handball alley

Handball alley, built c. 1930, of concrete construction, now disused. Handball alley open to the south. Adjoining single-bay games shed to west with pitched corrugated-metal roof and concrete walls. Located to the southeast of Killeen National School (not in survey) and to the southwest of Granard.

A modest and unassuming handball alley, which represents an interesting artifact of cultural and social importance to the local community. It was probably originally built to serve the local national school, which is located a short distance to the northwest. Handball alleys have strong social and cultural significance on account of their associations with the Gaelic Revival and the emergence of the GAA in the late-nineteenth century and, later, with the attempts to create a unique cultural identity within the newly independent Irish Republic. They are also building type of some social and vernacular importance, which is unique to Ireland and to Irish communities aboard. In general, the sport has since declined and the survival of such structures in the Irish countryside is increasingly rare. It is one of the few handballs alleys still extant in County Longford and is of social importance. It is an interesting addition to the built heritage and social history of the Granard area, and it forms an interesting pair with the modest former games shed attached to the west.