Continuing our review of the year, here’s some of the stories we brought you in December…

• KIERAN Donaghy announced  that he will not be retiring from the Kerry team and is available for selection in the 2018 season.

He spoke to his family and Eamonn Fitzmaurice and decided he will retire when he can’t help Kerry anymore.

Donaghy will turn 35 in March and is looking to his 14th season in a Kerry jersey. He enjoyed another great season in 2017 and was nominated for an All-Star.

• COUNCILLOR Toireasa Ferris was selected by the Sinn Féin membership to go forward as the party’s next general election candidate in Kerry, at a packed party convention held at the Kerins O’Rahillys club.

She was nominated by a number of cumainn in the county. The convention was being held as a result of the announcement by Deputy Martin Ferris that he would not be seeking a nomination. Toireasa Ferris was the only name to be put forward by the membership in the county.

Continued below…

• A PUBLIC campaign began to restore diving boards to the bathing slip at Fenit with a committee hoping to have them installed by next summer.

The Restore Fenit Diving Boards Campaign Committee has been working over the past five months to compile an evidence-based technical proposal which they believe should result in the diving boards installed again.

• A NEW brand identity was  launched in December which will be used to market Kerry at home and abroad.

With the theme of ‘Kerry – Your Natural Escape’ – the Destination Kerry brand includes icons, imagery and messaging for use on all multiple platforms and highlights some of the top attractions and characteristics which attract visitors to Kerry as well as promoting the unique visitor experience on offer.

• THE co-founder of a Tralee based company was named as the  overall “Best Young Entrepreneur” for the county as Kerry’s best young entrepreneurs were announced at the County Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition  in the Ballygarry House Hotel.

The overall “Best Young Entrepreneur” for the county was named as Rob Durran who is Co-founder of the company Xi (Research and Development) Ltd. trading as Xintec based in Tralee.

Continued below…

• TRALEE Credit Union will be known as ‘Cara Credit Union’ after the motion to change its name was passed at their 50th AGM in The Rose Hotel.

It was decided to change the name to as there are now three offices in Tralee, Castleisland and Killorglin and the directors felt the  name “Tralee Credit Union” is not fully inclusive of these towns and hinterlands. The possibility of any future mergers was also a consideration.

• THE Mall and Bridge Street in Tralee re-opened to traffic in mid-December following the completion of works costing approximately €1.7m as part of the Tralee Active Travel Town Project.

New taxi bye-laws also came in and the part-pedestrianisation of The Mall is now in place. The Mall will be closed to through traffic from 10.30am to 6.00pm daily.

• THE Austin Stacks faithful gathered in the clubhouse in Connolly Park in December for the launch of a book nearly two years in the making.

Austin Stacks ‘A Centenary History 1917-2017’ is a superb book full of photographs, profiles of past players, club officers and the club history which no doubt has found its way into thousands of homes this Christmas.

Continued below…

• GARDAI were advising the public that professional beggars are operating in Tralee.

They say there are organised professional gangs coming into town and in one case a person was arrested, searched and was found to have €650 in cash on them by the end of the day.

Gardaí have been carrying out operations and say the individuals are being picked up in what they describe as upmarket cars and dropped into town for the day to beg for money.

• THE Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin TD, welcomed the news from his Departmental colleague Minister Ross, that Kerry Airport is to receive over €1m in grant aid towards operating costs.

Welcoming the allocations Minister Griffin said: “This grant is in addition to the €583k already allocated to Kerry, bringing the total grant for the year to close to €1.6m.”

• FOR the second year in a row, the crib in The Square was vandalised.

A group of three or four youths were seen next to the crib and soon after the perspex was broken and the baby Jesus figure taken rom the crib. The figurine was later found and the perspex replaced.

Continuing our review of the year, here’s some of the stories we brought you in November…

• GARVEY’S Tralee Warriors head coach, Mark Bernsen, won the Basketball Ireland Super League Coach of the Month for October after leading his team to an unbeaten run of four games in the league throughout the month which saw them top of the table.

