Broadreach

PUBLIC SPACE

– Áine Ryan

COMMUNITY or HERITAGE

– Eugene Kennedy

PLAY

– Enda Timoney

ESCAPE

– Junior Griffin

LIFELINE

– Charlie Nolan

A FOCUS

– Ned Griffin

OPEN or FREE

– Robbie Brown

A BIG PART OF MY LIFE

– Michael Enright

ÁINE RYAN | JUNE 2020

I wondered about the handball alley building type long before I began to document it. We would drive past a particular alley on family journeys to visit relatives in Wexford and Dublin. Located on a section of the N8 near the turn-off for Thurles now bypassed by the M8 motorway,  passing this alley signalled that we had left the territory of my usual childhood world and that two long hours of back-seat squabbling with my siblings lay ahead. As a teenager, I wondered why it was located there seemingly in the middle of nowhere on the side of a national road, why a simple-sounding game like handball required a dedicated space that must have taken effort to build,  and whether it was used at all anymore?

As an architecture student, I passed this handball alley travelling by bus from Dublin to visit my family. I now knew that it was the bare aesthetic and geometric form of the alley set between the landscape rising behind and road passing in front that made the alley so striking to me as a child. However, I could not answer the questions that still niggled at me. Almost every mention of the handball alley led to someone making reference to architectural historian Maurice Craig who wrote that the handball alley was one of three building types indigenous to Ireland, but that seemed to be the full extent of professional knowledge about them. The name of the place – Turn Pike – suggested it might have been a place where traffic and people once stopped to pay tolls and rest, and perhaps then fall into playing handball. 

Some years later, as a practicing architect eventually travelling this route in my own car, I sometimes stopped to look at the architecture of the alley and to experience the space inside the alley; a large and entirely empty space open to the sky, contained by high and long walls without any openings except for the entrance. Another alley in Johnstown village further along this route towards Dublin appeared to be steading falling into disrepair although it was on the main street and possibly used even more that the Turn Pike, I thought. Then it was gone without a trace. I regretted having never made the time to seek out the answers to all the questions I had about this building type. 

After establishing that there was almost no scholarship and only a small number of popular studies, I made an application for a research grant to the Heritage Council of Ireland, proposing to list all the remaining alleys I could find in Ireland and collect as much information from as many local communities as I could reach. My aim was to make information about their architectural and cultural value readily accessible to those faced with the decision as to whether to keep or demolish them, as well as to the professional community of interested architects and academics. That was 2007. The documentation project is still running. It became and remains a collective endeavour defined by a sharing of many forms of information about the past sporting, political and social dimensions of this once central place in Irish life.

JUNIOR GRIFFIN

For those down there it really got us out of harms way and it kept us out of harms way you know? But I’ll tell you now I can remember when I was young, I think I might have told you that, but when I was young on a Sunday morning it was absolutely packed. Packed…An old penny, where would we get an old penny – we got it somewhere. And we’d go to Woodford and Mrs Dowling and we’d buy the apples and come in and sell the apples in the alley and our aim was 4 pence. If we got 4 of the old pence, that’s what we wanted – 2 pence for the matinee and 2 pence for the…Cleeve’s slab toffee I think it was d’you know, and our week was made.

Players down there well if they wanted a game when we were finished our game they’d go in and some of us would go in but we might have to wait 4 or 5 games before we’d actually get to, you know, but he’d say who was next and there’d be a few chancers who’d say “oh it’s my turn…”

A lot of the lads would hate to see Johnny come down to play handball, and more than likely on a Sunday morning, because he played with the fist and (there’s) no control with the fist and Johnny’d over the wall and into the river.

The boys in the different houses along, most of them played handball.

I suppose the word ‘escape’ might come into it. It was our kind of escape. It was our escape from home, jobs and all that kind of stuff.

A verse I had now: “No more do young men sally, to toss the ball against the wall, of my beloved alley.”

