.
Continuing our ‘Review of 2015’, here’s some of the news we brought you from November…
The late Leo Griffin.
• There was sad news around Kerry at the death of well-known Kerry GAA figure, Leo Griffin.
Leo, who grew up in the Mitchels area, was a familiar face around town, but came to be known nationally when he accompanied the Kerry team of the 1970s and 80s during the glory years as their bagman. (click here)
Continued below…
.
• After what was a wash-out of a summer, Kerry experienced some beautiful weather in the autumn with Valentia observatory recording a barely believable highest temperature of 19.5°C on November 1 – which was the warmest in the country. (click here)
• Kerry County Council submitted a detailed developmental proposal for the Denny site in Tralee which is set to cost over €3m.
The proposal – involves the demolition of the site, its interim use as an amenity area and the preparation of a master plan for its future long term development. (click here)
• A Presentation secondary school student, Leslie McCarthy, featured in a RTE Nationwide special on the historical project ‘My Adopted Soldier’.
Continued below…
Nationwide will broadcast two special programmes this November which focussed on a unique project involving a student from every county in Ireland who adopted a soldier who died in World War 1. (click here)
Donnchadh Walsh receiving his All-Star award.
• Kerry’s unsung hero of the past number of years, Donnchadh Walsh, finally got an All-Star on an occasion where three other Kerry footballers won awards.
Brendan Kealy was rewarded for his star shot-stopping efforts all year, corner-back Shane Enright’s solid performances were worthy of his recognition, while Anthony Maher had a great season and was deserving of his All-Star. (click here)
Joe Flynn.
• We spoke to Joe Flynn from Rahoonane, who was told by doctors in August that he didn’t have long to live. But his attitude to life stayed the same as always: keep positive and keep fighting.
His story received national attention and he’s an inspiration to others. (click here)
Cian O’Sullivan. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
• The Tralee teenager, who headed Stateside to a prep school earlier in August to further his basketball career, was offered a five year scholarship with a Philadelphia college.
Nineteen-year-old Cian Sullivan from Ballymac signed a letter-of-intent to play at LaSalle University after committing to the college while on a visit to the school’s Philadelphia campus. The university is a breeding ground for NBA talent. (click here)
• An Ardfert man’s company won a Gold Award at the Bank Of Ireland Start Up Awards in Dublin.
Martin McGowan’s business, Ullcatch, won the Product Start-Up Of The Year category, mainly due to his product, the Bait Weaver, which is proving enormously popular with anglers. (click here)
• Over 530 items from Balloonagh Convent were sold off for well in excess of €100,000.
Among the items sold were a bookcase which fetched €8,000, an oil painting for €5,200 and a table for €3,200. The convent closed at the end of September. (click here)
Mary McQuinn.
• We learnt a Tralee woman is off to London early next year to attend a recording of the star-studded Graham Norton Show on BBC after winning a competition for two VIP tickets.
Well known Austin Stacks woman, Mary McQuinn, entered a Supervalu Ireland Facebook Competition where participants were asked for their ‘Red Chair’ stories in order to win the tickets. (click here)
• A Tralee man seen by millions of people in a GoPro video fail in Las Vegas, wasn flown to Sin City to star in a promotional video for the famous resort.
Joe Griffin, originally from Clogherbrien, now living in Balbriggan, Dublin, had his GoPro video uploaded by his son Evan and has been seen over 6.7 million times on YouTube. (click here)
• A woman who bought her a €500,000 winning ticket in Dunnes Stores in town collected her winnings from the National Lottery offices.
The unnamed woman won the cash in the EuroMillions Plus draw on Friday, November 6.
“I can’t wait to spoil my children and grandchildren,” she said, as she collected her prize. “I plan to celebrate with my whole family this Christmas and maybe even plan a holiday to the sun.” (click here)
• In fantastic news for the town, Tralee won the top large tourism town in Ireland at the Fáilte Ireland Tourism Towns awards.
Tralee beat off neighbours Killarney and the two other nominees in the Best Large Town category to claim the prize.
It was an incredible boost to tourism and richly deserved considering the amount of effort has gone into promoting the town over the past few years. (click here)
Katie O’Donoghue and Akeem Molloy who organised the charity fight night in aid of the Miscarriage Association of Ireland at the BTS Fitness gym in Manor Park in December. Photo by Dermot Crean
• There was a fantastic crowd and atmosphere at BTS Fitness for a special fight night fundraiser which raised well over €3,000.
The event was the brainchild of Akeem Molloy and his partner Katie Donoghue, who suffered a miscarriage last year and therefore decided to raise funds for the Miscarriage Association of Ireland, a charitable and completely voluntary body set up to support women and men who have been through miscarriages. (click here)
