NEW Kathy White House – Kathy Buckley, Her Culinary Odyssey

Were she alive today, Kathy Buckley would be seen as something of a Nigella Lawson. Born in Upper William Street in Listowel, Co. Kerry, this Irish woman was head cook for three U.S. presidents. US culinary historian Laura Shapiro relates a mouth-watering smorgasbord in her foreword on Kathy’s talents: ” Gathered over a lifetime in the kitchen, these notes tell us that she was endlessly curious, endlessly adventurous, endlessly eager to improve what she put on the table.”

Limerick – Snapshots of the Treaty City and County 1840-1960

This book gives the story of Limerick merchants and traders in the nineteenth and twentieth century, illustrated with old billheads, invoices and photographs. Many of the merchant families are long forgotten and this book rekindles their memory. It is a journey across the years in Limerick, from before the Great Famine to 1960. Transportation of heavy goods was by canal or down the Shannon Estuary, as road transport was slower and less dependable. Readers of this book will be transferred back in time to an era when life was slower and not as easy as the one we have become accustomed to today.

Tom Donovan is a native of Glin, and now lives in Clarina, County Limerick. He is editor of the Old Limerick Journal, the Ballybrown Journal and the Glencorbry Chronicle. He also edited The Knights of Glin, Seven Centuries of Change (2009).

Vincent Carmody is a proud Listowel man, who has published a number of books starting with North Kerry Camera Photographic Memories of Listowel and its Surroundings 1860-1960, in 1989. He followed that book with Listowel – Snapshots of an Irish Market Town, 1850- 1950, in 2012. Vincent was co-author of Newcastle West In Close-Up…Snapshots of an Irish Provincial town, in association with Newcastle West Historical Society, in 2017. In 2018, he published Listowel, a Printer’s Legacy, which detailed the story of printing in North Kerry from 1870 to 1970.

Listowel – A Printer’s Legacy

The story of printing in North Kerry 1870 to 1970
This is a beautiful book, a companion to local historian, Vincent Carmody’s, Listowel, Snapshots of an Irish Market town. This is another chapter in the story of the Literary Capital of Ireland.

In the days before local radio or the Internet, if you wanted to advertise, you went to the printer. Listowel had a colourful printer, Bob Cuthbertson. Over two generations, Cuthbertson Printers printed bills for auctions, fairs, dances, dramas, political rallies and public notices, as well as tickets for raffles, dances and socials . Cuthbertsons also had a close relationship with Bryan MacMahon and they printed his ballads in off cuts of paper from the larger posters.

Posters, tickets and playbills etc. were usually displayed for a while and then discarded. But Listowel is lucky to have a collector who saw the value of these documents as an important piece of social history. In this book, Vincent shares with us his huge collection of printed memorabilia along with his knowledge of the stories behind the posters. Vincent is a painstaking researcher and he has gathered an unrivalled collection of printed items relating to life in North Kerry in the century between 1870 and 1970. He now shares this collection with us in this beautifully produced book… a collector’s item.

Listowel – Snapshots of an Irish Market Town, 1850-1950

This book by Listowel native, Vincent Carmody, is an account of life in a prosperous market town from the years 1850 to 1950. The town in question is Listowel, Co. Kerry, but it could be any town at that time. This is a valuable social history, full of information, gossip and anecdotes, amply illustrated with old billheads and photographs. You will see here handwritten receipts, gentle requests for payment to recalcitrant debtors and rare posters, flyers and other assorted memorabilia from that slower age.

Vincent Carmody’s lovely book paints a picture of a gentler age, an age of craftsmen and industry. This was the era of the horse and donkey and the handwritten letter. It was an era of fairs and markets.

Vincent takes you back in time in this comprehensive account of life back then.The book is a one off, a collectors item, a treasure for anyone who values historical artifacts and stories.

To contact Vincent, email info@listoweloriginals.com or call +353 (0) 87 966 7112.