HANDBALL ALLEY (post-1925), BALLYKELLY COUNTY WEXFORD: A HANDBALL ALLEY ADAPTED FROM A VACANT CATHOLIC CHAPEL (1796; closed pre-1858).  EVIDENCE OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL ORIGINS OF THE HANDBALL ALLEY SURVIVES IN A SMALL COLLECTION OF CUT-STONE WALL MONUMENTS, THE EXAMPLE PICTURED INSCRIBED: "Pray For Ned/Crowley 1788"

Handball is known to have been played in Ireland from at least the mid 1500s.  Its origins are likely shared with the contemporaneous games of Real Tennis, Palla, Pelota and Eton Fives.  While Royal Tennis was played in purpose-built courts from the early 1500s, handball, like Pelota (Basque Region) and Palla (Tuscany), was predominantly played in appropriated spaces until the early twentieth century, the more common of which included religious ruins, vacant Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks, walls of bridges, and walls of hillside lime kilns.

Purpose-built handball alleys first emerged in the late 1700s although these seem to have remained the exception for at least a further one hundred years.  Comprising two short side walls either side of the playing wall, the early examples signalled the introduction of side-wall play into what was previously a one-wall game, a practice credited to the playing of handball on Royal Tennis courts in London throughout the 1700s (O'Connor, available at http://www.ushandball.org/content/view/451/243/).  Later versions lengthened these walls and raised the height of the playing wall, culminating in the familiar three-wall alley: this form was to become the standard by the early twentieth century, in rural and urban settings alike, and was to endure for a further fifty years.  The handball alleys at Johnstown (c.1950), County Kilkenny (demolished), and Kilmacteige (c.1900), County Sligo, can be considered as typical examples.  The inclusion of a fourth wall became popular with advances in concrete construction and tended to incorporate viewing terraces above changing rooms or a void space.  A small proportion of alleys were later internalised by the addition of a roof.  Interestingly, the size of the floor space remained relatively consistent from the outset.

 
L-R: HANDBALL ALLEYS AT JOHNSTOWN (c.1950), COUNTY KILKENNY, AND KILMACTEIGE (c.1900), COUNTY SLIGO

Throughout its history handball was associated with large, often day-long, gatherings involving people waiting for a game, those spectating, and those engaged in betting and match-making activities.  The introduction of high enclosing walls resulted in such gatherings becoming more formalised and, on occasions, more covert.  In addition to Sunday dances, card playing and as a hiring place for casual and seasonal labour, the handball alley was often used as a meeting place during the 1798 Rebellion, the Black and Tan era and the Civil War.

 
HANDBALL ALLEYS (c.1950) AT GORMANSTOWN COLLEGE, COUNTY MEATH

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, of which Gormanstown College (c.1950), County Meath, and Newport, County Tipperary, are particularly fine examples.

HANDBALL ALLEY, NEWPORT, COUNTY TIPPERARY (N)

Attitudes towards handball alleys have changed in recent years with the decline in the status of the sport as a focus of rural community life resulting, in many instances, in demolition: elsewhere, handball alleys have been adapted as garages, animal pens or dumping grounds.  Handball is now mainly an indoor sport and those examples still in good repair are used for playing handball primarily by the Traveller Community, if at all.  Nevertheless, the handball alley continues to be regarded as a vernacular building form unique to Ireland.

TARA HALL (1914), COURTOWN, COUNTY WEXFORD: AN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY DANCE HALL BUILT BY A MR. REDMOND RETAINING THE BASIS OR SHELL OF A LATER NINETEENTH-CENTURY HANDBALL ALLEY PUT IN PLACE BY THE EARL OF COURTOWN

My research on the evolution of the physical form of the handball alley involves surveying surviving examples and the documentation available on demolished examples.  In carrying out this research I have identified a possible correlation with the eighteenth-century lime kiln, at least in terms of continuity of location and possibly also in terms of dimensions.  It is expected that the continuing survey process will highlight further local, regional, and international influences on the form of the Irish handball alley.

Click here for the record for the handball alley in Johnstown, County Kilkenny

Click here for the record for the handball alley in Kilmacteige, County Sligo

Click here for the records for the handball alleys at Gormanstown College, County Meath

Click here for the record for the handball alley in Newport, County Tipperary

This research is being undertaken by Áine Ryan, co-director of make use: buildings places situations, and has been kindly assisted by many members of the public.  It commenced in June 2008 and, to date, over 550 examples have been noted with photographs of approximately 160 displayed on the project website: www.irishhandballalley.blogspot.com.  The first stage was assisted by a Heritage Council Research Grant (2008).  Correspondence welcomed by contacting Áine at irishhandballalley@gmail.com.

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