Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny

Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny
Photograph and text from http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=KK®no=12302001
1945 - 1955
Freestanding handball alley, c.1950, on a U-shaped plan. Ivy-clad unpainted roughcast walls over random rubble stone construction possibly with some mass-concrete sections. Road fronted.

A handball alley of significance for the associations with the cultural nation-building of the early Irish Republic while representing an artefact of some vernacular importance on account of the status as a building type indigenous to Ireland. Forming a distinctive feature of almost Brutalist quality in the centre of Johnstown the handball alley contributes significantly to the diversity of the streetscape of Chapel Street.