Listowel's Corners and Changes since 2015

Autumnal sunshine in Listowel Town Square on October 8 2020.

St. John's closed for another while.

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Rounding the Corners

People who have grown up in Listowel often call streets and areas by different names to what you will see on the signposts, e.g. Main Street is known locally as The Small Square, Childers' Park is The Cows' Lawn and Purtill Solicitors are located at Collopy's Corner or The Custom Gap.

I asked Vincent Carmody, who is somewhat of an expert on these old names, to tell us a bit about Listowel's corners and their names. 

These names carry a wealth of local history and memories.

Vincent writes;

In my 2012  book, 'Snapshots of an Irish Market Town', I gave a brief history behind the naming and the attempted re-naming of the streets (without an official plebiscite) of the town. There was another aspect of the streets which I did not mention, this was, of course, the location of the most popular street corners, where townspeople, mostly men, would gather, at evening time and on Sundays, to discuss or gossip on the major events, local, national or even international  events or happenings of the day. As it were, those days, youtube or facebook.  

 

Each street had its own popular corners, those were usually called after whoever owned the particular corner house, with each corner having its own regulars. Those which I mention would have been the major corners, however I am sure a few other, more local corners, hubs !, could make a claim to fame. 

  

 

Possibly the town's most famous corner was Walsh's corner, now McKennas', famous, as it was immortalised as the location by the late John B. Keane in several articles which he wrote on the subject of corner boys. This corner was also the meeting point used by the local G.A.A. when the Emmets club had an away fixture. 

Further up the street, at the junction of William Street Upper and Charles Street, stood Dillon's Corner, this was afterwards known as The Sheriff's or Carmody's.  Up to the present day this corner is used as a meeting point for the players of the local Celtic Soccer Club as its assembly point prior to traveling to an away fixture. 

 

Church Street had three well known corners,  the major one been, Cotters Corner, at the junction of Church and Main Street, this is now Scullys, Further up the street, at the corner of what is now Colbert Street and Church Street, was The Bridewell corner, This was formally the location of the towns gaol or Bridewell, The street (Colbert Street) was also known as Bridewell Lane. 

The corner further up Church Street with its junction to Courthouse Road, now Doran’s Pharmacy, was known as McGinleys Corner, more recent locals would have known it as Crowleys. 

 

Down in the Square, at the junction of Main Street and the Square, stood Leahy's  Corner, while further up at the exit from the Square to the Bridge Road stood Collopy's Corner, the Collopy family ran a small hotel and the area was also known as The Custom Cap, as Lord Listowel's agents collected tolls at this point. The building is now owned by Kieran Moloney, 

Even though Walsh's Corner was remembered in a literary sense by John B, Collopys' is the only street corner remembered in verse. This is found in a way of a pronouncement, by a well known local bellman, Mick Lane. A local distressed lady, having lost her cloth furry muff !, asked Lane to advertise it on Market day, Lane did so, ringing his bell and calling out his newly composed lines,

Lost, but not found, 

 

From Collopys' corner up to the Pound,

A hole in the middle, 

And furry all round'.

 

There were other gathering places for locals, The Bridge, back in Convent Street was a popular rendezvous for natives of 'The Gleann', while people from the top of William Street gathered at the front of St Patrick's Hall. A popular meeting place of residents of the Boro (Charles Street) was, I believe, at the Courthouse gate.I also remember large groups gathering outside where Ned O'Sullivan shop was and also, outside what is now Gerard Leahy's Accountants in Main Street. This was formally the Fire Station and Urban Council Office. 

  

Some corners, due to their central location were strategic locations for the erection of cinema billboards, three  I remember quite clearly, were Leahy' Cotters' and Shanahans' corners.   

I am sure that I may have missed out on some, anyway for what it's worth, that's my tuppence worth !!     

Every generation creates its own customs and traditions. I think gathering on street corners has been replaced by hanging out in Jumbos.

If anyone else has any memories they would like to share of corners, shops, people or customs, I'm always delighted to accept your help.

I'm sure you are more than aware that these are slow news days and photo opportunities are getting harder and harder to come by.

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All Gone

Looking at my memory key of photos from 2015, I realise how much we have lost. Here are three more business that have shut up shop in the last 5 years

 

 

Phoneboxes, McKenna's/ Walsh's Corner and Replacing the Water Pipes in 2020

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Phoneboxes

 I read recently that  they are going to remove all public phoneboxes from our streets. With them will go a link to my childhood and the  childhoods of many of us who grew up in Ireland in the 1950s and 60's.

