On Sunday and Monday I wandered around the stunning rose garden in Tralee town park, had a tour of the park’s worldwide tree collection and swam twice in the refreshing waters through rolling breakers on Banna beach.
By the time you have read this I hope to have had another swim on the safe, sandy shore of Muckross Lake at Dundag. Torc mountain rising sheer to left/south and the Tomies/Glena/Purple ridge to the west. Here five minutes drive from Gallan Eile is there a swimming setting like it anywhere?
On Sunday we walked around the Rose Garden in Tralee Town Park. But I was so impressed by the huge selection of roses, in magnificent full bloom at the moment, that early Monday I went back and spent a further hour savouring the sights and scents.
In these weeks before the International Rose of Tralee Festival attracts young women from all over the world to compete for the 2017 title where ‘it was not her beauty alone that won me’.
The words of the song tell the story
The pale moon was rising above the green mountain,
The sun was declining beneath the blue sea;
When I strayed with my love to the pure crystal fountain,
That stands in the beautiful Vale of Tralee.
She was lovely and fair as the rose of the summer,
Yet ’twas not her beauty alone that won me;
Oh no, ’twas the truth in her eyes ever dawning,
That made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee.
The cool shades of evening their mantle were spreading,
And Mary all smiling was listening to me;
The moon through the valley her pale rays was shedding,
When I won the heart of the Rose of Tralee.
Though lovely and fair as the Rose of the summer,
Yet ’twas not her beauty alone that won me;
Oh no, ’twas the truth in her eyes ever dawning,
That made me love Mary the Rose of Tralee.
In the far fields of India, ‘mid war’s dreadful thunders,
Her voice was a solace and comfort to me,
But the chill hand of death has now rent us asunder,
I’m lonely tonight for the Rose of Tralee.
She was lovely and fair as the rose of the summer,
Yet ’twas not her beauty alone that won me;
Oh no, ’twas the truth in her eyes ever dawning,
That made me love Mary,The Rose of Tralee [2]
– Frank Lewis
for more information or to book a stay at our self-catering holiday accommodation, Gallan Eile …
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