Millstreet.ie

The fields decked with wildflowers on that sunny Sunday
And the hawthorns were cloaked in their white blossoms of May
The countryside lush and green Nature in her Spring bloom
On either side of the by road between Kilnamartyra and Macroom

A huge crowd had assembled for the road bowling score
For to watch Denny Penny Kelleher of Millstreet from the road to Rathmore
In a winner take all bets take on Muskerry’s best
Both men in short shirt sleeves were prepared for the test
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Her work for the Millstreet Tidy Town Committee for many years played a huge part in her life
Lena nee Kelleher to John O’ Keeffe was a good and a loving wife
Her and John often seen doing their tidy town work on the streets of Millstreet Town
On Summer evenings long ago after supper till sundown

With John out for their evening walk she will not be seen again
But a kind hearted woman of striking beauty in memory does remain
She was one of Millstreet’s finest so graceful and so tall
Mental pictures of her with those who knew her will remain to recall
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Phil Cronin is a man who is well travelled and half way around the Planet he has flown
Yet when he talks of Millstreet in Duhallow you always hear him mention the word home
And though he’s raised his children in Australia and he left Ireland many years ago
He still talks with s strong Duhallow accent an accent that he never will outgrow.

I met him at Rosemary Kelleher’s fiftieth birthday party with Kitty his endearing Irish wife
And they look well and young despite the passage of time and they don’t look ravaged by the cares of life,
Phil Cronin drank his beer and talked of Millstreet and back the roads of memory he did go
To the people he knew in the Town of Millstreet the Learys and John Sing and Mister O.
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Jimmy Cronin is a character of Millstreet
And in Duhallow his is a well known face
For years he coached the Millstreet young footballers
And he became known beyond his home place.

Jimmy Cronin had a stroke but he recovered
A young man at heart though in years getting old
In Millstreet Town his name will live forever
For he is one who has a ‘heart of gold’
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It’s a long way from Australia more than twelve thousand miles away
From County Cork and Ireland and the fields of Claraghatlea
But Mick Kelleher made that air trip he returned on holiday
And though the journey proved quite tiring he enjoyed his three months stay.

With him came his charming Aussie wife Rosemary and his lovely family
To live with him in the old place where he once lived happily
In the fields by Clara mountain where he hunted as a boy
Those were happy days for Michael and good memories never die. continue reading…

Oh I love Cloghoula countryside when wild flowers are in bloom
Just outside the Town of Millstreet on the way out towards Macroom
When the birds are singing gaily and new leaves are on the trees
And the brown bog larks are piping o’er the bogland of Gneeves.

Oh I love you sweet Kilmeedy at the back of Clara hill
I have always been in love with you and doubtless I always will
You are beautiful and peaceful and your fields are evergreen
And you wake to greet each dawning day like a rare beauty queen.
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The death has occurred on Thursday, November 24, 2011 of Pat Mullane, Priests Cross, Millstreet. Rosary tonight (Thursday) at 9pm in Tarrant’s Funeral Home. Removal tomorrow Friday night at 9pm to St. Patricks Church, Millstreet. Requiem Mass Saturday, at 12.30pm. Burial afterwards in St. Mary’s Cemetery. continue reading…

I knew him as a young man driving trucks for Paddy Den
Paddy Kelleher was always a man amongst men
A handsome looking fellow broad shouldered and tall
One of Millstreet’s finest as i do recall
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Larry O’Loughlin is a storyteller, author and playwright. He has written thirteen books for children and teenagers. Two of his titles for teenagers, ‘Is Anybody Listening?’ and ‘Breaking The Silence’, were awarded the prestigious International White Raven citation, and he was shortlisted for the Bisto Book Of The Year Award for ‘The Goban Saor’ and ‘Is Anybody Listening?’ His collection of children’s poetry ‘Worms Can’t Fly’, co-authored with his daughter Aislinn O’Loughlin is one of the top selling collections published for children in the last two decades, and his poetry for children has been  continue reading…

I met this Father Sweeney his ancestors from Millstreet
And he said I know a person you might like to meet
His name is Jerry Moynihan a Millstreet man like you
Though he’s been in Australia since nineteen fifty two.

I had been told of Jerry though him I had not known
And the priest gave me his number to contact him by phone
I know his brother’s Mick and Larry from many years ago
And his younger sister Fanny is one I vaguely know.

