The People and the businesses of the city of Kilkenny in the 1950 to 1980s are brought back to life in a series of articles originally published in the Old Kilkenny Review.

While most articles in the journal are the product of research in books and manuscripts, for these articles the authors went out on the Kilkenny streets and called on occupants and families. The researchers combined the information they gathered there with their own deep personal knowledge of Kilkenny history.
The authors wrote the articles for their contemporaries, not for us to read fifty or sixty years later. They remind their readers what used to be on the spot before the Monster House, or before Café Maria, or before the Cloth Hall – businesses which themselves have long since disappeared. What they recorded then, has become our history.
For us, the articles serve a dual purpose. They are written record of how the streets must have appeared in the 1960s and can be used as a Street Directory. They also record the living memory of that period, the street lore, the stories that everyone knew. If our authors had not put pen to paper, those memories would never have survived. As far as we know, none of the authors are still living.

(The referential shop names given are representing the situation in March 2018.)

Please click on the pages in the OKR to open the searchable pdf file. Due to the dark nature of the scans and to prevent unnessessary print-ounts in general, it is not recommended to print out the pages.

Street name OKR year, pages Author(s)
High Street
(Willoughby’s to William St)
OKR 1953, p. 26-37 Margaret Phelan and Katherine M. Lanigan
High Street
(Tholsel to Parade on East Side)
OKR 1954, p. 20-24 Margaret Phelan
High Street
(From the Tholsel to the Post Office)
OKR 1960, p. 43-51 Margaret Phelan
High Street
Friary to Post Office Square
OKR 1961, p. 57-64 Margaret Phelan
High Street
(West Side from William Street to Oxfam)
OKR 1968, p. 5-27 Margaret Phelan
John Street
(From John’s Bridge to Michael St)
OKR 1962, p. 25-39 John Finn and Claire Murphy
John Street Upper
(From Brett’s to O’Gorman’s, from Lawlor’s to Maudlin Street)
OKR 1974, p. 45-51 Madge Buggy
Maudlin Street OKR 1969, p. 11-14 Kathleen Wray
Parade
(Kilkenny Design Centre to the Left Bank)
OKR 1970, p. 44-54 Mary Kenealy
Parliament Street
(From Sportswear to Phelan’s, from Hughes to Bank of Ireland)
OKR 1976, p. 175-189 Anna DeLoughney
Patrick Street
(East Side, from Left Bank to Butler House)
OKR 1963, p. 5-13 Mary Kenealy
Patrick Street
(West Side, from SIPTU to The Hibernian)
OKR 1964, p. 33-41 Mary Kenealy
Patrick Street Upper
(From Butler House to St Patrick’s Graveyard)
OKR 1955, p. 11-15 Patrick Walsh
Patrick Street Upper
(From Chapel Lane to The Village)
OKR 1986, p. 289-29 Mary McCarthy
Rose Inn Street
(From Kitty’s Cabin to KBC Bank; from Ladbrookes to The Flaky Tart)
OKR 1966, p. 9-16 Richard De Loughry
Irishtown OKR 1955, p. 30-35 John Gibb, William J. Phelan and Jim Keogh
St. Canice’s Place OKR 1956-57, p. 1-6 John S. Gibb, Dr. William J. Phelan and Jim Keogh
St. Kieran Street
(East side: From The Butterslip to Bank of Ireland)
OKR 1965, p. 22-31 Mary Kenealy
Vicar Street OKR 1956-57, p. 1ff. J. S. Gibb and Dr. W. J. Phelan
William Street OKR 1979, p. 24-35 Margaret M. Phelan