Bernsen is no stranger to these accolades having won the Coach of the Year award back in May in Warriors debut season.

• BORG Warner let 30 workers go at their Tralee plant in November.

The lay-offs affected contract production workers at the Monavalley Industrial Estate base, but management said the measures are temporary — a reaction to short-term reductions from a customer — and they expect to have staffing numbers back to current levels by early 2018.

Continued below…

• ONE was about all Kerry could have expected considering the outstanding performances by individuals on the Dublin and Mayo teams in 2017. But Paul Geaney was one of two players from other counties to win an All-star award.

The Dingle man won his second All-Star selected at full-forward on a 15 dominated by the  All-Ireland finalists at a ceremony at Dublin’s Convention Centre.

• A KERRY mansion — which went unsold at a previous auction and dropped in price considerably —was sold at the BidX1 (formerly Allsop) online auction. It was sold for €1,100,000 after one bid.

Glashnacree House, Derryquin, Sneem had a reserve range of €1,050,000 – €1,150,000 which was well down from the reserve of €1,395,000 – €1,405,000 in the auction last month.

• TRALEE Municipal District councillors approved the new locations for permanent and semi-permanent taxi ranks in the town at a special meeting in November.

They also voted for the daytime pedestrianisation of The Mall.

The Tralee Taxi Association Chairperson described the omission of Denny Street from the proposed plan for the location of taxi ranks put out for public consultation, as “a farce” and “Fawlty Towers stuff”.

Continued below…

• GARVEY’S Supervalu in Tralee scooped the National Store of the Year award at the Retail Excellence awards.

The Tralee store was one of two Kerry stores — along with Vodafone Killarney — in the running for the prestigious top prize and hopes were high when they were announced in the Top 5 shortlist earlier on in the night at the lavish awards ceremony in The Malton Hotel in Killarney.

Then they were announced as the overall winners sparking huge celebrations.

• TRALEE won the Overall National Most Enterprising Town In Ireland award netting an overall prize of €23,000.

Having won the Regional Category for ‘Most Enterprising Large Town Award for Munster’ in the Bank of Ireland event, they then won ‘Most Enterprising Large Town in Ireland’ category and finally the overall award.

Mayor of Tralee Norma Foley, Aidan Kelly of Tralee Chamber Alliance and Bank Of Ireland Tralee manager Gerry Enright were there to accept all three awards at a ceremony attended by over 500 people from towns all over Ireland at the Tullamore Court Hotel.

• GERRY ADAMS announced during his leader’s speech at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, that neither he nor Martin Ferris would be running for the Dáil in the next election.

“I will not be standing for the Dáil neither will Martin Ferris…I want to thank Martin, Marie and their clann for years of service to the Republic.”

Martin Ferris was first elected to Dail back in 2002 in the Kerry North constituency and has retained his seat in Kerry for Sinn Fein in every general election since.

• A PENSIONER living in Hawley Park had around €250 worth of her home heating oil stolen at the as thieves emptied her tank.

The woman was understandably upset when she discovered the theft, but the community is rallied around to help her and soon she had enough to replenish her supply of fuel.

• TRALEE had another viral video sensation after a clip of Lorraine Walsh tackling a ferocious spider she found in her kitchen in Caheranne with a hoover was uploaded to Facebook.

Her friend, Eve Savage, decided to capture the moment for posterity and after it was uploaded to Facebook it went viral with Joe.ie, Independent.ie, Lovin.ie, a German news network, Cosmopolitan and Esquire sharing the video resulting in way over 1,000,000 views.

• THERE was tragic news when a cyclist was killed in a road traffic collision that occurred in the townland of Tonevane on November 22.

A two car and pedal cycle collision occurred and 39 year old Roger O’Halloran from Derrymore was seriously injured and removed to Kerry University Hospital where he later passed away.

Continuing our review of the year, here’s some of the stories we brought you in September… 

• September began with An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar paying a visit to town to pay tribute to a party stalwart.

