The fact that Kerry County Council has been granted additional money for road improvements in recent times means that there are benefits for local roads and their users.
The L10985 road at Upper Main Street, Castleisland which is locally referred to, without any great imagination or thought, as the An Ríocht or Mart Road is to have €115,340 spent on resurfacing it in the current calendar year.
Local elected councillors had made sure that it was going to be included in the 2024 road works programme.
Upgrade Brought Forward
However, because of the additional funding granted to the council, this road upgrade is being brought forward to this year.
“This is great news for everyone who uses the road on a constant basis,” said Cllr. Charlie Farrelly while passing on the news.
Wouldn’t it be nice to formally put a name on this road which really graduated from a path / right of way from the old library down through the Crageens and flanked the rugby grounds on the western front.
It was on this path that the people from the top-of-the-town took to one of their areas of recreation down by the River Maine at a time when Banna and the like were out of reach for many and Spain may as well be on the Moon.
Mass Goers and School Children
It was also used by people to go to and come home from Mass as there was a narrow path on both sides of the river.
Then there was the Nuns’ Walk on the northern bank of the river which took Mass goers and school children to the bottom of Creamery Lane / Convent Street and onto the Presentation Convent path to Church Street.
The L10985 tag is fine for engineering and technical purposes but it kind of demeans the status of the path / road and the service it provided to the educational, recreational and spiritual needs of the top-of-the-towners for generations.
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