Welcome
Welcome to our Lyreacrompane website. Lyreacrompane is a rural, upland area in the Stacks and Glanaruddery Mountains of North Kerry in Ireland. On the Heritage page you will find information here about the heritage of our area, You can go to the Dan Paddy Andy Festival page to find out about our local four day festival and also read and download back issues of our Lyreacrompane Journals by going to the Journal page.
Our other project, the Irish Rambling House has its own website. You can visit it at www.irishramblinghouse.com
Lyreacrompane Journal Number 16 is out
The deadline for submission of articles and photos, old and new, for Number 17 is October 15, 2026. Please send all submissions to
Joe Harrington, Lyreacrompane and District Journal. Lyreacrompane. Listowel, Co Kerry by that date.
Lyreacrompane and District Journal 16 €15
Is now available in the usual outlets around North Kerry, At Lyreacrompane Post Office and by post from Lyreacrompane Journal, The Glen, Lyreacrompane, Listowel Co Kerry.
Posted to within Ireland - €25 (which includes P&P.) For more info call 00353 (0)87 285 3570
Another bumper edition of the Lyreacrompane and District Journal has landed on the shelves well in time for Christmas. “We make a special effort to get our Journal out in good time for neighbours and friends to get it to the exiles in time for the festive season”, editor Joe Harrington told Kerry’s Eye. Edition 16 of the Journal has 144 pages with 70,000 words and 240 photos. “Plenty of reading and perusing of photos until well into the new year”, Joe commented.
The content of this Journal is certainly varied and isn’t just confined to the Lyreacrompane District. There are articles about subjects as diverse as a terrible train crash in Tralee 125 years ago, the story of Badminton in Kerry, accounts of the War of Independence in North Kerry, a detailed look at events around the Blueshirts in the same area in the 1930s, a Castleisland welcome for Michael O’Leary VC, the Moyvane Carnivals, Kilmorna’s Medical elite, the trials and tribulations of a Ballylongford priest in Cork, the history of Listowel Sportsfield and some nicely presented environmental info by our own Dr Barry O’Dopnoghue. And that’s just to get you started!!!
Local historians, including Tom Dillon, Martin Moore, Kay Cabal, Mick Scannell, Fergal Browne, David O’Neill, Gerald O’Carroll and Kerry’s young historian of the year, Lucy Griffin, have contributed.
Those contributing poems and verses include Mike Gallagher, Susan Hitching, Matt Mooney, Winifred Curran, Junior Griffin.
The Lyreacrompane Journal was first published in 1990. In recent years, it has become an annual publication and remains one of the few surviving local journals of its kind. The story of Lyreacrompane, North Kerry and other bits of the world continue to be recorded for future generations and, as importantly, to provide entertaining and informative reading for the readers of today.
Lyreacrompane and District Journal Number 15.
There are still some copies of Lyreacrompane and District Journal Number 15 available (Tel 00 353 (0)87 285 3570. The articles in the 144-page, very colourful, production are drawn, not just from Lyreacrompane, but from all over North Kerry. Among the Lyreacrompane contributors are Mike Moloney, Brendan O’Callaghan who is originally from Knockaclare, Mossie O’Leary writes about the O’Leary family, Katie Galvin, the late Fr Brian Starken who went to school in Lyreacrompane, Kay O’Leary, Lorraine Nash on her musical tour of Australia, Tom O’Donoghue, Joe Harrington and a poem from Susan Hitching and one from Pádraigín Ní hAnnáin.
Many people contributed photos, new and old, including Patricia Lenihan, Marie Sugrue, and a lovely photo from John Doran of his famous footballing dad, Billy Doran, at a strategy meeting with Kerry teammates in the 1960s and Dr Eamon O’Sullivan, trainer of the County Senior team. Kay Caball writes about the Moloney’s of Lyreacrompane and there is a Christmas story by Neil Brosnan.
