Athy

ladeeda

Hello

We are from the UK and thinking of moving to Athy where we have family. We have an 11 year old and 13 year old.

I'd appreciate any advice on which neighbourhoods are good. I know there are threads on here about Athy and I have read them but I'd like more up to date advice.

I have seen a property in Clonmullion and also in Corran Ard but before I go over to do any viewings, could anyone enlighten me as to the good neighbourhoods?

We are also thinking of Portlaoise if anyone has any views on raising a family there, it is marginally cheaper than buying in Athy

Kind regards
Linda

ladeeda

Place in Corran Ard looks nice, as does the one in Leinster Avenue and another neighbourhood which is in Irish and I cannot remember it for the life of me!

stephenl15

My advice: Don't move to Athy :P It's not the best of areas really

ladeeda

Ok thanks Stephen

I understand and appreciate that, I know it isn't the best of area's

ladeeda

Whenever I've been there I love the peaceful way of life but I of course have only had limited time there, so am interested in everyone's view to help me

thelawman

I lived there for 5 years and loved it, I am a Kildare man and know all about "Athys bad reputation" but I never seen anything happen that doesn't happen in any other Irish town, for me the vast majority of people there are great, I passed through the town last Sunday morning and it was spotlessly clean, I used to live in Coneyboro on the Carlow road, a large enough estate and made some great friends there, I'd move back in the morning but I need to be closer to Dublin for work,

delahuntv

Stay there for a weekend and see for yourself.

You'll always get naysayers who will only ever see the negative on everything.

Your own eyes and experience will give you the info you need

For me, the Dublin side or Carlow Road is probably best areas from both traffic and amenities.

For kids, the sports clubs are meant to be superb, decent local schools, decent pubs, a few good restaurants too. If you play golf, the golf club is nice and the course relatively easy.

Probably better than portlaoise as most housing is walking distance to the town and train station is central too.

baaba maal

Most of the schools have been moved to a campus on the Monasterevin Road- make sure to check the commute to this as the centre of the town can be a bottleneck at peak times. Plenty of amenities in the town- it definitely suffers from a reputation but I don't think it is as deserved as people make out (not a native but a regular visitor)

ladeeda

Thanks to all you guys!

I think the fact that we have family too there would make it a lot more interesting and positive than if we were just randomly choosing Athy.

It's really nice to hear from people who enjoy it there and it's positive aspects too.

I'll try look out for places on the Dublin/Carlow ride as a commute to Dublin will almost be inevitable.

Thanks again!

Emme

thelawman wrote: »

I lived there for 5 years and loved it, I am a Kildare man and know all about "Athys bad reputation" but I never seen anything happen that doesn't happen in any other Irish town, for me the vast majority of people there are great, I passed through the town last Sunday morning and it was spotlessly clean, I used to live in Coneyboro on the Carlow road, a large enough estate and made some great friends there, I'd move back in the morning but I need to be closer to Dublin for work,

Are you saying that Athy isn't suitable for anyone who works in Dublin?

If you are I agree wholeheartedly.

ladeeda wrote: »

I'll try look out for places on the Dublin/Carlow ride as a commute to Dublin will almost be inevitable.

Carlow is better than Athy for amenities but it also suffers the Waterford train. Portlaoise has a better train service with trains running approximately every hour. The Waterford line is very poorly served and subject to frequent delays. If you're thinking of driving be prepared to pay dearly for it - fuel is 4-6c cheaper in Carlow than it is in Athy and I can't understand why.

I have some friends in Athy and every time I go to see them there another shop seems to have closed. The only businesses that flourish in Athy are pubs and smoking shops. My friend used to walk her dog at night up until about a year ago. She does not feel safe walking her dog at night now.

I would advise the OP not to move to Athy. If you can move to Kildare town do so, the train service is much better and you are still near enough to Athy to visit your family.

Snaffles2014

Emme wrote: »

Are you saying that Athy isn't suitable for anyone who works in Dublin?

I think this is really made more than it is. Its no worse or better than other towns nearby. Its not ideal having to commute to Dublin, of course not but you can't put Athy down for it as if its the worst.

If you're thinking of driving be prepared to pay dearly for it - fuel is 4-6c cheaper in Carlow than it is in Athy and I can't understand why.

I'd agree that its a few cents dearer but just do as most people do ... don't buy fuel there, find the cheapest place en-route and you're done. Again too much made of this altogether, as if its unique to Athy.

I have some friends in Athy and every time I go to see them there another shop seems to have closed. The only businesses that flourish in Athy are pubs and smoking shops.

