THERE is a distinct possibility that the Castleisland Bypass will be open for this year's annual horse fair here in town.

Naturally, hope outweighs the possibility for now but that event alone would throw a whole new lifeline to the age-old fair. It is then that planning side issues like the provision of music on the street and other fair related issues could be contemplated in earnest.

Local traffic would be so much easier to manage with the choking, clogging, heavy traffic diverted away from the town at the ' named for now' Knocknagore round-about. Imagine too that this year sees the last of the Puck Fairs, Festivals of Kerry and Killarney Races to cause so much grief to Castleisland and the valley in general and, indeed, vice-versa.

A couple of issues ago here I mentioned a suggestion by Knocknagoshel man Liam Lynch that the bypass should be named in honour of Con Houlihan. During the course of time since I've met with nothing but support for the move. The paper wasn't settled on the shop shelves on that Wednesday morning when I got a call from former Mayor of Kerry, Cllr. Tom Fleming. Proving again that good minds think alike, Cllr. Fleming informed me that he has put down a motion to that effect for the next Killarney Area meeting of Kerry County Council – which, as a matter of interest, is due to be held in Castleisland.

In an act of cross-party co-operation, Cllr. Fleming has joined forces with Tralee Electoral Area representative Fine Gael's Cllr. Pat McCarthy to make sure that the parts of the bypass in both constituency areas is covered by the motion.

Liam Lynch's suggestion was also the topic of much pub talk and that, in itself, churned up all kinds of names in the course of the past week. One of the most interesting came by phone call. My caller suggested that the by-pass with its two stretches, three roundabouts, and two main bridges should all be used to honour a number of people who made outstanding contributions to the cause and name of Castleisland.

THE CASE FOR CHARLIE LENIHAN:

WHILE his name is eternally and inextricably linked with that of Con Houlihan through papers, poetry and puddings, Charlie Lenihan was a long way ahead of his time in that he, as an elected member of Kerry County Council between 1955 and 1965, advocated that Castleisland should be bypassed. As you might well imagine this advocacy didn't endear him to his fellow business people in the town. The Charlie Lenihan era spanned from his birth in 1911 to his passing in 1971. In that time he was elected to KCC in 1955 and soon after he demanded and got a public enquiry into the death of a patient in St. Finan's Hospital in Killarney.

In 1957, along with the late Denis Burke, of Killarney Road, he set up and published 'The Taxpayers News' newspaper. On his suggestion hospital visiting committees were set up in Kerry. He was one of the first farmers in Kerry to make silage instead of hay. He supplied fresh milk for sale in Castleisland from the late 1930s. He was a staunch supporter of the Anderson family who were victims of a divisive and sectarian boycott in the Castleisland of the mid-1940s. He organised for Kerry rate-payers to protest at Kerry County Council meetings in Tralee. In The Taxpayers News he published the different milk prices paid by creameries throughout Kerry at the time.

'Larger than life' is a thought that comes to mind on a read through a brief resume of his time here. It would be fitting indeed that, twelve months short of the centenary of his birth, a part of the new bypass would be name after him. The Tralee Road roundabout would appear to be the most appropriate if the thought comes to pass.

THE CASE FOR JERRY MCCARTHY:

THEN, by e-mail, I got a most eloquent, straightto-the-jury entreaty on behalf of the late, Gortgloss-born, fiddler, Jerry McCarthy. While John P. O'Connor's letter wholly endorses the 'Con Campaign' by Liam Lynch, he makes as compelling a case for his musically talented and mild mannered neighbour.

Indeed it is the same John P. who recently commissioned a painting in honour of Con and his contribution to the people of hill and valley around here in particular.

Jerry McCarthy possessed the epitome of the 'lonesome touch' on the fiddle. Anyone fortunate enough to be in his company when he visited the inaugural Patrick O'Keeffe Traditional Music Festival in October of 1993 will remember him for that sweetness of touch.

He must have played the slow air 'An Chúilfhionn' at least two dozen times in various venues under the weight of popular demand in the course of that magic weekend.

I hope to bring you the whole of John P. O'Connor's letter next week. For now, I've picked a paragraph to let you see where he's coming from:

"Jerry McCarthy was arguably the most talented, stylish and consummate traditional violinist with his classical touch and 'seemingly' polydactyl left hand to come out of Munster in the last century and is now rarely referred to.

"Yet in the 1950s and 1960s, part of which he spent in the U.S.A, he took the violin to new heights of popularity in traditional music playing at festivals, in his radio broadcasts on Radio Éireann and on the way collected, as if they were inconsequential, two gold medals and the AllIreland fiddle title and starred in Carnegie Hall in New York in 1963.

"He was a great friend of Connie's and they often perambulated the country side together with Connie giving 'grinds' to the offspring of ambitious parents and McCarthy endeavouring to teach the violin to youngsters via whatever medium he deemed most effective depending on the aptitude of each aspiring fiddler.

"For the cultural distinction he brought to the county in the bleak years of the 1950s and 1960s and the inspiration he provided, like Connie, to others in achieving excellence in his art, how about the 'Jerry McCarthy Roundabout' on the Tralee Road as part of the 'Houlihan' By-pass?