Hotel staff help with Tidy Towns effort

Hotel staff from the town centre are part of a clean up campaign ahead of this year's Tidy Towns results.

| By Michelle Crean

Staff from the great Southern Killarney are out and about every two weeks making a special effort to keep their local area clean.

They're concentrating on the areas from the East Avenue access past the Railway station, all the way to the conference car park.

Staff take part in rotation with up to 10 members at a time from various departments taking part in this initiative. “The Great Southern has been a landmark in hospitality here in Killarney since 1854," Michael Jacobi, Managing Director of the Hayfield Family Collection, said.

"We are proud of our history and for still playing such an integral part of so many peoples’ life in Killarney and beyond. We are aware of our responsibility to give back to the community and one way to do so is to support the efforts of the Tidy Towns team and to present Killarney as a clean and world-class tourist destina- tion.” ing and supplying anglers today," Mike Doody, Secretary Killarney Salmon & Trout Angling Club (KSTAC), said.

Co-Presidents of Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, Johnny McGuire and Padraig Treacy, welcomed the move.

"We really welcome this initiative that has been highlighted by Michael Jacobi, The Great Southern, one of our oldest hotels of Killarney town, with a proud tradition of welcoming community and visitors alike," Johnny said.

They added that the Tidy Towns ethos is at the heart of the Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce for many years and the great work being shown by the Great Southern team "is tremendous".

"We would love to see this being supported by the many other businesses across all sectors in the town," Padraig added.

"Under the new management structure of Kerry County Council there is a fresh impetus to bring Killarney as a town back up to a higher ranking in IBAL and Tidy Towns, and this can only be achieved if we have full support from you all."

"The Killarney Salmon and Trout Angling Club are very grateful to the O'Neill family to have been honoured with receiving this lovely shield and are very proud of the connections that it has with angling in Killarney."

He added that Denis was delighted to be able to acknowledge the ties with local angling through his family's sponsorship of the shield and in further support to the club, he will sponsor a prize for the winning angler as well.

"No better incentive for club members to dust down the rod and reel and contemplate taking to the waters for the season ahead! We are delighted to be presented with this shield and to be able to support a traditional local business which still has angling to its core today."

SHIELD: A memorial shield was presented to Killarney Salmon & Trout Angling Club (KSTAC) on Monday. Front: Proprietor Denis O'Neill with his son Jeremy. Back: Denis O'Neill, Stuart Steadwood (KSTAC committee member), Sinead O'Neill, and Mike Doody (Secretary KSTAC).

IFTA nomination for Jessie

| By Michelle Crean

Killarney's Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) award.

Nominations were announced for 28 categories in Film & Drama on Tuesday with Jessie up for a 'Supporting Actress' award for her role in 'Women Talking'.

Tralee's Ailbhe Keogan has been nominated in the Script-Film category for her film 'Joyride' which was filmed in Tralee and surrounds and starred Oscar nominee Olivia Colman.

The upcoming 20th Anniversary IFTA awards ceremony, hosted by Deirdre O’Kane, will take place on Sunday, May 7 at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre. RTÉ will broadcast the ceremony, and highlights from the IFTA Red Carpet, the awards ceremony and back stage will also be distributed to over 120 news channels worldwide.