Qualla: Tralee https://qualla.com/tralee en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Tralee https://qualla.com/tralee Tralee: Introduction https://qualla.com/tralee/ Every August, a woman is chosen the Rose of Tralee, and tens of thousands of people gather in a Kerry town of 26,079 to watch her be crowned. The festival has run continuously since 1959, surviving recessions and pandemics, and it traces its name to a 19th-century love song about an Irish girl with a heart so true. The town it's named for is the county town of Kerry - the largest urban settlement in the southwest of Ireland, the gateway to the Dingle Peninsula, the place where the Black and Tans starved residents into international headlines in 1920. Tralee in Irish is Tráigh Lí: the strand of the River Lee, which is now mostly culverted under the main street.

Read more: Tralee on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/1/tralee-wp/gc31-tralee-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tralee: Scotia's Grave https://qualla.com/tralee/ Just south of Tralee, on an old roadway climbing into the Slieve Mish Mountains, sits a large boulder local tradition calls Scotia's Grave. The story is unprovable but persistent: Scotia, a daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and wife of a Milesian chieftain, was supposedly killed in...

Read more: Tralee on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/1/tralee-wp/gc31-tralee-scotias-grave.mp3 0:06 2 full Tralee: The Desmonds, the Dennys, and the Fire https://qualla.com/tralee/ Tralee became a stronghold of the Earls of Desmond, the FitzGerald dynasty that ruled most of Munster from their castle in the town. In 1580, during the Desmond Rebellions against Elizabeth I, English forces burned medieval Tralee to the ground in retribution. Seven years later, ...

Read more: Tralee on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/1/tralee-wp/gc31-tralee-the-desmonds-the-dennys-and-the-fire.mp3 0:06 3 full Tralee: The Pikeman Twice Cast https://qualla.com/tralee/ On Denny Street stands a statue of a Pikeman - a sculpted Irish rebel from the 1798 rising, commemorating that rebellion and the smaller ones of 1803, 1848, and 1867. The first version was unveiled in 1905. In 1921, during the War of Independence, the Black and Tans dragged it fr...

Read more: Tralee on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/1/tralee-wp/gc31-tralee-the-pikeman-twice-cast.mp3 0:06 4 full Tralee: Canal to Nowhere https://qualla.com/tralee/ The Tralee Ship Canal is the kind of 19th-century infrastructure project that explains a lot about Victorian Ireland. The existing quay at Blennerville, three kilometres west, was silting up. Tralee needed bigger ships. So an Act of Parliament was passed in 1829, work began in 18...

Read more: Tralee on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/1/tralee-wp/gc31-tralee-canal-to-nowhere.mp3 0:06 5 full Tralee: The Siege of Tralee, 1920 https://qualla.com/tralee/ In November 1920, the IRA in Kerry abducted and killed two RIC men. The Black and Tans - the British reserve police force largely composed of First World War veterans - responded by laying siege to the town. They closed every business in Tralee. They allowed no food in for a week...

Read more: Tralee on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/1/tralee-wp/gc31-tralee-the-siege-of-tralee-1920.mp3 0:06 6 full Tralee: The Festival and the Town https://qualla.com/tralee/ The Rose of Tralee Festival began in 1959 as a tourism initiative based on the 19th-century song. The pageant - women of Irish heritage from around the world, each representing a particular city or region - has been a fixture of Irish television every August since. It is unironic...

Read more: Tralee on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/1/tralee-wp/gc31-tralee-the-festival-and-the-town.mp3 0:06 7 full