To entertain and stimulate in these difficult times, since last March www.storiedkerry.com has published Kerry  stories every Tuesday and Thursday.   In rotation these came from the eight districts Kerry divides into.   In turn they were stories on legend, landscape, plants, animals, archaeology, history, folklore and our contemporary story.    

“Setting up the  Storied Kerry web site was our  big step forward  this year“  Storied Kerry chairman Frank Lewis explains. “This was to make all of us know more of our Kerry story and in this way enrich  and enhance all of our lives, bonding us more closely to our own place, encouraging us to look at the potentials of our place and play out part in developing it, sharpening our awareness of the problems and committing to solving them.”

The ambition was to encourage all of us to research a Kerry story that interested us.   Storied Kerry directors from each of the county’s eight district to encouraged all of us to research and present our Kerry story and publish all of these on www.storiedkerry.com.

Now after ten months it is time to officially launch the web site.   This is taking the place of the day long conference we ran around Halloween  in 2018 and 2019 in the very special St Oliver’s National School in Killarney.

The 45 minute official launch takes place from the Institute of Technology in Tralee (ITT) and will be live on the web site and on the Storied Kerry facebook page at 4pm on Tuesday  December 8.   On Saturday December 12 it will be repeated with comments from viewers.  

The technical preparation and presentation of the launch is being done by Phillip Doyle and his students from the Creative Writing and Technical Department of the ITT, which on January 1 becomes  part of the Munster Technological University.

“My students and I are delighted to assist in the official launch of the website.  This live-streamed broadcast will help bring the Kerry story to a global audience.”   Phillip Doyle says.   “We hope to continue our collaborations with Storied Kerry as we transition into our university status, with increased benefits for all involved.”

The launch will feature a feast of story.   Well illustrated  these were all published on http://www.storiedkerry.com.

  Kenmare/Neidin is generally translated as a little nest.   As part of the launch Brendan G. O’Sullivan has a very different story – which was published on the web site in July..

Donal Hikcey tells that the great yew in Muckross Abbey is built on the grave of a monk who slept for a hundred years.  This was first published on the web site in June.

From the Killorglin District Owen O’Shea tells of the Kilclohane Portal tomb dating from 4,000 BC which he says,  informs his sense of the place and connects him and everybody living in the area with their past and archaeological heritage.

From the Listowel district Joe Murphy  tells a folk tale from his life on the farm.

Over the past year there was all sorts of other story activity throughout the country.  Looking at creating storied communities, commercial concerns and public bodies, as well as communities, looking at developing story houses.  The collecting of nuns’ stories, using son et lumiere to tell  the Christian story. To give an idea of the activities  at the on-line launch Michael O’Coileain tells of some of what went on in his An Daingean/Dingle District.

Stories published on www.storiedkerry.com from the other four Kerry districts will be referred to at the launch.

In April Tommy Martin’s story  told that Castleisland/Oilean Chiarrai is the island of Kerry built on limestone with a network of caves.

In July Donal J. O’Sullivan told of he very fractious visit of Eoin O’Duffy to Tralee in 1933,

In November Bernie Goggin wrote about the Kerry slug in Dingle.

From the Caherciveen District  in June Cait Coffey told a contemporary story of a younger brother’s painful experience of the evil’s of drink

Storied Kerry is sponsored by the Trustees of Muckross House, Radio Kerry and the Gleneagle Hotel Group.   

By researching and presenting a part of our Kerry story we will add to the archive of story of our district and of Kerry as a whole.  As well if each of us don’t record our Kerry story then the unique personal perspective each of us have will be lost.  

Headlines for future virtual gatherings might be Biddies in February looking at marking the civil war in Kerry, St Brendan in May, Luanasa in August and Halloween in November

Storied Kerry is a voluntary group of people who have come together to help make all of us more aware of our story.   There are endless ways in which this might be done – but it wont happen unless all of us get involved.

         Storied Kerry  will help in any way it can.   More information and all of the contact details on www.storiedkerry.com‘