Tralee, the capital of Kerry, is booming, with new hotels, better roads and tourism projects. The former Tanaiste and Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, played an important role in making this happen.
But all is not well with traders in the town centre. Eleven of them recently complained in a letter to their local newspaper that the Urban District Council has virtually destroyed the once-vibrant centre - the Mall area - by pedestrianising it. Now, you can drive up one way but not down the other. The traders claim the effect of pedestrianisation, which was introduced 18 months ago, has been to shunt shoppers away from the centre towards the fringes of Tralee to find parking. "The Mall has been compared to Grafton Street. What an inane comparison. Would you compare a hillock to a mountain or a kitten to a grizzly bear?" asks the group, which laid out its complaint in The Kerryman.
By forcing cars away from the Mall and square area, the council has reduced the area into an urban playground, says Mr Eamonn O'Sullivan, a publican in the town. "These days, it's not unusual to see youngsters playing football in parts of the main street where shoppers used to come and go. "My business is down and it's directly as a result of the pedestrianisation. Taking cars out of the centre of Tralee was a daft plan and traders like myself are paying the price for it." His neighbour, Mr Hugh Culloty, a television dealer, says his customers are finding it so hard to get access to his shop to collect goods that he will probably have to leave the centre of Tralee and move to the outskirts. "There has been a big fall-off in business, I have no doubt about that. The passing trade has been killed. Even the tourists are moving on because they cannot park their cars in the centre like they used to," he says.
Mrs Lucy O'Connor and her daughter, Ms Aileen Kelly, who are pharmacists in the town centre, have also noticed a dramatic drop in trade because of pedestrianisation. Last summer, traditionally a busy time for the pharmacy, they had to reduce staffing levels because of the decline in business, they say, adding that they had made numerous contacts with the council complaining about the pedestrianisation.
However, a council spokesman said no formal objection had been made and as far as it was concerned, the pedestrianisation plan would not be reversed.
"We used to call this the golden mile but it's not so golden any more," says Mr Culloty, adding: "It's about time the council listened to the will of the people. This is not Dublin, it's Tralee."