News
Colin’s seventh novel to be published in May
By Sean Moriarty
An award-winning Killarney writer’s seventh novel will be published in May.
Colin O’Sullivan is a teacher of English to Junior High and Senior High School students in Aomori, Honshu - the largest and most populous island in Japan.
A native of Ardshanavooly, Colin’s short fiction and poetry have been published in various print and online anthologies and magazines.
His first novel, ‘Killarney Blues’, won the prestigious 'Prix Mystère de la critique' in France.
Apple TV has adapted his sixth novel ‘The Dark Manual’ and the 10-episode series will stream worldwide in the autumn.
“I visited the set [Sunny TV] in November 2022 with my wife Yuki and we got the whole VIP experience from Apple and A24, the production company. We got to meet some of the stars, including Rashida Jones, and they all were utterly charming and down to earth. Also, we met with Irish director Dearbhla Walsh as she directed it. It's a mixture of English and Japanese and will stream worldwide.”
Colin’s parents are Betty and Pa O’Sullivan, both now retired in Woodlawn and well-known in Killarney where they ran the very successful Safe Hands Dry Cleaning service at Michael Collins’ Place, now the Shire bar and coffee shop.
While thousands of kilometres away from his native Killarney he published his first novel ‘Killarney Blues’ in 2013 about his boyhood memories of the Killarney Jarveys.
“Part of the joy of writing my debut novel was the process of imagining and recollecting Killarney. It's the only novel where I mention actual place names. So, for example, when I was writing Port Road I was naturally seeing it in the mind's eye and delighting in it. The Jarveys were of course an inspiration, I think primarily because of their uniqueness. You don't get them in any other town, hardly in any other country.”
A title name and publication date for his seventh book have yet to be announced ahead of this May publication.
News
Developing St Finan’s “cost prohibitive” – Council
Converting the idle St Finan’s hospital into social housing is cost-prohibitive according to Kerry County council officials. The historic building has been lying idle since it closed in September 2012. […]
Converting the idle St Finan’s hospital into social housing is cost-prohibitive according to Kerry County council officials.
The historic building has been lying idle since it closed in September 2012.
The hospital and adjoining lands are up for sale by the Health Service Executive (HSE) since then.
So far no realistic offer has been made on the site despite suggestions that it could be used for social housing, a catering college and a hotel.
Each year the building, which was built in the 1850s, falls into further disrepair.
There were fresh calls again this week as local councillors called for some sort of action to redevelop the site that is fast becoming an eyesore.
At last Friday’s Killarney Municipal District meeting councillors called for action at the site .
Mayor Brendan Cronin wants the building’s protected status to be removed or at least reduced to speed up potential development work which ties in with Cllr Marie Moloney’s idea that the old hospital could be converted into apartments or flats.
Cllr John O’Donoghue wants the HSE to find a way to hand over the property to Kerry County Council either by way of reduced payment or an intra-government agency ownership change.
A Kerry County Council official told the meeting that any works to potentially convert the old hospital into social housing “would be cost prohibitive.”
News
Eight month wait for a driving test in Killarney
A Killarney councillor is calling for action in an effort to reduce the driving test wait list in Killarney The current wait list for a test in Killarney sits at […]
A Killarney councillor is calling for action in an effort to reduce the driving test wait list in Killarney
The current wait list for a test in Killarney sits at eight months.
Cllr John O’Donoghue raised the issue at Monday’s full meeting of Kerry County Council.
He proposed that driving instructors should be employed to carry out the final test to reduce the current backlog.
At Monday’s meeting he asked that hat Kerry County Council would write to the Minister for Transport to ask him to consider giving driving instructors temporary powers to issue a temporary Driving Licence/Certificate of Competence to those on the waiting list for tests.
“The wait is currently far too long and the system is in danger of becoming completely overwhelmed,” he said.
“The huge waiting list for young drivers is well documented at this stage. In a case I am familiar with, a young person passed their theory test in January 2022 and he immediately applied for his mandatory 12 driving lessons. When these were completed, he applied for his driving test on the 2nd of December 2022. Some weeks ago, he still had not received an application to apply for his driving test. This wait is placing him and his family under considerable extra cost and stress which is completely unacceptable.”
In the course of his research into the matter Cllr O’Donoghue discovered that the next available date for a driving test in Killarney is May 25, 2024, while Tralee is June 3 2024.
“Bear in mind, these are only the dates on which you receive an invitation to book your test, the test itself will then be an estimated three to five weeks later.
“This is an appalling situation and one which needs to be rectified as a matter of urgency. I am proposing that driving instructors, which presumably are fully trained up on the rules of the road, be granted temporary powers to be allowed to issue temporary driving licences to young people. When the waiting list time has been reduced, I would still propose that these people sit the test as usual, but the current pressure needs to be alleviated as soon as possible. There is precedent as I believe that in the 1970s, a cohort in this country were issued driving licences without having sat a test as the wait time for the test was too long.”
Developing St Finan’s “cost prohibitive” – Council
Converting the idle St Finan’s hospital into social housing is cost-prohibitive according to Kerry County council officials. The historic building...
Eight month wait for a driving test in Killarney
A Killarney councillor is calling for action in an effort to reduce the driving test wait list in Killarney The...
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