Claregalway, Co. Galway

Claregalway, Co. Galway
First photograph is from the Fr. Browne Collection. Enitled Watching Handball and Retrieving lost balls_CLARE GALWAY, GALWAY, IRELAND;01/01/1925 it was kindly provided by David Davison.

Second photograph from Nuacht Clair http://www.nuachtchlair.com/demolition-of-claregalway-handball-alley/. Text of newspaper article below.
Last photograph provided by Neil Mc Dermott, remainder by E. Timoney in July 2009

Claregalway Handball Alley was demolished on Friday 3rd September last [3.9.2010] as part of the works being carried out by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to help reduce the chances of further flooding of the N17 and Claregalway as was experienced last November.

The Alley was demolished to make way for a further eye to be added to Claregalway bridge. Co-incidentally, the previous alley was knocked down in the 1950′s when the Council were building the current bridge. The alley was then rebuilt in other location.

While this is a welcome move by the OPW to help allay further flooding of the river Clare, the Community has lost a valuable facility. The Claregalway Handball Club are in the process of making submissions to the OPW regarding some form of compensation, which might allow them to construct a new handball facility.

The Alley was one of the few 60×30 facilities in the county which was available to handballers and was used for other sports such as hurling, football and raquetball.

The alley was included on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage