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Farming in the Philipstown/Daingean in the 1830s: the evidence from the the 1835 Poor Law Inquiry part four (final): ‘The farmers who occupy the district are of two classes; some few large farmers very respectable, but the small farmers poor and distressed’. By J.J. Reilly. Offaly History Blog no. 789, 2.4.2026.

[This is part four and the final part of a blog article on the 1835 Poor Law Inquiry into the baronies of Philipstown Upper and Lower and is based on the transcripts from the original reports into social conditions in Ireland before the Famine. It provides a fascinating picture of farming in the area before the Famine, Ed.

Enjoy the weekend and sitback. We have the Book Fair on Saturday 4 April from 10 to 4 at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, beside the new Aldi.]

Tillage

The general produce of this barony is about equal proportions of tillage and grazing and the average size of the tillage farms is from 10 to 20 Irish acres; the Irish acre [1.62 statute acres] is used throughout the district. The largest farmer in this part of the country is Mr. Rait, who holds 700 Irish acres. In this barony there are no mountain dairy farms. The nature of the soil partakes of all kinds, from rich loam to the poorest clay, and was considered to be deteriorating in quality from the want of means among the farmers, caused by the low price of agricultural produce. It was, however, stated that the entire produce was greater now than formerly, owing to the far greater exertions now made. The farmers who occupy the district are of two classes; some few large farmers very respectable, but the small farmers poor and distressed. Some of the wheat is of the first quality, but in general it is not good in the district.
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April 2, 2026
An opportunity to see the old Tullamore jail and hear of its turbulent history in the 1880s, 28 March, Saturday from 10.00 a.m. A welcome to all and meet local history enthusiasts for coffee at 10 and the book launch at 11 a.m. An Offaly History blog, no. 788, 27 March 2026.

28 March Saturday at 11.00 a.m. at the former Tullamore Prison/Kilcruttin Business Park, Cormac Street, Tullamore, for the Launch of a new edition of Prison Poems or Lays of Tullamore by T.D. Sullivan, edited by Terry Moylan and Padráig Turley. Sullivan like William O’Brien and John Mandeville were political prisoners who refused to wear the prison clothes.

See Cormac Street from a new perspective

Jacket of the new edition of Prison Poems

Today we are reminded of the jail every time we stop at the lights at the junction with Cormac Street, Kilcruttin and Charleville Road and look to the magnificent limestone façade, memorial tablet, jail warders’ cottages and the very fine gates with their Roman fasces to remind us of the symbols of authority back to early times. Then who has not heard of the underground passage (now mostly closed off) that allowed the prisoners to be brought into one of the two semi-circular courts in the old pre-1922 courthouse.
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March 27, 2026
Tullamore Jail moves the muse in T.D. Sullivan, Lord Mayor of Dublin. The new annotated edition of Prison Poems; or Lays of Tullamore (1888, new edition 2025). By Terry Moylan and Pádraig Turley. To be launched at Tullamore Prison gates, Cormac Street on Saturday 28 March at 11 a.m. Blog 787 21.3.2026

The new edition of Prison Poems or Lays of Tullamore by T.D. Sullivan, now edited by Terry Moylan and Padráig Turley, will be launched on Saturday 28 March at 11 a.m. at Cormac Street entrance to the old prison. Coffee will be available from 10 a.m. at Tullamore market Spollanstown to the rear of the old prison, now Kilcruttin Centre.. Parking is available at the farmers’ market, Spollanstown and at the Cormac Street frontage to the old jail (best approached from Cormac St to take a left turn into the jail/Kilcruttin Centre). Pedestrian access only will be available from the market to the front of the jail from 10 to 12 noon The book can be ordered online from Offaly History or purchased on the day or later at Offaly History Centre and Midland Books.

28 March Saturday at 11.00 a.m. at the former Tullamore Prison/Kilcruttin Business Park, Cormac Street, Tullamore,

The plan is to meet in the farmers’ market, Spollanstown for coffee from 10 a.m. and process at 10 45 to the front hall of the jail for the launch. Tony Flanagan has kindly sponsored the coffee in the market and OH will distribute a voucher ticket to those attending the book launch.

The book will be launched by Michael Hanna who gave the lecture in December 2025.

The launch should take about thirty minutes.

The speakers are:

Chair of Offaly History Shaun Wrafter welcomes the speakers

Padraig Turley, a co-editor, on the author T.D. Sullivan

Terry Moylan, co-editor, on the Poems

Delcan Harvey Cathaoirleach of Tullamore Municipal

Michael Hanna to launch – on the jail, medical men and the new book. Michael Hanna is the author of Irish General Practice: the long story. He spoke on medical doctors at Tullamore prison in the 1880s in the course of his lecture to Offaly History in December 2025.

