POLITICS

MARTIN Ferris was selected last night to be the Sinn Féin party’s candidate in the Kerry constituency at next General Election. Party members chose Deputy Ferris at the Kerry Sinn Féin selection convention in the Meadowlands Hotel. “It is a huge honour to be selected to represent Sinn Féin and this county […]

SINN Féin North Kerry/West Limerick TD, Martin Ferris has called on Kerry’s government TDs to do more to stop home repossessions following reports yesterday  that 175 civil bills had been lodged while 33 repossession orders were granted in Kerry up to January 1st this year (see graphics below). “Government policy is facilitating the repossession of Family Homes […]

KERRY Sinn Féin elected a new officer board at the AGM of it’s Comhairle Ceantair in Tralee last Thursday evening. Former Tralee town councillor Cathal Foley was selected to replace outgoing chairperson Ristéard Ó Fuaráin. Robert Brosnan from Lispole was elected as Vice-Chairperson. Outgoing secretary Yvonne Sugrue from Ballybunion was returned. The […]

  NORTH Cork Central Sinn Féin TD, Jonathan O’ Brien, has called on the Minister for Education Jan O’ Sullivan to meet with stakeholders in an effort to address their concerns about the proposed IT Tralee and CIT merger. The merger is set to cost in the region of  €6.7 million […]

TRALEE Municipal District Councillor Norma Foley is to put her name forward at the Fianna Fail convention to run for the Dáil at the next General Election. The Presentation Secondary School teacher will hope take a place in the new five-seater Kerry constituency at the next election and follow in her […]

  THE death has taken place of the former Independent Deputy for Kerry South, Jackie Healy Rae. The 83 year old Kilgarvan man had been ill for some time and died in Kerry General Hospital this afternoon. A post on his son Michael’s Facebook page read: “It is with a sadden […]

  Click on the above ad for more MOIRA Murrell’s nomination as Chief Executive of Kerry County Council was unanimously approved by the elected members of Kerry County Council at the July monthly meeting of the Council on Monday. A native of Killarney, Ms Murrell will take up her position […]

THERE was bad news for North Kerry/ West Limerick Deputy Jimmy Deenihan this afternoon, when it was announced that  has lost his position as Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in the cabinet reshuffle. Instead he has been moved to Minister for State at the Department of the Taoiseach and Gaeltacht […]

FINE Gael councillor Jim Finucane said he was honoured to be the first Mayor of the Tralee Municipal District of Kerry County Council. Cllr Finucane was elected Mayor at the first meeting of the District on Friday morning. He was proposed for the position by Cllr Terry O’Brien (Lab) and […]

BALLYHEIGUE man, John Brassil was elected first Cathaoirleach of the newly elected Kerry County Council this  morning. Tralee Electoral Area’s, Pa Daly, Sam Locke and Graham Spring were just three of 14 new councillors who arrived to take their  seats in the new-look 33 seat authority at Rathass. Two councillors were proposed for […]

DEPUTY Arthur Spring has said that there is a possibility that the current Labour leadership issue might destabilise the Government. Mr Spring was speaking on the Kerry Today show on Radio Kerry this morning where he told host, Jerry O’Sullivan, that if given the chance to serve in a new cabinet he would […]

LABOUR councillor Terry O’Brien says the leaders of the party have to “grow a pair” and make some tough decisions or the party “be non-existent” after the next general election. Cllr O’Brien was speaking at the John Mitchels GAA Complex on Sunday after he was re-elected to Kerry County Council. “Labour […]

IT’S all over in the race for Tralee Electoral Area seats as four out of the final five candidates left in the race were deemed elected before 7pm tonight. The elected candidates are Thomas McEllistrim (FF), Pat McCarthy (FG), Sam Locke (Ind) and Graham Spring (Lab). There was disappointment for […]

FIANNA Fail’s Ted Fitzgerald has been eliminated from the Tralee Electoral Area count bringing an end to 40 years in local politics. Cllr Fitzgerald was elected to Tralee UDC in 1974 and has been a great servant to the town serving both on town and county councils over the years. The […]

