Year in Review - January: House prices soar as Kilkenny named in top cleanest towns

The front page photograph of the first paper of the year was of the proud parents of Nina, who was born at 3.07am at St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny on New Year’ Day.

Meanwhile the lead story highlighted the continuing rise of house prices in Kilkenny with the average home now costing €295,583.

According to the property website daft.ie house prices in Kilkenny rose by 3.2% in the last quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

The median price of a newly-built home in Kilkenny in the first nine months of 2023 was €356,674 compared to the national average of €407,500.

Average asking prices in Kilkenny in the final quarter of 2023 were €104,000 for a one-bed apartment (down 9.9%), €151,000 for a two-bed terraced home (up 3.1%), €215,000 for a three-bed semi-detached (up5.6%), €402,000 for a four-bed bungalow (up 1.9%) and €430,000 for a five-bed detached house (up 13.5%).

In January Kilkenny secured another top five finish in the latest survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

The final litter survey of 2023 shows Kilkenny falling slightly from joint second last year to fourth place in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide by IBAL.

Top-ranking sites included the bottle bank at St Canice's carpark, an area that has been previously criticised by adjudicators in tidiness competitions. Other highly-praised sires included St Kieran’s Street, The Mall, High Street and Castle Park.

“These sites weren’t just good with regard to litter, but the overall presentation and maintenance of same was excellent,” said IBAL’s report.

“A fairly recent addition to Kilkenny is the lovely Riverside Garden and Skatepark site - it has been very attractively laid out but not nearly as clean as neighbouring sites.”

In other news in January two towns in Kilkenny were leading the way by installing the first solar powered pedestrian crossings in the county. The crossing lights are solar powered and are not connected to the electricity grid. The first to go on-stream was the pedestrian crossing at the boys school on Wood Road in Graignamanagh. Meanwhile, in Callan new pedestrian crossings on Bridge Street are also solar powered.

In other positive news a number of local water safety heroes were honoured at Water Safety Ireland’s National Annual Awards at Dublin Castle recently. Among those honoured were Garda Kevin Fitzpatrick and Sergeant John O’Sullivan from Kilkenny who carried out a river rescue on the River Barrow. Other locals honoured were Michael Slabosz and John O’Rourke.

The Kilkenny People also reported in January that almost 5,000 fines were issued in the first ten months of 2023. The breakdown was over 4,800 parking fines, 42 for litter and none for dog fouling.

In GAA circles there was great cause for celebration with Tullogher/Rosbercon's victory in the All-Ireland Junior Hurling Club Final against St Catherine’s of Cork in January and Thomastown won the All Ireland Intermediate Club Championship beating Castlelyons of Cork.