The Ballybunion thread

snow scorpion · 28-11-2008 4:29pm

He looks like he's in a straight jacket!

(There are some -- Hillary, included no doubt -- who would think he'd be better off that way. He'd get into less mischief.)

TargetWidow · 28-11-2008 9:06pm

Ah poor auld Bill is grand! I'd prefer him anyday to that Bush fella. I wonder has anyone warned Obama about the curse of the Whitehouse and how he'll never again get any nookie from his wife once he becomes president and A) like all bar 1 president before him will get it elsewhere or

like Bush wont notice!!!:D
I saw him when he got out of his car in Ballyb and I have to say he was very "Charismatic". I'll say no more!

snow scorpion · 02-12-2008 3:18pm

I found this at YouTube. Ballybunion by the Sea as sung by...

Oliver Hardy??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKugWCs9pRY

TargetWidow · 02-12-2008 11:09pm

OMG SnowScorpion! This is mad!

Unfortunately this is what you could expect to be driven to in midwinter for entertainment in Ballyb. It's why I left. (Not Oliver Hardy; the penchant for strange antics for entertainment purposes.) That- and there were never any good beach parties or caravan parties anymore (or I was getting a bit too old to be invited to them!:()

So the chase is on.

Who is it?

snow scorpion · 03-12-2008 1:15am

I'm fecked if I know.

RiderOnTheStorm · 05-12-2008 1:47pm

TargetWidow wrote: »

Who is it?

No idea, sorry.

As one who currently resides in BB, I can vouch that winter entertainment is better than this....... anything is better than this!

TargetWidow · 05-12-2008 10:53pm

I think I know who it is but I have to find out his name. He's from Asdee. Its the suit and tie and general bodyshape I recognise. I know this guy from seeing him around Ballyb in summer driving a little silver car. I was driving home from dropping the sqealer off in creche in Ballyb this morning going through Asdee to Ballylongmicky when our elusive Mr Hardy was driving towards me in that very suit and tie. It was him in all bar the head!! Now I just need to name that guy.

And sorry Rider, I didn't mean to dis the entertainment I was only messing! But you must admit winter can be really bleak there (it's not much better here, it's just no-one has ever pi&&ed in my front door here on a summers night!).
It's caravan parties like this I miss........

:D:D:D

TargetWidow · 09-12-2008 9:58pm

It's two lads from "the wee North". Apologies all around for suggesting that anyone in Ballyb would resort to this for entertainment. Consider me chastised! I'm off now for a bit of self-flaggelation before bed.:P

RiderOnTheStorm · 10-12-2008 9:34am

TargetWidow wrote: »

It's two lads from "the wee North". Apologies all around for suggesting that anyone in Ballyb would resort to this for entertainment. Consider me chastised! I'm off now for a bit of self-flaggelation before bed.:P

oh er mrs .... now thats what i call winter entertainment! lol

I know what you mean about Ballyb, winter, summer, etc. Its like 2 different towns. When we first moved here (about 4 years ago) we could not understand why the locals said they prefer the winter to the summer. Its like they get their own town back. But I am beginning to understand.

I have seen that clip of the mobile mosh .... i think i recognise quite a few in it ... and the mobile home its in too!

Celtise · 13-12-2008 6:34am

haha i recognised most of the people at the caravan party...not there myself though thank god.

i dont really know which ballybunion i prefer to be honest.....probably summer moreso when its not totally over run cause i do/did not enjoy the quiet at all! heading back now sometime over xmas.

oh found these earlier when i was looking for that pic of the sign on the castle green:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15268087@N05/sets/72157602819661140/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15268087@N05/sets/72157602818339266/

snow scorpion · 24-12-2008 4:52am

Hope you liked my pics, Celtise. (You didn't know those were mine, did you?

)

Well, here's my little Christmas present to ye (as ye say in Kerry) - another one of my little videos.

"Nollaig Shona Daoibh"
(NO-Lihg HO-nuh JEEV)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9AWlhRG8rU

Celtise · 25-12-2008 1:01am

nope i didnt scorpian! lol its weird i really needed pics of that sign there last year and i didnt even try the net, thought that no one would have enough interest to bother!

am in Ballyb right now and its 00:01 so merry xmas from here!