CHARLIE NOLAN

To play handball you had to have gloves and we couldn’t afford the gloves, in the 80’s, and what happened then was your hand would swell up and I had the ring on my finger, the wedding ring, and you couldn’t see that- you never thought of it like we were so interested in playing and competition and when I came home we had it in water for hours and hours and hours, it took ages!

But this place, it was vibrant at that time like. There was always somebody in here with a handball.

Everybody didn’t own a handball because they were too dear. And 9 times out of 10 if it went over that it’d go down into Toddy Buckley’s so you’d go up the wall and you’d climb down the far side but he used to have cross dogs and you’d have to make it very fast. Now if it went on the road it’d roll all the way down to the bridge road to the hollow so you’ve a chance of getting it. But if it went into the river and there was any drop of water it was gone, that was it like.

We used to be sitting on the bench watching Junior and the four senior guys as we’d call them, and we’d just be watching what they were doing.

No well sometimes we’d stone them from up above. But in all fairness to them like, see what the rule was and we didn’t understand it at the time, the rule was they were all working. And in the evening, that was their time, and Sundays. Sunday was their big day like I’d say because they were all off so and when they’d come in then we just had to get out like. It was proper like. We were young at the time we didn’t understand.

No it was different times like. It is a pity.

MICHAEL ENRIGHT

A brother of mine, Tom, Tom Enright – he played. Dermot Buckley, Junior – they’re all gone now…

…As I said, Caoimhe, the biggest problem we had was it was a three wall alley. All the modern alleys and the ones that qualify to have competitions have to have 4 walls or else you can’t play….I lost track of it for a number of years and I lived in Sutton, in Bayside, and a friend of mine played it and he lived near me and he said “Ah sure come in!” So I did on one day, I went into Croke Park and I was hooked. I must say I love the game and I still miss it…

…I remember the gatherings on a Sunday morning after mass, you know, we all went down there. And all the seniors had the alley, us – we’d no choice of a game there you know. So yeah it was a big event, yeah…We had to adapt the actual side of it – I don’t know if you heard this or not – but we had to adapt a grassy area on the side of it and played there against the side wall…

There’s the problem too, you mentioned, of the river. Of the ball going in there…In those days a handball was expensive, it cost quite a bit of money to us then. So if you lost the ball you had to climb a wall, cross the road, climb down the other road and run around the bank of the River Feale and you hoped to find a bit of dead water and the ball was there. Such great times!…I just loved it, and I didn’t know how much I missed it until I had to leave it – so I stopped playing at about 55 I suppose, you know, and I really missed it…

…Well you’d just go down there as a kid and start playing – you just learned the hard way I suppose…Did Junior mention that it’s also a sort of social gathering of people who didn’t play handball, you know – like card-sharks. Cards, pitch and toss and stuff like that. There was a whole lot of people that didn’t play handball that was down there as well, on Sunday morning…

…It was a meeting place for people.

NOEL ROCHE

I have to say the Ball Alley was a huge part of my childhood. It was not uncommon to see twenty or more kids waiting to play. We also use to play a game called Rocky which was an elimination game so up to twenty could start the game and went on until there was only one player left. Monday afternoon was when the big boys came to play (most places closed for half day Monday and we got to watch players like Junior Griffin (Bridge Rd), John Keane (The Avenue) and Tom Enright (Bridge Rd) play. They were some of the top players I remember. Among my age group the top players were Joe Moriarty, Denny Connor and Eddie Brouder, all from O’Connells ave. Countless hours were spent in the Ball Alley for me as a kid and it will always hold precious memories.

CLIONA COGAN

TOM O’BRIEN

Handball was first played here in the late 1800’s in the old court, it was a 2 wall court. First played by the RIC – there was a barracks and there’d be barracks in most villages down through the years. It was a 2 wall court and it would have probably been an earthen floor as well – I mean there was no concrete in those days. And it started from there…

…In those days of course there was probably a social outlet for people as well, they had no place to go, very few people had cars in the 50’s and 60’s and I remember in the alley on Saturdays and especially on Sundays the gallery would be packed…People would wait their turn to go in. A lot of us, I remember…we used to play pitch and toss – it’s a very old game. You put a stone down on the ground and you stand back maybe 6 or 7 feet and you used to toss pennies and the nearest penny to the stone…we used to play all those games down through the years.