These are just the tip of the iceberg in a Journal of over 78,000 words – the size of an average novel – good value at €15. The Journal is available at all the usual outlets around North Kerry but especially from Johnny Nolan at Lyreacrompane Post Office. For more information call 087 285 3570. And don’t forget – the exiles would love a copy as usual.
Lyreacrompane and District Journal 14 €15
Still available by post from The Lyreacrompane Journal, The Glen, Lyreacrompane, Listowel Co Kerry.
Posted to within Ireland - €25 (which includes P&P.) For more info call 00353 (0)87 285 3570
One of the longest running local Journals – the Lyreacrompane and District Journal. This is, by far, the biggest Lyre Journal yet, running to 148 packed pages of over 87,000 words and dozens of photos. The main content of the Journal is local history from all parts of North Kerry – including, from Castleisland, Listowel, Abbeyfeale, Ballybunion, Brosna and Knocknagoshel and the hinterland of those places. The increasingly recognised heritage of Lyreacrompane itself is featured. A few copies are still available. Call 00353 (0)87 285 3570
‘Flagrant Bribery in Castleisland’ is the title of a detailed and humourous article on the nine-day commission of investigation into the 1908 Council Elections in Castleisland. ‘The Story of Brosna’, written by Fr. Michael Gerard Murphy in 1930, is reviewed and abbreviated by Joe Harrington. ‘Duagh through the Years’ recounts local happenings in the Parish since 1853. The Scartaglin Murders just after the Civil War are well researched and, along other incidents in Listowel down the years, the huge turnout there in 1869 in support of the Fenian prisoners is detailed. A couple of moonlighting stories from Knocknagoshel are included and the transportation to Van Dieman’s Land of the Drurys from Dysert on the banks of the Feale is researched.
Kay O’Leary contributes a fascinating series of short articles and snippets from local history under the headings of ‘Odds and Ends’ and ‘Things I came across when I was looking for other things’. Kay also reveals the names of 55 of the members of the RIC who served in the RIC Barracks in Lyreacrompane between 1881 and 1920.
Denis Lenihan, Chicago, recalls his days in Castleisland and the Vietnam war. Neil Brosnan, Listowel, recalls his younger days on the boglands of Dromaddamore. John Stack, Moynsha and Kildare, tells the story of the Ellis family of Abbeyfeale. Audrey McEnery, New York, connects with her roots in Lyreacrompane. The late Esther Ahern Lyreacrompane supplied a lovely short story. Shane Harrington, New York, contrasts his childhood trips to Lyre and to England with the Irish Rambling House, with a recent coast to coast tour of the USA with his band. Nora Scanlon, living in Waterford, recalls her younger days in Duagh. Marie Buckley Howard Canada recounts her early life in Banemore, and a Christmas story by retired Garda Tim Doyle Beaufort and Dublin will bring a tear to the eye.
Our thanks to local camera woman, Patricia Lenihan, for many of the photos in this issue. If you feel that you have got a story that you’d like to share for our next journal now is the time to talk to us about it.
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Once Upon a Road
Joe Harrington
Once Upon A Road, written by Joe Harrington, contains 364 full colour pages and 315 images, maps and photos. It is a comprehensive account of the oldest turnpike road to the Cork Butter Market. Joe describes the book as a “search for the olden days on a sixty-mile journey through 275 years of time.
Built by John Murphy under a 1747 Act of Parliament, every mile tells its own tale and along the way we meet Whiteboys and Hedge Schoolmasters, Freedom Fighters and Moonlighters, Famines and Natural Disasters, Mass Rocks and Wedge Tombs, Bronze age hoards and Bog Butter, Lost Estates and Evicted Tenants – and the part played by the road in the slave trade.
The book, which cost €25, sold out early 2023 but is available in libraries in Kerry. For info - Joe Harrington, Lyreacrompane, Listowel, Co. Kerry. Ph. 087 285 3570
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