This article is from page 27 of the 2007-05-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 27 JPG
IT HAS been almost a century since the Kelly family began selling peri- winkles and seagrass to holiday makers on the Kilkee seafront and the tradition remains strong today as the stall prepares for another hectic SLebeavenoe
Frank Kelly, one of the third gener- ation to keep up the family tradition, said that his grandmother was one of the first to sell the local delicacy.
“My grandmother, Katie Kelly and a friend of hers called Ellie Halloran, started the stall nearly a hundred years ago now. At the time they were using pony cars and they would push
them up to the beach with a white sheet thrown over the contents. They sold the periwinkles to customers from the back. There would have been very few people in the business at that time,” he said.
He said that he believes the starting year to be the year that the Titanic sank, 1912.
“My father, Michael Kelly who was a local councillor for 20 years, took it up after his mother. I have been running the stall now for 20 years as well and I hope that my niece, Nora Kelly who helps me out on it now, will take it over after me.”
Observing decades of change from a prominent spot on the strand line,
Frank described the transformation of Kilkee.
“The town has really changed be- cause of all the new buildings. I think that it’s not as good now because it’s more expensive. In the summer years ago, the town used to packed every day and not just weekends.”
The Kelly stall, the longest in busi- ness in Kilkee, has had many famous customers according to Frank’s col- lection of photographs.
“Richard Harris was a great friend of mine. He used to come and see my grandmother and he knew all my un- cles. Anytime he came to Kilkee he would drop by. The storyteller Ea- monn Kelly and Phil Coulter and his
wife have been down,” said Frank.
‘Winkle picking can be a hard slog in peak times but Frank hopes to keep the tradition going for another 100 years.
“We pick them up near Loop Head and other places and cook them in the family home. We pick the seagrass locally and dry it under the sun. We go out either very early in the evening with the tides and it is tough work. It has always been a family thing and I hope my niece will carry it on. That was my grandmother’s wish before she died.”