Tralee Tralee Tralee

My Native DistrictMy native district is in county Kerry. It is called Tralee. The population of Tralee amounts to ten thousand people. The houses are slate roofed and high. The names that are heard of the oftenest are O'Connor and O'Sullivan. Tralee got its name from the name of the son pf an old king named Daa: His son's name was Lugaih and the old king presented him with this district which was then called the Strand of Lugaih son of Daa. There are some old people living in the district. Some of know Irish, but they can also speak english. There were not as many houses in the district long ago as there is now. The name of Tralee is in some songs such as 'The Rose of Tralee'. The land is hilly and boggy. There are not man rivers in Tralee. James O'Sullivan, 11 High St., Tralee
Told by: John O'Sullivan, 11 Strand St., Tralee

The most notable landlord was Sir Henry Denny after whom Denny Street Tralee is named. This family has been in Kerry principally in the Tralee district since 1612 that is since Arthur Denny came to Tralee.The Dennys were bad and unjust landlords and carried out many evictions during and after the famine. They planted all the Tralee district with Protestants to whom they gave the land.As a grant for his services in helping to subdue the Earl of Desmond who was a Royalist in the time of Charles II, Denny was given a grant of land in TraleeThe land was divided into small farms and the landlord lived in London collecting his rents through an agent. His best agent was George Linden whose family still

About forty years ago there were no foreign games in this county but football and hurling. In the year 1884 the gaelic Athletic Association was founded by Mr. Michael Cusack and from that time on it was getting stronger. So the association spread to Kerry and there did great teams rise up in this county. There was a great team in Irremore called the "Irremore team". Mr. Maurice Relihan was the goalkeeper and Mr. Timothy O'Connor was the full-back. Other members of the team were Mr. Richard Galvin, Mr. Jeremiah O'Connor brother of the full-back, Mr. Edward Somers, Mr. Patrick Kelliher of Rathea, Mr. John Trant of Lisahane, Mr. Jeremiah O'Connell, Mr. Jeremiah O'Carrol, Mr. Joe Hannon, Mr. Frank Crowley, Mr. Brady Somers and Mr. John Kelly. The team had a band with them wherever they went it was called the Irremore brass band. Mr. John Trant was the bandsmaster and he has still some of the instruments.
Mr. Timothy O'Connor was a great weight thrower and was also a boxer. On one occasion there was a match between Tralee and Irremore in Tralee and Timothy O'Connor went to Listowel Mass and he ran home and from that to Tralee and he scored a goal off his knee in Tralee. There was a hurling team in Tullig called the "Gamecocks" and it was also very good. Mr. Maurice

The main road from Tralee to Cork is only about five minutes walk from our home. It runs from west to east. There are several road branching off it after leaving Tralee. The first important road is leading to Castleisland it is known as the main road, near it there is another road leading to the same place it is called the "Old Road". This was the first road leading to Castleisland from Tralee, but about the time of the Famine the other road was made to give employment.
Along the road from Tralee to Cork there are several small roads branching off which are of very little importance, but are very convenient. One can reach another road from the one branching off at the Old Castle. It leads to "Moriartys Cross" It is called the "Red Road" because there are reddish (sandstones) stones on it.

There once lived a little boy near Tralee whose name was Jack Burke. He was very delicate and his father sent him to live on the mountains. This was a very lonely spot and Jack saw very few people. After some time he grew up to be a very strong man, and he came home to live in Tralee. One day he went to Tralee to a fair, and when he had sold he saw an army whom they called the Kerry Molaoighse, and he became excited. He followed the army until the leader halted and went into an office and Jack went in, and asked how much was it to join. The officer said he need not pay anything, but that he would give him a shilling if he joined, so Jack joined. He went to Cork to spend three years training and while he was there, he became friends with two Kerry boys. After two years they became tired and they deserted. Jack and his comrades set out for France, and when they were about half ways, in the ocean they spied

There was a woman living in Bally Mac Elligott near Tralee and she died and left a husband and three young children after her. Her husband was a bit careless and forgot to give away her clothes for her soul. There was a Mrs. Brosnan living near this woman and they were very great friends. Mrs. Brosnan was coming from Tralee one evening in her ass and car, as she was passing Rath graveyard, the woman who was dead walked out in front of her. This woman was buried in this graveyard a few months before. Mrs. Brosnan knew the woman at once and asked what was troubling her. The dead woman had nothing but a sheet around her. She said to tell her husband to give her clothes away for the good of her soul. Mrs. Brosnan told the husband and he gave the clothes away. Some time afterwards Mrs. Brosnan was coming from Tralee again, and the woman walked out in front of her again at Rath graveyard. The dead woman was