Again, there are shops opening up as well and more retail activity in this area soon. The high street suffers all over Ireland, and we hear of efforts, and initiatives, and pleas, and plucky local traders fighting back the down turn all the time. Not unique to Athy. What Athy doesn't have is the sprawl where businesses are springing up outside the town and the centre is left struggling. There is movement and activity and that itself brings more growth.

My friend used to walk her dog at night up until about a year ago. She does not feel safe walking her dog at night now.

Did the dog bite her? What happened? Seriously this is mad, most of the spring and summer you have people walking and running and swimming, in preparation for Tri-Athy, fitness camps in the park, cycling clubs, canoeing, seriously this like and auld wives tale.

I would advise the OP not to move to Athy. If you can move to Kildare town do so, the train service is much better and you are still near enough to Athy to visit your family.

Kildare town is a nice place to be fair, the same kind of make as Athy. Traffic on and off the M7 is a bit mad at peak times I hear. To the original poster ... As a newcomer to Kildare, the whole county seems to have an unfounded hangup with Athy and clutch at straws in an effort to run the place down.

Nib

There was a man shot dead in Athy earlier today. A hooded man cycled towards him, shot him in the head three times and cycled off. The victim's Mother was also brutally murdered in Athy about 20 years ago.

Apart from all that, it's a grand spot.

Beer Assistant

We won't mention the local accent.

stephenl15

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/athy-shooting-jason-doogue-dies-6296018

PizzamanIRL

Nib wrote: »

There was a man shot dead in Athy earlier today. A hooded man cycled towards him, shot him in the head three times and cycled off. The victim's Mother was also brutally murdered in Athy about 20 years ago.

Apart from all that, it's a grand spot.

Regarding that incident yesterday, it's just between the people involved. It's not as if you're going to randomly get shot in Athy going about your daily business.

If you're not involved with these type of people then you won't be effected by such things. Then you can become part of the crowd that spout "Athy is getting worse and worse" when in reality it's just like other towns that have certain families that create bad stories in their respective towns.

Pocoyo

A couple of local shootings/deaths in the last year,but you wont feel intimated walking down the street or even see any of the bad eggs,Unlike other towns they stick to themselves and wouldnt even look at you sideways(busy making money) i think athy gougers are more of the professional kind. Probably the worst town to be a druggy,but if your not in that world its a great place to rare a family,the gardai need to get there finger out tho.

princip

The town has;

1) fantastic community spirit.
2) All sports and interests are catered for through clubs and fantastic facilities
3) affordable housing (which means you wont can enjoy life more, with greater financial freedom),
4) it's 1 hour from a great European capital city
5) it is on train line to Dublin
6) Has beautiful walks within the town and idyllic countryside outside.
7) Ardscoil Na Trinoide is a good school where numerous people have emerged from, into amazing careers.


any downsides to the town apply to any other town in Ireland.

stephenl15

princip wrote: »

The town has;

1) fantastic community spirit.
2) All sports and interests are catered for through clubs and fantastic facilities
3) affordable housing (which means you wont can enjoy life more, with greater financial freedom),
4) it's 1 hour from a great European capital city
5) it is on train line to Dublin
6) Has beautiful walks within the town and idyllic countryside outside.
7) Ardscoil Na Trinoide is a good school where numerous people have emerged from, into amazing careers.


any downsides to the town apply to any other town in Ireland.

Are you from Athy by any chance?

princip

Yeah from Athy.

Emme

princip wrote: »

The town has;

1) fantastic community spirit.

So has the Mafia. Athy not necessarily. Athy people can be very stand-offish and don't accept newcomers easily. From what I see the people who have moved down from Dublin stick to themselves and the Athy natives stick to themselves.

princip wrote: »

2) All sports and interests are catered for through clubs and fantastic facilities

Clubs yes but I wouldn't say the facilities are fantastic. If you want to play GAA, rugby or soccer you can find good clubs. If you want to join a gym, do yoga or pilates it's a bit more difficult. K Leisure is relatively expensive for what it provides and is overcrowded and oversubscribed. There are no alternatives in the town. You can do yoga and pilates but the classes are very expensive, limited in availability and held in a small room which doesn't reflect the price. If you don't work or work locally it's relatively easy to make the best of things but if you commute to Dublin to work it's hard to fit in fitness.

princip wrote: »

3) affordable housing (which means you wont can enjoy life more, with greater financial freedom),

I would argue that it is difficult to enjoy life in Athy because facilities are so limited. If you want to shop anywhere other than the local Lidl (Aldi is under construction) you have to drive to Carlow or to another town outside Athy. Perrys is quaint and if you have time to root you might find what you want. SuperValu has a relatively good selection but is expensive. Most shops in the town are expensive for what you get because there are so few alternatives. One shop has a loyalty card scheme where you get a card stamped if you spend Euro30 in one transaction. So far so good. If you spend Euro60 or more in one transaction you still get only one stamp. They never have any special offers either. That's gougery and there are far better priced alternatives to that shop outside the town providing much more generous customer benefits and discounts.

