A lot of work went into retaining Tralee’s Gold Medal status announced earlier today and this was acknowledged in the report from the judges.

Here are just some of the comments they made regarding their visit to town.

“There is a wonderful streetscape in Tralee where we enjoy lots of shops, offices and Victorian architecture, and it was delightful to see the business houses busy.

A few lovely churches are admired notably the distinctive old style Church of Ireland with special lawns and shrubs, St John’s church is outstanding with brilliant landscaping, then there is the modern Our Lady and St Brendan’s with excellent lawns, shrubs and large parking area.

Ashe Street contains the substantial Court House with the war memorials; it is an imposing and elegant building and across the road we see Kerry Protestant Hall and it’s for sale and advertised as a landmark office building, but it is in need of some attention, and nearby the splendid Credit Union stands out.

The Mall is a hub of activity and we find here three large shopping outlets; Shaws, Lifestyle Sports and Penney’s, and none of them had any floral decoration like the lovely smaller outlets Quinlin’s Fish and Chips, That’s Perfect and The Snackery Grill Bar.

Nearby Connolly’s Jewellers catch the eye. Around the corner we came across SuperValu under the clock and O’Ceilleachair hardware selling everything from a needle to an anchor.

Other places of interest were Murphy’s off licence and Coisceim Natural Beauty Centre. But there are lots of other shops just as good as the ones outlined.

I did not find Turner’s Lounge, but we congratulate them for the presentation of the tidiest and best looking business in Tralee, and that is a fantastic achievement.

It was a special treat to visit Siamsa Tíre house and the wonderful Museum and a trip to the Aqua Dome was memorable.

The two hospitals are very well presented with excellent car parking and landscaping. Kerry Community Services are housed in a large modern structure, but in the cobbled enclosure there was an extensive amount of small weeds.

Aldi looks very well and has an extensive car park with good trees and shrubs and in further we admire Dunnes  great brick faced shop front; it has an extensive car park at the back and I felt a few trees and shrubs could be added to freshen up the large space.

I could only visit a few of the 50 or so residents estates and I found them to be neat and orderly. The Tralee Together is doing great work in co-ordinating the activities of resident’s association’s member estates. The supply of 5,000 summer bedding plants surely brings out the best in the flora of the areas.

We admire many lovely terraces of town houses and the terrace on Urban Street is a good example. There is a selection of well appointed apartments
in Main Street.

You have splendid Victorian Houses. On the outskirts we admire splendid bungalows and two storey houses that have excellent displays of shrubs, lawns, trees and flowers.

There is a lovely children’s playground in the Rose Garden to cater for the many children of the area.

The bypass makes a great difference to the flow of traffic in Tralee, and in around the town centre the one-way  systems are working well, and attractive bollards are used to good effect. There are good car parks all over the town  to cater for the huge amount of traffic on the roads. Good quality footpaths stretch for miles for the pedestrians.

We found some well defined cycle lanes that had plenty cyclists on the go.”