The Cartell.ie International Rally of the Lakes in Killarney has appointed star actor Michael Fassbender as an ambassador

A rallying year which began with uncertainty ends in style tomorrow with a capacity entry list for the Rentokil-Initial Killarney Historic Rally.

For the Cronin brothers, Keith and Daniel, Sunday’s Rathkeale House Hotel Circuit of Munster Rally in west Limerick has different agendas.

Taking the lead three stages from the finish, Donegal’s Manus Kelly/Donall Barrett (Subaru WRC) went on to win the Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes in a sun drenched Killarney yesterday.

One of the worst series of bends in the country is to be rectified, at a cost of €10m.

A public petition calling for action on a dangerous junction accessing Kerry’s county GAA grounds attracted over 1,500 signatures in just 24 hours.

An urgent call for O negative blood donors has been made by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service after supplies dwindled to just four days because of the loss of a full day’s collection due to Storm Ophelia.

A huge increase in tourist and leisure traffic in a remote valley in Kerry is putting lives at risk, a meeting has heard.

The chronology of Tadhg Morley, the Kerry footballer, runs in predictably straight lines.

Killarney vintners are applying for special early opening times on Sunday morning, for the first time, as the town prepares to welcome 100,000 visitors in what is expected to be one of the busiest weekends of the year.

There was late drama in the Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes in Killarney, where Monaghan’s Sam Moffett (Fiesta R5) and his Bandon co-driver Karl Atkinson took victory after long-time leaders, Roy White and co-driver James O’Brien, clattered their Fiesta WRC against a chicane bale on SS 13 and limped to the stage finish before retiring.

This weekend is likely to be a defining moment in the annals of the Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes in Killarney. A glance through the list of previous winners reveal that drivers of World Rally Cars have triumphed since the Millennium, but that thread is tenuous as the new breed of R5 cars is set to bring the sequence to an end.

Extra gardaí from all over the southern region will be drafted in to cover the Killarney Rally of the Lakes this weekend, including the Air Support Unit and Traffic Corps.

Cork racing driver Matt Griffin and his Clearwater Racing team-mates Mok Weng Sun and Keita Sawa claimed victory in the LMGTE Am category of ‘The 6 Hours of Silverstone’, the opening round of the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone yesterday.

Today’s report about efforts by Kerry County Council to use the Sheen River to supply Kenmare with water describes in microcosm the problems around matching an ever-growing demand for water with finite resources.

A major wind farm straddling the uplands of the Cork-Kerry border, across 32 townlands, has been given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanála.

Unlike most towns in Kerry, Kenmare is bustling even when it’s wet, and is a perfect base to explore the county

A substantial piece of farmland in Kerry is due to fall under the auctioneer’s hammer next month.

The people of Kerry are used to welcoming celebrities and yesterday was no exception when the new Top Gear team yesterday arrived for the weekend to film part of the BBC motoring show along the southwest coast.

Storm Frank will be in full flow today and tomorrow as forecasters warn that the rest of the week will be a washout with storms, severe flooding and high winds expected.

The activation of the Kerry County Council’s emergency plan prohibited the Killarney and District Motor Club from proceeding with Saturday’s Rentokil-Initial Killarney Historic Rally.

A sheep farmer has been sent forward for trial to the Circuit Criminal Court, on two charges relating to having a Winchester rifle with a telescopic sight and aiming it at two gardaí during a siege at his Kerry farm.

Donegal’s Donagh Kelly (Ford Focus WRC), co-driven by Monaghan’s Conor Foley, coasted to v ictory in the Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes in Killarney where they eased off on the closing stages to take the laurels. For Kelly, victory promoted him into the lead of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship.

The in-form Donagh Kelly (Ford Focus WRC) can take a major step towards annexing the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship on this weekend’s Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes in Killarney. 

THE route is all left turns, easily followed from the map. As we proceed north, and then west, we have views of the forested slopes of the Ballyhoura Range, Caroline Mountain, Knockduv, Carron and Seefin.

With the lead changing three times on the final day of the Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes, Monaghan pair Sam Moffett and James O’Reilly (Ford Fiesta WRC) took advantage of their rivals’ problems to win the Killarney based event.

An image of a spectacular mountain pass in the south-west, being displayed on billboards in France, is catching the eye of millions of potential visitors.

An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission to Vodafone to retain two masts at Moll’s Gap, a well-known viewing area and stop-off point between Killarney and Kenmare.

Marcin Bialoblocki became the first rider on this year’s An Post Rás to retain the yellow jersey when he finished eighth on stage four yesterday in Glengarrif where Russian Kirrill Pozdnyakov took stage victory for the Irish-run Synergy Baku team.

Few, if any, drivers have more experience of the terrain within the Cartell.ie International Rally of the Lakes than Denis Cronin, himself a winner of the Killarney spectacular in 2010.

Pioneers of innovation in Irish motorsport, the Killarney and District Motor Club will herald the introduction of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship on next week’s caretll.ie International Rally of the Lakes.

As shortlived as a smile, Irish snow rarely lasts beyond lunchtime, and so, while yesterday began as the best Monday ever for many children, come home time, the whiteness was gone.

SOME people out deer watching of late have contacted us in relation to what they have described as “no-go areas” where quite high fencing barred their way into sections of woodland.

BOTH residents and businesses reacted with dismay yesterday to an announcement that there was no money available for flood relief in a popular tourist and heritage town in Co Kerry.

WITH the announcement of the 2011 Billy Coleman Award winner just days away, some of its former incumbents are busily planning for next season even though one driver is being coy about his plans.

GARDAÍ have described the seizure of drugs with an estimated street value of in excess of half a million euro as “very significant”, and revealed that the case was very close to a gangland-style operation.

LITHUANIAN rider Gediminas Bagdonas of the An Post Sean Kelly team holds a one minute and 16 second lead at the halfway point of the Rás after he defended the yellow jersey by winning the fourth stage into Castletownbere in miserable conditions yesterday.