Athlone does not always get the credit it deserves. Sitting at the heart of the country, straddling the Shannon and connecting Connacht to Leinster, it is the kind of town that people pass through rather than stop in. Building Ireland on RTÉ One is making the case that this is a mistake worth correcting.
The latest episode of the series rolled into Athlone with the same energy that has made the show one of the more enjoyable things on Irish television right now. The format is simple but it works. Get into a town, talk to the people who live and work there, look at what has been built, what has been lost, and what is coming next. No studio, no panel of experts sitting around a desk. Just streets, stories and buildings.
Athlone turns out to be a genuinely fascinating place to explore. The town has layers that a quick motorway glance would never reveal. There is a Norman castle sitting right on the river that has been through sieges, battles and centuries of Irish history. There are streetscapes that mix the very old with the very new in ways that are sometimes awkward and sometimes surprisingly successful. And there are people who are deeply invested in where the town goes from here.
What the programme does well is give space to the tension that exists in most Irish towns between development and preservation. Athlone has seen significant growth in recent years. New housing, retail and commercial projects have changed parts of the town considerably. Not everyone is happy with every decision that has been made, and the show does not shy away from that. Locals speak plainly about what they feel has worked and what has been a missed opportunity.
The riverside in particular comes up as a talking point. The Shannon is one of Athlone’s greatest assets and the question of how well the town has used that asset is a live one. Some of the development along the water has been praised for opening up access and creating a more vibrant public space. Other corners feel underused or disconnected from the life of the town. It is the kind of honest assessment that makes the series feel grounded rather than like a promotional reel.
Building Ireland has always been at its best when it finds the human stories inside the architectural ones. In Athlone that means hearing from business owners who have watched their street change around them, residents who remember what certain buildings used to be, and younger voices who are thinking about what kind of town they want to inherit. That mix of perspectives gives the episode a real sense of place.
The show also touches on the broader challenge facing Irish midland towns. Athlone is one of the larger urban centres outside the main cities, and there is a real conversation happening about whether towns like it are getting the investment and planning attention they need. With housing pressure spreading out from Dublin and other cities, places like Athlone are being looked at differently than they were even ten years ago. The episode captures that shift without turning into a policy lecture.
Presentation-wise the programme keeps things moving. There is no point where it drags or gets too deep into technical detail that would lose a general audience. It manages to be informative without being dry, which is not always easy when the subject matter involves planning regulations and architectural heritage.
For anyone who has ever driven through Athlone on the way somewhere else, this episode makes a decent argument for pulling off the motorway next time. The town has more going on than its reputation suggests, and Building Ireland has done a good job of bringing that out. As a series it continues to make the case that the Irish urban landscape, in all its messy, evolving, complicated glory, is well worth a closer look.