TargetWidow · 29-12-2008 12:15am

My cousin Tom told me about this tonight (done by his other cousin Conor Liston) and I thought it brilliant. Spot the Ballybunion landmarks... this lad has a bright future ahead of him in animation.

Celtise · 29-12-2008 12:19am

I've seen that before. I know Conor and glad that things are going good for him now.

PaddyW · 29-12-2008 6:50pm

Just came across this thread today.. Longest I've ever seen on Ballybunion.. Ever! Some pics of the Christmas Day swim this year for you :

snow scorpion · 31-12-2008 5:55pm

Welcome to the thread, Paddy. Always happy to add to our little family.

Looks like there were close to a hundred people swimming. When I read about the swim (about a week before Christmas) I was thinking, "How many will show up? About a dozen or so?"

Celtise · 31-12-2008 7:23pm

you'll be surprised to know there was about 300 they say! i missed it this year cause i went to an earlier mass but thats what the kerryman paper said and there are loads of pics.

snow scorpion · 01-01-2009 5:26pm

300!!

If I was there, there would have been one more ...

... witness to the festivities.

The online edition of the Kerryman is borderline useless. I'll have to see if I can find an actual hardcopy edition somewhere around here. If it wasn't for Paddy W's pictures I would be completely in the dark about what it looked like.

Oops, I almost forgot: Happy New Year to all the posters and readers of The Ballybunion Thread.

ollaetta · 02-01-2009 11:04pm

Hello to all on the Ballybunion thread. I have no connection to the town other than being a semi-regular visitor over the years.

I collect old postcards and recently acquired a batch which includes three old ones of Ballybunion which I estimate to be almost 100 years old. I don't know if these images are common or not but I have included them as attachments.

One thing that intrigues me is the church shown not far from the castle in one photo. I know nothing about it and would be interested in learning what happened to it and when.

snow scorpion · 03-01-2009 5:38pm

Hello, ollaetta. So you're one of the people driving up the numbers in the views column. I often wonder who those people are. Keep up the good work!

I'm sure someone who is more knowledgeable about the town than I am will have more information for you before too long, but I think that church (was it Church of Ireland?) is a library now. You pass it on the way out to the golf course.

I'm pretty sure there's a video made while driving around Ballyb earlier in the thread where you can see the church as you go by.

TargetWidow · 03-01-2009 11:34pm

My nan Nora Allen (nee Collins) was born in 1906 and raised in the little white cottage in front of the big one in the second photo. Collins'. The big cottage belonged to a woman called Pidge Jones. She was famous with all the little kids of my nans time for giving them "spuds and dip".! I have a photo of my great-grand-mother Hannah Collins (nee Long) with my dad sitting on her knee outside the boiler house of the seaweed baths they started.

Celtise · 03-01-2009 11:44pm

I have doubts that that is the old protestant church (now library), it just seems impossible to me that the new could be in the shot like that. perhaps another church used to be closer to the castle.

I've two of those pictures before. I think my Nan or Dad have them up on the wall with other old pictures. Ironically about 15 years ago i was in visible in the background of a ballyb postcard that sold around town; sadly i lost it though.

I think I know your family targetwindow.

TargetWidow · 03-01-2009 11:58pm

I think the story with the church was that it was COI. It was demolished and the stones numbered and reconstructed (my brain is saying in Listowel but I do not know why!!) I can remember vague snippets of my dad telling me about the fantastic way they had of taking the building apart and numbering each and every stone and then re-building it elsewhere. Unfortunately the elders of my clan are all passed on now so there is no-one for me to ask. The other big building on the site of the old Atlantic Hotel (scene of much romance and where I hooked up with my hubby) was the Presbytery of that church. You've got my curiousity up now... I'm off elsewhere to look up that church building and where it ended up...because you are right, the library COI church building looks nothing like that old church...

RiderOnTheStorm · 05-01-2009 10:22am

The subject of the church (and library) has come up a couple of times and I think there was a fairly def answer recently (in last few months) in this thread ... I will try and dig it out when I get some time (time, the eternal enemy!), there was mention of someone (the poster) riding in a tractor & trailer with the numberd blocks ....

but if memory serves me right .....

