Offering incentives to use street-front buildings in Kerry towns as homes would bring “the pulse” back into rural towns as well as helping tackle the housing waiting list, local politicians have said.

It was jersey day yesterday at the school which must surely hold a claim to the title of Kerry GAA football nursery.

A pact between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour yesterday ensured the election of FG Cllr Pat McCarthy as chairman of Kerry County Council.

An explanation has been offered for a ground collapse, initially described as “sinkhole”, at an unfinished housing estate last weekend.

Kerry County Council was urged yesterday to call in a €1.25m bond on an unfinished housing estate in Castleisland.

Councillors in Kerry have rejected a call by Sinn Féin to reduce next year’s property tax bill by the maximum 15% allowable following a plea by management that the council coffers would be under huge strain and services would have to be reduced.

The Kerry region, a jewel in the crown of Irish tourism, will be "devastated" by littering following the closure of a landfill site, it has been claimed.

It looks as if Civil War politics in Kerry — where the conflict was at its most bitter — could soon be over, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael forming an alliance on the county council.

Final tallies from Killarney are in and the quota is likely to be 2,000.

More than 5,000 homes in Cork, Kerry, and Limerick are still without landline phones after recent storms.

A firm owned by Kerry county councillor Danny Healy-Rae and his wife, Eileen, was the highest paid plant hire and haulage contractor to Kerry County Council, last year.

They are ending up in pubs and gardens and are being adapted for many other purposes.

The county councillor who campaigned for a relaxation of drink-driving laws for rural Ireland has become a global phenomenon.

Majestic views of Kerry are being missed by many of the two million tourists arriving into the county.

The controversy surrounding a call to relax the drink-driving laws for rural drivers has taken a sinister turn, with members of the Healy-Rae political family receiving death threats.

A grieving mother whose son and his best friend were killed in a crash by a drunk driver has criticised a move seeking special garda permits to allow rural dwellers to drive after consuming two or three pints.

A motion passed by Kerry County Council aimed at permitting people to drink and drive has been criticised today for dragging the country back to "darker days".

A local authority has backed a call for “gardaí permits” to be issued to allow rural dwellers have a drink or two above the legal limits.

The late Con Houlihan had “an extraordinary pride of place”.

A candle flickered and a green and gold Kerry flag billowed gently in the breeze as people came to pay their respects at Con Houlihan’s monument in his native Castleisland.

Their achievements at Bandon Show last Sunday hold out promise of another good year for top national exhibitors Seamus Lehane and Ricky Barrett.

THE new drink-driving laws that come into force today have been branded a major blow for rural Ireland, which will lead to the closure of up to half the pubs in the country.

AN ELDERLY couple who became suspicious of a woman caller to their home in the lead-up to last February’s general election told gardaí they feared they were being targeted in a vote rigging scam.

Cork County Council and Dublin City Council are the big spenders, but the overall cost has been reduced, writes Orla Walsh.

GARDAÍ in Castleisland, Co Kerry, have interviewed two people as part of an investigation into alleged voter fraud before the general election.

FEARS are increasing that a long-awaited €137 million bypass road for Kerry’s county town due to start next year will fall victim to government cutbacks.

PRICES were low and the rain poured down but, at least, traffic flowed freely for the annual November 1 horse fair which drew the crowds to Castleisland.

FAMILY and friends of the sole survivor of the crash, Darragh Jones, 16, were yesterday saying prayers of thanks for his miraculous escape from death.

SHOCKED young friends of the four teenagers who died in the crash yesterday posted tributes on the Facebook website.

THE real possibility of more local authorities pulling out of waste collection has serious implications and could lead to an increase in indiscriminate dumping which continues to blight the country.

A FORMER school principal has been elected Mayor of Co Cork, while for the first time in 40 years a Labour man holds the chain of office in Kerry.

THE top honours in the annual RDS/Forest Service Irish Forestry Awards have gone to Limerick and Kerry.

A WITNESS yesterday described the scene of a fatal car crash, in which two young Kerrymen died, as an inferno.

Two young friends were killed when their car crashed in to a wall and burst in to flames in the second double tragedy to hit a rural town.

A NEW retail complex in Castleisland would help stem the “haemorrhage” of shoppers from the area to neighbouring Tralee, it has been claimed.

A SHORT time ago, the suggestion of three-bedroom ‘semis’ dropping below a price of €200,000 in Kerry towns would have been greeted with incredulity.

CLARE exhibitor Tom Casey had an early showing season double at Bandon last Sunday, where he won the young horse and three-year-old horse championships.

CASTLEISLAND is Kerry’s “forgotten town” because its jobless figures are not known officially, local Fine Gael councillor Bobby O’Connell has claimed.