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.
Unfortunately the canal on the River Nore was never finished. The start of the canal is marked on Rocque’s map of Kilkenny, published in 1758. The whole project was abandoned in 1761 and no barges ever made the journey from Inistioge. The land used to construct the canal was eventually turned into a public walk and park for the citizens of Kilkenny.
Edmond Smithwick marked his year as Mayor (1844) by providing at his own cost, a decorative iron gateway and palisading at the city entrance to the walk. The gates no longer exist, but substantial cast-iron plaques recording the gift, which adorned the gate piers, are now preserved in Rothe House.
The next Mayor, Doctor Robert Cane, paid for the erection of the Lodge House which still exists. It was both decorative and functional, being the residence of a council employee who would look after the Walk and patrol it as necessary. The attractive cottage no longer residential. On the front of the lodge facing Canal Square is a plaque which reads as follows: “This slab is inscribed by Alderman O’Donnell, Mayor 1885, to the memory of Alderman Robert Cane who during his second year of Mayoralty in 1849 devoted his salary to the erection of this lodge”.
There is another plaque built into the Castle wall. It commemorates improvements effected in 1861 during the Mayoralty of Thomas Power, whose extensive establishment in High Street was the City’s leading ironmonger’s. As well as providing a pleasant promenade close to the city, the Walk was a venue for entertainment provided by local bands, and particularly those of Regiments stationed in the city at different times. The base of a bandstand, can be seen beyond the new car park at the foot of the lane between Dukes Meadows and the Castle grounds.