We had no phone at home. Back then if you wanted to be connected to the telephone network, you had to pay for the poles that had to be purchased to bring the line to your house.  That cost was beyond our means.

When we did eventually get a phone it was because the neighbours banded together to split the cost of the line.

In the meantime, I was familiar with the workings of the public phone. There were lots of public phones available, on streets, in public houses, and often in private house where the neighbours could come to make a call.

You came armed with a supply of coins. To contact the telephonist you merely lifted the receiver and waited. When she answered you told her the number you wanted to ring. She did all the work and rang you back when she had the other party on the line. It was all very slow, uncertain and labour intensive.  Happy days!

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 McKenna's Corner

It started with this. I posted it on Facebook last week and memories came thick and fast to some of our readers. Apparently it used to be known as Walsh's Corner. That was back in the day when payment for goods was by cash and capsule and pulley system sent the payment to the shop's office. If you have never seen this system in action, you've missed a treat. I remember the system well for they had it Cronin's Stores in Kanturk as well as some of the big department stores in Cork.

Sales assistants didn't deal with the money end of the business. There were no cards, Revolute or Google Pay or any of that caper. Cash was king. When you bought your goods, the sales assistant wrote out a docket with a description of what you had bought and he enclosed this with the cash you gave him in a little wooden cup. He screwed the cup into a holder on a wire. He pulled a pulley and the cup whizzed across the store to the office which was on a raised dais and visible to all. The cashier took the docket and cash,  wrote up the sale and returned the receipt for your payment and your change in the cup.

Talk of Walsh's Corner spurred me on to ask Vincent Carmody, our local historian to tell us something about Listowel's Corners. I'll bring you that tomorrow.

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Water, Water Everywhere

This will no longer be the cry when our pipe system is replaced. The huge job of replacing all the town's pipes is underway now. No more burst water mains

for us.

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All Gone

I found a memory key of stuff from 2015. In December of that year these lovely shops were flourishing in Church Street.

Portmarnock, Woodford Pottery, and Flying a Flag in 1917

 

A horse and rider in the sea at sundown in Portmarnock captured by Eamon ÓMurchú

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Woodford Pottery Wows a New

Buyer

If you stop in Kanturk on your way to Cork you may have dined in The Vintage or you may have had a wander around the lovely nearby Presents of Mind. O'Brien Street in Kanturk is well worth stopping for. On one side is the lovely riverside park, with picnic benches and a wooden sculpture by Fear na Coillte. The other side of the street is the commercial side and it's here you will find Presents of Mind. If you are lucky, you will hit it on a day when my lovely friend, Lil, is in charge of the shop.

Recently I introduced Lil to Pat Murphy of Woodford Pottery and she was very taken with his unique tableware and very different items.

We visited Pat in his studio and he gave Lil a demonstration of his potting process.

Even though he is a one man operation, Pat seems to constantly have a production line on his shelves. This lot is waiting to be glazed.

As well as beautiful and unusual tableware, Pat makes lovely gift items like oil burners, his new range of owls and, my favourite, Christmas nativities. This year he had added a more modern "crib" to his range as well.

Oil burners ready for a Christmas at home.

These owls are causing a bit of a sensation on Pat's Facebook page.

This is my kind of Christmas crib. I have the white one. I love it so much I never packed it away with the Christmas stuff. I've lit a tea light in it this summer as a kind of votive to pray for deliverance from the Corona virus.

This crib is more popular with young people who like the more rounded, less traditional figures.

Pat, like all artists, is hit by the closure of gift shops and the cancellation of craft fairs. He is lucky in that he can sell from his shop at his studio in Woodford, Listowel.

If you do want to treat yourself or a friend to something lovely for Christmas, I'd advise you to get on it. Now that the Kanturk crowd have discovered him, these lovely pieces will sell out fast.

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This Could Be the Start of Something Big

Photo: David Kissane on Facebook

Sinéad Kissane (Ardfert Kilmoyley) on the podium in Mosney after winning the gold medal in the U10 200m in 1988.

That moment in 2020 when you are a well respected TV Sports Journalist and your dad digs out that old photo when they couldn't find a tracksuit small enough for you when you won gold at the Community Games. Parents!

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Flying the flag

The Irish Standard Sept. 29 1917

FlAG STILL FLIES.

“It seems that it is considered necessary just now in England to hold on to the name Catholic, as others, who once repudiated it, are now appropriating it, and applying to us, with no friendly intent, the name Roman Catholic.