Tralee pig fairs are held fortnightly and cattle and sheep fairs once a month. In Tralee horse fairs are held new year's eve and the eve of St. Patrick's day.
Easter Monday and November day fairs are held all over the country. The customs relative of some of those fairs are very ancient. In Tralee the toll goes to a private owner who purchased the fair field. With the exception of the tolls of there old fairs which goes to the corporation and whatever is collected from those three

About 90 years ago there lived in the town-land of Currough (Curradh-muc) about a mile to the east of Tralee a spinning woman, by the name of Mrs. Keating. She was a noted spinner. One day the wheel of her spinning wheel broke down completely. The poor woman did not know what to do or where she could get one as good. She was told that there were very good spinning wheel in Cahersiveen about 50 miles from Tralee. She got up one morning at day-break and she started out from Currough (Curradh-muc) Tralee for Cahersiveen 50 miles away bare-footed too. When she arrived in Cahersiveen in the evening she returned back to Currough with a new spinning wheel on her shoulder. She did the journey back and fore on the same day bare-footed.

Keel Football TeamAbout forty five years ago the Keel Geraldines and the Killorglin Laune Rangers were the two best teams in Kerry. The only other teams of any account then were Tralee Dingle Ballymacelligoth Fossa.The meetings of the Keel Geraldines and the Rangers always drew great crowds and the Rangers were never able to beat them more than a point or two. The Geraldines had a great goal minder Timothy Hanafin Whitegate who is still hale and hearty.The old men of Tralee who still follow the game say that between the sticks they never yet saw a better man than Hanafin.In those times Mr. Eugen O Sullivan N.T. Castledrum deceased was patron and in charge of the team.On one occasion they went to Tralee to play a match and the team they were to meet did not turn up so that Tralee in order not to disappoint them offered to play them with there second team. That was insult to Mr. O Sullivan who said if Tralee did not bring out their best team his team would not

Pat Connor from Dirha was on a journey to Tralee one fine Summer's day. When he was near Tralee he saw a man cutting grass. The man was a great mower with the scythe and was even the best around the district. Pat Connor asked him for a bag of the grass. The man gave him the scythe and Pat cut the full of a twenty stone bag in one blow and was the best mower from that on.

In older times they had no clocks; one night a man from Mountcoal was going to Tralee with oats. His wife was with him, and when they went on towards Tralee they met a man on a saddle horse. He asked them did they know the hour of the night it was. The

Sliabh Mis" is a few miles from Tralee. I was often near standing on top of it. Each year when I go on holidays to my Aunt's house, I go there. The house is very near "Sliabh Mis". It is about two thousand feet in height. I had a fine view of Tralee Bay, and most of the vale of Tralee, and Tralee town, and the neighbouring villages of Fenit, the Spa, Camp, and Castlemaine.
Conor Mac Daire, one of the kings of Iarmuman, or North Munster lived on the top of "Sliabh Mis", long before the Christian era. He was once king of all Munster. His wife was Blanard. The remains of Conor Mac Daire's fort is still to be seen.
It is related locally here that Conor Mac Daire was attacked in this fort by Cuculainn. Cuculainn was beaten and driven off by Conor Mac Daire. Next year Cuculainn came again to attack Conor Mac Daire. In the beginning, Cuculainn, and his followers, some of the Red Branch knights, were beaten off again, but when Conor Mac Daire went to sleep he was betrayed by hi wife Blanard, and Conor Mac Daire was defeated and slain.
In this trip to "Sliabh Mis", Cuculainn passed by Kilflynn. Tradition says he came from the North through Clare and jumped the Shannon. There is a place in the Shannon called "Léim Cuculainn", that is Cuculainn's

In the year of the Treaty 1921 a train left Tralee with a crowd of people to attend the anniversary of Thomas Ashe’s death. The meeting was helf at Kinnand near Dingle which was his native place. The train was overcrowded and large numbers of people were standing on the roofs of the carriages
When the train was returning in the evening a boy named Jim O’Donnell was standing on the step outside the carriage door. He was holding the handles near the door and he leaned out to talk to a friend on the roof.
In the west of Derrymore there was a telegraph pole very near the railway line. When the train was passing this place the pole struck the man. He was knocked off the train and killed. The train continued on to tralee and the boy was not missed until his friend reported it.
A few boys of the place carried the body into Tralee in a horse and cart. He was a native of Glenmore but he was living in Tralee.

