Carbury Park Athy

Darith

Anybody got any opinion living/investing in Carbury Park in Athy? Thanks in advance.

n97 mini

Is that an ex-council estate? Athy in general doesn't have a great reputation.

Snaffles2014

Not sure, does seem to have a lot of amenities around it though

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Carbury+Park,+Athy,+Co.+Kildare/@52.995735,-6.9905218,17z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x485d6fec23091179:0x466c2b372e7a382c!2sCarbury+Park,+Athy,+Co.+Kildare!3b1!8m2!3d52.9967068!4d-6.9914928!3m4!1s0x485d6fec23091179:0x466c2b372e7a382c!8m2!3d52.9967068!4d-6.9914928?hl=en

L1011

Houses on daft all look ex-council

Athy is rough as a badgers arse - I wouldn't make my worst enemy live there. Quite possibly the roughest town in Ireland and I've been to pretty much every town in Ireland in a previous job.

thelawman

Athy is grand, i lived there for 5 years, there are some rough spots, but I think they are in every town in Ireland.

Mink

I've driven into that Carbury estate a couple times to go swimming in the leisure centre & it really looks very rough. Those estates along Woodstock Street in general look pretty grim.

There are some definite rough parts of Athy but the nice bits are great.
The nicest estates, from my opinion, are Cois Bhearu & Cluain Bhearu, Whitecastle Lawn, Oak Lawn, Prusselstown, Gallows Hill, front part of Rheban Manor, Earls Court, Mansfield, Chanterlands.

The above are mainly on the Dublin side.
If I had to live the other side, possibly would consider Tonlegee or Branswood.
This is after visiting lots of estates to have a general gawk at the goings on either through house viewings or visiting friends. And also from advice from people that have lived in the area their whole lives!

Yawns

I agree with Mink there. I would add Coneyboro in the main is fine but over the last couple of years since the council and Cluid took over a lot of houses at the very back, that area went downhill very quickly. I now it was a case of the minority making it seem worse than it was, but it went rough as well. The vast majority of Coneyboro is fine tho much like Rheban Manor, the closer to the entrance, the more quiet it seems to be.

I wouldn't touch Carbury Park.

Snaffles2014

thelawman wrote: »

Athy is grand, i lived there for 5 years, there are some rough spots, but I think they are in every town in Ireland.

Agree here, and with Mink and Yawns ... albeit I wouldn't know all areas of the town, by in large the good areas are grand, same as any other town in Ireland.

There is something about the reputation of the town though, something doesn't quite add up. It has some bad areas and you do see some unsavory characters at times but in the main its perfectly fine. What is it about the reputation though. When I speak to people from around, there is a very poor opinion held about the town but they are never about to quantify it. Its like its urban myth or something but there is no denying it, the town for whatever reason (rightly or wrongly) has a bad reputation.

I could never see why though, or what its blown out of proportion at least, it just doesn't make sense. Admittedly I not around the town at 2 am on a Saturday night so I can't speak to that, but to live in and shop in, kids schools, sports, etc. and it's great. I kinda get the feeling something happened 30 years ago and other towns/people just wont let it go? Can anyone explain it?

Lady is a tramp

Snaffles2014 wrote: »

There is something about the reputation of the town though, something doesn't quite add up. It has some bad areas and you do see some unsavory characters at times but in the main its perfectly fine. What is it about the reputation though. When I speak to people from around, there is a very poor opinion held about the town but they are never about to quantify it. Its like its urban myth or something but there is no denying it, the town for whatever reason (rightly or wrongly) has a bad reputation.

I could never see why though, or what its blown out of proportion at least, it just doesn't make sense. Admittedly I not around the town at 2 am on a Saturday night so I can't speak to that, but to live in and shop in, kids schools, sports, etc. and it's great. I kinda get the feeling something happened 30 years ago and other towns/people just wont let it go? Can anyone explain it?

Is a lot of it to do with the fact that it's the spiritual and physical home of Cuan Mhuire? A fantastic place and service, but the fact is that long-term-residents and former clients do actually make up a sizeable amount of Athy's population. And not all of them will always be sober.

It's a bit of a unique situation for a town that small. Where so many people in the area are either in addiction, or in recovery, or helping people recover from addiction. Cuan Mhuire houses people both on the grounds and in the area for years/decades after they actually finish the rehab programme.

So it's part of it. I think.

L1011

Lady is a tramp wrote: »

Is a lot of it to do with the fact that it's the spiritual and physical home of Cuan Mhuire? A fantastic place and service, but the fact is that long-term-residents and former clients do actually make up a sizeable amount of Athy's population. And not all of them will always be sober.

It's a bit of a unique situation for a town that small. Where so many people in the area are either in addiction, or in recovery, or helping people recover from addiction. Cuan Mhuire houses people both on the grounds and in the area for years/decades after they actually finish the rehab programme.

So it's part of it. I think.

Long predates that. There's a few other Cuan Mhuire's around the country too.

All of the towns in Kildare with barracks were very rough from the time they had them until fairly recently - with the exception of Naas somehow. Athy has just managed to hang on to the reputation despite I believe being the first to close well over 100 years ago - and very much the actuality from what I've experienced particularly around Woodstock.

The "they are their childer down there" accusation you'll get from very old Kildare natives probably didn't come from actual cannibalism but has also stuck!

Lady is a tramp

L1011 wrote: »

Long predates that. There's a few other Cuan Mhuire's around the country too.

All of the towns in Kildare with barracks were very rough from the time they had them until fairly recently - with the exception of Naas somehow. Athy has just managed to hang on to the reputation despite I believe being the first to close well over 100 years ago - and very much the actuality from what I've experienced particularly around Woodstock.

The "they are their childer down there" accusation you'll get from very old Kildare natives probably didn't come from actual cannibalism but has also stuck!

Was there a barracks in Athy? I didn't know that.

I do know the Curragh is f*cking toxic with the hangover from all that's happened there.

WishUWereHere

L1011 wrote: »

Athy is rough as a badgers arse - I wouldn't make my worst enemy live there. Quite possibly the roughest town in Ireland and I've been to pretty much every town in Ireland in a previous job.

There are good and bad in EVERY village/town/city. While not having lived in Athy, I have done plenty of business over the years there, and can honestly say I have met some really nice decent people there.

Not right to be generalising here.

Emme

Athy has had some very bad publicity down the years. In the 1980s there were articles in the Sunday newspapers about the Athy "Hole in the Wall Gang" who apparently got up to all sorts of mischief and used to have gang bangs in the park. It gave the town a really bad name but in fairness some of what they did would be considered innocent now. Gang bangs :rolleyes:

There were at least two armed bank robberies in the town in the 1980s.

Geographically the town is at a disadvantage because it has been bypassed by the M9 motorway. Also in the past "dark forces" have discouraged serious investment in the town from bigger chain stores, Tesco and the like. Aldi and Lidl are the only ones who managed to get past the "dark forces".

Athy was a garrison town in the past. I think this is the root of some of the problems, not Cuan Mhuire. People have the highest of praise for Sister Consilio who runs it.

Athy always had the name of being clannish and unfriendly and I would not dispute that. The town perked up a bit in the boom but went rapidly downhill in the recession and never picked up again. People are buying houses there again but it's only a dormitory town for a lot of people.

There is a joke that the desolation of Athy prepared Ernest Shackleton for the wastelands of Antarctica. He never actually lived in the town, he was born a few miles away in Kilkea but there is a statue of him in the town square.

If you can afford to live anywhere else don't move to Athy. If your budget is limited and you want to commute to Dublin Monasterevan, Portarlington or Portlaoise are far better options.