“A Catholic chaplain in the British army somewhere in France, put up a soldiers’ hut and over it ‘Catholic Soldiers’ Hut.’ Some Anglican parsons objected and demanded that the title be: ‘Roman Catholic Soldiers’ Hut.’ Father Regan demurred. The matter was referred to the authorities. 

Three Generals came along and ordered the change made. Father Regan refused and was threatened with reduced rank. He replied, ‘What I have put up stands, or I and every Catholic Chaplain here will resign. Quad scripsi, scripsi.’

“The matter has been allowed to drop with Father Regan’s flag still flying.”—Columbian.

The Courthouse, Pigs, an Ass and a North Kerry Walk

Listowel Library and Courthouse

 I think you'll agree that the recent planting and seating at the courthouse plaza has greatly enhanced this corner of Listowel.

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A Pig in The Parlour

This is a pig feeding trough, rare enough nowadays, but a common sight in a yard when I was growing up. This one was made by Pierce of Wexford sometime around 1900.

My mother always kept a sow. I remember well when the sow was about to farrow. She would grow grumpy and restless when labour started. She would "make a bed' rooting around in straw and forming a kind of nest for herself. My mother, the midwife, would sit with her and talk reassuringly to her. I remember her saying things like "You are a great Mammy."  "You'll be fine".

The old sow would just continue grousing and shuffling. The infra red lamp would have been bought days before and would be lighting in readiness for the small squealers. My mother would be armed with an old walking stick, her equivalent of a shepherd's crook. 

As soon as the babies began to arrive, my mother would scoop the newborn away in case Mammy might lie on them. There were often 12 or more piglets in a litter and as soon as they were born they snuffled up to a teat to suckle. I later learned that a bonham will go back to the same teat every time.

Sometimes an íochtar  (a particularly small piglet) would have to be brought indoors beside the range. He would be bottle fed.

It would be a while before they would use the feeding trough, pictured above. By then they would be 'stores" and they's eat you out of house and home. Those troughs were sturdy machines. The pigs would throw them around the stye, constantly pushing them to and fro on a concrete floor. By now the animals had lost the cute piglet look and were fat, grunting awkward yokes, always jostling for first place at the trough and scoffing their food in jig time.

I haven't seen a pig in the flesh for a year or two now so the sight of the old feeding trough brought back many memories.

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Another Equine Photo

Mattie Lennon noticed that I was including horse photos so he sent us this. He's the one on the walkie talkie.

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Meenogehane to Clashmealcon

There are some really picturesque walks around North Kerry. My friend Bridget took these on her recent walk.

Poulavadra, the blow hole at Beenconeen

Bridget's walking companion found it all a tad tiring.

A sea stack near Clashmealcon caves

One of the many little coves along this walk

Such beauty on our doorstep.

Sand Art, Noreen Lynch R.I.P., Apple Picking and Stack family to feature in TV ad campaign.

Tree of Life 

This lovely piece of commissioned sand art was executed by the very talented Pixie O'Gorman a few weeks ago.

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"The Nicest Girl in Town"

I know that many people who follow this blog would like to see here the lovely eulogy that John Lynch composed for his wife, Noreen. 

The eulogy was read at Noreen's funeral mass by John and Noreen's daughter, Deirdre. 

She began by thanking, on the family's behalf, the many people who had made life easier for them in Noreen's last weeks. 

Then she recalled growing up in Church Street in a house and shop that was "like a railway station". Noreen was the most hospitable of women and her customers, many of them boys, now men of a certain age, always recognised her and remembered her with fondness.

These following are John's words;

I am the only one of 6 siblings who was not born at home but in a midwife’s premises by the barracks in Church St. just a stone’s throw from Noreen’s home at number 97. This happened because my uncle, Fr. Paddy Lynch, was home from Australia and my parents wanted him to baptize me after birth. 26 years later, he came home again and on that visit he married Noreen and myself in this church.

So, what does John Lynch have to say after 59 years of marriage to Noreen Horgan? Shortly after Noreen’s Dad died in ’61 we came home to live in 97, Church St. Peig Murphy lived with her husband Louie O’Murchú in Courthouse Rd. around the corner from the Horgans. Peig, who was from Kilgarvin like myself but who was 30 years wiser, said to me “John, you’re a very lucky man; you got the nicest girl in town”.

Look at Noreen’s photograph on the coffin - a photo of her from half her present age - and you may be able to gather part of what she had in mind. 