He was among 300 people in The Rose Hotel to celebrate the political life of Jimmy Deenihan who served Kerry in ministerial offices over the years and retired from political life earlier in 2017.

The TD who lost his seat in 2016 was feted by the Fine Gael party and the invited guests.

“It’s a nostalgic occasion…a bit earlier than when I’d have liked it to be!” Jimmy told TraleeToday.ie

• A DEVELOPMENT of 56 new social housing units is to be built in Lohercannon after the Taoiseach approved funding of €11.6m for the project.

The funding will be supplied to Kerry County Council for the project.  Plans for the development were first revealed by the Council in April 2015 with an envisaged start in 2017. The area identified for the development was adjacent to the Ashgrove estate and the road leading down to the lock gates.

Continued below…

• THERE was bad news for Tralee when it slipped to 33rd place out of 40 towns and cities in the latest survey of towns in Ireland by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) and was deemed  ‘moderately littered’.

It continued Tralee’s slip in the placings  from third place in August 2015 when it was ‘Cleaner Than European Norms’, to 17th place in January 2016 down to ‘Clean to European Norms’.

• A FAMILY from Ballymac received global attention when a video of Derry Fleming trying to catch a bat in his kitchen was viewed tens of millions of times.

Filmed by Tadhg Fleming, the video caught the attention of US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel and the family appeared on the show via satellite from their kitchen.

• THE Kerry minors made history by winning four in a row All-Ireland titles.

What stood out though was another masterclass from David Clifford. The young man from Fossa scored four goals in a sensational 60 minutes for Kerry where they beat Derry by 6-17 to 1-8.

• A PUBLIC consultation process on pedestrianising The Mall during the day and the location of taxi ranks began in September.

Kerry County Council was proposing traffic calming measures in Bridge Street and The Mall and this includes pedestrianisation of the area from 10.30am and 6.30pm, making this area exclusive to pedestrians during this time.

The Council also sought the public’s views on the location of taxi ranks in the town centre with a copy of the proposed bye-laws and maps showing the proposed locations of the designated appointed taxi stands available to be viewed in the Town Hall and KCC.

• PRESIDENT of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams TD, received a rapturous welcome in The Rose Hotel Tralee when he launched ‘Ireland’s Hunger for Justice’, the story of Ireland’s 22  hunger strikers.

There was a packed house for the launch as people came from all over the county and indeed country for the event. Many people queued for Martin Ferris, Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly to sign copies of the book.

Continued below…

• A MAINSTAY for lunchtime diners for over a quarter of a century, Dawson’s Restaurant on The Mall, closed up in September.

The announcement was made on the business’ Facebook page. It read; “After 26 wonderful years in business, we have taken the decision to retire. We want to thank all of our loyal customers, amazing staff and suppliers for their friendship and support. Bless you all. Nuala & Harry.”

• IT was a momentous day for Ted Moynihan and the Kerry Hospice Foundation as the new €6.5m 15-bed specialist palliative in-patient unit at University Hospital Kerry was opened.

There was a huge crowd present including many great volunteers who have given so much of their time down the years to ensure this day would come. Special guests included Duagh native Katie Hannon of RTE and Bishop of Kerry Ray Browne who blessed the building.

• THERE was mixed fortunes for Tralee teams in the Kerry SFC quarter-finals. Kerins O’Rahillys enjoyed a easy victory of East Kerry in their tie winning by 3-12 to 1-6 and setting up a semi with South Kerry.

Austin Stacks bowed out after West Kerry beat them by 1-17 to 0-14 at Austin Stack Park.

Meanwhile in the hurling, Lixnaw and Ballyduff would contest the Kerry SHC final in October after winning their semis over St Brendans and Kilmoyley respectively.

• THERE was good news on the double on September 25 when it was announced that Tralee had retained its Gold Medal in the Tralee Tidy Towns competition and had also has been awarded Purple Flag status.

The Gold Medal was the sixth in a row for Tralee and testament to the amazing work being carried out by Tralee Tidy Towns, Team Bramble, Kerry County Council and other volunteers. They actually raised their points total from 312 to 314.

