos by Breda Ferris

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Kerry Footballers helping The Rebels

Photo and article by Kieran MacCarthy from The Southern Star

In his two county senior football championship games in Clonakilty colours, Kerry import Dara Ó Sé has scored a combined 1-14.

Man-of-the-match with 0-8 (2f) in the win against Carrigaline, the former An Ghaeltacht footballer from Ballydavid in West Kerry followed up with 1-6 (4f, 1-0 pen) in the loss to Ballincollig – he has made an immediate difference with his adopted club.

Another Kerryman, Joe Grimes from Listowel, has also slotted straight into the Clon starting team, lining out in midfield in their opening two Cork Premier SFC matches.

 

‘They are two great players to have on the team. Aside from their talent alone they bring a lot of professionalism to the set-up. It’s outside ways of thinking as well,’ Clon senior footballer Martin Scally told the Star Sport Podcast recently.

‘I know there used to be a saying in Clon before that Clon needed imports to win the county – you look at Paddy Barrett back in ’96, a Limerick man, and there was Noel Griffin from Clare in 2009. Clon has always had a good, proud tradition of football but there were always one or two imports to help push us over the line.’

There is a strong Kerry connection with Clonakilty GAA

Club too. Ó Sé and Grimes, both gardaí now based in West Cork, aren’t the first Kerry men to play football with Clon. Instead, they’re following in some very famous footsteps.

‘Clon has always had Kerry players on their teams. At first it was because of the nearby Darrara Agricultural College going back to 1905. Students stayed in the college, didn't go home for weekends and so many played for Clon, if the college didn't have its own team in the championship,’ Carbery chairman and local GAA historian Tom Lyons explained.

Clon’s three most famous Kerry imports are Pat Griffin, Tom Moriarty and Kevin Dillon.

Griffin, a Garda, arrived in Clonakilty in the early 1970s and made an immediate impact with the club. He came with a noted pedigree, having won two All-Ireland senior football titles with the Kingdom (1969 and 1970) and he also captained Kerry to the 1968 All-Ireland final. With Clon, he won a South West junior football medal in 1977 – and that’s the last time the club won the junior title. Griffin, who passed away last year, then got involved in coaching, both at underage with Clonakilty and with adult teams in various clubs around West Cork.

 

Before Griffin, Kerryman Tom Moriarty landed in Clonakilty in 1948 as a bank clerk, having won an All-Ireland minor medal with Kerry in ’46. He captained Clon in 1952 when they won their seventh county senior title in a marathon campaign packed with draws. He then played a few seasons for Cork, and won Munster and national league titles in ’52 before Kerry came calling again for his services in ’54.

A north Kerry man from Duagh, Kevin Dillon captained Clonakilty in the 1968 county senior final when they lost a replay to Carbery. He then won a South West junior medal in 1977, but before that he also lined out for the Cork footballers for a number of seasons in the mid to late 1960s.

All three Kerrymen – Griffin, Dillon and Quirke – settled in Clonakilty and had sons who played senior for Clon.

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This tree is in Muckross. It is scrawled with the names of boys and girls for years now.

Is this practice romantic or destructive?

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We had a Great Time at the Launch of the Late Fr. Pat Moore's book

We had songs, stories and drama. Great memories!

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Incredible as it may seem.....

In January 1918 in the town of Listowel, Co. Kerry, two shopkeepers were prosecuted for "displaying for sale bread that was less than 12 hours baked".

Dave O'Sullivan discovered this fact when looking up old newspapers about a totally different matter.

He also found out why it was illegal to sell fresh bread. Bread was sold by weight and freshly baked bread was heavier than "settled" bread.

Cherrytree Drive, Listowel's First Cinema, Asdee, John B. Keane's and O'Sullivan's Mill

Cherrytree Drive is to get a Flower Bed

Work is underway in preparing for a new flower border at the entrance to Cherrytree Drive.

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John B. Keane's is getting a repaint

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Listowel's First Cinema

Liam Dillon, who is one of the longest continuous residents of Church Street has confirmed for us that the first cinema in town was in the building that now houses North County Guesthouse.

Liam's mother saw her first film there. It was a cowboy film. She ran home in terror when the shooting started.

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Asdee is being Revived by its Young People

"John Kennedy is tracing a finger through the map of his childhood during the 1960s in Asdee. 

He says: “We had a shop in the village and below that was the community centre along with the national school and the church. Further down the road was the Jesse James bar, then you had Kissane’s which doubled as a shop and a bar. Christy Walsh had a shop and then you had the post office which was run by the Doyle family. Every house in the village was occupied and there was so much life.” 

The hinterland was well catered for also with Tom Pius Walsh’s shop situated on the approach road from Ballylongford while the Ballybunion side of the parish had a booming hub of businesses. 

John says: “You had The Store bar and shop, the creamery, and O’Sullivan’s. All were busy. The centre of life then was the local creamery, it was the meeting place every day for local farmers. 

