KILKENNY

WAS A MAJOR EUROPEAN BREWING CENTRE

2018

DEAN STREET TO BUTT’S GREEN -234291-1

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IN 2018 I EXPLORED A NARROW LANE NETWORK IN KILKENNY

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS NETWORK OF LANEWAYS

MICHAEL STREET IN THE CITY OF KILKENNY AUGUST 2018

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PHOTOGRAPHS PUBLISHED 15 JANUARY 2024

This quiet street is just off John Street close to the new McDonagh Junction Shopping Centre in Kilkenny City.

From the year 1300 to the Reformation the civil parish of St. John the Evangelist comprised the parishes of St. John’s, Fennel and Kilmalogga according to Carrigan. St. John’s Priory, an Augustinian foundation, 1325, later known as St. John’s Abbey has a beautiful slender-mullioned east window and original side walls. Saint Michael’s Gate was an approach into the priory, hence the name Michael Street adjoining. The old infantry barracks, now Evan’s Asylum, was part of the abbey.

I was unable to visit Kilkenny in 2019 or 2020 because of travel restrictions and in 2023 I could not find suitable hotel accommodation however I hope to visit at the end of March 2024 but because it is inclined to rain a lot in Kilkenny in March and April it might be an ideal time to photograph the city but it is the only option available at the moment.

PUBLIC HANDBALL ALLEY AT MICHAEL STREET IN KILKENNY

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PHOTOGRAPHED AUGUST 2018

Pair of freestanding mass-concrete handball alleys built in the 1920s. Unpainted mass-concrete walls incorporating section of random rubble stone wall to north-east forming part of boundary wall, and rendered rounded coping having iron posts with iron mesh panels. Set perpendicular to road.

Many towns in Ireland have a public Handball Alley/Court this one is located at Michael Street Gardens in Kilkenny and it does not appear to be in great condition as is often the case. From the 1880s to the 1970s handball was a popular sport in religious and military institutions, with most seminaries, secondary schools, psychiatric hospitals, RIC barracks (and later Garda stations), army barracks and fire stations typically containing multiple alleys. These tended to be built side by side, back to back or in rows.

Gaelic handball (known in Ireland simply as handball) is a sport where players hit a ball with a hand or fist against a wall in such a way as to make a shot the opposition cannot return, and that may be played with two (singles) or four players (doubles). The sport, popular in Ireland, is similar to American handball, Welsh handball, fives, Basque pelota, Valencian frontó, and more remotely to racquetball or squash. It is one of the four Gaelic games organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). GAA Handball, a subsidiary organisation of the GAA, governs and promotes the sport.

Handball is played in a court, or “alley”. Originally, an alley measuring 60 by 30 feet (18.3 by 9.1 m) was used with a 30-foot (9.1 m) front wall, off which the ball must be struck.

A smaller alley was also introduced, measuring 40 by 20 feet (12.2 by 6.1 m) with a front wall 20 feet (6.1 m) high. The first alley of this size was built in Ireland in 1969. This smaller size is now the standard in the international version of the game, but both alleys are still used in the Gaelic game, with two separate championships run by the GAA in the two codes.

The objective of a game is to be the first to score a set total of points. Points are only scored by the person serving the ball. In other words, if a player wins a rally but did not serve at the start of that rally they only win the right to serve, and thus the chance to score after a subsequent rally. The serving player has two opportunities to hit the ball, from the “service area” (between the two parallel lines), off the “front wall” and across the “short line” (which is located exactly halfway down the court from the front wall).

Players take turns at hitting the ball off the “front wall” before the ball bounces twice on the floor of the court following their opponent’s previous shot. Most handball games take place in a four-walled court but there are also three-walled and one-wall versions of the game.

THE NEW ST FRANCIS BRIDGE IN KILKENNY AND THE SURROUNDING AREA

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OPENED IN 2017 PHOTOGRAPHED IN AUGUST 2018

Despite many protests and legal objections the St Francis Bridge in Kilkenny was opened in 2017 after massive cost overruns.

The bridge was constructed in the centre of the Medieval City of Kilkenny and there were numerous potential sites of archaeological significance in the vicinity of the route. A complex route selection was undertaken along with extensive archaeological testing and investigations to determine a route which traverses mainly derelict industrial sites and avoid where possible known areas of archaeology. Given the sensitive location the bridge is specifically designed to be unobtrusive and indeed when viewed from the focal point of St. John’s bridge the bridge barely features on the horizon, a significant achievement.

One thing that caught my attention was the number Belisha Beacons in Kilkenny especially near this new bridge. Before the law was changed in 2022, Belisha beacons, named after a former UK transport minister, were legally required to be used as part of zebra crossings in Ireland. The change will allow for much cheaper installation of the crossings by reducing the significant cost linked with the supply and installation of the beacons.

It was also was fairly obvious that there was an encampment of homeless people under the bridge I heard a number of claims relating to this during my visit. However, it would appear that there were two homeless families.

IS THIS A BLACK MARBLE SCULPTURE OR NOTHING MORE THAN STREET FURNITURE

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KILKENNY IS FAMOUS FOR ITS BLACK MARBLE

The last time I was in Kilkenny I overheard two children at play refer to this as the crashed rocket. I must admit that it does look like a rocket cone burned black during reentry but it could well be a bird bath made from Kilkenny black marble. The problem is that I have failed to determine if this just a piece of street furniture or a sculpture.

Kilkenny marble or Kilkenny black marble is a fine-grained very dark grey carboniferous limestone found around County Kilkenny in Ireland in the “Butlersgrove Formation”, a Lower Carboniferous limestone that contains fossils of brachiopods, gastropods, crinoids and corals. The first and main source was the “Black Quarry” in the townlands of Archersgrove and Gallowshill just south of Kilkenny city, which was used from the 17th to the 19th century. Kilkenny is nicknamed “the Marble City”; the footpaths of the city streets were paved with Kilkenny marble flagstones, which were highly polished with wear and glistened when wet.

Large rough-hewn blocks were transported from the Black Quarry on horse-drawn drays the short distance to the River Nore, then onto small river floats or barges and brought about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) down-river to Milmount where it was worked. A weir on the river provided water to drive reciprocating cross-cut saws to cut the larger blocks into the finished shapes required for the market. The saws were actually steel bands, about four meters long. Sand was used as an abrasive cutting agent. Water levels were kept low by two steel 30-centimetre-diameter (12 in) reciprocating pumps, probably driven by steam. A lime kiln was located close by which produced lime from the stone chips and off-cuts. Coal, probably from Castlecomer, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north of Kilkenny, layered with stone and set to smoulder, produced white chunks of lime, which, when powdered was used as an agricultural fertilizer. The quarry was owned by the Colles family, a famous member being physician Abraham Colles. From the top of the Black Quarry, Cromwell’s forces in 1650 are said to have positioned cannon and fired on the city.

Produce from other quarries of Butlersgrove Formation stone continue to be marketed as “Kilkenny black marble” when polished, including Bannagagole Quarry near Oldleighlin, County Carlow.

As well as in several local buildings, including Green’s Bridge, Kilkenny marble was used in Cobh Cathedral and Bowen’s Court in County Cork; Lissadell House, County Sligo; the headstone of Daniel O’Connell in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin; the altar of St Patrick’s Church, Belfast; and the plinth of the 2015 tomb of Richard III of England in Leicester Cathedral. In 1878, Bishop Thomas Francis Hendricken, a native of Kilkenny, and 1st Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island USA, laid a large block of Kilkenny marble as the cornerstone of his new cathedral. Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul (Providence, Rhode Island)

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