Heritage is hot, now to capitalise on it

MANY visitors to Listowel seek out John B Keane’s bar, or the street where another famous writer, Bryan MacMahon, lived.

But, they might overlook numerous other aspects of a place so bountiful in heritage and tradition.

Long before it became a rendezvous of literary folk, the north Kerry market town was renowned for the salmon-rich River Feale and its beautiful, artistic shopfronts — not just the topless Maid of Erin which fronts the Central Hotel, in the square. Every second building in this town has a facade worth noting and conserving.