Spotlight on In The Magic Hour

If you live in Ireland, chances are you live near an outdoor handball alley.  Peppering the length and breadth of the country, they hold vast collections of stories of communities past and present. Over the last week, CoisCéim’s Broadreach Coordinator, Caoimhe Coburn Grey, has been visiting In The Magic Hour’s venue locations and found some real gems from these uniquely Irish structures.  Can you spot where they are going in Sligo…?!

More of these handball alley memories and mementos will be shared on CoisCéim’s website in the coming weeks. Sincere thanks for the generosity of those reaching out remotely and meeting with Caoimhe in person as she travels from one handball alley to the next. More stories roll in with each passing day but here we’ve assembled some of her favourites so far...

Charlie Nolan, Listowel

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Eugene Kennedy, Dublin (originally Boyle)

“The original alleys were 3 walls, like that - three. So that the crowd could be at the back. I remember my father telling stories about when the local guy would be playing somebody from away that the crowd would move in as the opposition would be taking his shot and move back to let the other man!”

“When they’re outdoor, you know you play a great shot as a kid - everybody sees it. And you’re the man. Or the woman as the case may be. But in other words, it’s visible. You play a great shot indoors and unless there’s an audience up on the gallery, nobody’s there to see it. There isn’t the same reinforcements. So when Enda was young playing in outdoor alleys everybody knew who the good kids were and they got a certain elitist position! That was visible! And that positive feedback of reinforcement is very important in encouraging young kids.”

Ned Griffin, Querrin, on building the alley in the late 1940’s

“They hired a local man, Tommy…he was a stonemason, to supervise it. The rest then I’d say was voluntary labour. So of course the raw materials were within...they took the gravel off the beach - you couldn’t do it nowadays. That’s how it was done. And also the sand from outside the pier there. And Robert’s uncle, Bill - and he’s still with us happily, he lives in England now - he was a young fella at that time and Robert says he was the water boy. So he took the water up from the sea so t’was mixed with sea-water. All the ingredients except for the cement came from 50 yards away.”

Enda Timoney, Dublin (Originally Monaghan)

“I remember actually…they had an all-Ireland finals in the courts and there was one particular final - under 16 - now, me and my friends, we were 16. And this man, this boy, from Tipperary came in to play the final of the under 16 and it was Tony Ryan. And we called him Cú Chulainn. He was built. He was a complete athlete and we were saying, “That’s Cú Chulainn!” And he went on to win senior All-Irelands.”

Irish Handball Alleys: More Reading

Áine Ryan starting documenting the fascinating and disappearing history of Irish Handball Alleys in 2008, creating a detailed resource at irishhandballalley.com and through this website has championed their importance as  significant spaces in the cultural and political life of communities:

“Attitudes regarding the value of these alleys have changed in the years since their decline as a focus of rural community life, resulting in their ongoing demolition. Some of them are used as garages, animal pens, and dumping places, but most are truly abandoned.” Áine Ryan.

Find out more about outdoor ball alleys at  http://www.irishhandballalley.ie/ and the GAA’s rich history of the sport can be found at https://www.gaahandball.ie/about/history.