a month later and although the coroner verdict stated that death was due to heart failure, the people of Tralee maintained that she died of a broken heart.When Maurice reached Tralee after the war and heard of Mary's death he became insane. He was taken to a private lunatic assylum in Cork and shortly afterwards became sane and was still detained there. He spent most of his time composing a song. His father came to visit him and hearing of the song he wished to hear it sung.The Assylum superintentent led the blind invalid to the piano and Maurice not knowing of his father's presence played and sang the strains of that since popular song "The Rose of Tralee". Although several stories are told about the composition of "The Rose of Tralee" this one is said to be the most correct as in the third verse it shows that the composer must have spent part of his life in India ( The far fields of India 'mid war's dreadful thunder etc." )Maurice Musgrave must have been the

About 150 years ago the English were hunting down our Irish heroes and hanging them when ever they could catch them. In the parish of Tralee to the north side of the town on the top of Rock Street on the right side of the road from Tralee to Abbeydorney by Listellick and just west of the New Burying Ground there is a little patch of land called Gallow's Green (Páirc na Croiche). Here many of the White-Boys were hanged in public. At that time there was a large hole of water in the centre of the field and into this hole of water the English executioners used throw the body of the poor executed Irish man.
One day as a man by the name of Pat Barry of Lisanerla (Lios-an-Iarla) was going home from Tralee with his horse and car (the road called the New Line now going from Tralee to Listowel was not then made) and as he was approaching Gallow Green (Páirc na Croiche) he got word that the English soldiers were waiting for a cart to hang a White Boy from. Pat Barry immediately turned back and he went around by the old Ardfert Abbeydorney way and so reached his native townland of Lisnearla (Lios-an-Iarla) by doing a big circle.
But it is told that they hanged this poor White Boy afterwards. All the landlords, big gentry, their agents etc used to bring their relatives to [?] on at the public hangings - even their women folk and children were present.

About sixteen years ago there lived a man from Listellick named Michael OBrien. He died in Dublin and he was buried in Rath Graveyard outside Tralee. He was a famous mower and he was known from Ballyheigue to Tralee. He used to mow an acre and a half in the day. He used to mow from eight-oclock in the morning until 9 at night.

The parish of Ardfert (3) The Hedge School in William Dillanes’ Field called the Road Field about half a mile north of this school on the Tralee Abbeydorney Road.
(4) The Hedge school in Mr McMahon’s field Listellick Tralee.
(5) The Hedge school in Hatey’s field Loca More Abbeydorney.
(6) The Hedge school in Rathanny (Ráth an fháinne) just to the north of Tralee town.
Norah Trant Lisnearla Tralee
Aged 50 years.

And the Skelligs seemed watching the Vale of Tralee.
*
Next I gazed on Mount Brandon, the hill of the blest,
Where Saint Brendan set out for the Land of West.
In the glorious days when old Erin was free,
From Antrim's wild shore to the Vale of Tralee.
*
Spell-bound I turned to steep Kerry Head,
But my heart became lonely and heavy as lead,
For my gaze met the Fane of Ardfert by the sea,
Where moulder my kin by the Vale of Tralee.
*
Blessed Shrine of Saint Brendan! Holy Ardfert,
My parents and kindred are part of thy earth,
Mount Zion of Desmond, God grant I may be
Laid to rest on thy breast by the Vale of Tralee.
*
The thought that came o'er me I cannot portray,
My soul over-flowed with sorrow that day;
I declaimed, in wild accent - This land must be free
As the fetterless wave by the Vale of Tralee!
*
I gazed towards Iraght o'er mountain and wold,
Where the sceptre of O'Connor - Kerry of old
Held sway o'er the green vales on to the sea,
From Carrigafoyle to the Vale of Tralee.

A man from Lixnaw brought a rail of potatoes into Tralee one day to sell them. He stood in the market for awhile but no buyer came to him. He then went "from door to door" asking every householder if they needed potatoes. One woman whom he had asked to buy them remarked "Wait until I ask the pigs if they would eat them".Another man who carried a rail of potatoes to Tralee market was offered one shilling for the rail if he wanted take them to the Mile Height. This place is about one mile east of Tralee. The man did not think it worth his while to do all this for a shilling so he removed his "hind gate" and and heeled his car and left them in the market.A poor man, who lived near Abbeydorney was in very poor circumstances during the famine. Every day he came to O'Sullivan's tillage field at Lacabeg to dig and every evening he took home a nice "mailín" of potatoes with him. This was supposed to have been an act of Provid-