William Street in My Time.

by

Vincent Carmody

 

All of William Street was originally known as Pound Lane, this was, because of the location of an animal pound which would have been situated approximately in the location of the present Mermaids entertainment complex.

Around the 1860s, Lord Listowel renamed the street, William Street, after himself, William Street lower from the junction of what was later to become Charles Street, down to the entrance to Main Street or The Small Square, William Street upper from the aforementioned junction to the town’s boundary with Clieveragh. In the 1870’s this boundary was more clearly identified with the advent of the railway, the railway dissecting the two town- lands, Listowel and Clieveragh, connected by a railway bridge.

In the late 1920’s a wave of nationalism swept through the town and townsfolk started to rename the various streets, those in Lower William Street adopted Pearse Street and people in the upper side, choose Patrick Street, however, a necessary plebiscite did not take place, so officially the names of the street are, as they were, since Lord Listowel’s time. Some time in the 1980s the Urban Council put up new street wall plaques, in a move to address the street name problem, the new signage was cast with the street names both in Irish and English. In a clever move, the signs read,

Sr. and Pharisaic (Pearse Street) – William Street.

Sr. and Pharisaic Uacht (Upper Pearse Street) William Street Upper.

A Listowel solution to a Listowel problem!

To this day I do not know why Patrick Street was not put up on the latter sign.

Having been born in 1944, my memory of the street would begin in my formative years of the 1950’s. Its greatest change is the demise of so many family businesses. An example of this are the number of public houses that were functioning at that time, I can count 25, there were even many more in the preceding years, nowadays there is just 11. I can recall 10 businesses now closed which were dependent on the sales of sweets, confectionery, minerals and groceries. I can count the closure of 8 drapery/shoe establishments, 3 printing works, 2 major hardware merchants, 2 harness making / leather merchant, 2 post offices and 3 butchers. 

There were a number of halls in the street, which were the source of entertainment, St Patricks Temperance Hall, built in 1893, was used exclusively for the men of the town, in olden time’s members had their own brass and reed band, in 1895 they even had a team of their own in the Kerry County Senior Football Championship. Sadly to say, having beaten Irremore in a first round replay, they drew Tralee Mitchels in the next round, this game did not finish, owing to a fracas, however at the subsequent County Board meeting, the Temperance team were charged “with bringing the game into disrepute” they were found guilty and disqualified.  Billiards, snooker and card games of all kinds were played in the hall; it was also used as a concert venue in the 1920s. The hall went into decline during the 1960/70s and it was rarely used. In the late 1990s a hard working committee was formed, through various fund raising activities and grants it enabled the committee to carry out essential repair work and refurbishment. It reopened in 2003, a century after it was first built, now, happily it is once again a much used social meeting place.   

Walsh’s old Hall was situated where Fashion Figure is now situated; they ran regular dances there from the 1920’s till the 1950’s, dances were held on both ground and first floors. Vincent Walsh built his new hall, The Super Ballroom (now a fitness centre, previously Morkans tiles) at the top end of William Street in the early 1950’s. This became a mecca for dancers from far and wide. Some of the bands which I remember playing there in the earlier years were, Mick Delahunty, he was married to a Sheehy from Islandboy in Duagh, Chick Smith, The Royal Showband, Clipper Carlton and Maurice Mulcahy. Singer and solo artists, included, Eddie Calvert, Ruby Murray, Ann Sheldon and Michael Holliday, these were well known recording stars around the world, and perhaps the most popular of all, Jim Reeves. Among the great Irish popular singers were Bridie Gallagher, Nita Norry and Eileen Donaghy. Apart from the dancing, on account of its greater size and more modern amenities the hall was also in general demand for drama productions and various concerts. It used also host a monster whist drive which was held annually to raise funds in aid of our local dispensary nurse, Nurse McDonough.  The hall hosted the first production of John B Keane’s, Sive, in 1959.

My first visit to a betting shop was in the very early ‘50s, the shop was in the front room of Moore’s house at 9 Upper William Street, this room was leased from the Moore family by Jim Clarke of Ballybunion, a well known bookie of his day, his office manager was Paddy Kinlon from Ballybunion, my only visit to the office was to put a sixpenny piece bet for an elderly neighbour on some horse whose name was written on a piece of paper. Paddy, I recall, had a big jovial face, was sitting on a chair behind a big desk, similar that one would see in a solicitors office.

There was a betting shop at 39 Lower William Street, this was run by Georgie Gleasure, this office closed shortly after the 1958 Grand National, the race was won by a horse named Mr. What, he won at a starting price of 18/1, a strong tip for him had circulated the town the morning of the race and a lot of people backed him. Shortly afterwards Georgie retired from the racing game.

