Surfing in Ballybunion, William St. in the sixties and Knockane

Sign of summer?

Surfing in Ballybunion: April 2015

Photo: Ballybunion Prints

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Upper William Street in the great bye and bye

A previous posting of this photo on the internet drew this response from our great local historian, Vincent Carmody.

“The old home town looks the same

As I stepped down from the train,”

This is  part of Upper William Street (or as real townies would call it, Patrick St. or Pound Lane). I have a good idea that Neddy, the ass, tied to the pole belonged to a really nice lady from Dirrah East called Han Synan. The pole was (and is) situated outside the late Nora(Lynch)Buckley /the late Lil Mai O Sullivan’s houses.

On the other side or the road the house with the brown door was Dr.Tim Buckley’s surgery (he lived with his two sisters Mollie and Delia across the road in a public house and which was subsequently the Listowel Post Office). Above the surgery was a back lane which serviced the rear of Upper William St. and Charles St . Up this laneway also was the Powerhouse which served as headquarters for the local E.S.B. Up there also were 2 forges, one belonging to the late Jackie Moore and the other to the late Val Moore. On the other side of the laneway is St Patrick’s Temperence Hall which was built in the 1890s. The hall had a major reconstruction makeover 1999-2002. At this time the house above the hall was occupied by an O’Sullivan family who afterwards moved to Charles St. Next door, which at the time was derelict, belonged to the late Mike Joe Hennessy of Ballyduff and formerly of this street. The two houses above these belonged to Mary Moore who used let them to various tenants. At this time the lower one was let to the town jubilee nurse, a nurse Anne McDonagh, the upper house to Tom and Peggy Lyons, the two remaining houses in the photograph belonged to John Francis and Maurice Carmody. Hopefully this gives a little insight into part of the street of 40 years ago.

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Honesty at The Fair

Marina Stack contacted me after watching the Radharc film Honesty at The Fair

She says

Re the Radharc programme Honesty at the Fair , at 14 mins 13 in is John Stack,  brother of Bob Stack, Maurice Stack, Pat Stack and Mai Stack.  All originally born in Moyessa, Listowel. John later married in Castelisland.

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Cnochán

Today I return to the lore I learned when I visited the school children's contributions to the National Archive’s Folklore collection in Kerry County Library , Tralee. One category of the project concentrated on placenames and their origin.

It is important to remember that the boys and girls recorded the stories as they heard them from their elders. As we all known, folklore is a mixture of fact and fiction distilled through the memories of generations who passed on the information.

There is a townland in Listowel called An Cnochán or Knockane and this is what an old man told an unnamed schoolgirl. Knockane is a fairly large hill, made up of sand and clay. The hill is situated between the rivers Feale and Gale. The story goes that the Danes brought sand from both rivers to form the hill. The hill is located in a flat boggy plane. It commands views over both rivers.

To the south of the hill is a spring well, continually overflowing with clear spring water. This spring never runs dry, even in periods of extreme drought.

One night a local man dreamed that there was gold in the hill. He went in the morning to the spot indicated in his dream. He dug and dug until he came to “the flag”. As he was about to dig up the flag, a bull came charging towards him. He escaped with his life but he never again meddled with Knockane Hill.

Sin é mo scéal agus má tá bréag ann, bíodh.

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Green Shoots of Recovery in Church Street

New beautician's opening on Church St. shortly. My mole tells me that Carmel's in Bridge Road will also open as a beautician's very soon. We'll all be looking gorgeous!

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Women in Media 2015

I'm heading to Ballybunion at the weekend for this great event

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Snapped on Church St.

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