Athy. Biggest kip in Kildare???

Tilt Gone wrote: »

1. Castle inn is getting more rough everyweek. Andersons is very clanish to say the least, plus there's more drugs go through there than through a pharmacy.

2. Supermacs....... are you serious.

3. library.. well ok i'll give you that.

4. Supervalue rip off. Lidil ok for cheap beer i suppose.

5.JAck L isn't from Athy he lived outside it. People from there just like to say he is. Just like that Kenny one who won the rose of tralee. Sure she hasn't lived there in years.

6. As for the Canal walk or "down the line as it's known" your taking your life in your hands walking down there!! THe "horse bridge" always has a load of lads hanging out lookin for trouble.

7. Ploughing championship might create money for the shops but the traffic is ten times worse and it's already bad.

have to do better than that.

Nothing as bad as someone with an opinion of mis-informed tripe.

Tilt Gone wrote: »

I would love for you to state your age please Whycliff. Mis informed???? Not as much as you would think. I lived here for years and have nothing but horror stories about this place. Sure there are hundreds of decent people living here but they are unfortunatley out shone by the minority of little welps that cause the majority of the trouble. Depending on where you live in this towm might also have a lot to do with your day to day experiences in this place. Surely you would have to agree with that!! No??

My age is irrelevent Tit gone wrong.

I have lived in Athy all my life. As have all my family, We owned a number of businesses in the town over the years, i'm involved with a numer of different clubs in the town there wouldnt be too many people i dont know in the town.
Everyone for the most part is friendly as pleasent.
As is the case in all towns throughout Ireland, there are some bad apples.

The town has a Gael Scoil, only opened in the last 4 or 5 years.
They have recently moved into their state of the art school built on the monasterevin road.

The town has a great Heritage, from Edmond Rice to Ernest Shackleton.
Athy's GAA pitch known as Geraldine Park has hosted a number of All Ireland finals in the early 1900's.

Jack L is form Athy, he is from Loughman's Garage who use to be Peugeot Dealers approx half a mile outside the town.
His real Name is Sean Loughman and he went to school in the Technical College out the Carlow road. He is the same age as my brother which is around 36/37.

John MacKenna an award winning writer is also from Athy, his son Ewan also writes and is currently writing for the the Sunday Tribune.
Ewan went to Scoil Eoin christian brothers school.
Ewan helped Oisin McConville write his biography "The Gambler".
Oisin spent some time in Cuain Mhuire in Athy in rehab for gambling and drink addiction.
Ewan is a passionate Kildare man, and i always see him in Newbridge in Jan/Feb at Kildare games when most people dont even know Kiladre is playing.

Ger Gilroy, currently a presenter on Newstalks sports show, off he ball is also from the town.
Son Of Ger Gilroy also, a school teacher in the Town.

Jack Wall is a Labout TD and an absolute gentleman.
He use to live in one of the so called roughest area's in the town.

Recently the town and its business owners started an initiative to improve the appearence of the town.
Most businesses have redeveloped their shop fronts or improved their look by painting them.
It hs greatly improved the image of the town.

Athy chamber of commerce has also launched an initiative to help businesses in the town. By releasing a book of Vouchers to encourage people to shop and keep their business in the town rather than going to bigger surrounding towns such as Carlow and Newbridge to do their shopping.

Tri Athy has become an annual triathlon event in athy with over 2500 competitiors in 2009 making it one of the biggest triathlons being held in Ireland.

Athy hosted the Ploughing championships in 2009, and is set to host it again in 2010 and 2011.
The traffic management plan was one of the best ever seen for the ploughing in any town in Ireland.
Anna May McHugh,is the managing director of the National Ploughing and Also a proud athy woman and was delighted to see the Championships in her home town.

Down the line is the track down along the river which is the Barrow, the second largest river in Ireland to the back of the courthouse.

The Canal walk is in fact the other end of town, and it the Grand Canal that links to dublin eventually.

Indeed unemployment is a problem, but it was once a booming town, with Batchelors,Minch Nortons,Tegral Slates,Canada Dry(Coca Cola) The Wall Board all providing jobs.
Most of these have since closed.

As i said i know a awful lot about the town and the people in it.
I'm not on here to tell people to come live in the town, its the best town in ireland or anything like that. It is far from it.
I'm also not here to tell the people in the town are the most friendliest in ireland.
They are probably not.
It has its problems like each and every other town in Ireland, be it drugs or anti social behaviour.

€2million Euros worth of drugs was found in robertstown in Kildare, a town much smaller and less populated than Athy.
I even think its a village.
Believe it or not, this is 2009, drugs are available everywhere!

But strating up threads like Athy,the biggest kip in Kildare is just trolling in my opinion.

Welcome to the discussion Ronan.
Firstly I never siad Robertstown was a kip,there is nothing as bad as people who only half read posts.
Robertstown is a very pleasent Village, have played football up there on many occassions.
i was merely pointing out that drugs is readily available in every town and village throughout Ireland.
The fact that 2 million was found in Robertstown backs up this point.
An earlier poster suggested more drugs go through the Castle Inn than a Pharmacy, you can bet every country pub and village pub throughout Ireland had drugs in it.
Obvioulsy bigger bars will have more drugs than smaller ones.
Personally i was never offered drugs in any bar in athy, nor did i see anyone taking them.
But i suppose people aren't going to do a line of Coke off the bar in front of you.

Just because businesses have closed, and there are empty buildings doesnt make a town a kip either Ronan.
I agree that when u drive through a town, its the appearence that leaves a memory.
But that does not mean the town is full of trash and scum in my opinion.

The OP was suggesting that the town is full of trash, and there is no decent people left in the town which could not be further from the truth.

My post was to show that i am very knowledgeable about the town of athy and the people in it,also the fact that Jack L(he openly admits he is on radio all the time) is from Athy and it has many other notable people from the town also.

As you said every town has its problems.
You could start a thread in every region on boards on various towns being kips.

And people having opinions on villages, what opinion can people have on a shop,pup and petrol station all run by the one family?

Whycliff, if you cared to read I posted more then once on this thread. Second of all, I think you are taking it a bit personal.
The appearance of the town is the first thing that sticks in peoples minds and anytime i have drove through it, the first thing that comes to my mind is run down and forgotten about.

Unfortunately recent times have not been kind to Athy. While the towns of North Kildare were basically "pampered" with huge foreign direct investment, anywhere south of Kilcullen was largely forgotten.
Minchs, Batchelors and Tegral were all amssive employers in their day. The hinterland around Athy remains fairly prosperous though, with large farms and basically "well to do" people traditionally.
Athy became a town of two halves; commuters working elsewhere like Carlow, KK, Dublin, Portlaoise....and then those largely dependent on social welfare. There are several rundown estates like that one behind Petitts in particular. Athy needs a regeneration scheme badly.