The Purple Flag confirmed the commitment to ensuring that Kerry’s capital town has a safe, vibrant and well-managed night-time economy.

• TWENTY residential units in Fairway Heights were sold for €1,100,000 at an online auction held by BidX1  in late September.

Tralee Food Court at Mile Height was also sold at the auction for €1,685,000.

Continuing our review of 2017, here’s some of the stories we brought you in July…

• IN an escalation of action by local taxi drivers, they withdrew their services on the busiest night of the week as July arrived.

The strike action from 7pm on Saturday to Sunday at 7am came after stalemate in discussions with Kerry County Council about the position of the new rank near Boots/Tesco.

• SUNDAY July 2 saw a superb performance by Kerry to overcome Cork in the Munster Final by an impressive scoreline of 1-23 to 0-15.

Fitzgerald Stadium was the venue and James O’Donoghue grabbed seven points in what was an easy win for the Kingdom.

• THEY were celebrating in Garvey’s Supervalu Tralee again after they won the Best Large Supermarket category at the 2017 Checkout Best in Fresh Awards held   in the Shelbourne Hotel  in Dublin.

The Rock Street supermarket celebrated its 25th anniversary of its opening in June.

Continued below…

• SKY Sports soccer presenters Chris Kamara and Jeff Stelling  arrived  in Kerry for a special engagement out west.

The two lads also enjoyed a drink in Sean Og’s Pub on Bridge Street where they posed with locals for photos.

It was part of a AIB sponsored tour of the country which saw the two lads immersed in the GAA and they attended a football game in Dingle.

• THE volunteer crew of Fenit RNLI rescued two people from a yacht which was drifting towards a cliff face near the Blasket Islands.

Notification was received from Valentia Coastguard that a sailing vessel, carrying two passengers had suffered engine failure and due to lack of wind was drifting towards a cliff face approximately one mile East of Sybil Point off the Blasket Islands.

The All Weather Lifeboat carrying six crew arrived at the scene and both passengers were found to be safe and well.

In an operation taking almost three hours, the passengers of the vessel, along with the yacht, were transported safely back to Fenit Pier.

Continued below…

• A MEMBER of Tralee Community Responders came to the aid of a teenager hit by a motorbike in Tanzania.

Jimmy Murphy and his wife Maureen were over in the African country where they visited the Tír na nÓg Orphanage, run by Tralee woman Louise Quill.

The 14 year old girl was struck by a drunk driver on a motorcycle, who then sped off. She had sustained serious facial injuries, had lost two teeth and her arms, elbows and ankles were destroyed with open wounds.

Jimmy rushed off to the pharmacy to organise a first aid bag and proceeded to bandage and clean the wounds.

• AIDAN Kelly, a Qualified Financial Advisor from Tralee, was unveiled in July as the new President of Tralee Chamber Alliance until 2019.

Aidan, has run his own business, Kelly O’Shea Pensions & Financial Services Ltd in Edward Street, Tralee along with his business partner Gerry O’Shea, since 2006.

• THE Tralee Municipal District identified an area for the public to hold picnics in Tralee town and its environs at the a meeting of the Council.

The green area adjacent to the Lock Gates at Lohercannon was the place chosen and a plan was to be drafted and a costing to follow. Thereafter a source for funding would have to be found.

• A TEENAGE girl who had to be rescued after getting into difficulty in the water on Banna Beach in mid-July.

Danica Kelliher , who is a strong swimmer, got into trouble when she was caught in a rip current and was being pulled out to sea. Her cousin raised the alarm and a man, Dave Donegan from Cork, went into the sea and managed to get to Danica who was floating on her back. Then the two of them stayed calm and managed to get away from the current to safety.

• A KERRYMAN turned up in a scene on the world’s most popular TV show with one of the world’s most famous pop stars.

A Listowel man, Sean McGillicuddy,  played a silent part in a much talked about scene where Ed Sheeran sang a song on ‘Game Of Thrones’.

