Carnegie Free Library

When is a library not a library? When it’s Listowel's Carnegie Free Library. This building at Upper Church Street is now home to Kerry Dioscesan Youth Service's Listowel Centre, but from 1928 to 1995 it housed the local library. The Carnegie Trust owned the building at first and, as the name suggests, it was a free library, serving Listowel and its vicinity. An earlier premises on the Bridge Road, was burned by the Black and Tans in 1921. The Carnegie Trust handed over responsibility for the library services to Kerry County Council in 1953. In 1995 the building had fallen into disrepair and the library moved to its new premises opposite Halla an Phiarsaigh. KYDS completely revamped and refurbrished the building.