Listowel ( ; , ) is a heritage market town in County Kerry, Ireland. It is on the River Feale, from the county town, Tralee. The town of Listowel had a population of 4,794 according to the 2022 census, the third largest in the county. Listowel is also the name of a townland within the town and an encompassing civil parish.
The town has been described by the organisers of Listowel's writers' festival as the "Literary Capital of Ireland". A number of internationally known playwrights and authors have lived there, including Bryan MacMahon and John B. Keane.
Location
Listowel is on the N69 Limerick – Foynes – Tralee road. Bus Éireann provides daily services to Tralee, Cork, and Limerick. The nearest railway station is Tralee. Listowel used to have its own railway station on a broad gauge line between Tralee and Limerick city; however, this was closed to passengers in 1963, to freight in 1978, and finally abandoned and lifted in 1988. The station building has been preserved as a private residence.
Listowel is located at the head of the North Kerry limestone plain. Positioned in the very heart of North Kerry, on the River Feale, its hinterland is an area of mainly dairy agricultural use. The barony of IraghticonnorBarony of Iraghticonnor at GENUKI. Retrieved 9 September 2010 is to the north, with the barony of Clanmaurice to the south. Surrounding villages include Asdee, Ballybunion, Ballyduff, Ballylongford, Causeway, Duagh, Lisselton, Lixnaw, Moyvane, Finuge and Tarbert.
History In July 2000, Listowel was officially designated as one of Ireland's 26 "Heritage Towns" – in part because of modern environmental and renewal works, but also because of its architectural heritage and "historic importance".
Origin of the name
Listowel's history dates back to at least 1303 when it first appears in the Plea Roll where its name took the form of Lystothyl. By 1320 the town is referred to in ecclesiastical tax records, mis-written as Lismokill. In subsequent documents the name of the town is written variously as: Lissmoli, Listuoli, Lystuanyl, Lestovell, Lestowell, Lishtoghill, Listwohill and Listowhil. In the Annals of the Four Masters, in an entry dated 1582, the town first appears as Lios Tuathail, the currently accepted spelling of the Irish Gaelic form of the town's name. Thomas Dineley wrote the English form of the name as 'Listoel' in 1681. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century there were two versions of the name in use, Listowel and Listowell. From the late 19th century onward, the current spelling of Listowel was generally adopted. Since the foundation of the Irish State in 1922, the town's name has been referred to as Listowel in statute law, for example in the Statutory Instrument under the Local Government Reform Act 2014, when the Municipal District of Listowel was established as one of the six municipal districts in County Kerry.
Listowel Castle
The town developed around a fortress of the Fitzmaurice family, Listowel Castle, and its square. The castle, built in the 15th century, was the last bastion against Queen Elizabeth I in the Desmond campaign and was the last fortress of the Geraldines to be subdued. Later, it fell after 28 days' siege to Sir Charles Wilmot on 5 November 1600, who had the castle's garrison executed in the following days. The castle became the property of the Hare family, the holders of the title of Earl of Listowel, after reverting away from the Fitzmaurices, Knights of Kerry. It is now a national monument, and was subject to restoration by the Office of Public Works (OPW) from 2005. OPW tour guides are now based at the castle during the summer tourist season giving free tours of the castle.
Another smaller castle at Ballinruddery, Listowel, was built in the post-1600 period by the then Knight of Kerry.
Lartigue Monorailway Listowel played a role in Irish railway history as it was the site of the world's first monorail operation. The Listowel and Ballybunion Railway was built to the Lartigue system, with a double-engined steam locomotive straddling an elevated rail. It officially opened on 29 February 1888, with public services beginning on 5 March 1888. It connected the town with Ballybunion. Coaches, with a compartment on either side of the rail, had to be kept balanced. If a cow was being brought to market, two calves would be sent also, to balance it on the other side. The calves would then be returned, one on either side of the rail. In 2003, a 1000 m long replica of the original monorailway was opened.
Listowel Mutiny Listowel was the site of a noted mutiny which occurred during the Irish War of Independence. On 17 June 1920, members of the Royal Irish Constabulary at Listowel police station refused to obey the commanding officer's orders that they be relocated to police outposts outside of the town. The Black and Tans had occupied the town barracks, forcing the redeployment, something which was both dangerous and hopeless in the face of huge local hostility to the men in question. Police commissioner Colonel Smythe wished that the RIC constables would operate with the army in countering the IRA's operations in the more rural areas. He suggested while negotiating with the constables that they would be given the power to shoot any suspect on sight. Led by Constable Jeremiah Mee, they refused, both from a point of personal safety and possibly also from a sense of sympathy with their country men struggling against the British forces. The officers were discharged after the mutiny. The episode became known as the Listowel mutiny.
Earl of Listowel The title of Earl of Listowel is associated with the Hare family. The current incumbent Lord Listowel is Francis Michael Hare, one of the 92 hereditary peers elected to the British House of Lords.
Holders of the title have included William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel, who was a Labour politician and served as the last Secretary of State for India and Burma. Another member of the family was the Conservative politician John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham. He was the third son of the fourth Earl.