• A TRALEE woman was one of the winners at the annual U Magazine ’30 Under 30′ awards.

Úna-Minh Kavanagh, from Ballyard and formerly of St Brendan’s Park, won the Social Activist award in the Social Contribution and Activism section, for her work over the years in challenging peoples’ perception of diversity in Ireland, racism and the concept of Irishness.

Úna-Minh, who now lives in Dublin, is the woman behind BeforeMyMamDies.com, a travel blog with a difference that started in March 2016.

• The month ended as it had begun with a Kerry senior championship win. The Kingdom booked their place in the All-Ireland semi-final after a 1-18 to 0-13 win over Galway at Croke Park.

‘JOB done’, was the general consensus about Kerry’s performance but it was acknowledged there was still a lot of work to do.

Continuing our review of 2017, here’s some of the news we brought you in May…

• A FORMER Presentation Secondary School Tralee student was crowned Miss Hull 2017.

Agatha Lawton, 24, won the title in the UK city. She moved to Mayo from the UK 18 years ago with her mom Anne Lawton, but later moved to Tralee where Anne got a teaching position in St Ita’s and St Joseph’s School. Agatha attended Presentation until she was 17 and sat her leaving cert there.

• BREDA O’Mahony from Rathmore was crowned the new Kerry Rose.

She was selected from 24 entrants at the Kerry Rose Selection in Ballyroe Heights Hotel Tralee.

The 27-year-old is a lecturer in St. Angela’s College Sligo, having previously been a post-primary teacher in Dublin. She graduated with a degree in Home Economics and Religious Education.

• A NEW book compiled by Sixth Class pupil in Holy Family NS was launched at the school containing photographs from the past 40 years in the school.

The book came about as a project by the pupils who are taking part in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme.

Tony Griffin, a pupil from the first class in 1976 and his son Evan, launched the book watched by past pupils, the former and current principals of the school and Mayor of Tralee, Terry O’Brien, himself a past pupil who was in Tony’s class.

Continued below…

• Killarney businesspeople were celebrating as the news came through that the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium would not be ready to host the Munster football finals scheduled for July 2,

It meant Killarney would be the venue for the games for the Kerry v Cork and Kerry v Clare games on July 2.

•  IT emerged that there were 49 women who gave Kerry addresses when accessing abortion services in England and Wales in 2016, according to statistics published by the UK Department of Health.

In 2016, there were 3,265 abortions for Republic of Ireland carried out in hospitals and clinics in England and Wales. Women from the island of Ireland accounted for 83% of legal abortions provided to non-residents in 2016.

• A MAN who made an enormous contribution to the life of the town was honoured posthumously by Tralee Chamber Alliance  with a special lifetime achievement award.

Kevin Benner of Benners Hardware passed away in late May, after decades in the shop on Bridge Street which became a town institution and known locally as ‘Small’ Benners.

Adrian Benner of Benners, and his wife Delia were in attendance to accept the special award.

• A NEW sports training product made and marketed by two Kerry men received great exposure when it was featured in the first episode of GAA Nua on RTE 1.

Chin Up Goggles, a new sports training aid which has been brought to the market by two James O’Connell from Castleisland and Rory Kilgallen from Tralee.

Chin Up Goggles was set up by two men in 2014. Both have a great interest in sport with
Rory heavily involved with John Mitchel’s GAA Club and James a former basketball player, former committee member at local and national level.

Continued below…

• KERRY County Council  signed a contract for the construction of 15 new housing units at the Mitchels Road, Tralee in June.

The development, which is the latest in a series of new housing construction schemes in the county, represents the next phase in the wider regeneration and redevelopment of the Mitchels-Boherbee area of Tralee.

M Fitzgibbon Contractors Ltd of Ennis, Co Clare will construct 11 terraced, two-and-a-half-storey homes and four detached units at a cost of €3.3million.

• TRAFFIC around Tralee was disrupted as local taxi drivers held a slow-drive protest in convoy around town for two hours on a June afternoon.

The drivers were highlighting the issue of the location of the new main rank since The Mall has been closed off to them since May.

