Tralee Thread (No chit-chat)

Sully34

It doesnt matter if you got "hipsters" drinking Leprechaun beer or awl fellas sitting over a guinness all day. What I want to know is why there aint anything put on in Town to draw the crowds for these long weekends?

Ciarrai76

Sully34 wrote: »

It doesnt matter if you got "hipsters" drinking Leprechaun beer or awl fellas sitting over a guinness all day. What I want to know is why there aint anything put on in Town to draw the crowds for these long weekends?

I agree, I can't believe yet another bank holiday has passed and there was practically nothing organised in the town, with everyone heading to Killarney etc! Even the Rose of Tralee Regionals were held in Portlaoise...its not even in Kerry never mind Tralee! Such a shame!

Clab mor

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

I agree, I can't believe yet another bank holiday has passed and there was practically nothing organised in the town, with everyone heading to Killarney etc! Even the Rose of Tralee Regionals were held in Portlaoise...its not even in Kerry never mind Tralee! Such a shame!

Kerry Co Council were asked some time ago to provide financial assistance to hold the regionals in Kerry, they were unable to provide anything even near what Portlaoise do so it makes financial sense not to have it in Tralee or Kerry.

If our own council were interested in it then what hope have we.

As far as I can recall there was a 5 or 6 year contract signed with the heritage hotel and council in Portlaoise. That's due to expire very soon and it's the festivals intentions to move the regionals to Tralee. I would imagine however it all depends on what sponsorship offers they get from other towns and business!!!

kimbaines

For the Bank Holiday Weekend a 3 day cycling event took place in Tralee. On Saturday around 450 cyclists made the trip to South Kerry and back. Of this 450 around 300 were from outside Tralee and stayed in the town, however they would not be in the pubs drinking and they had more serious cycling to do both on Sunday and Monday.
In fact there is lots going on in Tralee all year round with lots of festivals and events but the common theme from the organisers of these events is that they just do not get the support especially from locals.
Why has everything got to be organised for you. Why don't you form a group and organise a festival to attract business into the town rather than complaining about others not doing it for you.

Sully34

Not a bad idea that. And I got the perfect event. A 3 day BEERATHALON!!! That should keep everybody happy

umop.episdn

There was also a funday fundraiser in Ballyseedy on Sunday, 12-6, bbq, bouncy castles, face painting, a band, Finbarr Walsh signing copies of his book etc, so it's not like there wasn't some choice

Sully34

umop.episdn wrote: »

There was also a funday fundraiser in Ballyseedy on Sunday, 12-6, bbq, bouncy castles, face painting, a band, Finbarr Walsh signing copies of his book etc, so it's not like there wasn't some choice

Did you go?

umop.episdn

Sully34 wrote: »

Did you go?

I did indeed, rain was a bit of a bugger, but overall it was a great day

Kerrydude1981

So after Aspen Grove moving out of the Technology Park now Altobridge are in trouble

http://traleetoday.ie/45-tralee-jobs-go-altobridge-enters-receivership/

Radio5

Radio Kerry reporting that receiver has been appointed to Altobridge in Kerry Technology Park. 45 staff there laid off.

NewCorkLad

I know Annascaul has their Beerfest in August, but I wonder would there be much of a draw to Tralee for a larger craft beer and cider festival held over the June bank holiday.

HivemindXX

kimbaines wrote: »

For the Bank Holiday Weekend a 3 day cycling event took place in Tralee. On Saturday around 450 cyclists made the trip to South Kerry and back. Of this 450 around 300 were from outside Tralee and stayed in the town, however they would not be in the pubs drinking and they had more serious cycling to do both on Sunday and Monday.

I came down to this from Dublin and my friend came up from Bandon. That's the reason I'm reading this forum, to see if there was any mention. It was a great event and I had a great time. My friends family came along as well and while we were cycling they were going to the Wetlands centre and the Aquadome. For whatever it's worth his wife commented that when people asked her about her trip none of them had heard of the cycling event. This is in contrast to the Ring of Kerry cycle (which of course is 20 times the size) for which every pub, hotel and restaurant (and half the shops) in Killarney basically turns bike crazy for one weekend.

I hope the cycling event (www.tkas.ie if you are interested) keeps growing. The An Post events seem to be able to fill their cap of 2000 participants regularly.

umop.episdn

NewCorkLad wrote: »

I know Annascaul has their Beerfest in August, but I wonder would there be much of a draw to Tralee for a larger craft beer and cider festival held over the June bank holiday.

