The Kilmorna Collection

18/06/2026

For the avoidance of doubt, I am not a real DJ.

I am sitting beside the equipment in this photo so the insurance company can be told there was responsible supervision.

The insurance company has not met me.

An actual DJ will play from 2pm this Saturday.

There will be some good tunes, great coffee and a shop full of lovely people afternooning.

Saturday from 2pm.

The Kilmorna Collection
23 Church Street, Listowel

17/06/2026

EVERYONE HAS ONE RECORD THEY WOULD SUBMIT AS CHARACTER EVIDENCE.

Not necessarily the one they play most.

The one they would like strangers to believe they play most.

Mine is Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way.

It suggests patience, intelligence, restraint and a sophisticated relationship with silence.

The photograph documents the only known occasion on which I demonstrated all four.

This is the beginning of a new series at The Kilmorna Collection.

We want to photograph people with the record they believe makes the strongest case for them.

The album that explains everything.

Or, at the very least, distracts from the available evidence.

Bring yours into the shop, and we will play it.

We will provide the chair and take the photograph.

You may make a brief statement in your defence.

The record will probably be more convincing.

16/06/2026

Hanafins Bar Annascaul has been standing in Annascaul since 1830.

Yesterday, it was waiting for a jazz record from Listowel.

Michelle had contacted us because it was John’s birthday. She wanted a copy of Nubya Garcia's Odyssey after discovering her through Other Voices in Di**le.

We had one in the shop.

The birthday was close enough that the post had ceased to be a delivery option and become a gamble.

So I put the album on the motorcycle and headed west.

Odyssey is Nubya Garcia’s second studio album, released on Concord Jazz in September 2024. It is an ambitious record, moving between modern jazz, strings and something altogether seriously expansive.

It also survived the road to Annascaul without complaint.

Annascaul is often treated as somewhere passed through on the way to Di**le.

This is a fairly serious misunderstanding.

Tom Crean came from Annascaul. The sculptor Jerome Connor was born there. The Tralee and Di**le railway once passed through the village.

It is a small place carrying far more history than seems reasonable.

Hanafin’s belongs completely to that history.

The pub dates back to 1830 and has passed through six generations. It has not been restored into a tasteful imitation of an old Irish pub.

It has simply remained one.

John has spent years recording and sharing the history of Annascaul. A considerable amount of the village’s past appears to be stored in his head, with further evidence distributed across the walls of the bar.

A village loses something when every old room is polished, themed and explained.

Hanafin’s has avoided that fate.

Here, Annascaul’s history is still attached to actual people. It sits at the bar, interrupts conversations, corrects the official version and occasionally orders another pint.

John has helped ensure that the village’s past remains a living argument rather than a plaque beside a car park.

We had intended to deliver the album, wish him a happy birthday and continue on our way.

This plan deteriorated almost immediately.

It was a genuine pleasure to spend the afternoon with John and Michelle in their gorgeous pub, talking about music, Annascaul and the people who have passed through both.

Happy birthday, John.

The record arrived on time.

We left considerably later.

No complaint has been lodged.

15/06/2026

A STATEMENT ON THE KERRY VINYL MARKET

For almost fifty years, Di**le Record Shop - www.dinglerecordshop.com controlled 100 percent of the Kerry vinyl market.

No competitors.

No alternative supply chain.

No meaningful choice for the consumer.

From a small premises on Green Street, Mazz O’Flaherty built one of Ireland’s great independent music shops.

She supported local musicians, kept important recordings in circulation and hosted bands before the music industry discovered them and explained that it had been helping all along.

People loved the shop.

This allowed the monopoly to continue almost entirely unchallenged.

Then, I opened a record shop in Listowel and began referring to Di**le as “the incumbent.”

Di**le continued operating normally.

I raised the matter at our last staff meeting.

Paulina had prepared a list.

Coffee stock.

Opening hours.

The milk order.

I wanted to talk about competition in the vinyl retail business.

Paulina asked what competition.

I said Di**le.

Niamh looked up from her phone and said she loved Di**le Record Shop.

I explained that for nearly fifty years Di**le had enjoyed complete control of the Kerry vinyl market.

Paulina said this was probably because there was no other record shop.

I made it clear, Our objectives were clear.

Break the monopoly.

Ensure the consumer chooses Listowel.

Paulina asked whether Di**le knew we were competing with them.

I said not yet.

She said that made it less of a competition and more of something happening entirely in my head.

Niamh said Mazz was lovely.

I reminded her that she worked for a rival record shop.

She said she could work here and still like Di**le.

Paulina asked what action I wanted the staff to take.

I said we needed to send a clear message to the market.

She asked who the market was.

I said Kerry.

She asked whether Kerry had an email address.

Niamh said Mazz probably already had it.

Paulina returned to the milk order.

