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Celtic Steps Reels In The Years With Sensational Celebration Event

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This year marks ten years of Celtic Steps The Show and the Irish Music and Dance Show kicked off their season in style with a sensational Launch Party on Friday last at their home of the Killarney Racecourse.

Cathaoirleach Killarney Municipal District Cllr Niall Kelleher David Rea Director Celtic Steps Brenda Doyle and Toddy Doyle Muckross Traditional Farms at Celtic Steps the Show at a special launch to celebrate their 10th anniversary and opening of their opening season 2023 at Killarney Racecourse on Friday night. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

Members of Celtic Steps the Show celebrating their 10th anniversary at a special launch of their opening season 2023 at Killarney Racecourse on Friday night. Included are Shannon Flanagan Holly Duffy Erin Grace Cooke Sean Slemon David Pyke and Peig O'Connor. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

Terrence Mulcahy Director Killarney Racecourse Ailish Mulcahy Bridie Brosnan Niall Brosnan at Celtic Steps the Show at a special launch to celebrate their 10th anniversary and opening of their opening season 2023 at Killarney Racecourse on Friday night. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

The event was attended by a variety of local businesspeople and politicians as well as media and some of Kerry’s most popular personalities.
Their Guests were treated to a lively trad set by the Celtic Steps Band while mingling and enjoying some drinks and canapes.
The Pre-Show Celebration was concluded with a heartfelt speech from David Rea & Sean Murphy, Co-Directors who took a walk down memory lane and talked about the Show’s humble beginnings and inspiring journey.
Sean Murphy remembered how Celtic Steps commenced in the summer of 2012, in the Mangerton Suite of The Gleneagle Hotel “in more hope than certainty that there was space for another Irish Dance and Music Show”. What transpired was a show that combined the best of Kerry’s culture and folklore through song and embodied a strong belief in displaying all styles of Irish dance, not just the more commonly accepted examples in many shows
nowadays.
It quickly became apparent that both locals and tourists were engaged by the natural, raw and live synergy that the dancers and musicians brought to the stage.
With its core ethos firmly honed on employing local talent, currently numbering 40-50 employees, Celtic Steps exploded through its first few very successful seasons in its new home at the INEC, Gleneagle.
As tourism grew even bigger up to 2019, the Show kept up its side of the bargain and
partnering with some of the world’s biggest inbound operators continued to trend upwards in audience numbers to where it regularly plays to four hundred people nightly in the high season, in a state-of-the-art theatre at Killarney Racecourse which has been home since 2017.
In 2019, the Show opened a second nightly performance at the Brandon Hotel Conference Centre, where now Celtic Steps runs both during the period from May to October, doubling staff numbers and offering visitors to Kerry, an experience unsurpassed in visitor attractions.
Post pandemic, the Show has now re-positioned itself as one of the top visitor and local night-time entertainment options throughout a long season performing just under three hundred concerts in County Kerry and now travelling internationally, back to Holland for a full month of Christmas shows in December 2023 on the back of a hugely successful 2022 tour.
Throughout the 21 shows in The Netherlands this year, they will personally sell to over 15,000 Dutch attendees nightly, playing in twenty-one different venues across the country.
“It has been an amazing journey to do something that you love nightly, however it would have been impossible without the local support of businesses in Kerry and special mention at this juncture to The Gleneagle Group (our home still for Killarney Race days!).

The Killarney Oaks, The Great Southern Hotel and The Board of Directors and Staff at our current home, The beautiful Killarney Racecourse in what is now The Celtic Steps Theatre” said David Rea.

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Fire warning in National Park

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Housing has appealed to the public not to light fires or barbecues in public places […]

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The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Housing has appealed to the public not to light fires or barbecues in public places this summer.

As they appeal to the public to exercise renewed care and responsibility when outdoors the National Parks and Wildlife Service has increased ground crews on fire patrol and has ramped up aerial monitoring with helicopters and drones.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD said:

“If you notice a fire, please call the emergency services on 112 immediately. NPWS teams are upping their patrols to identify potential fire incidents and act quickly should one break out. However as we know, prevention is better than cure, and we’re asking all members of the public to avoid lighting fires in open areas.”

Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan TD commented further:

“Our National Parks and Nature Reserves, coastal sand dunes, mountains and upland areas, forests, meadows and urban parks are all places where we enjoy spending time in nature, but they are also home to our precious wildlife and their vulnerable young. This is a really important time of year for wildlife, especially vulnerable ground-nesting birds and mammals who are now rearing their young. We all want to get out and enjoy the good weather but let’s do it responsibly – without putting nature at risk.”

The Director General of the NPWS, Niall O Donnchú, has also asked for everybody’s cooperation to protect nature and said:

“While NPWS has increased ground crews and monitoring from the air this week, we still need to enlist your help to protect nature at this high risk time. We ask that members of the public not light fires or barbecues in any National Parks or Nature Reserves, or indeed in nature generally. We are also asking that the public be vigilant and report any fire activity without delay.”

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Killarney Looking Good Competition returns

Over three decades after it was first initiated, to help improve the aesthetic values of the town, the Killarney Looking Good Competition is back with a vengeance with a new […]

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Over three decades after it was first initiated, to help improve the aesthetic values of the town, the Killarney Looking Good Competition is back with a vengeance with a new committee, new categories, new sponsors and a whole new approach.

When the project was first launched in 1991 it was a relatively low-key community event but it grew in importance with each passing year, culminating in some style when Killarney won the prestigious overall award in the national tidy towns competition in 2011.

After an enforced three-year absence since 2019, due to the pandemic, the competition has now been given a whole new lease of life and the 2023 version was officially launched this week by Mayor of Killarney, Cllr Niall Kelleher.

Awards will be presented in 26 different categories and high achievers in the business and residential community will be honoured at a gala prizegiving ceremony at the close of the tourist season.

This year two new categories are being introduced in memory of two remarkable people who played massive roles in keeping Killarney looking its best down through the years.

Yvonne Quill, who passed away last October, was the driving force behind the Killarney tidy towns campaign for several years and she was at the helm when the sought-after overall award was secured 12 years ago.

This year the Yvonne Quill Memorial Award will be presented to the volunteer of the year – a person who the adjudicators consider to be a standout contributor – in the overall effort to keep Killarney tidy.

Up to the time of his death in January 2020, Fr Michael Murphy was the public face of tidy towns and he played a huge part in Killarney, Kenmare and Sneem winning the overall national award in 2011, 2000 and 1987 respectively. Affectionately known as Fr Tidy, this year the Killarney Looking Good Competition will honour his memory with a special Pride of Place award.

In the business community, there will be awards for the best large and small commercial premises, best newly painted premises, best signage and the best retail award with prizes also for the most impressive hotel, public house, restaurant, café, guesthouse and best public building as well as the most improved premises.
In the residential categories awards will go to the best large and small estates, best private residence, best roadside garden, best floral display and best friendly planting award.

Other categories include a green hospitality award, a corporate special responsibility award, a restoration award, best school and a special biodiversity award.
Several highly commended awards will also be up for grabs and the winner of the prestigious overall award will be announced at the prizegiving ceremony.

The Killarney Looking Good Competition is organised by Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce and Killarney Municipal District Council and the new committee comprises Sandra Dunlea – a daughter of the late Yvonne Quill – Kathleen Foley, John O’Mahony and Johnny McGuire who is spearheading the project.

MD O’Shea & Sons are the new overall sponsors of the competition and O’Mahony Media Ltd is the media sponsor.

The competition will run throughout the tourist season and businesses and residential areas will be monitored on an ongoing basis.

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