Pair of freestanding mass-concrete handball alleys built in the 1920s. Unpainted mass-concrete walls incorporating section of random rubble stone wall to north-east forming part of boundary wall, and rendered rounded coping having iron posts with iron mesh panels. Set perpendicular to road.
Many towns in Ireland have a public Handball Alley/Court this one is located at Michael Street Gardens in Kilkenny and it does not appear to be in great condition as is often the case. From the 1880s to the 1970s handball was a popular sport in religious and military institutions, with most seminaries, secondary schools, psychiatric hospitals, RIC barracks (and later Garda stations), army barracks and fire stations typically containing multiple alleys. These tended to be built side by side, back to back or in rows.
Gaelic handball (known in Ireland simply as handball) is a sport where players hit a ball with a hand or fist against a wall in such a way as to make a shot the opposition cannot return, and that may be played with two (singles) or four players (doubles). The sport, popular in Ireland, is similar to American handball, Welsh handball, fives, Basque pelota, Valencian frontó, and more remotely to racquetball or squash. It is one of the four Gaelic games organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). GAA Handball, a subsidiary organisation of the GAA, governs and promotes the sport.
Handball is played in a court, or “alley”. Originally, an alley measuring 60 by 30 feet (18.3 by 9.1 m) was used with a 30-foot (9.1 m) front wall, off which the ball must be struck.
A smaller alley was also introduced, measuring 40 by 20 feet (12.2 by 6.1 m) with a front wall 20 feet (6.1 m) high. The first alley of this size was built in Ireland in 1969. This smaller size is now the standard in the international version of the game, but both alleys are still used in the Gaelic game, with two separate championships run by the GAA in the two codes.
The objective of a game is to be the first to score a set total of points. Points are only scored by the person serving the ball. In other words, if a player wins a rally but did not serve at the start of that rally they only win the right to serve, and thus the chance to score after a subsequent rally. The serving player has two opportunities to hit the ball, from the “service area” (between the two parallel lines), off the “front wall” and across the “short line” (which is located exactly halfway down the court from the front wall).
Players take turns at hitting the ball off the “front wall” before the ball bounces twice on the floor of the court following their opponent’s previous shot. Most handball games take place in a four-walled court but there are also three-walled and one-wall versions of the game.
To be honest I did not get the opportunity to explore the immediate area in detail during my visit to Kilkenny in August 2018 but I hope to do so in 2024 when I visit in March.
A bridge ‘designed for the Joint Committee of the Kilkenny County Council and the Kilkenny Borough Council by Mr. A.M. Burden [Alexander Burden Mitchell (1864-1923)] County Surveyor of Kilkenny’ (Concrete and Constructional Engineering VI 1911, 223) representing an important component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of County Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition confirmed not only by the pioneering construction using the Hennebique ferro-concrete [reinforced concrete] system engineered to designs signed (11th June 1907) by Louis Gustave Mouchel (1852-1908) of London, but also by the elegant “sweep” of the arch making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the River Nore.
The Nore River valley plays a pivotal role in the life of Kilkenny City, Bennettsbridge and much of the surrounding county.
This well is located on the Canal Walk on the bank of the River Nore and describing it is a bit complicated. In August 2018 a local told me that this was a holy well dedicated to St Bridget (that could apply to most of the wells in Ireland but on the following day another person told me that it was nothing more than a natural spring or well and to be honest I was more inclined to believe the second person.
I visited the area again in July 2021 and September 2022. In 2018 a dog-walker told me that it is known as “Crow’s Well” but at the time I believed that she may have been incorrect as my understanding is that Crow’s Well Lock is at Fennessey’s Mill. However, I was unable to locate a well at Fennessy’s Mill [Archersgrove Mill] when I visited in September 2022. However, I recently discovered that Crow’s well was identified as Spa Well on some old maps and that the well, at Fennessey’s Mill, is so overgrown with briars and bushes that it is almost impossible to locate it. However, information provided by the dog-walker was much more useful than that provided by others.