That's the thing with Athy. People want to support local business but when they get ripped off left, right and centre they are forced to go elsewhere for financial reasons. Then the town suffers. I can't understand why certain shops have to gouge every cent out of customers when the commercial rents in Athy must be relatively low compared to elsewhere.

princip wrote: »

4) it's 1 hour from a great European capital city

I hour to the M50 if you're lucky and don't mind getting penalty points on your licence. The train always takes longer than advertised and if you're a masochist you'll love the journey to and from the great European capital city on the M9/M7. Then again it's worth the pain because there's so little in Athy.

princip wrote: »

5) it is on train line to Dublin

Trains are few and far between, overcrowded and always take longer to get to Dublin than advertised.

princip wrote: »

6) Has beautiful walks within the town and idyllic countryside outside

Beautiful walks where? All countryside is idyllic on a good day.
.

princip wrote: »

7) Ardscoil Na Trinoide is a good school where numerous people have emerged from, into amazing careers.

If a child is motivated, has family support and works hard t his can happen anywhere. It's a pity they will have to go elsewhere for the amazing careers because there is such a high unemployment rate in Athy.

princip wrote: »

any downsides to the town apply to any other town in Ireland.

One garage has gone out of business in Athy in the last month. That doesn't take into account Albert Dunnes which went out of business a few years ago. Other businesses are struggling and there seems to be a new boarded up shopfront in the town every week.

Paid parking. You have to pay to park in Athy during the week. Parking on Saturdays is free but people often give up after spending 30 minutes in traffic trying to get to the middle of the town and head to Carlow instead. When I moved down first I tried to shop in Athy and support local business but now I do all my shopping in Carlow bar going to Lidl in Athy and Hylands or Perrys for fresh meat.

Stay out of the place if you know what's good for you.

blackbird98

Emme wrote: »

So has the Mafia. Athy not necessarily. Athy people can be very stand-offish and don't accept newcomers easily. From what I see the people who have moved down from Dublin stick to themselves therein lies the problem!.

If you don't work or work locally it's relatively easy to make the best of things but if you commute to Dublin to work it's hard to fit in fitness. You can't blame the town for that

I would argue that it is difficult to enjoy life in Athy because facilities are so limited. .... Most shops in the town are expensive for what you get because there are so few alternatives....That's the thing with Athy. People want to support local business but when they get ripped off left, right and centre they are forced to go elsewhere for financial reasons. ....the commercial rents in Athy must be relatively low compared to elsewhere... Can't understand where all this is coming from, rents are not necessarily lower that other towns, nor are the rates. While there may not be a large selection of shops, I don't believe that people are being ripped off, if everybody had that attitude, there wouldn't be any shops in Athy!!

I hour to the M50 if you're lucky and don't mind getting penalty points on your licence. ..can be as little as 40 minutes, depending on when you travel.

Beautiful walks where? All countryside is idyllic on a good day. Maybe if you had the time to explore the town and surrounding areas, you might be aware of the Park, Canal walks, barrow track, etc
.
If a child is motivated, has family support and works hard t his can happen anywhere. It's a pity they will have to go elsewhere for the amazing careers because there is such a high unemployment rate in Athy. You're not honestly suggesting the every student in a school should gain employment locally?? Does this happen in any town?



One garage has gone out of business in Athy in the last month. That doesn't take into account Albert Dunnes which went out of business a few years ago. Other businesses are struggling and there seems to be a new boarded up shopfront in the town every week. Business close down in every town, maybe a bit more support locally, instead of taking your business out of town would help keep them open??

Paid parking. You have to pay to park in Athy during the week. Parking on Saturdays is free but people often give up after spending 30 minutes in traffic trying to get to the middle of the town and head to Carlow instead... You have to pay for parking in Carlow too!! and Saturday is not free there!! I have yet to spend 30 minutes sitting in traffic, while it can be slow sometimes, 30 mins seems to be a bit of an exaggeration.

Stay out of the place if you know what's good for you.

With such negativity, it makes me wonder why you stay here at all!!
I would highly recommend the town to anybody, locals are very friendly with a great community spirit

Emme

blackbird98 wrote: »

With such negativity, it makes me wonder why you stay here at all!!
I would highly recommend the town to anybody, locals are very friendly with a great community spirit

I will be gone as soon as I can afford it and circumstances allow.

