Things I wish we had in Athlone

There is room for improvement

Athlone in May 2025. Picture credits: Paola Bassanese

Don’t get me wrong, Athlone is a perfectly fine small town (population: around 22,000 people). Maybe because it’s small, my idealist self has hopes for growth and for more activities.

Before we continue, a short announcement: on Friday 27th June 2025 at 11am (Irish time) I’m doing a Substack Live with restaurateur and author

Jp McMahon

so please add a reminder to your calendar. We will talk about Irish food and cover topics such as funding for food festivals (see JP’s article).

And now, back to the article.

There are some positive signs in Athlone in the right direction: we had a brand new music festival called Croilar, which showcased established and emerging artists; then we have a regular traditional Irish music festival called Shannon Festival or Féile na Sionainne.

OK, this is a good start, but why stop here? We could have an opera festival, for example!

I put together a whole list of things we need in Athlone, in my opinion. Instead of having a long bulleted list, here are some thoughts on each item.

Museums

When it rains, there is so much shopping you can do. Sometimes you want to get a culture fix (that applies when the weather is good, too!) and having at least a couple of museums in Athlone would make a difference. We have Athlone Castle with a limited collection of memorabilia and artifacts, but you can visit the whole museum in half an hour. We could do with a place where you can spend a couple of hours and forget about the world outside.

Art Galleries

There’s never enough art galleries in my opinion! So far in Athlone we have the Luan Gallery, Abbey Studios (but they are only rarely open to the public on special occasions such as Culture Night), smaller spaces that hold art exhibitions such as Athlone Art Gallery, Shambles Art Studio, Dean Crowe Theatre’s AIB Gallery, and some local cafes.

Just like in the case of museums, Athlone could have larger exhibition spaces where you can get completely immersed in the artworks for a couple of hours.

More theatres

Athlone has two theatres: the Dean Crowe Theatre and Athlone Little Theatre. For a few years there was also a third, much smaller, theatre called Passionfruit Theatre.

There are plans to convert some empty premises in the centre of town into a business hub (a co-working space where you can rent out some office space or a desk); however, that space could also accommodate some kind of auditorium and even an art gallery. There is also another area nearby which houses some medical services that are being moved elsewhere, and which will remain unused until someone makes a decision on how to repurpose it. The area has parking and a number of small buildings that could be turned into cultural spaces.