Tralee anniversary marks 400 years since granting of town charter

It is 400 years ago today since the town of Tralee was granted a charter to operate as a town with a corporation under a mayor…

It is 400 years ago today since the town of Tralee was granted a charter to operate as a town with a corporation under a mayor, or provost.

An annual fair on the Feast of St James, July 25th, as well as a Saturday market, were among the provisions of the charter of James I.

Local historian Gerald O’Carroll said the 400th anniversary should reawaken interest in the town’s municipal history. One of the questions which has been rekindled by recent research carried out by local historians concerns the whereabouts of the two Tralee seals of the mayor and corporation, which had been lost to the town at the end of the 19th century, he noted.

The Earl of Desmond was killed in 1583 and his vast lands, stretching across north Munster, were distributed among the new English of the Munster Plantation. Tralee had been the earl’s capital and his seat, Tralee Castle, was occupied by the Denny family for the following 300 years. The Dennys’ descendants are in contact with the town and have placed their vast archive at the disposal of historians, Mr O’Carroll said yesterday.