History
The Kerry Way was first proposed in 1982 and developed by members of the Laune Mountaineering Club and the Kerry association of An Taisce, under the chairmanship of Seán Ó Súilleabháin. Ó Súilleabháin was inspired by a history lecture he had attended given by Father John Hayes on the subject of old roads and paths in the southwest of Ireland. Realising that "there was a spider's web-like network of roads and paths that could be combined to form a route around Kerry", he began devising the trail that would become the Kerry Way. The first section – from Killarney to Glenbeigh – was opened by Tánaiste Dick Spring, T. D. in 1985. It was the second long-distance trail to be opened in the Republic of Ireland, after the Wicklow Way. The full route was completed in 1989 and opened by Frank Fahey, T. D., Minister of State for Youth and Sport. The trail was constructed by workers on FÁS social employment schemes at a cost of IEP £60,000 and involved the provision of over 200 stiles and six footbridges as well as waymarkers.
A review of the National Waymarked Trails in 2010 found the Kerry Way to be one of the most heavily used of the trails. It recommended that it be one of five National Waymarked Trails that should be prioritised to be upgraded to a National Long Distance Trail, a proposed new standard of trail in Ireland, intended to meet international standards for outstanding trails.
Read more about this topic: Kerry Way
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)