Search for Lost 1925 Tralee Camogie Team Photo:
With the launch of a Tralee Camogie adult team this month, the time is right to begin to rediscover some of the early history of Tralee Camogie, prior to the beginning of  adult Camogie team training in January 2019.

A number of Tralee Parnells members held a recent meeting to review historical newspaper reports and try to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge of the history of Camogie in Tralee.

So now, When Tralee Parnells was re-founded in 2012, at our inaugural  AGM the first person nominated and ratified was Eileen Cotter RIP as club President.

Eileen sadly passed away in 2017 having served with distinction as Tralee Parnells President for our early years as a re-established club.

In a significant link to the distinguished history of hurling in Tralee, Eileen and family have strong connections to the men’s team that won the county championship for Parnells a century ago in 1918 and 1919.

Eileen’s father (Jerry ‘Unke’ O Connor) was part of the Parnells team that won county hurling championships a century ago.  Eileen’s son Dermot was regularly to be seen accompanying Eileen to Parnells events in recent years.

Parnells are delighted to have a copy of a photograph of the men’s team that won the 1918 and 1919 county hurling championship.  But what we discovered recently is that Tralee Camogie was also flourishing in those early years.

Thanks to Dermot Cotter, we have copies of 1925 newspaper reports, with a team sheet and also a match report in that year, when Tralee faced the more established Listowel Camogie team.

From these sources, we see that there were family links between a number of members of the Tralee Parnells men’s and women’s teams.   Dermot Cotter’s grandaunt was Nance O’Connor (sister of his Grandfather Jerry “Unke” O’Connor).  The captain of the team was Sally Sheehy, sister of John Joe.

So we can see there were good family links between the Parnell hurlers and the Camogie team.  Eileen Cotter had a picture of this Camogie team, but despite his best efforts Dermot cannot locate it at this stage.

So now Tralee Parnells would like to issue an appeal to the public and in particular to anyone interested in and familiar with the history of local sports.  If anyone can help us locate a copy of this photo, we would be delighted to hear from them.  People can reach us through our social media, by email to PRO.TraleeParnells.Kerry@GAA.ie or contact any club officer.

Man of the match U13B Final at North Kerry Awards Night:
Very proud night for Parnells and the Kerins family at the North Kerry awards. Andrew picked up his Man of the match award for his phenomenal performance in the U13b North Kerry final.

Fr Mossy Brick still talks about Pa Kerins and his days hurling with John Mitchels, his son Andrew is now making a name for himself with the small ball.

Kerry Secondary Schools Camogie Large Milestone Blitz: 
Tralee Parnells were delighted to see 100+ players, including many Tralee Parnells’ girls, at the Kerry Secondary Schools Camogie Blitz at Mounthawk.

In this bid to promote the game among girls locally, ten teams from seven schools took part, drawn mainly from Tralee and north Kerry.

The schools were Mercy Mounthawk, Presentation Tralee, Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí, Castleisland Community College, Presentation Listowel, St Joseph’s Ballybunion and Causeway Comprehensive.

According to TraleeToday, “It’s to develop skills for first to third year girls who haven’t really played the game before. We’ve only gone into schools in Listowel and Castleisland two weeks ago and now they’ll play games,” said Laura Collins, Kerry Camogie Development Officer who was coordinating the event.  two girls attending the blitz are excelling in camogie at county and provincial level.  Dakotah Carter O’Flynn from Tralee and a student in Mercy Mounthawk and Brid Horan from Kilmoyley and Causeway Comprehensive played for South Munster this year. We hear both girls will be involved in the Tralee Parnells adult camogie team next year.

Scór na nÓg St. Brendan’s Bord Region:
We were delighted to see our Scór na nÓg Competitors representing Tralee Parnells in the Scór na nÓg St. Brendan’s Bord region competition, Saturday night Dec 1st.

Despite this being the first ever Tralee Parnell foray at this age category, we showed the benefit of the grounding in Scór na bPáistí and all involved can be very happy with their performances in their Scór na nÓg debuts.  The Drama Group had some very striking costume and impersonation contributions and drew a lot of applause and laughs from the audience.

Ailisha did very well in presenting her sketch and brought put the dramatic and humorous elements well, achieving high marks.  Those taking part were,
Drama Group : The Aras Symposium,
Saorlaith Ni Mhora,
Lana Ni Conaill,
Saoirse Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh,
Sadbh Ni Chéadagáin,
Ailisha Ni Dhatuin,
Grainne Ni Laochdha,
Caoilinn Ni Hici,
Recitation : The Umbrella,
Ailisha Ni Dhatuin.

Team photo from Munster GAA trip to Croke Park:
The club received a lovely memento team photo from Munster GAA from our trip to Croke Park earlier in the year. Our Under 12 boys had the honour of playing three games in what was a wonderful day for the players, mentors, parents and supporters who traveled.  We’ll try and get a copy to each player ASAP.

Training for HCO Club Health & Wellbeing Officers:
Important Club Officer training for HCO/Club Health & Wellbeing Officers, will take place on Wednesday 5th December 2018 at 7.30 pm in Austin Stack Park, Tralee.  Club members who have an interest in Health and Wellbeing/ Healthy Club activities are also welcome to attend.  This is new and updated Health and Wellbeing/Healthy Club training and will be co-facilitated by the National Community Health Administrator, Collette Cody. Please pass this information on to  any other club member who would be interested in attending.