WW1 and a lovely recent photo of Patrick Sheahan

Below is a recent post by a person who uses the name John Granville on the Listowel forum.

There might be people reading this who have an interest in these things. We, in NKRO, 

would love to find someone interested in doing this research and we would post it 

on our soon- to -be- revealed website .

I watched some of the ‘Nationwide’ programme on Mon. night about the

 number of Irish people who died in World War I. As the camera panned

down the list of names I spotted that of John Barry of Listowel who was

killed in action in France on March 17th. 1917.

Curious to know a little

more, I did a little research.

Anthony Gaughan hasn’t much to say about the period in his book except that hundreds from the area joined the British Army and died in the Boer War and in World War I, especially at Gallipoli. He doesn’t mention any names. (p.152, Listowel and its Vicinity)

I didn’t find any more information about John Barry but I discovered that Kerry County Library archives has a list of Kerry related fatalities from WWI, 674 in all, listed alphabetically.

Some of the entries have linked photographs of the deceased, a piece of official documentation or, sadly, a letter from a mother or relative to the authorities requesting information about a missing loved one.

The following is a typical entry:

STACK, EDWARD PAUL.

Rank: Lance Corporal. Regiment or Service: Royal Irish Rifles. Unit: 2^nd Battalion.

Age at death: 20. Date of Death: 26-October-1914. Service No: 9950.

Supplementary information: Son of John and Ellen Stack, of Church St., Listowel, Co. Kerry. Born in Listowel, County Kerry. Enlisted in Cork.

Killed in Action. Grave or Memorial Reference: Panel 42 and 43.

He has no known grave but is listed on the Le Touret Memorial in France.

There are many more from Listowel. Like the above, many died very young and have no known grave. It would be interesting to know how

many from Listowel, urban and rural, lost their lives in that awful conflict

 and also, of course, those who fought and survived

 Next I have a few housekeeping words for you. I'm fairly new to blogging but how it works is this:

I post something. I look at it online and then I edit. I am now discoveing that people who have signed up with feedburner get the first draft sent to them. This very often has missing links, missing photos, missing letters, punctuation etc.  If this is happening to you, you will have to go in to the blog a second time to see the actual post. If you don't know what I am talking about, ignore this next bit.

On Sunday I posted a letter I found on Twitter about the refurbrished Irish embassy in Ottowa. I cut and pasted, I posted as an image, as a link and in every way I knew but I couldn't put it online, so my feedburner people got a mention of it and no story. I'll try today for the last time and if I fail I'll give you the gist of it in my next post.

I will post later on today if I get a photo of Manny.

Meanwhile Tom Fitzgerald shared this lovely photo of Patrick Sheahan of Finuge relaxing on "his" bench in the summer sunshine.

breaking news from the banks of my own lovely Lee

14/11/2011 - 07:48:14



People with Cork ancestry could soon be forking out €40 for a "Certificate of Corkness" under a novel proposal being discussed by Cork City Council tonight.

Local Fine Gael Councillor Laura McGonigle has tabled a motion for the creation of a "Cork Passport" for anyone in the world who can prove their Cork heritage, similar to the ‘Certificate of Irish Heritage’ scheme introduced by the Government earlier this year.

"For those of us born Cork or with Cork heritage we know that this too is something that should be celebrated," Cllr McGonigle said.

"We are a people apart and a place apart and I believe that this feeling is shared by Cork people whether they live in Dublin or DC.

"This is an initiative that will add value to our diaspora and generate funding for much needed projects for Cork."

The proposed document will be available to people outside Cork who want their Cork roots to be officially recognised. Anybody applying for the certificate will have to provide proof of their Cork ancestry and connection with the county.

The #corkpassport topic trended on Twitter over the weekend, prompting much scorn from some not born in the Rebel County.

But Cllr McGonigle has defended the proposal.

"The majority of people can't see the bigger picture," she said. "It is just a gimmick with the potential of helping Cork charities.

"I think most people in Cork are in favour of it - people beyond Cork might think it's just 'typical Cork arrogance'.

