THERE are reports that Billy Sheehan will succeed fellow Tralee man Mike Quirke as the next Laois senior football manager.
Former Stacks player Sheehan, son of the late Rockies stalwart and Radio Kerry broadcaster Timmy Sheehan, will be recommended to take over by the county’s selection committee at a meeting on Monday, October 18, reports RTE.
He will be the sixth manager from the Kingdom to manage Laois after Quirke, John Sugrue, Tomás O Flatharta, Liam Kearns and Mick O’Dwyer.
Billy Sheehan played for Laois from 2005 to 2015, including the 2005 and 2007 Leinster final defeats to Dublin.
.NLN Kerry students from the Sporting Chance course who were volunteers on Camp Abilities, a residential sport and recreation camp for children with vision impairments which takes place in Kerry each year.
THE work of the students and staff on the Sporting Chance course at National Learning Network Kerry has been recognised internationally this week with the news that the programme has been nominate for a European Diversity Award.
The programme has been nominated under the Social Mobility initiative and recognises the work carried out in the area of inclusive sport, physical activity and exercise.
The programme has been nominated in the prestigious Awards alongside many of Europe and the world’s biggest companies including the BBC, Spotify, Vodafone, the Lego Group and the Premier League in other categories.
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This is not the first time the Sporting Chance course has been recognised having won the Nutramino Health and Fitness Award for Inclusion in 2018.
The Sporting Chance, course which is funded by Kerry ETB, provides training and qualifications in the area of sport, fitness and physical activity to individuals with additional support needs including physical disabilities, learning difficulties, mental health challenges and individuals with ASD.
As part of their course, students are supported in organising a number of sport and physical activity programmes for children and adults of all abilities in the local community.
Among these are an athletics coaching programme with children from Nano Nagle school in Listowel; A swimming programme with children from the autism unit in Killahan National School; an Easter activities camp with teenagers from Kerry Intervention Disability Services; Activity sessions with adults from Rehabcare in Blennerville and providing personal training and fitness classes for students from other courses within National Learning Network.
The group have also organised sports days for primary schools in Killarney and Limerick.
Students have progressed to a variety of jobs in the fitness, health, sport and leisure industries and obtain qualifications in areas such as Fitness Instruction, Pool Lifeguard, Swim Teaching and Sports Coaching.
The course is open for applications throughout the year. For further information or to apply, please contact 066 7122533, tralee@nln.ie, www.nln.ie or NLNTralee Facebook.
TOMMY Sheehy has completed an incredible series of cycling challenges to support Enable Ireland Kerry Services.
Tommy, who has to date raised over €100,000 for Enable Ireland, kicked off his first challenge in July when he did an ‘Everesting’ Challenge.
Tommy repeatedly climbed the Short Mountain outside Tralee on his bike, eventually ascending the hill enough times to reach the 8,848 metres needed to equal the height of Mount Everest, all in the one day!
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Last month, Tommy went to Spain to take part in the Catalonia Cycling Challenge, tackling some of the highest peaks in the area and his final challenge was to climb 1,000,000 metres by the end of the year, which just completed this week.
“I didn’t think I’d do it with almost three months to spare so I’m delighted,” said Tommy who had been training hard for the challenges all year. He now hopes people will support Enable Ireland which provides disability services to over 9,000 children and adults across Ireland.
Tommy is a fundraiser extraordinaire for Enable Ireland and is well-known throughout Kerry and further afield for his 8-hour spinning sessions he undertakes for the charity.
.Karen Maher Hayles (centre) who is organising the Hawley O’Sullivan Memorial Truck Run, pictured with Emma Hayles, Michael Maher, Urney Maher (Hawley’s sister) and Ciara Hayles.
A TRALEE man who passed away 25 years ago in a road accident will be fondly remembered at a charity event later this month.
Hawley O’Sullivan, from O’Rahillys Villas, son of the late Tom ‘Lang’ and Kathleen O’Sullivan (nee Cregan), was just 28 when he died on June 15, 1996, just eight days before his son Tony was born.
He made such an impression in his short life that he will never be forgotten by family and friends.
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His niece, Karen Maher Hayles, is organising a truck run in his memory on Sunday, October 24, from the grounds of Fels Point (adjacent to The Rose Hotel) and truckers are encouraged to come along on the day to honour him and raise funds for the Kerry Hospice Foundation.
Karen was just 14 when her uncle passed away and said she still misses him. “I grew up near my mom’s family home, so I was practically reared in my grandparents house and I idolised Hawley,” she said.
Karen chose the Kerry Hospice Foundation after the amazing care her grandmother Kathleen received from palliative care staff before she passed away in 2004.
Hawley would have been well known in the trucking community having worked for O’Neill’s Transport and later Garyowen Transport, so a big turnout is expected. Karen said Hawley’s son Tony, who lives in Castleisland, will also take part on the day.
Registration takes place from 12noon and the trucks will leave Fels Point at 2pm. They will travel to Castleisland then over the Farranfore, on to Killarney and back to Fels Point.
