On Monday night I brought my two small boys down town in Tralee to take a look at the most dreaded aspect of losing an All-Ireland final for the players – the homecoming. The dark grey weather matched the sombre mood on the streets and in the second bus.

Maria Walsh made history yesterday, becoming the first ever Rose of Tralee to parachute into the annual festival.

Auctions were where much of the sales activity was for the Irish market in 2014 — with Shame and Hunger actor Michael Fassbender among those showing an appetite for a slice of the action. 

Five bidders lined out for the chance to become ‘King of the Castle,’ at an auction where a bank branch sold for just over €3m, or 20% over its price guide.

Private investors are being invited to become ‘King of the Castle,’ as a Tralee town centre bank, occupied by Bank of Ireland on Castle Street, is being touted for sale, with an attractive rental income of €277,000 pa.

Even the sky in Kerry was dressed in gold late yesterday as the victorious All-Ireland senior and minor footballers teams’ train pulled into Casement station in Tralee.

Your top 10 esstentials for Ireland's most famous festival.

The 100-bed Central Hotel in the centre of Tralee town, and built as the Abbeygate 20 years ago, is for sale for €1m.

Fans of the first man on the moon will be able to walk The Neil Armstrong Way — in Kerry.

It looks likely that the people of Kerry have voted to ratify the EU Fiscal Treaty.

TRALEE, KERRY €325,000

SOME days are for living; others for getting through.

DUBLIN coach Mickey Whelan hopes yesterday’s victory will stop former All-Ireland winners criticising the team.

A teenage boy has been arrested in connected with an alleged sexual assault on another young man in Tralee.

FOR Kerry GAA fans, despite the success of this year’s Rose of Tralee, the festival is still threatening to become a nightmare.

MASSIVE crowds, estimated at more than 30,000, turned out last night to give a tumultuous welcome home to the All-Ireland winning Kerry football team.

“SAM is coming home,” that was the triumphant chant around Kerry, last night, as preparations were being made to welcome home the victorious All-Ireland football champions.

UP TO €30,000 worth of jewellery was stolen when three masked men raided a Co Kerry jewellers in broad daylight on a busy shopping street yesterday.

GARDAÍ in Tralee yesterday appealed for assistance with their investigations into an alleged sexual assault in the town.

A BROKEN bottle is believed to have been used in an assault during which a man sustained serious facial injuries in Tralee early yesterday.

A man in his 30s is recovering in hospital in Kerry after being stabbed in the face with a broken bottle in Tralee town centre early this morning.

TRALEE, famous for its roses, will be all in bloom next week, as a major drive gets under way to win a Tidy Towns award.

TOURISM, an important source of employment, has been in the headlines lately, especially over the Shannon controversy. This weekend the Rose of Tralee festival is being held.

THE former premises of the Kerryman newspaper in Clash, Tralee, sold at public auction yesterday for €3.32 million.

THE Georgian period in Ireland was the equivalent of our generation’s Celtic Tiger, a time of economic boom and considerable infrastructure development.

JUDGEMENT day is nigh for this summer’s roses, but they’re not wilting under the strain. The judges hover everywhere, even when the girls make their way up the aisle at St John’s church during Sunday mass.

FARMERS warned yesterday that they would not supply cattle to Tralee Beef and Lamb plant, which has been sold to new owners.