Noreen was a woman who never got cross, who never gave out, and never argued. She always kept her composure and this calmness usually sorted out any situation. She was a people’s person, a great communicator, and she was deeply interested in people’s welfare – above all children. That is why some of those children, now maybe raising families of their own, who came into the shop in their schooldays, still like to talk about that experience 34 years on. 

In later years, it was great to see her so happy with her friends around a table in the Arms Hotel, at Lynch’s in the small square, or in Lizzy’s after daily mass. I suppose these sessions could be labelled the 11 o’clock scene, far removed from any downbeat media news judging by the amount of laughter emanating. When she would return home a couple of hours later, I would be told about all the people that she met and that they had been asking for me. As the years passed, she mentioned that she knew the faces but could not remember their names…but sure I had the same problem myself!

It was a big shock to her to be diagnosed with cancer in her early 60’s. She accepted the diagnosis, her treatment and subsequent health issues as God’s will. 

She also tried to accept the slow loss of her memory but hoped that it would not cause her to become aggressive at the later stages. I assured her that it could not happen to her with her calm temperament and, thankfully, it never did.

The next big health shock was her diagnosis of breast cancer in May this year. There was a post-surgery period in which she seemed to improve – the doctors and nurses were amazed at her tolerance at all stages of her treatment. On collecting her from Barringtons after her surgery, I heard a nurse say “Noreen – you’re a trooper” and she did not say that to just anyone. Noreen did not complain during any difficult treatment. When she was told that her illness was terminal, she (with her usual positive outlook) told the doctor that she had beaten cancer in ’97 and that she would beat it now. Later in the car outside, she said to Mary’s husband Dermot, “I’ve turned 86 now and, sure, I’ll have to go sometime”. When I saw her on her arrival home that day, I thought – “This is one battle that Noreen will not win”.

 

I want to express my gratitude to the GPs and staff of Ivy Clinic, to Oonagh Harnett and the staff of Broderick’s pharmacy, to Patsy Thornton who provided wonderful home help, and to the St Vincent de Paul. Grateful appreciation to the caring nurses of the Public health services. It was nice to hear them say “How is my favourite patient today” or “How is my little Linnet today”? A sincere thank you also to Dr Patricia Sheehan, the doctors, nurses, priests, and staff of the Palliative Care Inpatient Unit in Tralee, at a stage, where, without their devoted care and professional experience, the illness could have been harder to bear. Her carers always had a laugh with her and when I said how nice they were to her, she said, “They think I’m sick” and as the old saying goes “that whacked them all”. There’s more than one way to size up a situation.

Noreen was a deeply religious person. The fact that our religion was based on the 10 commandments of God, that was it for her. The success of her marriage and the wellbeing of her family and their offspring were her great goal in life. She was completely honest – could not dream of doing a wrong deed. Recently, I have had cause to remember what Bill Hennigan the vet said when Noreen’s father was buried – “There goes one honest man”.

She loved to laugh. She said, “laughter is the best medicine in life” and she had a lot of that medicine to dispense. If someone was codding her, they would lead her into always coming back with a witty retort and she loved that. Her humour could be mischievous. Recently a nurse rang to ask for Noreen’s permission to speak to me about her medical information. Noreen said to her that she would give her permission so long as the nurse was not some skinny, blond, 20-year-old!

As we grew older, we would discuss unusual topics such as our final days. Noreen was a lovely person to live with and I could get a bit cranky in my later years. So, I asked her did she ever feel sorry that she had married me that there were others who had admired her and might have given her a nicer lifestyle and she answered “NO”. When I asked her what she would say if she should depart before me, her reply was “thanks awfully for the nice time”.

I am very grateful for the great privilege afforded to me for living married life for 59 years with Noreen, such a unique person.

To my final days, I will remember Peig Ni Mhurchú’s congratulatory salute to me and I hope that our paths, my trooper and mine, will cross again in another life when I will join once again my “nicest girl in town".

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Apple Harvesting Time

This year my tree produced a bumper crop. I got lots of help with the harvesting.

My tree had gone wild so I had it tamed and pruned.

Then I had some more neighbourly help to pick the final few apples from the pruned branches

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The Kerry face of Dairygold in Germany  

Front page of The Kerryman

The Stack family of Knockanure are soon to appear on German TV screens as the Irish farming family in the Derrygold ad campaign. The three generations of Stacks were selected as the photogenic face of Irish dairying today.