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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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Massive Park Road housing development given green light

A private developer has been given planning permission to build 249 new residential units at Upper Park Road. The development, which will be built on a recently cleared site near […]

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A private developer has been given planning permission to build 249 new residential units at Upper Park Road.

The development, which will be built on a recently cleared site near An Post’s sorting office, will include a variety of properties from five-bed houses to single apartments, along with a crèche and over 500 car spaces and over 300 bike spaces.

The development has been welcomed by local councillor Martin Grady.

“Killarney has a massive housing shortage so this is very positive. It will retain young families in the area, stimulating economic growth,” he said. “After 17 years of different planning applications it’s finally coming to fruition.”

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Ballydribeen residents living in fear due to anti-social behaviour

Residents in the Ballydribeen are living in fear as a result of increased anti-social behaviour in the estate. Several serious incidents in the estate have resulted in several Garda visits […]

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Residents in the Ballydribeen are living in fear as a result of increased anti-social behaviour in the estate.

Several serious incidents in the estate have resulted in several Garda visits in the last week.

Local councillor Martin Grady told the Killarney Advertiser that residents are “living in fear” as a result of very serious incidents in the last week alone.

One house in the estate was badly damaged when fire crackers were placed inside a letter box.

Another house had its windows smashed in over the weekend.

“It’s a major problem,” added Grady after meeting residents there earlier this week.

One of the most serious incidents occurred on Tuesday night.

A passing motorists had rocks thrown at his car while driving along the bypass whch is adjacent to the estate.
Taking to social media, local primary-school teacher Pádraig O’Sullivan posted:

“Travelling home tonight, at 11.05pm on the Killarney side of the bypass our car was hit by a rock – not a pebble – from the Ballydribben side , which hit the passenger door.

“It was centimetres away from hitting the window where my father, who is visually impaired, was sitting.

“This could have caused catastrophic permanent injury to him.

“The Killarney Garda were on the scene within three minutes.

“They can’t be patrolling the bypass all night.

“It comes down to parenting. You should know where your children are at this hour and be able to teach them what’s funny and what ruin a person’s life or cause a fatal crash.“

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