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Black Valley mobile phone service “not fit for purpose”

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By Sean Moriarty

Poor mobile phone coverage in the Black Valley area is putting lives at risk and hindering mountain rescue operations a Kerry County Council meeting has been told.

Killarney Municipal District councillor John O’Donoghue wants the Council to write to the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan to seek an upgrade to phone services in the area.

“This is particularly important in the Black Valley due to the incidence of people requiring the emergency services to rescue them on the nearby mountains,” he said at the meeting.

“The Black Valley was one of the last, if not the last place, on mainland Ireland to be electrified in 1976. That brought light to contradict its name, as well as a phone service, but unfortunately only a partial one. To think that in an area of such majestic natural beauty is without a proper phone service in unthinkable, when one considers an average of two fatalities per year unfortunately have been reported on the nearby MacGillycuddy’s Reeks each year since 2000,” he said.

“To have locals telling tales of having to drive further out of the Valley to make urgent phone calls is simply unacceptable in this day and age. Our emergency services do a wonderful and often thankless job in such areas, and I believe that situations such as this are creating unnecessary obstacles in their path," he added.

“I am aware that there are other areas in the county in a similar situation, and I would like us, as a Council, to contact the Minister and ask him to intervene immediately, even if it means subsidising a company to run a phone service into such areas, as the current service is not fit for purpose.”

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10-minute plays will linger in the memory

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The West End House School of Arts is delighted to take part in this year’s St Patrick’s Day Festival with a special evening of entertaining readings on Friday, March 13 at 7.30pm.

It promises to be a vibrant showcase of five original 10-minute plays written by emerging local playwrights, each of whom has recently completed a playwriting course with Fiona Doyle (pictured).


Diverse in style and subject matter, these beautifully crafted pieces promise an evening of laughter, tears, and powerful storytelling and each reading will be performed by West End House actors from Kerry.


Together, they highlight the remarkable talent of these up-and-coming writers and actors, who are the future of theatre in our community.

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Get your scrap together

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Following the success of the first ever Killarney Lions Club scrap metal collection in 2025, the Club will again run the event this year in partnership with KWD Recycling on March 28, at Killarney Racecourse.

Similar to 2025, money raised through recycling the metal will go towards improving facilities for families attending the children’s cancer unit in Cork University Hospital, as part of an overall fundraising drive being coordinated by Lions Clubs all over Munster.

The Club is asking people to bring non-ferrous scrap metals such as aluminium, copper, brass, zinc and stainless steel (no white goods such as fridges/cookers washing machines). Volunteers will be on hand from 9am until 4pm to take donations of scrap and work with KWD Recycling to remove it for processing.

“Although Lions Clubs in Munster have already raised some funds for CUH, more is still needed, so we’re delighted that KWD Recycling is working with us again to support this very worthwhile cause”, said Jason Higgins, President of Killarney Lions Club. “We’re asking anyone who has scrap metal at home, at work or on the farm now or in the next few weeks to please bring it to the Racecourse on the day because everything we collect will make a difference.”

Tadhg Healy, Sales Manager at KWD Recycling added that “We will recycle any high quality scrap metal that we collect – it can be quite valuable and of course it’s better for the environment if it’s recycled instead of being dumped. On top of that, the main thing with this collection is to help families of children with cancer, so hopefully we’ll get a good response from everyone and raise as much money as possible through this event”.

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