ANOTHER candidate has been elected to the Tralee Electoral Area of Kerry County Council. Fine Gael’s Jim Finucane was elected after getting 211 extra votes from his eliminated party colleague, Grace O’Donnell. This put him over the quota to give him a vote of 1,671. His surplus of 72 is […]

LABOUR’S Terry O’Brien has been re-elected to Kerry County Council on the sixth count, making it four candidates elected for the area. There was great celebrations from family and supporters when the presiding officer announced that he had exceeded the quota at around 3.30pm. He got 65 votes after the […]

INDEPENDENT candidate, Tommy Collins was eliminated on the fifth count in the Tralee Electoral Area elections. He received just six votes from Norma Foley’s surplus which brought him to 731, not enough to keep him in the race. The sixth count, dealing with the distribution of Collins’ votes, is due […]

LABOUR Party candidate Gillian Wharton Slattery was eliminated from the Tralee Electoral Area contest on the third count earlier today. She received 29 extra votes from Pa Daly of Sinn Fein’s surplus bringing her total vote to 479. It still left her as the candidate with the lowest amount of votes and […]

NORMA Foley of Fianna Fail has been elected to the County Council for the Tralee Electoral Area in the past hour. There were jubilant scenes when the result was announced around 10.40am, following the distribution of Toireasa Ferris’ surplus, where she got an extra 139 votes to bring her to 1,680. It […]

JUST two of the 14 candidates have been elected to the Tralee Electoral Area of Kerry County Council so far. Toireasa Ferris and Pa Daly of Sinn Fein were elected on the first count on Saturday night before Michael McMahon adjourned the count until Sunday morning at 9am. The first […]

FIRST-TIME candidate Pa Daly was overwhelmed with the vote he received in the Tralee Electoral Area elections to Kerry County Council. He was elected on the first count last night along with his Sinn Fein party colleague, Toireasa Ferris, who topped the poll. The Tralee solicitor garnered 2,122 first preference […]

SINN Fein’s Toireasa Ferris topped the poll in the Tralee Electoral Area and said the party is now the main opposition party to the Government. She also said she felt sorry for the ordinary Labour supporters because, as she put it, “the Labour leadership had prostituted themselves for power and abandoned […]

By Dermot Crean at John Mitchels GAA Complex A FIRST count for the Tralee Electoral Area is likely to be announced later tonight with Sinn Fein sitting pretty on top of the poll according to tallies. From the 51 boxes opened in Killarney earlier, tallies suggest that Toireasa Ferris and Pa […]

THE voting is over, now the counting begins. The Tralee Electoral Area candidates are facing into a nervous weekend as the ballot boxes were opened this morning over in the Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre. The ballot boxes from the 143 polling centres throughout the county will have to be sorted, separating […]

AND so it ends… Members of Tralee Town Council came together for the last time on Monday evening and it proved to be an emotional occasion, filled with laughter and tinged with sadness. Photographs were taken and many memories shared before and after the meeting, which was brief and dealt with […]

TANAISTE Eamon Gilmore enjoyed a brief visit to town on Friday morning to meet with the local Labour candidates. The Labour leader is no stranger to the town having spent years here in the late 1970s/early 80s as secretary of the ITGWU (now SIPTU). He went for a coffee in […]

“Look, I don’t know if I’m ‘a politician’. I class myself as someone who’s there for people, to attend the meetings, to do the best I can and to take the tough decisions when needed for the good of my county.” IT’S been quite a journey for self-described ‘thoroughbred narie’ Terry O’Brien. The […]

IT’S all go for Pa Daly, the solicitor from Oakpark, who is bidding to win a seat on Kerry County Council at the first time of asking. The Derrylea native is contesting his first election in just over a week’s time and between running a law practice, canvassing the town and […]

“We’re a great, generous community-orientated town – that’s what makes us a little bit different.” By Dermot Crean GRACE O’Donnell is no longer the new kid on the block. Having been elected for the first time to Tralee Town Council in 2009, the Oakpark woman is now hoping to take the step up County […]

MINISTER for Education, Ruairi Quinn, revealed to a pupil that his greatest achievement in politics so far was ‘getting re-elected’. The Minister was speaking during a Q&A session in Listellick NS, one of two Tralee schools he visited when in the county on Friday. He went to Listellick NS on an invitation received from […]