Street Wise – Iona Park and Talbot Avenue

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

Gearoid O'Brien

There was a chronic housing shortage in Athlone in the opening decade of the 20th Century, poor sanitation and hygiene added to the problem. In 1907 the local Medical Inspector’s report painted a grim picture of conditions in Athlone, it revealed that 200 houses in the urban area had no drainage of any kind.

In 1905 the Chairman of Athlone Urban District Council, Mr Michael Hughes, had laid the foundation stone for the first public housing scheme undertaken by the council. This scheme was referred to in the planning stages as the ‘Coosan Scheme’ but was subsequently called St Kieran’s Terrace. The building of St Kieran’s Terrace marked the dawning of a new era in Athlone.

An Act had been passed which enabled local authorities to borrow money at lower rates of interest than were available heretofore. In fact, the money borrowed to build this scheme was borrowed at 3.25% rather than the prevailing rate of 4.5%. Having managed to successfully complete this scheme the council set about putting in place a new valuation scheme for urban land where the land was to be taxed in accordance with the letting value rather than the agricultural value.

St Columba’s Terrace

The next most obvious place for building council houses was deemed to be The Batteries. However, when the council proposed taking-over some of The Batteries to build public housing the idea was vehemently opposed by the public. The Batteries was at that time a nine-hole golf course which had been established by the garrison and a public-park facility which was favoured as a recreational amenity. Instead, the council quickly set their sights on Baylough and agreed to build the first scheme on the Connaught side close to the old canal. This scheme was to be called St Columba’s Terrace. The name was proposed by Cllr Owen Dolan and agreed by the council in 1910. St Columba was born in Co Donegal c521. He founded his monastery c565 on the small island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. This foundation became very influential and had many subordinate churches linked to it in Ireland, Scotland and he north of England. He also founded the monastery of Durrow, Co Offaly in 586. St Columba (also known as Colmcille) was one of the three patron saints of Medieval Ireland (along with saints Patrick and Brigid). St Columba who apart from being a monk was a noted poet and writer, died on Iona probably in 593.

The Golden Age of Social Housing

While Irish local authorities were responsible for building a certain amount of social housing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the period from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s is generally regarded as the golden age of social housing in Ireland. According to Professor Michelle Norris of UCD during these three decades 112,144 additional social rented dwellings were provided. This figure accounted for 55% of all new housing built in the state during this period. Athlone, like many other Irish towns, benefitted from this policy. During the period in question Athlone Urban District Council developed the following estates: St Francis Terrace; St Paul’s Terrace; St Mel’s Terrace; St Anne’s Terrace; St Patrick’s Terrace; Parnell Square; Mitchell’s Terrace; Sarsfield Square; St. Joseph’s Villas; Assumption Road; Griffith Street; St Asicus Villas; Iona Park; Ave Maria Terrace and Beech Park West.

Talbot Avenue

Talbot Avenue is a terrace of houses which was built for the families of Belgian weavers who were bought over to train local workers in the General Textiles

Factory (Gentex), for their newly-established cotton factory in Athlone. The houses were built by Joseph Harney a local building contractor. The development was named in honour of Matt Talbot (1856-1925) an Irish ascetic who was known for his great piety and his self-mortification of the flesh. When he died suddenly in Granby Lane, Dublin on his way to mass in Dominick Street he was found to be bound with chains beneath his clothes.

At a meeting of Athlone UDC in October 1937 a letter from the developers was made seeking permission to name their new row of twenty houses ‘Talbot Avenue’, they gave the address of the new houses as Grace Road and this caused a bit of debate at the meeting but as the council had no objection to the name it was given the green light to go ahead. In a Letter to the Editor of this paper, published in May 1939 under the heading “Athlone for Tourists” the letter writer was pointing out some areas that needed attention. One of the points made was: “last week at the canal, I saw the new houses built for the Belgians’ and named Talbot Avenue. Now, the word ‘avenue’ conjures up the picture of lovely trees or shrubs along a nicely made road. I need not point out that Talbot Avenue has none of these characteristics, not through the fault of the inhabitants, who look after their gardens in a very creditable manner.

With the exception of an insignificant bit of hawthorn bush there are no trees, although they could be ideally planted along the banks of the canal.”

Today Talbot Avenue is up there as one of the most beautifully landscaped estates in Athlone making full use of the natural beauty of the canal.

Iona Park

Iona Park was built in the early 1950s at a time of great activity in terms of local authority housing. In 1950 the first part of the new Griffith Street development was being built, this was closely followed by St Asicus Villas, Iona Park and Ave Maria Terrace

In the summer of 1952, the houses in Iona Park were nearing completion. At the July meeting of Athlone UDC the members met in committee to discuss the list of “suitable applicants for the new houses at St Columba’s Terrace.”

The question of the naming of the new houses was raised at a meeting of Athlone UDC presided over by Cllr Frank Waters, Chairman. Cllr P. Hogan jokingly suggested that they should call the houses “Waters’ Villas”. Cllr J. McNeill suggested they leave them as “St. Columba’s Villas.”

The Chairman, Cllr Waters, said that as the “Count John McCormack Memorial Project had failed because of lack of public support, he would propose they call the new terrace after him”.

Cllr A.J. Faulkner had a different idea and spoke of the associations which St Columba had with the island of Iona, he suggested that the name “Iona Road” might be a suitable one for the new development. Cllr J. Wheatley, seconded.

In the course of further discussion as to what the development should be called, Mr T. Darcy was asked for his opinion and he replied “Although, I am going to live in one of them, I don’t care what you call them.”

Cllr Hogan said I propose we call them “Darcy Terrace”. Mr Darcy countered with “I propose we called them “Broderick Terrace” (presumably a reference to Cllr Harry Broderick who was a former Labour Party T.D. and a native of Athlone).

Eventually, the councillors having had their bit of fun, as there was no seconder for the Chairman’s proposal that the new houses be called after John Count McCormack it was finally agreed to call them Iona Park.

About 20 years ago the council built further houses in the area, these were called Iona Villas.

Next article: Grace Road and Elliott Road

For previous articles in the series, read more here