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When first I saw you Kitty I was just a twelve year boy
A mile or so from Millstreet Town on an evening in July
Walking on the Millstreet to Killarney road with your sister Margaret
I still have not forgotten ‘that memory with me yet’.

I was told that’s Kitty Cronin ‘the world is at her feet’
The pride of all Duhallow and the darling of Millstreet
And you were scarcely twenty then and at the threshold of your prime
But that was thirty years ago and further down the line.

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He moved to county Waterford one hundred miles down track
To work for Radley brothers they said he would be back
They said that in County Waterford he could not settle in
That he could never live too far away from kith and kin.

He worked for years in Millstreet and to Millstreet he belong
And that he could never leave the place but Pakie proved them wrong
And though he did return to Millstreet for the brief holiday
Down in the County Waterford he seemed happy to stay.
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Born and raised in Claraghatlea a mile from the Town of Millstreet and admired and respected and widely known
And though he had lived for years in Bandon we used to claim him as one of our own
And as a primary school going boy in the fifties to this day I can recall
When Denny Owen the Politician was a Minister in Ireland’s Dail.

In the murky game of Politics Denny Owen was a rarity
When he gave his word he kept it he was as honest as could be
And a favourite quote of old Den Looney’s was ‘we will stick by Denny Owen’
As a brother to Matt and son to Mary Annie he is still one of our own.
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This is for Bob Evans who retired today after many years of teaching at Millstreet Community School:

For years he’s lived and worked in Millstreet the man who shattered Millstreet’s dream
The day he kicked the equalizer for the Carbery football team
Fifteen thousand watched in Macroom some quite stunned by what they’d seen
When Millstreet were forced to a replay ‘thanks to Bob from Skibbereen’.

The replay was another fine game Millstreet matched them score for score
But when the ref blew the final whistle Carbery were to the fore
Millstreet fans were disappointed Carbery had won the day
But in that first game of missed chances Bobby Evans made them pay.

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Oft times I’d seen the butcher boy in Denis Corkery’s bar
He drove a honda motor bike could not afford a car
He did not believe in misery he let his money fly
Ballydaly’s Richard Regan dark haired butcher boy.

Oft times I’d seen the butcher boy at the Cork greyhound track
The sighs and moans of punters as the favourite dog fell back
He’d tear up his betting ticket another fifty gone
But it did not seem to bother him he’d say life must go on.
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In Carriglea or in Millstreet Town never more to be seen
But memories of him will remain evergreen
With his family and the many friends in life he made
Good memories live on when all else seem to fade

Jerry Singleton was well liked and well known far from his home countryside
As a breeder, owner and trainer of greyhounds he was known far and wide
His greyhounds with the Carriglea prefix renowned for early pace
At the big Munster tracks won many a feature race

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My cousin, they tell me, doesn’t wake up much,
nor does she seem to see the green mountain
framed in the window of this chapel of ease
for travellers booked in for their long pilgrimage.
When I leave at the end of visiting-hours
a small, tidy man is sitting by the door:
stick, well-knotted tie, watch-chain, tweed jacket.
He gets to his feet, raises his hat and enquires:
‘Excuse my troubling you, but would you be
going anywhere near a railway station?’
The young smiling nurse bends over him,
and takes him by the elbow, saying:
‘Maybe tomorrow, James. Maybe tomorrow
we’ll take you to the station.’
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Dick Kiely was the principal teacher when I was in primary school
And he seemed quite impartial and with fairness he did rule
He did not have his favourites as some other teachers had
A good and honest fellow and in him nothing bad.

A famous gaelic footballer when he was in his prime
But I never see him playing it was before my time
By all accounts the mighty Dick was a renowned athlete
One of the famous sportsmen for to represent Millstreet.
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Big Jerry Shea was in his prime when I was a young fellow
He was a wild one on his day though the years have made him mellow
In the pub with a few drinks in he could be very funny
And with the big fellow about the atmosphere was sunny.

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Amazing how a simple thought can bring old memories back
Like the advertisment in the Cork Examiner by ballroom proprietor Dominic Mac
Which read ‘the Star in Millstreet where love stories begin’
The gray haired grandmother today a teenager back then.
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