"From early morning you’d have a stream of farmers stopping at different places, collecting messages, and talking football and farming.”

From Colm O'Connor in The Irish Examiner, August 31 2020

John is describing the Asdee of the days of the two drama groups, a vibrant thriving village before emigration and unemployment combined with the urbanisation of rural Ireland brought it to its knees.

According to articles in The Kerryman and The Irish Examiner, Asdee has formulated a five year plan to transform the area. A committee has been formed and 30 targets across five categories have been identified for development. The LED lights are up. the funding is secured and the people are more than willing.

Wouldn't Fr. Pat be proud?

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O'Sullivan's Mill, Ballylongford

(Photos: Breda Ferris)

This lovely old building is soon to be refurbished. 

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Iroquois Nations and Lacrosse

Irish Lacrosse team....photo from the internet

"The International World Games is due to take place in Alabama in the summer of 2022, but Ireland's lacrosse team, despite having qualified, won't be there. " Michael Glennon.

Now my understanding of the situation and the Irish team's part in it is this. Ireland is kinda handy at this minority sport. The Iroquois Nationals are more than handy at lacrosse. They are brilliant at it. They invented the game.

In the qualifiers for the World Games Ireland came in eighth and the Iroquois Nationals came third.

But Iroquois Nationals is not a sovereign nation and they dont have an Olympic Committee so they were deemed to be ineligible to qualify.

This decision upset the lacrosse community and their protests led to the ruling body reversing their decision. By now all the qualifying spots had been filled. The Irish team took the sporting decision to bow out to make room for the Iroquois Nationals.

So who are the Iroquois Nationals?

I found the answer in Michael Glennon's article.

"Well, the sport itself originated among the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida and Tuscarora Nations, collectively known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the northeastern United States.

They compete in international lacrosse as the Iroquois Nationals. "

Muckross, Church Street, Listowel Races in Days Gone By and David Toomey, Endurance Runner

Boats at rest on the Lower Lake, Killarney

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Animals in The National Park

I love seeing this old form of transport in Killarney National Park

These are the famous herd of Kerry cows.

 Here is Cora with Molly as they wait patiently for Daddy to return with the picnic.

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Mullally's of Church Street 

Armel White alerted me to this. As painters stripped the paint prior to repainting Murphy's, they revealed the name of the former owners, Mullally, bringing back many memories to Listowel people.

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 Charles' Street in 2003

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Listowel Races in the Light of Other Days

We won't be seeing any of these scenes this September. Here are a few old photos just to remind you of better times.

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David Toomey...Man of Iron

David Twomey is Listowel's very talented town gardener. In Valeria O'Sullivan's picture from last weekend he is taking part in a gruelling ultra marathon.

David Toomey, on Drung Hill, Mountain Stage, Kells, Co Kerry, undertaking a 200km non stop endurance race - The Kerry Way Ultra Marathon, a daunting 40 hour, 200km, non stop race, which traverses the MacGillycuddy's Reeks and Iveragh Peninsula, on Ireland’s longest trail route in Ireland. All athletes adhered to social distancing, HSE and Sport Ireland Covid19 guidelines.

Photos:Valerie O’Sullivan

Unfortunately, David suffered a foot injury towards the closing stages and was unable to finish.

Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach (He'll live to fight another day)

Colohans of Church Street, Archways and Ballylongford

Darby girls from Ballincollig climb a tree in Muckross.

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Hang Glider in Muckross

Sunday August 30th 2020 was a  lovely sunny day. I went to Killarney to meet up with some of my grandchildren before they go back to school.

While we were walking in the grounds of Muckross House we saw this hang glider drop in.

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Coolahan's at  OGrady's

A while ago we had a request from Angela Liston for help in identifying which Church Street premises was her ancestors'.

The above is the very place. The Colohans were here too long ago for people to remember but lots of people have fond memories of the OGrady's who succeeded them. There were five girls in the O'Grady family and four of them emigrated to the U.S.

The archway between this shop and The Harp and Lion used to be known locally as Colohan's Arch and afterwards as O'Grady's Arch. Archways are a feature of Listowel's streetscape, giving access to the network of "back ways" at the heart of the town.

Below are some of the many references to Colohan's bar that Dave found for us in his trawl through the newspapers.

It would appear that the Listowel Coolahans/ Colohans were not related to the Tarbert family of a similar name.

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Archways causing problems in Killarney

Nicholas Leonard found this old photo on a Facebook page dedicated to Killarney memories. There was concern that the narrow archways, sometimes obstructed with beer barrels made access to the laneways difficult for a fire tender.

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Ballylongford Regeneration

Helen Lane took these photos of O'Sullivan's Mill in Ballylongford. It has been sold to an Australian entrepreneur. Local people are looking forward to the rejuvenation of the village.