Monday, November 26, 2012

The Gathering: Listowel

My husband Ben had the good fortune to inherit a collection of letters belonging to his great-grandfather, Frank Gleasure, who - God love him - saved every letter his family ever sent him from their hometown of Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland. We've been transcribing them and posting them online at The Gleasure Letters. A few months ago, we had the good fortune to be interviewed on Skype by Tadgh Kennelly. Kennelly is an Irish athlete living in Australia who, as part of the tourism initiative The Gathering, returned to his native Listowel and hosted the Listowel-focused episode of the tv show The Gathering.

During the episode, they tell the story of my ancestors-in-law among tales of other Listowel residents, past and present. (They got only minor details wrong. For example, Frank was Ben's great-grandfather, not his grandfather. But for the most part, it was pretty accurate.) The Skype interview with Ben and yours truly airs towards the middle of the episode, but pieces of the Gleasure story are told earlier, too. There's a major surprise involved for us!

Since the episode has recently become available on YouTube, I wanted to share it here. Enjoy!