There will be music from Manus Leen when they return, while a food truck will be there to feed the masses. Members of the public are encouraged to come down to see the trucks and perhaps leave a few euro in the donation buckets.
There’ll also be prizes on the day for Oldest Truck, Best 80s Truck, Best Fleet Turnout, Best Rigid and Best Tractor Unit.
CONFIRMATION has been received that Central Pharma will begin production in Kerry Technology Park in Tralee in Quarter 1 of next year.
In response to a Dáil question from Deputy Griffin, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Leo Varadkar, said that Central Pharma announced plans to establish a contract packaging and supply centre at the IDA’s Advanced Technology Building in Tralee in December 2018 but the company has subsequently experienced some delays in progressing their plans, including in relation to the Covid-19 restrictions.
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The Tánaiste said that once regulatory approvals have been received, Central Pharma will be ready to commence operations, adding that the IDA has informed him that the company has already started to recruit key staff, and this will be followed by further hires.
He said that the company remains committed to its plans for the site and intends to begin production at the site in Q1 2022.
In a further reply to Deputy Griffin, the Tánaiste said that the IDA will build a second Advanced Technology Building in Tralee and the site selection process is currently underway.
He said that securing planning permission and the construction of the building will take time, but it is intended that the facility will be delivered during the life of the current IDA Strategy 2021-2024.
Relating to Deputy Griffin’s question about what type of industry the planned facility may attract, the Tánaiste said that the advanced technology building may support either a new office or industrial investment given the flexible nature of IDA building solutions.
Deputy Griffin has welcomed confirmation that Central Pharma is now recruiting new staff in Tralee and will begin production in the coming months.
He also said that the provision of the second advanced facility will provide further opportunity for Tralee and Kerry and said he will be pursuing the matter closely with the Tánaiste and IDA to keep the project high on their priorities.
THERE were 219 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Tralee Local Electoral Area in the 14 day period up to Monday, October 4, according to figures available on the Government’s COVID-19 data hub.
This is a 14-day incidence rate of 662.9 per 100,000 of the population, substantially above the national incidence of 372.1 per 100,000 as of last Monday.
It’s the highest COVID case rate of the six LEAs in the county and substantial rise on the figure for the fortnight up to September 27 (152).
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In all, there were 634 new cases recorded in Kerry during the fortnight period, up from the 485 cases recorded in the fortnight up to September 27.
The LEA with the second highest incidence in the county is Listowel which saw 159 new cases and a rate of 554.5 per 100,000, up from just 54 in the fortnight up to September 27.
The Killarney Electoral Area saw 118 new cases, a current 14-Day Incidence Rate of 398.6 per 100k of the population.
Three LEAs in Kerry are below the national incidence rate. Kenmare had 64 new cases, a rate of 255.4 per 100,000.
Castleisland which saw 43 new cases and a rate of 250.8 per 100,000. There were 31 cases in the Corca Dhuibhne Electoral Area, a rate of 218.6 per 100,000.
There have been 8,501 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kerry since the pandemic began.
.Nicholas Gorman, CEO SafeScore and John Mulhern, CEO Kerry Airport Ireland announcing the new arrangement.
KERRY Airport Ireland has teamed-up with RDI Hub-based company SafeScore to provide passengers with tailored and reliable information to effortlessly track country entry requirements.
By clicking on the Important Travel Documentation icon on www.KerryAirport.ie passengers will quickly find details of the Testing, Covid-19 Travel Documents and Quarantine requirements as well as the Vaccine Acceptance in destination countries.
The CEO of Kerry Airport Ireland, John Mulhern, said: “Kerry Airport, unlike other airports and indeed airlines, has experienced good volumes of passenger traffic since the restrictions were eased in July.
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“This is a welcome development, however, one of the biggest disruptors to the recovery of the travel industry has been a lack of clearly communicated data within countries and between countries. We are proud to partner with SafeScore, a local company, to bring the latest Covid-19 information to our passengers.”
SafeScore, which is based in Killorglin’s RDI Hub, was founded in 2020 to solve the problems experienced by passengers when travelling the globe. The company’s solution allows travel providers to reduce the strain on both themselves, and their customers.
The CEO and Lead Founder of SafeScore, Nicholas Gorman, said: “We are grateful to Kerry Airport for embracing our technology. We have all the data airports and airlines need to ensure smoother transitions, and improve the customer experience.
“Some of the important data points we include are, child PCR testing ages, locator form information, specific vaccine requirements, and more. We are origin and destination-specific, so we tailor our data according to the routes required. Our database is a one-stop-shop for information on global travel restrictions and requirements.”
CONFIRMATION has been received that Central Pharma will begin production in Kerry Technology Park in Tralee in Quarter 1 of next year.
THERE were 219 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Tralee Local Electoral Area in the 14 day period up to Monday, October 4, according to figures available on the Government’s COVID-19 data hub.
