Carlow College, Co. Carlow

Carlow College, formerly St. Patrick's College,
Photograph included here with permission of Carlow College Archivist. The handball alleys visible in left hand middle-ground of main building were most likely demolished sometime between 2000-2006. A new structure now stands at this location. The buildings around the handball alleys were the college’s farm buildings.

There are a couple of references to handball in the collage archival material: One note says that the first mention of a ball court is an entry in the accounts on 8 December 1797 for expenses connected with a ball alley. Between 1820-1822 new ball courts and a gateway between them were erected at a cost of £157.15.4. The gateway would have been that into the farm buildings. These would be the courts demolished in the early 2000s. The boys attending the college subscribed £8 towards the cost. Another note makes reference to junior and senior handball leagues in operation in the college. The game died out during World War II and the years following due to a shortage of balls but there was a revival circa 1949-1950 and leagues were again organised.
This information was helpfully provided by the college archivist B. Deasy to E. Timoney in Nov 2018,