According to the the local council Crow’s Well Canal Lock is at Archersgrove
Back in 2018 when I first saw this I had no idea that it was once a pedestrian bridge across the river Nore. Today [9 January 2023] I came across the following old press release:
People enjoying the River Nore Linear Park at Talbot’s Inch may have noticed that remnants of the old Talbot’s Inch Suspension Bridge have been exposed whilst Kilkenny County Council has undertaken maintenance works along this popular amenity.
The Talbot’s Inch Suspension Bridge was built by Lady Desart in 1906 to enable mill workers to cross the River Nore, from their residences in Talbot’s Inch to the mills on the opposite side of the River. The Bridge stood until it was destroyed by the Great Flood in 1947. The recent maintenance works have revealed the remnants of the concrete ramp leading upto the Bridge, the steel column supports for the bridge and the suspension cables from which the bridge deck was hung.
Kilkenny County Council recently appointed Canice Architects, a new architectural consultancy firm located on The Parade, to develop interpretation proposals for this significant heritage point of interest. The interpretation will include a new defined landscape area around the old Bridge, together with an interpretation panel summarising a brief history of the bridge and an etching of the old bridge itself. Additionally the water level for the 1947 flood will be marked on the interpretation panel
Mayor Cleere stated that he ‘was delighted to see that Kilkenny County Council was following through on its motto to preserve heritage. I’m also delighted to see that three local firms, Canice Architects, CDS Metalwork and Gus Mabelson Ceramics have been engaged to support Kilkenny County Council with this very worthwhile project. Incrementally, small, local projects such as this collectively make a huge contribution to local quality of life.’
Commenting on the proposals Simon Walton noted that ‘ When we walk along the River Nore Linear Park there is such an abundance of history and heritage all around us. I feel it is very important that we communicate and interpret that history and heritage. In this instance, taking account of Lady Desart’s contribution to this City, it is indeed appropriate.’
Ellen Odette Cuffe, Countess of Desart (née Bischoffsheim; 1 September 1857 – 29 June 1933) was a London-born Jewish woman who was best known as an Irish politician, company director, Gaelicist (President of the Gaelic League for a time), and philanthropist in Ireland. She commissioned the village of Talbot’s Inch to be built by the architect William Alphonsus Scott. along with several other projects she and Capt. Cuffe developed together. These included Kilkenny Library, Aut Even Hospital, the Woollen Mills, Kilkenny Woodworkers, Kilkenny Theatre, the Tobacco Growers Association, Desart Hall, and Talbots Inch Suspension Bridge.
1947 was the year of the ‘big snow’. Snow began in January and it snowed heavily right through until early March. The cause of the great flood was that the thaw from the big snow came very rapidly in March. The resulting floods caused extensive damage along the River Nore and nearby.
Kilkenny incurred much flooding in the mid 1900s and the local population relied on the skills of engineer Harry Shine, who used a series of gauges upstream to accurately predict flooding and gave people enough time to evacuate before the flood arrived. In recent years a new flood relief scheme has prevented the flooding problems that Kilkenny has had for centuries.
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LOUISE WALSH FROM CORK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SCULPTURE IN BELFAST
The Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker is a 1992 sculpture by Louise Walsh in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
I first photographed this sculpture in June 2014 and again in May 2018 and I must admit that I like it.
The sculpture is located on the city’s Great Victoria Street adjacent to the Europa Hotel. It is cast in bronze and features two working-class women with symbols of women’s work embedded on the surfaces. Domestic items such as colanders, a shopping basket and clothes pegs are part of the sculpture.
The Department of the Environment’s original commission, in the late 1980s, was for an artwork to reflect the nearby Amelia Street’s history as a red-light district. Walsh’s design “Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker” was accepted by the project’s landscape architect and the Art in Public Spaces Research Group, however the Belfast Development Office and the Belfast City Council opposed the project and the selected design, and the project was dropped in 1989. A few years later a private developer recommissioned the work and it was erected in 1992 (30 years ago).
Walsh was born in County Cork, and received her MA in sculpture from the University of Ulster.
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