Over 1750 sq m of exhibition space, the Kerry County Museum (kerrymuseum.ie; adult/child €5/3) does an admirable job of interpreting the lives and achievements of local heroes Sir Roger Casement and Tom Crean. In doomed preparations for the 1916 Easter Rising, Casement (1864–1916) was famously landed from a German submarine on Banna Strand north of Tralee. Crean (1877–1938) was an explorer who accompanied both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on epic Antarctic expeditions.
Fragments from a knight’s tomb and a medieval mason’s mark unearthed during the excavation of the site of Tralee’s Dominican Priory are among the Archaeology Hall’s highlights. In the basement, the Medieval Experience recreates life (smells and all) in Tralee in 1450.
The museum is housed in the splendid Ashe Memorial Hall, built between 1924 and 1928 and dedicated to Kerry-born Thomas Ashe (1885–1917), who played a pivotal role in the 1916 Rising and died while on hunger strike in September 1917.
