I live in locally. Callan has great schools. There is a good golf club on the edge of the town and the soccar pitch is in front of bolton woods, the local gaa club which is beside the bolton woods estate is up for sale as they are moving outside the town and the talk about town at the min (and on the local paper) is that the County Council are trying to buy the park for houses which would be right beside you so make sure to keep that in mind when chosing your home.
The fair green is an area where the youngsters hang out and there are problems there at the min, but the residents and the council are meeting with a view to putting in a walking track and lighting and basically cleaning up the area.
There is a another new estate starting in a few weeks and the local auctioneer (Grace Real Estate) will be selling them I think, I have seen the layout plan and there looks to be alot of green area incorporated into it which is good. Friary Walk, the estate on the other end of town have planning in the paper this week for another 185 houses and they already have planning for 260 houses.
Tesco are also supposed to be coming to town (that will be known for sure on 28/4). Shopping wise everybody travels. No nice restaraunts. Two good chippers and a lovely new coffey shop (only opens tue to fri 9 to 4 though), a nice sandwich bar. A few nice pubs which do food. Two good hairdressers and a barber shop. We have a fab new health food shop and florist shop.
We are lucky that we live in such close proximity to Kilkenny and with the new development at mcdonagh station it will make it even better for shopping.
A leisure centre is badly needed along with a better bus service. Years ago callan had its own bus service but now it depends on bus eireann.
All and all not a bad town to live in.