A first for Athlone Town soccer as new podcast is launched by supporters

Kevin O'Neill

With the new League of Ireland just recently underway, a group of Athlone Town FC supporters have achieved a first by producing and airing the first ever podcast dedicated solely to the club's affairs.

The Talk of the Town podcast is produced and edited by Éanna Fallon and its co-presenters are fellow Town followers, Cian Holohan and Bart Karas. All three are members of the Dinny Hannon Athlone Supporters Club.

Both Fallon and Holohan are Athlone natives, while Polish-born Karas moved to Roscommon town at a very young age, and quickly adopted the Midlands' club as his team to follow in the League of Ireland.

The first two episodes of the new podcast aired recently with the latest offering likely to be out before this Friday's home match against Wexford FC. Athlone have had a great start to the 1st Division season by beating both Finn Harps and Kerry FC.

The idea of the podcast, Bart told the Westmeath Independent, is to have honest and informed conversations about the progress of the club's men's and women's teams. They plan to conduct player and manager interviews on the podcast, as well as previewing and reviewing each and every game in the 2026 season. On episode two, they interviewed current Athlone women's team captain Hannah Waesch.

“We got a lot of positive feedback from the first few episodes,” Bart said.

“One of the main reasons we started doing the podcast is to try to get more people talking about the club, to hopefully improve its profile, and help attract more new supporters to Athlone Town. We are three lads who love supporting the club, both the men's and women's team, and we talk about the club all the time among ourselves, so we figured 'why not record ourselves', and see where it goes. It's going good at the moment and we hope to grow the podcast as the season goes on,” he added.

Bart said the club has given its support to the project, and that most Athlone supporters are in more optimistic spirit since American businessman Nick Giannotti took over the club midway through last year.

While the women's team soared to even greater heights last season, winning a remarkable League and Cup double, the men's team suffered very contrasting fortunes and finished rock-bottom of the First Division.

But Bart and his podcast producers believe that more positive times lie in store for the men's team in 2026.

“We really hope the men's team will be competitive this season. We wouldn't expect miracles after such a poor season in 2025, but maybe they will be able to push for a promotion play-off position.

As for the women's team, the sky is the limit, really. They were unbelievable last season, both domestically and in Europe, and they're showing no sign of slowing down. They've made some really impressive new signings, to go with the great players retained, and there's nothing to suggest anything but further success for the women,” Bart said.

The newly launched 'Talk of the Town Podcast' is available to listen to at all the usual streaming platforms.