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The art of local news

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FOUNDER: Danny Casey founded the Killarney Advertiser in 1973.

By Cormac Casey

 

In the 1970s my father, Danny Casey, had a belief that local news must be produced locally. We must remember in the '70s we only had county and national paid newspapers and one national broadcaster. If any local community was lucky enough to feature nationally, more often than not, it wasn’t the desired headline.

 

Understanding how news was delivered in the '70s we have to remember that Tim Berners-Lee only tentatively introduced the World Wide Web in 1989, 15 years passed before Zuckerberg’s Facebook surfaced, Twitter two years later and the first generation of i-Phone arrived the following year.

In the '70s local news was word-of-mouth. However, our natural ability to embellish even the simplest story turned into a thing of legend. What was missing was the method to communicate local news and control our own narrative from within our own community and, more importantly, to accurately document community history.

Today we consume news from numerous different mediums, from the printed page to our social media account. Whatever the medium, our news needs never change - one constant is the reliable source and our personal choice of engagement.

In 1973 the objective of the Killarney Advertiser was to deliver real local news locally. The method of the time was print. Over 47 years the product has dramatically evolved from a humble 10 page black and white to a 72 page full-colour publication. Today print is one of many media products available to us: our online and social media presence is another facet of our offering, and this is only the beginning.

The ‘Let's Talk About Town’ online survey published this week was facilitated by the Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce and collated by the Institute of Technology in Tralee. One of the survey questions asked, ‘We want to know how do you find out what’s going on in Killarney?’ The response clearly shows that Danny Casey’s 1973 objective continues to deliver today. This is very positive news for the Killarney Advertiser team and the community. Quality hyper-local news is alive and well.

The Killarney Advertiser is not one entity, it is a community. I would like to acknowledge the dedicated ‘Advertiser’ team, contributors and readers, and a special thank you to the commercial community that continues to fuel this project, and finally the participants of the survey who delivered a clear and resounding support for one man’s simple objective to deliver local news.

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Five local postmen retire with 185 years service

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Five local postmen retire with 185 years service

RETIREMENT NIGHT: Pictured at the retirement party held at Killarney Racecourse on Saturday, October 3, celebrating a combined 185 years of service with An Post, are Connie Brady, James Foley, Terry Potts, Pat Cronin, and D.J. Cahill.


Five well-known local postmen celebrated their retirement at a special function held at Killarney Racecourse on Saturday night, October 3.


The event brought together current and former An Post colleagues to mark the combined total of 185 years of service delivered across Killarney and surrounding areas.
Delivery Services Manager Terry Potts retired after 43 years with An Post. He began his career in Dublin, where he worked for 10 years, before moving to Killarney in 1993 for a further 33 years.
Pat Cronin completed an impressive 51 years of service between Killarney and Farranfore, spending 44 of those years delivering post on the Farranfore route.
James Foley served 35 years with An Post, delivering on routes across Killorglin throughout his entire career.
D.J. Cahill marked 32 years of service based out of Killarney post office, delivering mail across Killarney town, Killorglin, Kilcummin, and Headford.
Connie Brady retired following 24 years with the postal service, spending 17 years in Killarney town before completing his service in Killorglin.
The celebration offered local postal staff an opportunity to gather and catch up ahead of the busy Christmas rush.

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New Streetscapes murals launched at College Square

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A colourful collaboration between the Kerry Local Creative Youth Partnership (LCYP) and the Architecture Kerry Festival at Kerry County Council launched yesterday evening at College Square.

Titled Streetscapes, the open-air public art installation officially opened at 5pm on Thursday, accompanied by a performance from the Killarney Youth Drumming Band THUMP! under the guidance of Urs Wenk from Drum Dance Ireland.


The public art project features a series of wall murals depicting Killarney through the eyes of local children, exploring freedom, play, and potential future evolutions of the townscape.

The artworks reimagine Killarney’s iconic landmarks and streets, blending youthful imagination and curiosity.


Supported under the Creative Ireland Programme, the installation is mounted on the gable wall of Reen’s Life Pharmacy in College Square, where it will remain on public display until March 2027.


Speaking at the launch, Daniel O’Shea, Youth Development Officer at Kerry ETB, stated: “Streetscapes is a wonderful celebration of how children see things. Their creativity brings new perspectives to the townscape, and we are proud to support their ideas and their art through this public artwork.”


Deirdre Enright, Co-Ordinator of the Local Creative Youth Partnership at Kerry ETB, acknowledged the community support behind the initiative: “We are very grateful to Reen’s Life Pharmacy who have shared their built space with us. Huge credit is due to the artistic team from Me+The Moon whose dedication to creativity and to children’s art shine through in this work.”


The project forms part of the annual Architecture Kerry Festival and receives funding through Creative Ireland and the Department of Education and Youth via Kerry ETB and Kerry County Council.


Victoria McCarthy, Festival Organiser and Architectural Conservation Officer at Kerry County Council, welcomed the continued inter-agency project: “It’s always a great event for Architecture Kerry and we are so pleased with this collaboration between public sector organisations. It remains a key feature of the Architecture Kerry programme.”
See next week’s Killarney Advertiser for full photographic coverage of the event.

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