I'll bring my own beermug!

kimbaines

Re Cycling event: I think thats one of the main differences between Tralee and Killarney. In killarney the whole town work together to promote whatever event is on as they understand that the lifeblood of the town is dependent on visitors. In Tralee there exists a general apathy towards events. Why should i get involved it doesn't concern me.
Considering this event had 3 full pages advertising in the Kerryman, was discussed on Radio Kerry, had its own Facebook page, was promoted by Tralee Chamber Alliance etc. Yet it does not suprise me that locals were unaware it was going on. Its the same with Tidy Towns and Entente Florale - Not so much a lack of awareness just a general apathy towards it.

Sully34

kimbaines wrote: »

Re Cycling event: I think thats one of the main differences between Tralee and Killarney. In killarney the whole town work together to promote whatever event is on as they understand that the lifeblood of the town is dependent on visitors. In Tralee there exists a general apathy towards events. Why should i get involved it doesn't concern me.
Considering this event had 3 full pages advertising in the Kerryman, was discussed on Radio Kerry, had its own Facebook page, was promoted by Tralee Chamber Alliance etc. Yet it does not suprise me that locals were unaware it was going on. Its the same with Tidy Towns and Entente Florale - Not so much a lack of awareness just a general apathy towards it.

It aint "apathy" that stops Tralee folk going to these events,its the lack of booze. People want to get pissed up on a long weekend so give them something to get pissed up at. Tralee was always a big drinking town,if we lose that then we got nothing

ongarboy

Hard to believe the Aqua Dome is 20 years old - I remember the big deal when it first opened. Apart from Leisureland in Galway, there was nothing like it in Ireland at the time. The slide was such a novelty! Still a great addition to the town and is the anchor amenity for any family holidays based in Tralee, I would think. Interesting trivia in the article - I never new Colin Farrell shot a movie scene there!

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/traleersquos-aqua-dome-still-making-a-splash-after-20-years-270835.html

Ciarrai76

ongarboy wrote: »

Hard to believe the Aqua Dome is 20 years old - I remember the big deal when it first opened. Apart from Leisureland in Galway, there was nothing like it in Ireland at the time. The slide was such a novelty! Still a great addition to the town and is the anchor amenity for any family holidays based in Tralee, I would think. Interesting trivia in the article - I never new Colin Farrell shot a movie scene there!

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/traleersquos-aqua-dome-still-making-a-splash-after-20-years-270835.html

I never knew that either!! wow, he was down the road from my family home & I didn't even know about it!! lol
Mad to think its 20 years old already, where does the time go!?

xxyyzz

HivemindXX wrote: »

I came down to this from Dublin and my friend came up from Bandon. That's the reason I'm reading this forum, to see if there was any mention. It was a great event and I had a great time. My friends family came along as well and while we were cycling they were going to the Wetlands centre and the Aquadome. For whatever it's worth his wife commented that when people asked her about her trip none of them had heard of the cycling event. This is in contrast to the Ring of Kerry cycle (which of course is 20 times the size) for which every pub, hotel and restaurant (and half the shops) in Killarney basically turns bike crazy for one weekend.

I hope the cycling event (www.tkas.ie if you are interested) keeps growing. The An Post events seem to be able to fill their cap of 2000 participants regularly.

To be fair, the ring of Kerry and the TKAS tour of Kerry are very different events. The ring is well doable by a fairly average cyclist with a bit of training under the belt. There's only 2 real climbs and neither of them are that difficult, however the TKAS tour is a different story. All of the stages are far more difficult with a lot of tough climbs. It's an event more suited to the club cyclist than the leisure cyclist.

Sully34

Forget Colin Farrell, our very own Tim Landers was in the new episode of Game of Thrones

http://traleetoday.ie/tralee-man-appears-game-thrones/

Ciarrai76

Sully34 wrote: »

Forget Colin Farrell, our very own Tim Landers was in the new episode of Game of Thrones

http://traleetoday.ie/tralee-man-appears-game-thrones/

wow, that's great, fair play to him. I haven't seen Game of Thrones, I might have to start from scratch at some point!

Sully34

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

wow, that's great, fair play to him. I haven't seen Game of Thrones, I might have to start from scratch at some point!

Didnt think it would be my cup of tea but herself got me hooked on it. If I could only now get her hooked on the football as easy before the World Cup starts

BPKS

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

I never knew that either!! wow, he was down the road from my family home & I didn't even know about it!! lol
Mad to think its 20 years old already, where does the time go!?

Mad to think how much taxpayers money has been pumped into it over those 20 years to keep it open:rolleyes:

Also, what engineers designed a building, with a glass dome and slate roof on the west coast of Ireland? How many times have flying slates during a storm led to the glass on the dome being broken and a few weeks delay in getting it fixed due to the difficult nature of accessing the dome. Madness.