"But sure we'll put up with that as well." 

update on the mart site

I went out and about with camera this fine Monday morning and I called in to review progress on the clearing of the mart.

From the gate near Spar it looks like this

When I went inside this is what I saw

Kinda sad, really!

McKenna's of Listowel

The following is a short history of of the origins of McKenna's  in  Listowel. I took it from their website. Johanna McKenna On the 17th October 1871 one Jeremiah Mckenna married Johanna  Horgan and started a business at No.3 Market street Listowel selling  general hardware. Very general. It's likely that there would have  been vegetables for sale alongside the ironmongery in the early days. But all to the good; in 1875 the couple bought  No.3.  Then in 1880  tragedy struck, taking the form so well known in those times;  Jeremiah succumbed to tuberculosis and died, still a young man.
	Alone with two small children Johanna had an overwhelming battle, and the little business went into bankruptcy within a short time. This much is known; what's not known is how she raised the funds to get going again. But having recovered, she  repaid all debts, a feature of Mckenna's history to have a lasting effect on it's reputation well down  the road.
	In 1907 her son John emigrated to America. A young man with his life all ahead could find much opportunity there by comparison with the Listowel of the time. But the letters from home kept drawing his mind back to his mother who would persist in carrying on the business at No.3. He well knew how much of a struggle it was for her, and sailed out of New York before a year had passed.
	John married Grace McMahon in 1909 and settled back in. Simply supporting his Mother's efforts to keep the shop open wasn't enough for him; he could feel some ideas of his own coming on. By 1912 Enright's creamery had been acquired. Here the stocking of building supplies began and the creamery site eventually became known as the Mill Yard.
	In 1913 Johanna bought out the ground rent on No.3 Market street. She died three years later, as John became a member of Kerry  County Council, and missed by a year his election to chairman. This is an old McKenna's calendar Tom Fitzgerald found on the internet P.S.  Manny, the bearded dragon, is developing quite a following.  I shall call to his place of residence during the week and I'll see if he is up to being photographed.

Manny the reptile

Okay, okay, so the Listowel reptile is not exactly a croc.  Manny, the bearded dragon hangs out at Manctuary in Charles. St.  He is a lizard. That's a reptile, isn't it?

Reptiles in Listowel and Mexico!

Aah you are saying, has the weather improved dramatically in Listowel? The short answer is no. 

So why the balmy picture then?

 Because it is someone else's holiday snap and I want to talk about him today.

Since I put this link

http://twowheeledtravels.wordpress.com/

in my blog a few days ago people have asked me, 

Who is he? 

and 

What is the Listowel connection?

The answer is: He is Conor Moloney, formerly of this parish. He is a brother of Jimmy Moloney, our town councillor and the man we have to thank for bringing the minutes of the Town Council meetings to us online.

https://www.facebook.com/moloneyjimmy

Conor is becoming the more famous Moloney brother recently with his entertaining account of his travels by motorbike through the american continent.

Below is a small flavour of Conor's travelogue. I include it because it struck a cord and I saw a Listowel connection. Here in Listowel we have a hairdressers' with its very own pet repile on  display. So there....

"From Tecapan I moved on south down to San Blas. I meant to stay just two nights but quickly fell into the local expat scene so ended up here for four nights. Mostly I spent my time at the San Blas Social Club. It served great food, had friendly American and Mexican owners, and had a wide range of booze and clientele. There were a lot of Americans and Canadians spending the winter here so it was a convivial spot to hang out. I also found another bar where they kept a crocodile in a pen on the patio. Keeping a pet reptile in a drinking establishment might not sound like a great idea, but I was assured that it was no problem. The croc, whose name is Fluffy, is sixty seven, has few teeth, and is fed regularly, so I was assured it posed no danger to the patrons."

I highly recommend Conor's blog. It is fascinating reading, and beautiful photographs.
Be warned. Set aside an hour or two. You'll be hooked.

Jer Kennelly's mart photos

Jer Kennelly of Knockanure, a great archivist and preserver of our heritage has shared these photographs taken in Listowel Livestock Mart with us.

If you recognise someone or if you know who this group is and why they were at the mart, please email me at   listowelconnection@gmail.com