Kerry spelling errors see speeding cases dismissed

A number of speeding summonses issued on foot of unpaid fixed penalty notices were dismissed at Tralee District Court yesterday because common placenames in Co Kerry were misspelled or in some cases could not be aligned to any existing place.

Under the erroneous summonses, “Lisloose” became “Listloose”; Kilflynn was Kill flynn with three “L’s” and in a third location near Dingle, no such place existed.

In one case a Tralee man who lived in the Spa Tralee was summonsed as living in Spa. However, Spa without the definite article shifted the address to Killarney, solicitor Pat Mann argued strongly.

“‘The’ Spa is Tralee; Spa is Killarney,” Mr Mann said.

Spelling errors have become a feature of speeding summonses before the courts in Kerry and in one celebrated case recently the second part of the birth place of Gaelic poet Aogan Ó Rathaille, already Anglicised to Scrahanaveal, took on the Mediteranean hue of “villa”.

It too was dismissed.