A gentle champion of the county capital

SEAMUS Mcconville came to Tralee almost 55 years ago and since then his contribution to life in the town has been immeasurable. Beginning as a reporter, then as editor and later as a columnist, he has always championed the cause of the county capital.

Looking back through his ‘My Town’ columns in the Tralee edition over the past year, it’s plain to see how proud he was of his adopted town and its people.

It was a mixture of opinion, news, anecdotes, tributes and jokes, which proved hugely popular because of the warmth and intelligence that went into the writing.

He was encouraging of tourism ventures and community events, he championed the farmers’ market established recently in the Brandon car-park, he praised the setting up of a tourism kiosk in The Mall and looked forward to the new Wetlands project due to open in March.

He saw great merit in developing better contact between Tralee and its twin town of Westlake, Ohio, while his friend Helen O’carroll of the Kerry County Museum got many a suggestion for exhibitions through the column.

Seamus also gave fascinating insights into the history of the town and its people. His fondness for the people and places he wrote about was evident in every sentence. Never was a column so aptly named.

Of course, there were many occasions where the powers that be came in for criticism. What he saw as a blasé attitude towards anti-social behaviour in The Square was dealt with, as was his disappointment in sections of the business community for not getting together to proudly display the Kerry colours on their premises in the run-up to the AllIreland final.

But these were never delivered in a mean-spirited way. Seamus was always constructive in his criticism and never flinched from putting forward his views, always in the best interests of the town.

The column was always intelligent, engaging, humorous and warm — very much like the man himself.

His town will miss him.