Niamh asked whether liking Di**le’s Instagram posts was still allowed.

I said I would review the social media policy.

I’m never talking to either of them again about my plans for the dominant market position.

The Kerry vinyl market is enormous.

I cannot release the figures.

I do not have the figures.

But records are now being sold in both North and West Kerry, occasionally on the same Saturday.

This cannot be allowed to continue without leadership.

To be clear, Di**le Record Shop is a remarkable place.

What Mazz has built over nearly fifty years cannot be copied.

We checked.

Mazz may not know there is a vinyl war.

Paulina maintains that this is because there is no vinyl war.

Niamh is asking when we are going to Di**le.

At present, I am the only person taking the situation seriously.

This gives The Kilmorna Collection complete control of the conflict.

14/06/2026

Sunday is a good day for records that help control our emotions and remind us that we don't have to work everyday of the week.

Moon Safari by Air was released in January 1998 and still sounds as though it belongs to a future that was calmer, better dressed and considerably less interested in notifications.

La Femme d’Argent takes seven minutes to go almost nowhere, beautifully.

All I Need barely raises its voice.

Sexy Boy introduces just enough unease to stop the album becoming an expensive classical album.

The whole record is warm, elegant, strange and faintly decadent.

It suits open windows, late coffee, unfinished books and a slow afternoon in Listowel with no pressing need to achieve anything.

Niamh is not entirely convinced by it.

Fortunately, musical taste has not yet been transferred to the website department.

We have it in the shop.

I think it's online too.

13/06/2026

Several sculptures disappeared from the exhibition last night, and red dots appeared on more than a few of the drawings.

They were all paid for.

The opening of The Weight of Moss and Memories by Kirsi Salo Art brought together regulars, artists, art lovers, local business owners, friends, neighbours and people who had simply come in to see what was going on.

They stayed.

They looked.

They spoke to Kirsi.

They spoke to one another.

Thank you to everyone who came and made the room feel alive.

Most of all, thank you to Kirsi for trusting The Kilmorna Collection with a body of work that is strange, beautiful, serious and entirely its own.

Some pieces have now found new homes.

Others remain on display for one more week, until Friday 19 June.

You are very welcome to come in and see them.

No prior understanding is required.

12/06/2026

Last night, artists, carpenters and various skilled professionals worked late into the evening installing Kirsi Salo Art exhibition.

This was necessary.

What was a lot less necessary was the amount of noise they made while doing it.

Thursday evening is The Reading Room at The Kilmorna Collection, and I was trying to finish Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, that I got from from Woulfe's Independent Bookshop last week.

The exhibition is now ready.

The book remains unfinished.

Kirsi Salo’s The Weight of Moss and Memories opens tonight from 7pm to 9pm.

The artist will be in attendance.

If you’re coming, keep the noise down, cause I need to finish my book.

11/06/2026

Earlier this week, Paulina conducted post Writers’ Week employee performance reviews.

Niamh went first.

Niamh always goes first.

This is because she works from home in Ballybunion and is the favourite.

As owner, I assumed I would attend.

Paulina explained that I would not.

I pointed out that I was the owner.

Paulina pointed out that she was the manager.

The discussion concluded shortly afterwards.

I was assigned to a Party for One in Jumbo's Family Restaurant.

A Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a Club Orange were approved as a business expense.

The process had clearly been planned in advance.

This was not reassuring.

Several hours later I returned to the shop.

The review had clearly gone very well.

Paulina looked pleased.

Niamh looked pleased.

This immediately raised concerns.

The website was performing well.

The online sales were performing well.

Everybody appeared to be performing well.

Then a rather uncomfortable thought occurred to me.

The website had been built without me.

The website was being managed without me.

The online sales were arriving without me.

The review had taken place without me.

By now a pattern was beginning to emerge.

I stood quietly.

Customers were buying records.

Coffee was being made.

The website was generating sales.

Paulina was managing.

Niamh was improving things.

Nobody appeared to require anything from me.

05/06/2026

Next Friday evening we open The Weight of Moss and Memories by Kirsi Salo Art.

The first time I saw the work I spent several minutes looking at it before realising I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at.

I like this.

Too much of modern life is immediately understandable.

A coffee is a coffee.

An invoice is an invoice.

A parking ticket is definitely a parking ticket.

Art should occasionally remain mysterious.

Kirsi is a Finnish artist living and working in Kerry. The exhibition brings together large ceramic sculptures and drawings, many of them substantial in scale and all of them impossible to mistake for anything else.

The opening reception takes place on Friday 12 June from 7pm to 9pm.

Kirsi will be here.

There will be wine.

There will be music.

Unfortunately for those visiting, I will be there.

The exhibition then runs until 19 June.

If you’ve never been to an exhibition opening before, this is probably a good place to start.

04/06/2026