‘WildWest’lawmen headoffTralee rev elle rs at the pass
April 1995
it may not have been High Noon but even Gary Cooper himself would have been impressed by a small band of lawmen racing out of town to head off a band of desperados they believed were going to come into town a hoopin’ and a hollerin’!
Dodge City 1856? Tombstone 1872? Nope – the Wild West almost took on an entirely new meaning in County Kerry at the weekend when a busload of Easter weekend revellers from Tralee found themselves being headed off just outside Dingle and told to vamoose by Gardaí.
The incident happened when a busload of 44 young people from Tralee were stopped by Gardaí near Ballintaggart Hostel two miles outside Dingle and ordered to return to Tralee.
However the group, who had already stopped in pubs in Annascaul and Camp without any bother, were eventually allowed into Dingle following a quarter of an hour of discussions including assurances of good behaviour, The Kerryman has learned.
Just as the bus was approaching Dingle, a Garda car came racing out from Dingle with its blue light flashing, and turned before pulling in, in front of the bus and flagging it to a halt.
The Kerryman understands that two Gardaí spoke with the coach driver. They told him the bus was not being allowed into Dingle and they told him to drive his passengers back to Tralee and not to stop on the way.
The coach driver agreed to do this, but when he went to inform his passengers, they protested and pleaded with him to give them an opportunity to discuss the matter with the Gardaí, who had parked 100 yards up the road. The Kerryman understands that two members of the party then went and discussed the matter with the Gardaí, and after 15 minutes of negotiations including assurances of good behaviour, they were allowed continue into Dingle.
The Tralee group caused no trouble, The Kerryman understands.
“Everything was fine in the end, but for a while there it looked like something out of the Wild West, with the sheriff coming out of town to tell us we couldn’t go into Dingle,” said one passenger.
The Kerryman understands that there had been an incident in Annascaul earlier in the day when one of the party had climbed up some scaffolding to examine a roof for his cousin.
A Dingle Garda spokesperson confirmed that the bus had been stopped but was allowed to go into Dingle. Tralee Garda Superintendent Fred Garvey was unavailable for comment on the incident on Wednesday afternoon.