Crowds ring in the New Year across the county
REVELLERS OUT IN FORCE ALL OVER THE KINGDOM TO BID THEIR FAREWELLS TO 2017 AND WELCOME IN 2018
THOUSANDS of revellers took to the streets all over Kerry to ring in the New Year.
By far the largest crowds were seen in Dingle which is now well established as one of the most popular places in Munster to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Some 10,000 people descended on the west Kerry town for the celebrations and the streets were jam packed at midnight as the Dingle Fife and Drum Band marched through the town as midnight approached.
Dingle wasn’t the only place in west Kerry where large crowds came together to bid farewell to 2017. In Annascaul people also gathered to celebrate the New Year and watch the now annual New Year parade which sees pipers and pikemen – bearing blazing sods of turf – march through the village.
The event is one of the most spectacular looking New Year events in Kerry and every year it continues to attract larger and larger crowds to Annascaul.
Another spot with a longer established and equally popular New Year’s Eve event was Portmagee where a huge crowd – from all over southern Iveragh – watched the traditional ‘Old New Year’ parade.
This wonderful event – which has been visited by Irish Presidents in the past – involves a parade led by an increasingly ‘decrepit’ old man who, at the stroke of midnight, is replaced at the head of the procession by a sprightly young man representing the New Year.
It’s a wonderful sight, and one of the more unusual New Year events in Ireland, which justifiably draws a huge, enthusiastic crowd every year.
As one would expect both Tralee and Killarney also held their own well attended New Year’s events.
Tralee had the distinction of holding the first fireworks display in Ireland on New Year’s Eve with hundreds of families coming together on Denny Street early on Sunday evening to watch a stunning display that lit up the night sky over the Ashe Hall.
It was a busy night in Tralee, though it was noticeably quieter than recent years in the town’s many pubs and restaurants which had been far busier the previous night.
It appeared that many in the county capital had decided to ring in the new year a night early.
However, many younger Tralee men and women also opted to celebrate the occasion elsewhere with over 30 buses ferrying young revellers from Tralee to Dingle and Killarney on Sunday night.