The taxi drivers say their incomes are being hit as the public are not using the new rank situated near Boots at the Tesco car park in the town centre.

• THE new Mayor of Tralee said she wants to harness the spirit of community activism and volunteering across all parts of the Municipal District to work together for the betterment of the area during her time in office.

Fianna Fáil’s Norma Foley was speaking after she was elected as Mayor in late June. Fine Gael councillor in the Killarney Municipal District, John Sheahan, was elected Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council.

• A TRALEE woman was appointed the new coroner for South and East Kerry.

Solicitor, Aisling O’Sullivan-Quilter was appointed following the retirement of Terence Casey in May and presides over inquests of people from South and East Kerry at Killarney Courthouse.

• A KIELDUFF native’s idea won the Overall Award at the Homes for Smart Ageing Universal Design Challenge.

Michelle Moore (née Savage) came up ‘The Abhaile Project’ which she founded and developed with well-known architect Dermot Bannon of RTE fame and another architect Ciarán Ferrie.

Michelle — a brother of well-known Tralee publican, George Savage of The Blasket — and her team were delighted when they were announced as winners of the €50,000 top prize by Mr Damien English T.D., Minister for Housing and Urban Development, during an award ceremony at Dublin Castle.

Continuing our review of 2017, here’s some of the news we brought you in May…

• THERE was a frightening incident for staff at a hotel in Dingle in early May when a man entered Benners Hotel in the town early in the morning and attempted to rob the premises. Gardaí said he threatened staff with a “sharp weapon” but he left empty-handed.

• THERE was great news from Clifford & Sons Gala in Mounthawk when a person won €500,000 in the Euromillions plus draw.

The person later collected the money from lottery headquarters and said he planned on buying a house. ‘This win couldn’t come at a better time. On the day of the draw, we went to look at some second hand cars and we were haggling over a hundred euro on the price! I think we will be able to afford a new one now,” he smiled.

• IT was a special morning on May 6 as thousands made their way to CBS The Green for the second annual ‘Darkness Into Light’ Tralee walk  in aid of Pieta House.

The Kerry Rose cut the tape to set the masses off at 4.15am, as musician Danny Goggin sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ to the thousands passing by.

They were part of 150,000 people who took part in walks in Kerry and around the country.

• THE Brehon Hotel was the venue for the glamour of the Miss Kerry 2017 contest in early May and the venue was packed to see another north Kerry winner.

After Niamh Enright from Listowel was crowned last year, she handed over her title to a Ballyduff lady, Tamara Goggin.

She beat 20 other beautiful women from all over the county, watched by a packed audience of families and friends of the contestants at the Killarney hotel.

• THE resurfacing of the canal walkway was completed in May with the section from the lock gates to the bridge at Blennerville opened.

Now people can walk the 2.4km walkway from the Marina to the Lock Gates on the tarmac surface, making it an almost 5k round trip with stunning views of the Sliabh Mish mountains.

• THE Bishop of Kerry, Ray Browne, announced that there will be no more funerals on Sundays from September 1.

The announcement was made at Masses in mid-May. No funerals will take place on Sundays in all parishes in the diocese of Kerry i.e. Mass Funeral Service or burial.

• JOHN ‘Tweek’ Griffin retired from inter-county hurling after 15 years involved with the Kerry team.

The Lixnaw clubman won a number of honours with Kerry over the years and was a huge inspiration to many with his skill and versatility in many positions on the field.

Continued below…

• DENNY Street became a two-way street again on May 22 and the reaction was very positive from the public and traders.

The parallel parking makes a noticeable difference to the width of the street and traffic flows freely both ways.

• THERE was a large crowd in attendance on May 22 for the rededication of the Ashe Memorial Hall to the patriot Thomas Ashe.

Local TDs, county councillors, businesspeople and many with a great interest in Irish history were present as well as members of the Ashe family, including his niece, Eileen Quinn from Dublin and her family.

• AN Oakpark native was reeling after her ‘parenting parody’ video received millions of views on Facebook.