…A big crack appeared in one of the walls so the Council deemed it a dangerous building…and then a few of us got together and decided we’d build…We had 5 acres here so we decided to build a big court first – that was 1980. And it was voluntary labour, you wouldn’t do it now with health and safety but we actually built the court ourselves over about 2 or 3 years..we spent our Saturdays here and we were – how should I say it – as bricklayers we were nearly qualified by the time it was finished! …The fun we had there, building it.

JOSEPH PLUNKETT & JOHN PURCELL

John: In Joe’s time handball was a big game, a big sport here – like and Joe growing up, you know. But then I came along in the 50’s and by the time I was
         10 like, you know what I mean you were always in the alley in the morning – playing after mass, we’d get to go to the alley so we would and in
         the afternoon, the boys play.

Joe: I was playing here in the 50’s up through the 80’s and on a Sunday all the good guys…you could wait 2 hours to get a game, you know.

       …Even bets of 6 pence, pretty heavy – Paddy Power wouldn’t be interested. Or a shilling again, it got very serious – a lot of arguments. 

John: It was and another thing is this much, as young fellas we were younger we’d be outside maybe playing at the pump – there was a pump out there,
        and the ball’d come over – throw it back. In. Because it used to go through the little wire up there on the top. But the one good thing about it
        was – when the lads were finished, you might get a 6 pence or a thrupence to go to the shop for an ice-cream. Oh by God they did, yes, I’ll
        have to say that, yes. And we used to look forward to that too, and probably if on the Sunday we didn’t get it we mightn’t peg it in on the next
        Sunday you know!

Joe: Now you’d want a 50 euro voucher for Tesco!

John: …That was a little treat for us for throwing back in the ball.

Joe: Whoever won the match won money and would have a few-

John: A few bob you know what I mean

Joe: There was also another dual purpose for the alley when I was young, it wasn’t heavy stuff now at that time ‘courting couples’ – if you saw a girl
       and “I’ll see you in the ball alley at half 9” – that was like winning the lotto! It wasn’t x-rated or anything now, it was nice.

John: …Yeah because you had the carnival here. See we had a carnival at that time here at the back – up there. And all the top bands played here.

        …That’s what life was then.

Joe: It was. And a peck on the cheek was the heavy stuff!

John: When we’d come from mass we knew that we’d get – well what did you get – there was no toasters at that time, you just held a fork in front
         of the fire in the winter time and it browned up and that was it, bit of butter and a mug of tea, into the ball alley. But then the older lads played
         in the evening time, in the afternoon. And we enjoyed watching them and then when they were gone we’d go back into the alley again. There was
         never rows about who should be in it. It was just recognised that, you just turned up and played.

        …I mean if you were good enough to get in to play in front of Joe’s house, you were good enough to go anywhere, so you were, or that’s the way I
       looked at it you know. You could take tea with anyone. 

        …I will say this much, one of the best men I ever played in front of or that played behind me was this man here.

Joe: Have you a plastic bucket there ‘til I get sick! 

THOMAS HEALY

Former Mayor of Sligo, Thomas Healy, kindly shared with me his memory of President Michael D. Higgins visiting Ballisodare and being hosted in the handball alley…

As you probably know yourself, the handball alley, there’s a lot of history with it. W.B. Yeats was meant to have written one or two of his poems from there…Where I came in on it was there was a volunteer called Martin Savage who originated from Streamstown and as you know, Martin Savage was involved in the 1916 Rising in Dublin…I ran a campaign to see about getting the bridge there in Ballisodare called after volunteer Martin Savage for the reason that his last trip was across that bridge, when he got on the train to go to Dublin. 

So how it came about was in 2016 I had the honour of being the Mayor of Sligo and Michael D. was down at the time, around the launch of the Fleadh…So we got talking about that, then he was telling me about himself and his father and the IRA and I said: 
“Well I