Economy
Dairy production has historically been a significant employer in the area. Originally formed in Listowel in 1972 as North Kerry Milk Products, the Kerry Group subsequently grew to become a "global player in the agri-food sector". Formed in the 1970s, when small dairies in Ireland started to merge so as to be able to compete with larger companies within the European Economic Community, several dairies in County Kerry followed suit. By January 1974, the organisation was trading as Kerry Co-operative Creameries Ltd (Kerry Co-op). Between 1974 and 1979, Kerry Co-Op expanded its milk business and the Listowel-based co-op acquired previously independent dairies in Killarney, Limerick, Cork, Galway and Moate. Subsequently headquartered in Tralee, the Kerry Group was employing approximately 290 people at its manufacturing plant in Listowel by 2017.
Education Listowel is serviced by many primary, post-primary and post-leaving certificate education facilities. Children between five and twelve are facilitated by Presentation Primary School for girls, Scoil Realta na Maidne, for boys, and Gaelscoil Lios Tuathail, which is a mixed school. The town has two Catholic secondary schools, Presentation Secondary School, Listowel and St. Michael's College. The town is also served by Listowel Community College, a mixed post-primary and post-leaving certificate school and Coláiste na Ríochta, a mixed post-primary school. The town hosts Learning Initiative of North Kerry.
Festivals and events
Listowel Races The origin of Listowel races can be traced back to an annual gathering at Ballyeigh, Ballybunion, about nine miles from Listowel. This event, which dates to the early nineteenth century, consisted of a variety of games, horse-racing and a pre-arranged faction fight which concluded the event. Due to disturbances surrounding these fights, the meeting at Ballyeigh was suspended and racing transferred to Listowel, where the first meeting took place in 1858. The racecourse is located beside the River Feale, and two of the three entrances to the course are accessed by bridge across the river. The racecourse is called "the island" by the locals due to this fact.Listowel Race Co Traditionally it was a meeting where farmers came to spend/gamble the money they made from the harvest but it has since grown into something larger and more wideranging.Go Racing – Listowel
The Listowel track consists of a 1-mile, 2 furlong mile oval left-handed track with National Hunt fences and hurdles. The hurdle course is adjustable after each day's racing to give new ground. Listowel's racecourse is within walking distance of the town centre.
Listowel Writers' Week
Founded in 1970, Listowel is home to Ireland's oldest literary festival. North Kerry is the birthplace of many of Ireland's most prominent writers, including John B Keane, Bryan Mac Mahon, Brendan Kennelly, Seamus Wilmot, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, George Fitzmaurice, Maurice Walsh and Robert Leslie Boland. The Writers' Week Festival was established to celebrate those writers and to provide an opportunity for other Irish writers to develop their talents and meet new audiences.
The concept of the Literary Workshop was first introduced at Writers' Week in 1971 by Bryan MacMahon. At the event, writers share their skills in poetry, fiction, theatre, and screen – with workshops in song writing, comic writing and storytelling also subsequently added. Writers' Week also provides a programme of literary events including lectures, readings, workshops, book launches, seminars, theatre, literary and historical tours, art exhibitions, music and dance.
Competitions are also held, together with a series of literary awards. The total prize fund of €35,000 includes the Kerry Group Novel of the Year and The Pigott Poetry Prize.
Participants have included: Nobel Laureate and Booker Prize-winner J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Booker Prize winners Kazuo Ishiguro, John Banville, James Kelman and Anne Enright, Poets Laureate Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, and Andrew Motion, playwrights Tom Murphy, Brian Friel, Roddy Doyle, Frank McGuinness and Hugh Leonard, poets Michael Hartnett, Leland Bardwell, John Montague, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Roger McGough, Rita Ann Higgins and Kate Cruise O'Brien, and other novelists and writers including Blake Morrison, Chris Whyte, Lionel Shriver, Colm Tóibín, Jennifer Johnston, John McGahern, Joseph O'Neill, Sebastian Barry, Joseph O'Connor, Hugo Hamilton, Edna O'Brien, Douglas Kennedy, Patrick McGrath, William Trevor, Colum McCann, Gerard Donovan, Frank McCourt, Irvine Welsh, Robyn Rowland, Andrew Lindsay, Michael Cunningham, Jane Urquhart, Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Cees Nooteboom, Michael Dibdin, Abdel Bari Atwan, Clive James, Melvyn Bragg, Alain De Botton, Lloyd Jones, Robert Fisk, Jung Chang, Terry Jones, Gabriel Byrne, and Graham Norton.
John B. Keane of Listowel wrote: Beautiful Listowel, serenaded night and day by the gentle waters of the River Feale. Listowel where it is easier to write than not to write, Where first love never dies, and the tall streets hide the loveliness, The heartbreak and the moods, great and small, Of all the gentle souls of a great and good community. Sweet, incomparable hometown that shaped and made me.
Listowel Food Fair The Listowel food Fair has been running annually since 1995. The festival promotes local artisan food products, and attracts celebrity chefs, nutritionists and artisan food entrepreneurs.
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