Ciarrai76

BPKS wrote: »

Mad to think how much taxpayers money has been pumped into it over those 20 years to keep it open:rolleyes:

Also, what engineers designed a building, with a glass dome and slate roof on the west coast of Ireland? How many times have flying slates during a storm led to the glass on the dome being broken and a few weeks delay in getting it fixed due to the difficult nature of accessing the dome. Madness.

To be fair, that only happened in the past year! I don't remember them having to close due to storm damage in the past 20 years up until the end of last year & early this year.

BPKS

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

To be fair, that only happened in the past year! I don't remember them having to close due to storm damage in the past 20 years up until the end of last year & early this year.

Happened at least twice before this year. And then twice in a couple of months this year.

Will we get another bad storm in the next 2 or 3 years? Very likely. Will the same thing happen at the Aqua Dome? Very likely.

Sully34

BPKS wrote: »

Happened at least twice before this year. And then twice in a couple of months this year.

Will we get another bad storm in the next 2 or 3 years? Very likely. Will the same thing happen at the Aqua Dome? Very likely.

So I take it you didnt get invited to the 20th birthday party then

BPKS

Sully34 wrote: »

So I take it you didnt get invited to the 20th birthday party then

I did but due to the moderate winds forecast for that day, I decided for my own safety not to go;)

HivemindXX

xxyyzz wrote: »

To be fair, the ring of Kerry and the TKAS tour of Kerry are very different events. The ring is well doable by a fairly average cyclist with a bit of training under the belt. There's only 2 real climbs and neither of them are that difficult, however the TKAS tour is a different story. All of the stages are far more difficult with a lot of tough climbs. It's an event more suited to the club cyclist than the leisure cyclist.

Getting a bit off topic I guess but I agree that the two events are very different but I disagree as to the reason. The main reason the RoK is huge is that it has been going for 30 years. It benefits from positive reinforcement, the more successful it is the more support it gets and so on, and over that amount of time this builds it up to the juggernaut it is

The TKAS is very well designed to support all sorts of cyclists in my opinion. You can do 80k or 160k routes on each day and you can skip any day(s) you want. I talked to a number of people who had only taken up cycling this year and one who told me after she crossed the finish line that this was her first organised cycle.

Here's the numbers I have for the distance and elevation gained
RoK - 172km / 1700m
TKAS Day 1 - 135km / 1700m or 82k / 480m
TKAS Day 2 - 173km / 1730m or 85k / 665m
TKAS Day 3 - 187km / 1220m or 84k / 535m

I doubt TKAS will ever get as big as ROK since I don't think it's possible to virtually shut down the roads around Tralee to motor traffic like they do on the ring but it can easily get the numbers the An Post events do in my opinion.

xxyyzz

HivemindXX wrote: »

Getting a bit off topic I guess but I agree that the two events are very different but I disagree as to the reason. The main reason the RoK is huge is that it has been going for 30 years. It benefits from positive reinforcement, the more successful it is the more support it gets and so on, and over that amount of time this builds it up to the juggernaut it is

The TKAS is very well designed to support all sorts of cyclists in my opinion. You can do 80k or 160k routes on each day and you can skip any day(s) you want. I talked to a number of people who had only taken up cycling this year and one who told me after she crossed the finish line that this was her first organised cycle.

Here's the numbers I have for the distance and elevation gained
RoK - 172km / 1700m
TKAS Day 1 - 135km / 1700m or 82k / 480m
TKAS Day 2 - 173km / 1730m or 85k / 665m
TKAS Day 3 - 187km / 1220m or 84k / 535m

I doubt TKAS will ever get as big as ROK since I don't think it's possible to virtually shut down the roads around Tralee to motor traffic like they do on the ring but it can easily get the numbers the An Post events do in my opinion.

Those figures only show elevation, they don't show the severity of the climbs. There are 2 main climbs on the ROK - Coomakista and Molls gap. I've done them and both are high but they are long and relatively easy drags at 3%. There is nothing there to compare with the gap of dunloe, the climb from the black valley up to Molls, Bealach Beama 10% and the hills around Carragh lake in quick succession. A number of people fell and got hurt on the Bealach Beama descent as its very technical with bad road.

I would agree that you could get a much larger number of entrants with the right promotion but AFAIK only 1 club is involved in the organisation of this event, I'm not sure they could handle the extra numbers.

counterlock

BPKS wrote: »

Mad to think how much taxpayers money has been pumped into it over those 20 years to keep it open:rolleyes:

Tax money spent locally and people are still unhappy. The mind boggles

Kerrydude1981

Was reading this

http://traleetoday.ie/five-hidden-gems-wed-proud-show-tourists/

Quinlans? Ive never had the pleasure of been in there,anyone here been in there for daytime pints?