http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/home-of-the-rose-is-now-plagued-with-thorns-26558890.html Danielle Moore, who runs the Abbey Gate Hotel along with her mother Laura

JIM CUSACK – 16 August 2009
Last week, I was in Tralee and witnessed three young non-nationals who were intermittently speaking on mobile phones in a quiet area of the town, mostly in their native language. One then took a call and spoke in English. He said: "Yes, I am in front of ... (he named the location, a well known landmark in the town)".

About 20 minutes later a young woman appeared. The four moved into the shade of a tree, spent some time talking and, apparently, exchanged something. The girl left and the three young men walked back up through the town.

Castle Street, Tralee, on Thursday afternoon resembled a somewhat run-down commercial centre street in any ethnically diverse western city. There were 'boy racer'-style cars with darkened windows, behind which loud bass music was being played. In one, which drove past a church entrance, the young white male front-seat passenger was smoking a joint. A good many of the young Irish people had tattoos and were dressed 'ghetto' style, and there was a wide variety of ethnic types intermingling with the locals and the tourists.

One of the typically erudite Kerry shopowners in the town who spoke to the Sunday Independent only on the strict condition of anonymity used the term "dystopia" to describe modern-day Tralee -- the Chambers Dictionary definition of this being: "a place thought of as the opposite of utopia, ie, where everything is as bad as possible."

The trader also, rather disturbingly, used another term to describe the reaction of Kerry people to what is happening in Tralee as "pre-Weimar Germany" -- the point in the 1920s when liberalism was collapsing alongside the rise in Nazism.

She has lived, she said, in rough parts of London and New York, but described Tralee as "more violent" adding: "I am now actually scared." Shortly before speaking to this woman another local, a man, who had been born and reared in the town, said in relation to the immigrants living there: "We're the softest touch in Europe."

Tralee, despite the brave face put on by the local business and political representatives, is clearly a town in trouble. Last week, the Tralee Chamber of Commerce was complaining about national media coverage of the recent faction fighting between Traveller families in the Bullring area. The Chamber president Seamus O'Donovan was quoted in Kerry's Eye describing the coverage of the Traveller violence as "completely sensationalised and blown out of proportion". He was supported by deputy mayor Mairead Fernane saying: "What they [the media] are talking about is confined to two pockets of the town."

The violence was indeed confined, but this is an eye witness description by a resident of the Bullring area who -- yet again -- agreed only to speak on condition of anonymity.

"I was looking out the window and there was about a hundred of them fighting each other. I think on Saturday night an older guy went into the town and a young man from the other side gave him a push. The older guy's family put in windows and doors of the cars and houses. There were hatchets. There was fighting all day Sunday and Monday and Tuesday.

"The ERU [actually the Garda Armed Response Unit] came down from Limerick and they were trying to control them. Myself and a friend sat there for six hours. I heard they were so cross because [she named the older Traveller man] got hit down town."

A different story in Kerry's Eye on Thursday put another perspective on what is going on in Tralee. One of the biggest stashes of the extraordinary dangerous drugs, crystal meth-amphetamine, ever seized in the State was discovered in an apartment rented in the town. A garda told the District Court that an estimated €7,000 worth of the drug divided into 183 separate deals was found in the apartment. Crystal meth is synonymous with the destruction of poor working-class communities across the United States.

It has only begun arriving here in the past two or three years. Its use is very likely to increase because it is cheap to manufacture. Its rise normally coincides with economic recession, or when the price of other drugs like heroin and cocaine goes beyond the price range of abusers. A scheme is now under way in the town to provide a free needle exchange for the growing population of heroin addicts.

Tralee, like the rest of Ireland, is feeling the harsh effects of economic recession. The latest figures for August show the Tralee urban and rural live register, from a population of around 37,000 including welfare claimants, standing at 6,981. If you remove children under 17 from the population figure -- say around 10,000 -- this could mean that about 30 per cent of the adult population is in receipt of state benefits.

This week the town is gearing up for the annual Rose of Tralee event, something which many local people seem to be unhappy about.

The Rose event will be located at Fels Point on the edge of the town.

The 166-bedroom Fels Point Hotel is part of troubled developer Liam Carroll's portfolio. He had plans to build a massive 326-bedroom hotel and 3,800-seat arena but this has not reached the planning stage and is in limbo. Staff in the existing Fels Hotel are concerned about their future given the massive financial problems that currently surround Carroll's empire.

During a day of interviewing people in Tralee the only people who agreed to speak on record about the town's woes were mother and daughter, Laura and Danielle Moore, who own and run the 100-bed Abbey Gate Hotel in Maine Street. Laura expressed concern about the future for Tralee and particularly the hotel business.

She employs 16 full-time and 30 part-time staff. In order to attract custom she has reduced room rates, which had previously been €90 per person sharing, to €50 a room. Compared to Dublin, Tralee at least has cheaper pints. A pint in the Abbey Gate is €3.80 -- "and it's still too dear", she commented.

With the Rose of Tralee festival beginning this week Laura was not in the slightest bit excited and believes the festival has lost its character and meaning and is no longer of significant benefit to Tralee.

"There was a countryness about it that has gone. The local involvement has more or less gone and they have brought in outsiders. The local people lost interest because they felt they weren't gaining. It's a TV event, not about the locals. The outsiders run it."

Laura pointed out that the Rose of Tralee was a "local concept" and that 50 years on since it was started "they can't make it work". The festival was dreamed up by a group of local business people in the late Fifties at a time when Tralee, like the rest of the country, was suffering severe economic problems and large-scale emigration.

In its hey day it attracted thousands of visitors who packed the local hotels and B&Bs and who flocked to the traditional music sessions in the town's many pubs.

Many of the sessions, featuring the country's finest trad musicians, ran all night as licensing rules were relaxed and gardai took a generally benign approach to the drink-related festivities.

Laura added: "We have vacancies now but before hotels would be over-booked. The hospitality industry has changed since September 11 (the Twin Towers attacks in 2001). People used to book in October for September the next year. Now they book a maximum of three to four months in advance. The car parking is a big problem. The council have put bollards everywhere and you can't stop your car for five minutes."

As in many other towns, where parking regulations have been strictly applied and where parking has become a major revenue source for local government, a large amount of trade in the town has migrated to the big Manor West retail park, on the outskirts of the town, where parking is free.

Danielle's impressions are almost painful to listen to. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and could have had a career in business or finance anywhere in the world. She chose to return home and take up work with her family business -- the Moores have been in the pub and catering trade in Tralee for several generations.

She said: "I don't feel safe here. The problem is getting worse. I think a great number (of people) are disillusioned. They feel the criminals are in control. They are laughing at the guards. I have actually seen it. There are children in the street who are out of control. They are mostly overweight and lack self-esteem. I feel intimidated.

"There are people who were proud about living here. The youths coming up have destroyed it, wrecked it. The council say there should be mediation but that is non-productive. They laugh in their faces." Danielle is considering her future in Tralee.

She said that a late night out in the town with friends is no longer an option for most people because of the drunken street violence.

A taxi driver said that where previously drivers were accustomed to taking home inebriated revellers, many were now concerned at the levels of street violence. "You're not talking about the odd punch up. You're talking about guys stabbing each other in the face with bottles. They are also beginning to drink before they even come into town, buying drink from off-licences and drinking at home before they come in."

The common underlying expression of concern among working people in Tralee who spoke last week, however, was the spread and effect of violence and intimidation emanating from sections of the Traveller community within the town.

The publicly unspoken concern in the town was described by another businesswoman as a "silent war". She added: "No one speaks out about it but it is causing havoc. It's crazy here."