History

Design

The Tralee Aqua Dome was designed by London based architects S&P. Its appearance and imagery owe a great deal to Kerry's history and landscape. The circular plan and stone walls are reminiscent of iron-age forts, the rock fringed wave pool and beach could well be part of the Kerry coastline.

The Aqua Dome's water features were designed to appeal to all age groups, to the local and tourist markets and to swimmers and non-swimmers.

Management

A task force under the leadership of Denis Reen was set up and soon realised that as the project was the largest water facility in Ireland, they would need to find someone who knew how to operate it, in order to get the facility up and running. 
They found Kieran Ruttledge on their travels viewing water parks in the United Kingdom and took advantage of his Irish background to offer him the post of Chief Executive. 
There was tremendous enthusiasm for the project and the task force did an excellent  job of raising the necessary funds in order to build the Aqua Dome, which cost nearly £5 million (US$8 million).