The church on the castle green (as seen in many old photos) was Church of Ireland, and was moved (cant remember where ... ) and the library on Sandhill road (on way to golf course) was a church (still looks like one too!) but it was moved into Ballyb from somewhere else (Ballyduff???)

so, 2 churches moved, 1 going in and 1 going out, and one of them became a library. Perhaps this is why there is confusion ...

and Happy New Year to all reader and contributors of the Ballybunion forum

PS I had a look at the Christmas Day swim photos (nice ones, Paddy) and I know I was in the crowd running down and in the water, but I cant see myself there !!! I would recognise myself, as I got a new tattoo for Christmas ... ;-)

RiderOnTheStorm · 05-01-2009 10:33am

BB-Survivor wrote: »

This is my first post. The church was moved from Rattoo in the mid 50s by Joe Boyle and Willie Harnett. A group of us used to cycle from BB to St Patricks College in Causeway, and sometimes we would get a lift in the back of the pickup truck which transported the church, stone by stone.
The stones in the back (only a few could be carried at a time, as they were so heavy) had a letter and number, eg D46 to identify where they were to be placed.
The old C of I was demolished, and some of the floor tiles were used in houses in BB.
I worked for Joe Boyle (a lovely man RIP) for a summer in the car park in the early 60's and it sure was a summer full of memories - good ones.
Lots of good memories from the Old Central and the Ballerina. I am not old enough to have danced in the Pavilion.
Great to read about good old BB - I had plenty of the Champagne Air and a full quota of beverages too often !!!

found that post .....
looks like the C of I was demolished, not moved ....
And memory is failing me (getting old!) as BB says the church that was moved (to become the library) was from Rattoo (but thats beside Ballyduff, so thats close, eh?)

boroman · 05-01-2009 12:18pm

Was just looking at the Ballyb. site and came across the querys on the old town. As far as I know the Church Of Ireland
which stood where the car park now is was erected during 1860s/1870s period to serve a fairly large Prodestant congregation in the area, a rectory was also built next door. The Church was closed and deconscrated late 50s early 60s due to falling numbers. The Church was taken over as far as I know by Kerry CO.Co., was knocked down and the stones used as rubble, meanwhile the Rectory was bought by Tralee garage owner Tommy Horan who extended the building at the side and rere. It was opened in the late 1960s as Horans Hotel( afterwards called The Atlantic) and was a real summer hotspot,this period and into the 1970s was Ballybunions hayday, Mattie O Sullivan had done major work on the Central and Dan Kiely had built a new complex out on the Listowel road at the West End. I can recall the fierce rivalry between the 3 venue's, on one weekend alone the 3 major Irish Showband's were in competion,The Royal with Brendan Boyer, The Capitol wih Butch Moore AND The Dixies with Brendan O Brien. However the demise of the dancehalls brought this period to an end
and sadly I think the demise of the real nightlife that was Ballybunion.
The present Library which was a former church of Ireland building was brought from Rathoo, Ballyduff and rebuilt at its current site on Sandhill Road.

boroman · 05-01-2009 3:41pm

Came across a lovely website where there is a strong Ballybunion content,
you can see it at; irishoriginals.ie

boroman · 08-01-2009 1:11pm

I just found out how to show the above website as a link : http://www.irishoriginals.ie

RiderOnTheStorm · 09-01-2009 3:08pm

cool site. wonder if anyone would like their Christmas present from there ....

snow scorpion · 11-01-2009 7:39pm

Welcome, boroman. Always nice to have one of "the Listowel crowd" come for a visit.

I agree with Rider: cool site. I'll have to email them and find out if each set of placemats all show the same image or if you get a different image on each mat.

Some Ballybunion news for anyone in America. This week the TV show Out of Ireland is doing a feature on north Kerry. Now, their idea of north Kerry is Tralee, Castlegregory and Ballybunion.

Check here to see if Out of Ireland plays in your city.

I'll record it tomorrow night and maybe - a very big maybe - I can figure out how to move the recording from a homemade DVD to this board.

The Ballybunion thread

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