Hi Joc66,
I moved to Athlone earlier this year from Dublin, and am loving it so far!!
The property market in Athlone seems to be booming at the moment, there are new housing developments starting all the time. The averge three bed house goes for under 200K. House prices, as the rest of the country has been steadily increasing over the last number of years, with the new shopping centre being development, I think Athlone will be very attractive to house buyers.
The Schools are excellent, Aloysius College came fourth on the best schools in Ireland list on the Irish Independent recently(I know the criteria for this list is debatable, but I know someone going there and the teachers and sports are excellent.
Athlone also has a national and secondary Gaelscoile.
Athlone IT has also expanded with the new Nursing school completed some time ago.
There is a good industry down here, with a strong IT sector with Ericssons in Athlone, GMAC is commutable to in Mullingar, as well as other smaller IT companies(MAPICS, Alienware to name a couple).
There is also a strong Pharmaceutical presence with ELAN and another pharmaceutical company to open shortly. Abbotts Diagnostics is commutable to in Longford....
This is just a short list of companies in Athlone.
There is a hospital in Athlone, but it mainly for the elderly, the nearest hospital is in Tullamore and Mullingar(Midland Regional Hospitals) There is an Ambulance Depot in Athlone to get you to either of these places quickly!! GPs are the same as anywhere else I would have lived.
West Dublin is easily commutable to, especially with the new bypass of Kinnegad! It takes about 1 hour and half to get to Lucan/Liffey Valley. After this you're going to hit the usual Lucan traffic into the M50 Roundabout and city centre. There is also a train service that leaves Athlone at 6 and gets to Dublin before 9...(seems long now that I type it!!)
For information on the new shopping centre visit:
www.athlonetowncentre.com
Hope this helps!!