Kerry villagers roused by loud boy racers – ‘There’s no way of getting a wink of sleep’
The KerrymanBoy racers have caused “consternation” near a Kerry village as they keep residents up at night “every weekend” and have even threatened locals.
A Knocknagoshel local has described how families were kept up through Christmas Eve in previous years as the noise from passing cars prevented any sleep.
The resident, who requested to stay anonymous for safety reasons, said a section of the N21 between Kilconlea Lower and Headley’s Bridge has been used frequently by drivers for the last four years, with smaller roads providing a convenient loop for racing.
They said drivers and passengers of all ages, including females, frequently congregate at Kerry-Limerick border at the weekends, with some participants coming from as far as Tipperary.
After the resident was threatened for trying to prevent the racing taking place, they and others visited the local Gardi but said they were unsatisfied with the response. He said local businesses have also been affected by the presence of the joy riders.
The resident described the dire situation one Christmas, when their wife arrived back from hospital following a serious ailment, only to have to leave because of the noise.
“My wife was in intensive care, and we got her home for Christmas,” they said, “but there was no way she could stay here, I had to take her to my daughter’s house. There was no way of getting a wink of sleep.”
“They’d be driving all day on Christmas day. They’d start at maybe 4 or 5pm on Christmas Eve and it’d go on all night through to Christmas day.”
“There was consternation here two or three years because there was a lot of small children hoping Santa would come and this was going on all night. The children were up all night which caused more trouble for parents.”
While previous Christmas’ had been dampened by the racers, the Gardi were alerted when the racing began during Christmas Eve last month.
They reportedly managed to put a stop to the commotion and since then there have been no further incidents, according to the local resident.
Inspector Tim O’Keefe said the Listowel Gardi have had a number of call outs to the area and have put in new measures to monitor the road, including equipment to check the decibel levels of exhausts, non-conforming number plates and the level of tinted windows.
“Sometimes when you ride out to a place and there’s somebody just parked on the side of the road. Unless you have a witness then there’s very little you can do about it,” said
“We’re using that kind of equipment to aid prosecutions when we can…we know showing a high visibility presence they move elsewhere or stop completely. We’re seeing the number of incidents has reduced.”
Kerry TD Pa Daly said he had spoken to Knocknagoshel residents and was aware of the situation.
“It’s something that we’ve made aware of by people in the Knocknagoshel and we’ll continue to raise the issue individually with the Gardi,” he said.