Listowel (/ˈlɪstoʊl/ LISS-tohl; Irish: Lios Tuathail, meaning 'Tuathal's ringfort',[5] pronounced [l̠ʲɪsˠ ˈt̪ˠuəhəlʲ]) is a heritage market town in County Kerry, Ireland.

[5] Described by the organisers of Listowel's writers festival as the "Literary Capital of Ireland",[6] a number of internationally known playwrights and authors have lived there, including Bryan MacMahon and John B. Keane.

Listowel used to have its own railway station on a broad gauge line between Tralee and Limerick city; however, this was closed to passengers in 1963, to freight in 1978, and finally abandoned and lifted in 1988.

Surrounding villages include Asdee, Ballybunion, Ballyduff, Ballylongford, Causeway, Duagh, Lisselton, Lixnaw, Moyvane, Finuge and Tarbert.

In subsequent documents the name of the town is written variously as: Lissmoli, Listuoli, Lystuanyl, Lestovell, Lestowell, Lishtoghill, Listwohill and Listowhil.

The last bastion against Queen Elizabeth I in the Desmond campaign, Listowel Castle was built in the 15th century and was the last fortress of the Geraldines to be subdued.

The castle became the property of the Hare family, the holders of the title of Earl of Listowel, after reverting away from the Fitzmaurices, Knights of Kerry.

The Listowel and Ballybunion Railway was built to the Lartigue system, with a double-engined steam locomotive straddling an elevated rail.

The Black and Tans had occupied the town barracks, forcing the redeployment, something which was both dangerous and hopeless in the face of huge local hostility to the men in question.

Police commissioner Colonel Smythe wished that the RIC constables would operate with the army in countering the IRA's fight for freedom in the more rural areas.

Led by Constable Jeremiah Mee, they refused, both from a point of personal safety and possibly also from a sense of sympathy with their country men struggling against the British forces.

Holders of the title have included William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel, who was a Labour politician and served as the last Secretary of State for India and Burma.

[citation needed] However, in 1979 everything changed for Kerry Co-op when the county was chosen as a pilot area for a bovine disease eradication scheme.

[citation needed] This was significant in that it happened at a time when the co-op was in the course of completing a €18 million capital expenditure programme at the NKMP plant in Listowel.

[citation needed] Headquartered in Tralee, the Group employs approximately 290 people at its manufacturing plant in Listowel.

[20] North Kerry is the birthplace of many of Ireland's most prominent writers, including John B Keane, Bryan Mac Mahon, Brendan Kennelly, Seamus Wilmot, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, George Fitzmaurice, Maurice Walsh and Robert Leslie Boland.

Participants have included: Nobel Laureate and Booker Prize-winner J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Booker Prize winners Kazuo Ishiguro, John Banville, James Kelman and Anne Enright, Poets Laureate Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, and Andrew Motion, playwrights Tom Murphy, Brian Friel, Roddy Doyle, Frank McGuinness and Hugh Leonard, poets Michael Hartnett, Leland Bardwell, John Montague, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Roger McGough, Rita Ann Higgins and Kate Cruise O'Brien, and other novelists and writers including Blake Morrison, Chris Whyte, Lionel Shriver, Colm Tóibín, Jennifer Johnston, John McGahern, Joseph O'Neill, Sebastian Barry, Joseph O'Connor, Hugo Hamilton, Edna O'Brien, Douglas Kennedy, Patrick McGrath, William Trevor, Colum McCann, Gerard Donovan, Frank McCourt, Irvine Welsh, Robyn Rowland, Andrew Lindsay, Michael Cunningham, Jane Urquhart, Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Cees Nooteboom, Michael Dibdin, Abdel Bari Atwan, Clive James, Melvyn Bragg, Alain De Botton, Lloyd Jones, Robert Fisk, Jung Chang, Terry Jones, Gabriel Byrne, and Graham Norton.

In 1956 Emmets GAA Club was formed and in the following year the senior, intermediate and minor North Kerry League titles were won.

In 1979, the Listowel Emmets GAA pitch next to St. Michaels College was closed for redevelopment; it re-opened again in 1981, and was renamed in honour of Frank J Sheehy who was appointed as chairman to the County Board in 1953.

Listowel Celtic is the local soccer club, playing in the Premier A division of the Kerry District League.

[citation needed] Listowel's architectural features include the four-arch bridge traversing the River Feale at the entrance to the town.

[citation needed] The Maid was at the centre of a controversy in 1999 when a new owner decided to "cover her dignity" and painted a dress on her famous bosom.