Alf Hogan had a betting shop at 13 Lower William Street and a local man, Oliver Broderick ran his own bookmaking shop at 3 Lower William Street, this house had previously been the home and workplace of Moss Scanlon, harness maker. Celtic Bookmakers had a brief life at 15 Lower William Street. The 2 remaining betting shops are Browne’s, run by Berkie Browne, he is carrying on a family tradition as his father Eric, still active as an on-course bookie, and great grandfather Paddy had long been involved in the bookmaking game and Paddy Power’s. We also had another betting shop at 41 Upper William Street for a number of years in the 1980s; this was run by Michael Parsons, a Kilkenny man living in Asdee.

There was a building located at the rear of St. Patrick’s Hall, this was built and operated by a private company, the Listowel Electric Light and Power Co., Ltd. They operated there until the end of the 1920s when they were taken over by the newly formed E.S.B.; the building was vacated when the E.S.B. bought a house and yard in Church Street in the late 1950s to serve as their new headquarters. The powerhouse building was afterwards bought and used by businessman Niall Stack to house his fledging Feale Valley Industries, wood cabinet business.

Also in this vicinity was the streets only forge. One day in the mid 1950s, while coming home from school at lunch time, some friends and myself came across the forge with its roof collapsed, a short time before, Val Moore had shod a horse, and brought him out to the back-way to be tied up, awaiting collection, suddenly, without warning the thatched roof collapsed inwards, the rafters and thatch were immediately set alight by the burning stove inside and caused a resulting inferno. To us young fellows it was the most exciting thing of our young life’s, however to Val Moore it must have been a heart breaking event, this forge had  been run by generations of the Moore family of blacksmiths for well over 100 years and was listed in Griffith’s Valuation of the 1850’s.

The nearby creamery and railway station were other special destinations in our youth; apart from the fact, that they were of strategic importance to the business and farming community, to us, they were play locations, giving us endless hours of fun, recreating scenes and events which we would just have had witnessed, in gangster, cowboy or adventure film at the nearby Astor Cinema.

Even though it was the one street, William Street had allegiance to two different Town League teams. To us, in the upper part, we were part of the Boro Rovers, the lower half, to An Gleann. The biggest event in our young eyes was the annual running of the town league. The other teams involved were Greenville, (along with players from the surrounding countryside of the Listowel parish) and The Ashes. Multi coloured posters, printed by Cuthbertsons, would appear on shop windows, giving details of match fixtures, dates. These posters also carried an image of a man kicking a ball and to this day I can recall this poster image with clarity. Each match played would be discussed for days after, and as the rounds progressed the excitement would grow. Final night would come, teams would have trained at their secret training centre’s .The Boro in Dowd’s field, where the Lidl store is now located, An Gleann back in their field on the bank of the Feale. The Boro supporters, bedecked with team colours on coat lapels, carrying flags would gather at St. Patrick’s Hall, and fronted by a band of Charles Street musicians would proudly march to the theatre of dreams. For some reason, I suppose mainly preoccupied with the Boro’s preparation I never witnessed An Gleann supporters or any other team on their way to a final. Most years (with a few exceptions) the final was between the great rivals, The Boro and An Gleann; (nearly always, victory went to An Gleann, but always after a titanic struggle).

It is worth recording here, the first verse, of Sean Ashe’s wonderful poem of the 1935 final, which conjures the sense of excitement of these games,

“The world and his wife were there to see the contest played,

The ploughman left his horses and the tradesman left his trade,

Excitement spread, like lightning flash through every house in town,

The night the Boro’ Rovers met in combat with the Gleann”.

To an outsider or younger generation, it is hard to explain the excitement these match’s served up, but I presume, it was of a simpler and less uncomplicated time, and we were in our youth.

  Finally, I wish to congratulate all of the businesses’ in William Street, Upper and Lower, who have come through the recession and are still operating.

I would also like to place on record those businesses’ still in operation  whose pioneering families  believed, in our street and our town, a century and more ago.

O’Connor’s (Mike the Pie’s) 28 Upper William Street

Sheahan’s bar, 14 Upper William Street.  

 Kennelly’s Cloth Hall, 10 Upper William Street.

Stack-McGrath, 2 Upper William Street.

Damian Stack, 41 Lower William Street.

Browne’s, 19 Lower William Street.

J.J. Galvin, 21 Lower William Street.

Corbett-McGillicuddy, 26 Lower William Street.

Joe Broderick’s, 10 Lower William Street.