I mentioned that Hylands and Perrys can be good value. There are other shops in the town which are prohibitively expensive and take advantage of the location and the fact there is no alternative but they would probably do this no matter where they were as long as they could get away with it.

I do not find the locals friendly and I am not the only person with that experience. I am not exactly a "blow in", I grew up 10 miles from Athy. People who grew up in the Athy area and stayed there have no difficulty which is understandable but anyone I know who left for a significant period and came back finds it difficult. I would prefer my social life to extend beyond drinking, fighting and shooting up along the canal.

princip

Ardscoil na Trinoide got fantastic results this week in league tables released, charting college/university admissions. It's always been a brilliant school.

Snaffles2014

Emme wrote: »

From what I see the people who have moved down from Dublin stick to themselves and the Athy natives stick to themselves.

I think that is human nature, if you are describing that as a problem then its a social problem and Sydney, London, New York and Dublin all suffer he same.

I would say that anyone who moves anywhere new, that is something they will invariably have to overcome/embrace/resolve, if they see the need. If not then its fine and not an issue.

Clubs yes but I wouldn't say the facilities are fantastic. .... If you want to join a gym, do yoga or pilates it's a bit more difficult. K Leisure is relatively expensive .... There are no alternatives in the town ...if you commute to Dublin to work it's hard to fit in fitness.

There needs to be a critical mass to run any of these activities. If people don't participate then you can't blame the organisers for that.

You have a good point though, it would be great if there was a way to get stuff like that up and running. Athy College have a gym open the last year, all brand new as good as you'll get anywhere and its poorly supported ... What can you do there? Like I said you have a point but you can't use it as a negative to beat the town with.

I would argue that it is difficult to enjoy life in Athy because facilities are so limited. If you want to shop anywhere other than the local Lidl (Aldi is under construction) you have to drive to Carlow or to another town outside Athy. Perrys is quaint and if you have time to root you might find what you want.

Agreed in the main

SuperValu has a relatively good selection but is expensive.

I think possibly the problem there, like Shaws is they are commercial businesses who have no interest in how the town prospers. They only want the profit, and in the short term mostly. The pricing matrix used by that SuperValu is definitely the high one I would imagine, not employed there so couldn't really say 100%

Most shops in the town are expensive for what you get because there are so few alternatives. One shop has a loyalty card scheme where you get a card stamped if you spend Euro30 in one transaction. So far so good. If you spend Euro60 or more in one transaction you still get only one stamp. They never have any special offers either. That's gougery and there are far better priced alternatives to that shop outside the town providing much more generous customer benefits and discounts.

Is there a chamber of commerce in the town? Again you have valid points but I prefer someone to provide a solution to a problem rather than just a problem.

This again is not just Athy, listen to Down to Business on Newstalk every Saturday and its a problem nation wide. You can't selectively choose Athy as being the single town in the country with that problem.

Beautiful walks where? All countryside is idyllic on a good day.
Seriously, it sounds petty when you say it like that. They are there, I've walked them and they are great. The problem here is that not enough noise is mad about them, people aren't encouraged to avail of them enough. THAT is the problem here.

One garage has gone out of business in Athy in the last month. That doesn't take into account Albert Dunnes which went out of business a few years ago. Other businesses are struggling and there seems to be a new boarded up shopfront in the town every week.

And new ones opening up all the time as well. Again just looking at the negative here

Paid parking. You have to pay to park in Athy during the week. Parking on Saturdays is free but people often give up after spending 30 minutes in traffic trying to get to the middle of the town and head to Carlow instead.

The parking is good to be honest, parking in the town carkpark down the side street for Hylands and you are a stones throw from most. Shaw's had good parking, behind dealz has good parking, where do you want to park near that hasn't got parking? Seriously

Listen, there is a lot Athy could be doing but its not like the picture you are painting. I could pick any town in Ireland, not having been there and slate it in a hour, its easily done but I think your attitude is a huge part of your problem and that's not an insult I'm trading there, I genuinely do not mean to offend you there.

sa trucker

Hi
we are looking at buying a house in the Dunbrinn Estate in Athy
I hear the travelers are a problem there is this true

sa trucker

Hi
we are looking at buying a house in the Dunbrinn Estate in Athy
I hear the travelers are a problem there is this true

Snaffles2014

Travelers are a problem everywhere, mainly because they contribute nothing to society

sovereign121

Athy is a bit of a sh¡thole to be fair

BuffyBot

Act like grown ups, folks

load1234

Lots of youth gangs throwing eggs and stones at night, trying to break front doors. New road coming might help. Athy can be dangerous. Youth gangs also attack street lights. Children also try to light fires.

rameire

ah here.