The Tralee Blog

Short notice: Ryanair just announced a new route from Kerry Airport. Starting from 20/12/2008 you can fly directly from Kerry to Grenoble in south-east France. Wikipedia says the town is also known as the “Capital of the Alps”, with twenty ski stations nearby. So what about some winter sports this year? 

As I expected in a posting in march this year there was no steam train to be seen on the last remaining part of the historic Tralee-Dingle light railway, in fact there was no train at all. The problems with the old boiler seem to be more severe than initially thought and apparently the fate of 5-T is now in doubt. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this will not be the end of the line… [»]

Today I happened to visit Blennerville again, and right opposite the famous windmill there is now a newly erected bird viewing hide with great explanatory signs. Although situated right beside the well frequented N86 (the main Tralee - Dingle connection) there is a surprising variety of bird species on display, for the intertidal areas of the River Lee at the Tralee Bay Nature Reserve are known to be very important feeding grounds for many seasonal seabirds. [»]

Not many people will have noticed that there were construction works going on at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee. And that is fortunate, because if they had noticed it might have been because they were seriously ill. So the new helipad at Kerry General is one of the few structures that will hopefully not have to be used too often in the future. But it’s good to know that injured or seriously ill patients can reach the hospital now very fast again.  

(The landing facility is mainly used by the coastguard, although the picture shows an Agusta Westland AW139 helicopter of the Irish Air Corps.)

Although the annual Tralee Garden Festival will not start before the next weekend the town already is in full flower. Thanks to the great work of the town council and the many volunteers who paricipated in the latest acts of guerilla gardening there are now flowers in many places all over the town. The probably most impressive new feature is the new flower bed in Denny Street right in front of the pikeman monument, one of the most vibrant places of the town. [»]