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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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Con O’Leary: Killarney loses a vibrant and popular personality

Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce has led the tributes to the late Con O’Leary, an extremely popular and very successful businessman in the town, who passed away in the […]

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Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce has led the tributes to the late Con O’Leary, an extremely popular and very successful businessman in the town, who passed away in the early hours of Sunday.

Con was a vibrant and popular personality in Killarney where he operated The Laurels on Main Street, a thriving bar and restaurant, which he inherited following the passing of his father, Thado.
The business organisation said from a social perspective, The Laurels became the beating heart of the town and it was a landmark at the Market Cross in the same way as Clery’s clock was in the capital city.
Chamber said Con’s passing really marks the end of an era as he was one of a golden age of inspirational local business people who developed and built Killarney, through hard work, bravery and great commercial flair, and helped create the wonderful tourist attraction and holiday destination it is today.
“Con was very proud of Killarney and he played a very active part in progressing the town at many levels.
“He was a man that was never short of great ideas and his contribution to the business life of the town and as a director of Killarney Race Company was immense,” Chamber said.
“He was ahead of his time in many respects with the introduction by what became known as “the singing lounge” many years ago and The Laurels always led by example through its successes in the annual Killarney Looking Good competition”.
The business representative organisation noted that the O’Leary family has always been very supporting of the town and Con’s daughter, Kate, was a very dynamic Chamber President and is still a very valued member of the executive.
Chamber expressed deep sympathy to Con’s wife, Anne, children Kate, Niall, Tara and Lorna, sons-in-law, grandchildren, sisters, relatives and friends as well as the dedicated staff in The Laurels, past and present, who Con always had great time for and a great rapport with.

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All Roads Lead To Kerry For National Road Safety Conference

Kerry County Council is to host a two-day road safety conference at the INEC Killarney on May 28 and 29. The ‘Safer Roads’ road safety conference is an inter-agency event […]

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Kerry County Council is to host a two-day road safety conference at the INEC Killarney on May 28 and 29.

The ‘Safer Roads’ road safety conference is an inter-agency event focused on improving road safety, reducing traffic-related incidents, and sharing knowledge and best practices for safer road use. It encompasses various strategies and efforts across multiple domains, including road design, engineering, enforcement, forensic collision investigation, technology, education, collision trends, occupational driving, cycling and scooting, e-mobility, active & sustainable travel and on-road events.

In addition to this, AI, Virtual Reality and Driver Simulation will play a significant role at the conference, in improving safety by predicting and preventing accidents, optimizing traffic, and aiding the development of autonomous vehicles.

This ‘Safer Roads’ conference is a non-public event where road safety professionals, speakers and service providers from across Ireland, other EU countries and the UK will attend, including transportation experts, government and local authority officials, roads policing and vehicle inspection agencies, road safety advocates, educators and promoters, collision responders, cycling bodies and community safety networks.

Kerry County Council’s Road Safety Officer Declan Keogh said:
“Road safety has evolved over the years to a much broader scope, in terms of e-mobility, sustainability, technology and engineering for instance. It’s not just about the road or the vehicle anymore, but also about how technology, human behaviour, enforcement, and education intersect to reduce risks and prevent collisions. The ‘Safer Roads’ conference will involve and include every branch of the road safety tree, right across the board, and in doing so, we aim to increase road safety awareness, improve road user behaviour and decrease the collisions and carnage we see on our roads every day,”

The two-day conference also provides an opportunity for exhibitors to attend, and interested state bodies, businesses and service providers are invited to exhibit at the event to showcase their products and services and engage with delegates and officials at the conference.

Further information about the conference and how to register or exhibit can be found here. https://www.kerrycoco.ie/safer-roads-road-safety-conference/

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