liathróid laimhe (12. 353)

Fellow internet peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic directs us to a recent photographic safari by the award-winning Kenneth O Halloran on the disappearing legacy of handball alleys of Ireland. Played in Ireland since the sixteenth century (first documented as Galway had to make a law banning the pastime and thus restricting it to designated areas in 1527 but probably dating back to Celtic times and boomeranging through trade with the Basques back to the isles as wallball or fronton) with shared origins of more formal games like tennis and squash, these abandoned courts are relics, hidden in plain sight, are testament of socialisation and meeting places before television and modern transportation as a focus for gathering, sport, discourse and flirtation, erected at crossroads and in the open countryside. Much more of O Halloran’s work at the link above.