TRALEE was in carnival mood when the spaceman came to visit. It might have been in election mood as well when Commander Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, arrived yesterday to open the Kerry County Museum's Exploration of Space exhibition.
Several thousand spectators, including many schoolchildren too young to know who the American was, lined barriers to see the Apollo XI astronaut. Matching him stride for stride and handshake for handshake was the Tanaiste and Labour leader, Mr Spring, as Star Wars music boomed stridently in the background.
To be fair, Kerry is Mr Spring's home orbit, but it was still an event to make a Fianna Fail or PD press person green with envy. Fine sunny weather, famous visitor to greet, enthusiastic throng and not a heckler in sight.
Mr Armstrong was given an enthusiastic Kerry welcome.
Dignitaries and spectators alike jumped as two Air Corps jets suddenly shot overhead. They were ready the next time they rocketed past, as flags were waved, children shouted and the visitors and grandees made their way to the platform at the entrance to the museum.
The chairwoman of Tralee UDC, Ms Maeve Spring, and the acting county manager, Mr Michael Malone, welcomed everyone and quickly gave way to the Tanaiste, who welcomed Mr Armstrong and his wife Carol.
Mr Armstrong, looking tanned and fit, made a particular effort to shake hands with the many children in the audience. He said when he was at school, there were no rockets and no space travel and "no TV". This, he said, was less a reminder of his age than an indication of how much things had advanced over a relatively short time.
Perhaps a young person, inspired by an exhibit at the museum, might go on to find new and better ways to reach into space. He said he had been given a wonderful "opportunity to sail on this new ocean" of space when he became the first man to walk on the moon.
He and Mr Spring were escorted through the exhibition by its designer and museum curator, Mr ,Michael Connolly, who had originated the plan to invite Mr Armstrong to be guest of honour at the exhibition's opening.
Exhibits were provided by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency with both video and projected displays, panels describing space exploration in non technical terms and a meteorite recovered in Tipperary.
The one to really wow the kids, though, is the virtual reality tour of the solar system, a 3,000 hour project contributed free of charge by tech heads in the US, France, Australia and Sweden. Working on the Internet, they created a computer game which tells the story of a meteor impact on Earth which forces an evacuation - via Tralee of course - to Mars.
The exhibition continues until the end of November.
