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Continuing our review of 2020, here’s some of the stories we brought you from May…
• May started on a bright note for someone who bought a National Lottery game ticket in Tralee. The Telly Bingo game winner of €10,000 purchased their ticket at the Tesco town centre branch in Tralee and got a ‘fullhouse’ on the RTE lunchtime show.
• Gardai arrested and charged a man following the seizure of €4,700 of suspected drugs and cash in the Blennerville area on May 2. It came following reports of groups gathering and not adhering to social distancing in the Blennerville area.
• On May 6, Gardaí seized €14,000 of suspected cocaine in Tralee. Gardaí from the Kerry Divisional Drugs Unit, assisted by Gardaí from Tralee Garda Station, executed a search warrant at a house in Lee Drive. During the course of the search Gardaí seized three bags of suspected cocaine worth an estimated €14,000.
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• It was announced that car parks at Kerry beaches would re-open from May 18, but the 5km rule on travel restrictions would still apply.
The car parks were closed at the beginning of April in the interests of public health and limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
Kerry County Council decided to re-open the car parks having regard to the Government Roadmap for the Reopening of Society and Business and the advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team.
• A Tralee MD councillor expressed concern at the risk that the Tralee Town Park Festival Féile na mBláth could be cancelled for the year and proposed it be moved to August or September.
It was due to take place on the second weekend of June, but under the government’s five step plan to reopen the country, it would not be able to take place at that time.
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Cllr O’Brien said family friendly festival would give locals something to look forward to if it was held around the time of the Rose of Tralee festival.
• Plans for the Island of Geese in Tralee should be revised in light of the Covid19 crisis, according to the Kerry branch of the Green Party.
The party’s Tralee representative Anne-Marie Fuller said they now need more open spaces in which people can move freely while maintaining physical distance.
“This space, which was gifted to the people of Tralee, is ideally situated to provide a new, open-air public realm space for the whole community,” she said.
• Tralee Chamber called on all businesses and the people of Tralee to be united in making sure no one gets left behind in the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the MyTralee movement, the Chamber launched a new online business marketplace aimed at supporting businesses in the town through the ‘Reopening’ stages.
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• Listowel native, Dr Brendan O’Donnell was appointed as Interim President of the Institute of Technology Tralee.
Dr O’Donnell stated that he was honoured to be appointed to the role. Meanwhile, it was announced the Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT) and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) would join to become the Munster Technological University on January 1, 2021.
• A Mery Mounthawk student received an award in the Stagewise inaugural School Musical Awards competition. The school received six nominations for their musical ‘Hairspray’ which ran in January, in Siamsa Tíre, and Promise Ekwuhama won the award for Best Female Singer.
• By May 31, the official number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic stood at 308.
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