Street Wise Athlone - Parnell Square

This series of articles for the Westmeath Independent is run in conjunction with the Street Wise Athlone series on Athlone Community Radio which is broadcast on Wednesdays during Athlone Today at 2.30pm and repeated on Thursday mornings at 10am on The Brekkie Show

Athlone Miscellany by Gearoid O'Brien

Part of the site for Parnell Square was once known as ‘The Nun’s Field’, the nuns in question were Sister of Mercy from the nearby St Peter’s Convent. This was one of three fields which made up the area of Deerpark, between O’Connell Street and Deerpark Road. The field which ran parallel to 'The Nun’s Field was known as the ‘Dean’s Field’ and the third field, at the Deerpark Road end was apparently known as ‘The Woods’.

Keeffe Street

It was widely recognised in the early years of the 20th century that Athlone had a chronic housing shortage. Much of the property which was available to rent was owned by landlords and was in deplorable condition. In February 1903 an inquiry into the housing of the working classes was asked “Are the houses in Keeffe Street fit for human habitation. The houses in Keeffe Street were built in the mid-19th century by a local landlord Michael Keeffe. Keeffe Street joined Patrick Street to the Dean’s Field. The answer was that the houses were in a bad state, generally, they only had two rooms with ten or twelve people, including children, living in them. The floors were bad and the privy accommodation was bad.

When the inspector was asked could the Keeffe Street houses be made sanitary? The reply was that they would have to be pulled down and rebuilt. Cases were regularly taken against the householders for the state of their houses and yards.

By 1910 the situation was no better. The local sanitary inspector reported that he was attracted to one house because of the neatness and cleanliness of the occupier. However, when he inspected the house, he said it was a ‘miserable home’. It consisted of a kitchen with two rooms (if they could be so-called) cut away by a simple partition. He said ‘The head of the family bed almost touched the tattered door’ suggesting that the family had but a single bed! The owner good humouredly told him: “You could see the evening star through the roof.” He went on to say that the two ‘rooms’ were too small to be of any practical utility and pointed out that there were seven people living in this house which was not fit to kennel a dog.

In Search of a Site

There was talk of building on the Nun’s Field since 1919 at least when the councillors of the day tried to identify potential houses for schemes of local authority housing. The first local authority housing schemes in Athlone that had been built were St Kieran’s Terrace which dates to 1906 and St Columba’s Terrace which dates to 1909.

Big bodies move slowly and it was 1928 before Athlone UDC built another housing scheme, this time it was St Peter’s Terrace. Meanwhile, debate continued regarding suitable sites for council housing.

At a meeting of Athlone U.D.C. in February 1935 the following letter from Sr M. Columban, St Peter’s Convent, Athlone was read:

“From the published report of a discussion at a meeting of the Urban Council, it may have appeared to some readers as if the Sisters of Mercy were unwilling to sell their field to the council for housing purposes. That is not the case. Both the Bishop and the Rev Mother Superior in Sligo have long since given their sanction for the sale of the field in question. The only difficulty was that of a reasonable price. It appears that the council is anxious to treat us fairly in that respect, but that the Dublin Department is hostile. As your council is a noble effort to provide good houses for the people, and as some of the homeless are prepared to put their own money into houses, we do not wish to have any appearance even of placing obstacles in the way.

"We are prepared now, at a sacrifice, to let you have the field at whatever price will be sanctioned by the Dublin Department, and we rely on your council to make the price as good as you can”.

In the discussion which followed, Mr Grenham said that they had asked the department to sanction £120 an acre for the site, but they refused. He then suggested £110

per acre. When the matter came up again in July the asking price was £130 an acre, and the council learned that they would have to buy out the “Head landlord” by means of a compulsory order. It took several months to sort out the legal quagmire, as the council solicitor reported: “The nun’s held it from the Dugeons, and the Dugeons held it from Potts”.

Building Begins

In September 1936 Archdeacon Crowe was invited to bless the site and cut the first sod. On 10 October, the Westmeath Independent reported:

“Workmen in the employment of Mr J. Concannon, Building Contractor, are engaged in laying foundations for the 62 new Urban Council houses about to be erected on the Nun’s Field in St Peter’s Parish. A new road will be made to facilitate the houses, from Ball Alley Lane to Deerpark Road, while there will be another entrance from Patrick Street.

By November the Council Engineer, Mr Owen Dolan, was reporting: “Work on the housing scheme at the Nun’s Field is progressing satisfactorily. Eight houses have roof tiles in position, four houses have roof timbers in position, twelve houses are built to the first-floor level, and the foundations are laid for two houses.

At a meeting of Athlone U.D.C. in January 1938, Mr Grenham proposed Parnell Square as a suitable name to call this new terrace of houses. Mr H Broderick agreed and the council unanimously agreed to adopt Mr Grenham’s proposal.

Ball Alley Lane

Thankfully, the name Ball Alley Lane was preserved for the stretch of road between O’Connell Street and the start of the Parnell Square houses. Today, Ball Alley Lane is the address of the ACT Centre which houses the offices and studios of Athlone Community Radio. At the time of the 1911 Census there were no fewer than nine occupied houses on Ball Alley Lane – the heads of household were: James Cannon, Patrick Dwyer, John Gaffey, William Gordon, Maria Kelly, Pat McLoughlin, William Neligan, James Norton and Samuel Smith. The nine houses had between them some 34 occupants.

The earliest mention of the name Ball Alley Lane is 1808 indicating that a ball alley was on this site at that time. Handball was obviously a popular sport in Athlone at this time. Ruth Delany in an article on the Athlone Navigation Works tells us that when John Brownrigg reported on the state of the Athlone Canal he found that the harbour (on Magazine Road) had been partially dismantled and that “He had found some cut-stone from the canal built into the face of the ball alley in College Lane." Did the alley in College Lane replace an old one in Ball Alley Lane or were there two functioning ball alleys in such close proximity?

Next week: Clonown.

READ MORE: Check out the previous articles in this series here