Dunmore, Co.Galway

Dunmore, Co.Galway

Photographed and information collected in March 2010 by M. Geoghegan.
Two walls survive in the Dunmore ball alley which is no longer in use for handball. There is no exact record of when the alley was built but local historian Hubert Bermingham thinks that, from reports and information he has gathered through the years, the alley was built by the Loftus family who owned a public house on the site sometime in the middle of the 19th century. The front wall, which is in good condition, was built from local cut stone and when the alley was in use there were two side walls and a back wall which Hubert reckons was four to five feet high. Another local man recalls playing handball, football, soccer and football in the alley and he even recalls the odd fight taking place there!