Riona O’Connor, whose parents Sean and Ita live in Lisbeg, is an actress and comedian living in London who has the Facebook page, ‘Riona — The Unnatural Woman’.

She uploaded a video of her song about the travails of being a mom, to the tune of Rag n Bone Man’s hit Human and it went viral getting millions of views on the social network.

• IT was a momentous day on May 30 for Fenit and the RNLI as a member of the British royal family came to the village.

HRH The Duke of Kent, Prince Edward, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, arrived by helicopter during a beautiful sunny afternoon, seeing the area at its best.

The Duke of Kent has been President of the RNLI since 1969 and was on a tour of Irish stations.

He was taken on a tour of the facilities by Fenit RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, Gerard O’Donnell. He met the crew of the Fenit Lifeboat and was shown around the boathouse before a reception was held for him.

Continuing our review of 2017, here’s some of the news we brought you in April…

• KERRY legend Colm Cooper announced his retirement from Kerry football on April 4.

Cooper said it he felt it was the right time to step away from the Kerry set-up. “Representing the Kingdom for the past seventeen years has given me a tremendous amount of pride and satisfaction,” he said.

• A MURDER investigation was launched by gardaí in Listowel on April 4 into the death of a man in his 70s in Rattoo, near Ballyduff.

The man died when the car he was driving was in collision with a teleporter. The driver of the teleporter, a man in his 60s, was uninjured and was arrested by gardai.

• GARVEYS Tralee Warriors secured the Champions Trophy title in an overtime thriller against Templeogue in early April sparking huge celebrations.

Trae Pemberton was in form getting a vital three-pointer in overtime to contribute towards the victory.

Later that month he secured the title of Basketball Ireland Player of the Year .

Kieran Donaghy said: “We’re after winning the Champions Trophy, so we can now call ourselves the best team in Ireland. It’s been huge.”

Continued below…

• KERRY explorer Tom Crean was to honoured on a Norwegian Air International aircraft flying transatlantic routes from Ireland during the summer.

He is the first non-Norwegian to become one of the airline’s “tailfin heroes”.

The airline honours well-known people from Norway including Hollywood actress Greta Garbo and artist Edvard Munch, but the Kerry man’s heroic exploits have impressed the airline.

• Kerry were crowned national league champions in Croke Park after finally ending Dublin’s record breaking unbeaten run on a 0-20 to 1-16 scoreline. The Kingdom just got the better of the champions in a tense contest  with David Moran winning Man of the Match.

• THE Tralee man who was instrumental in breaking the international ‘Panama Papers’ story, of how the world’s rich and powerful allegedly were involved in complex financial arrangements to hide their assets from taxes, was part of a group awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Gerard Ryle is at the helm of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which headed up the research and reported on offshore account holders.

• THE students from Presentation Secondary School Tralee won the top prize of €5,000 at the AIB Build A Bank Challenge competition beating off opposition from all over the country.

The school has an incredible record in the competition, as last year a team from the school, ‘The Blossom Bank’, came second in the national competition winning €3,000 for their school, while in 2015 ‘The Dream Bank’ from the school came first.

Continued below…

• A STRIKING new monument was erected at Ballymullen roundabout emblazoned with the Rose of Tralee logo.

It was financed by Eibhlin and Dick Henggeler of The Rose Hotel who wished to honour the wonderful community and voluntary spirit that goes into the organisation of the festival down through the years.

• BORG WARNER  announced an €11.5m investment in its Tralee factory in Monavalley which was expected to lead to 50 new jobs.

The company which is a leading supplier of advanced hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) technologies,  announced it was further extending its production capabilities in Tralee with this major investment.

• IN further good news, it was announced HQ Tralee was expected to be home to 50 more jobs by the end of the summer as they prepared to develop the building adjacent to the current facility in Abbey Street.

The news was announced with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD, unveiling HQ Tralee as the first business hub to receive two years of free gigabit fibre broadband from Vodafone and SIRO as part of the companies’ national Gigabit Hub Initiative.