Michael Byrne, General Secretary Offaly History, to close and thanks to all.

[Before moving to the article Offaly History wish to congratulate the authors/editors on the issue of the new annotated edition of Prison Poems; or Lays of Tullamore from Terry Moylan and Pádraig Turley and published by Offaly History with the support of the Decade of Commemorations funding. The book is now on sale and is available from Offaly History Bury Quay and online at www.offalyhistory.com. Ed.]

Timothy Daniel Sullivan MP and Lord Mayor of Dublin published Prison Poems; or Lays of Tullamore in 1888, printed by The Nation at 90 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin. What are these about? What made Sullivan write them?
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March 21, 2026
Noel MacMahon, Former Principal of Shinrone, Co. Offaly. An Educator and an Historian.An appreciation article by Offaly History. Presented by Aidan Barry. Blog no. 786, 17.3.2026.

Introduction:
Noel MacMahon passed away on 4^th March 2026. Noel was born in Shinrone, Co. Offaly, in 1934, into a family where education was the primary vocation. He attended primary school in Shinrone where his parents were principals of the local boys’ and girls’ schools. He attended St Flannan’s secondary school in Ennis and later attended University College Galway (UCG), earning a B.Comm. He entered national teaching somewhat “on the spur of the moment” in 1952 when a new rule allowed graduates to qualify with one year at St. Patrick’s College of Education, Dublin. Following his graduation and after three years as principal in Coolderry, he returned to Shinrone in 1959 to succeed his retiring father. Noel retired from teaching in 1997 but continued to contribute to parish life by publishing a number of books on the history of the area.

Oral Historian:
Starting in 1994, Noel recorded interviews with 31 local residents of Shinrone, including blacksmiths and estate workers, to preserve their knowledge before it was lost. These interviews are now available on “Voices of Offaly” which can be accessed from the homepage of the Offaly History website (www.offalyhistory.com)
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March 17, 2026
The incarceration of T.D. Sullivan – Lord Mayor of Dublin – in Tullamore jail, December 1887. Published (13.3.2026) to mark the launch of the new edition of Sullivan’s Prison Poems: Lays of Tullamore at Tullamore jail/Kilcruttin Centre, Cormac Street, on Saturday 28 March 2026 at 11 a.m. Blog no. 785 in the Offaly History Series. By Martin Hoctor.

T.D. Sullivan was one of the most high-profile political figures to be targeted by the London administration under the Crimes Act for publishing what they considered dangerous material that could incite opposition and violence against the police from carrying out their duties of evicting tenants who were unable to pay their rents. The Irish National League was established with the aims of bringing about the end of rack-rents (extortionate rents) and ownership of the soil by the occupier and a nationwide fund was in place for several years to prevent as many evictions as possible. However, publicising this opposition and encouraging the people to come together in the newspapers now placed a target on the backs of editors who began to be arrested and imprisoned for encouraging the ‘Plan of Campaign’ and Sullivan was the latest editor to be arrested and conveyed to the notorious Tullamore Jail. He arrived in Tullamore on December 7 1887 and upon his arrival met the Governor of the Prison, Captain Fetherstonhaugh, who was extremely frosty in his reception to such an illustrious new inmate and Sullivan was astonished to learn that despite his being regarded as a first class misdemeanant, he would be sharing a cell with other inmates. The Tullamore Town Commissioners were immediately on the ball to try and make contact with the political prisoners now incarcerated and to assess their wellbeing in this institution that gained notoriety for its deplorable unsanitary conditions and the treatment of the prisoners subjected to hard labour.
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March 13, 2026
The 1835 Poor Law Inquiry in Philipstown/Daingean: the state of Ballycommon and Kilclonfert, part three. No 784 in the Offaly History Blog series, 6 March 2026. By J.J. Reilly

This is part three of a four-part blog on the 1835 Poor Law Inquiry into the baronies of Philipstown Upper and Lower. The respondents to the questionaries for Philipstown/Daingean were Rev P. Rigney and Roger North. Roger North was a landowner in King’s County. He inherited the Kilduff estate upon the death of his father, Roger North, in 1830. He was involved in estate management, including raising rents, which made him unpopular with local farmers and other landlords.[1] North was shot dead in 1850.

Transcripts of the Poor Law Reports – Continued The questions raised by the Poor Law Commissioners for the local respondents are in the column on the left
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March 6, 2026
GLORY CLAFFEY! Paddy Claffey, Noggus, Co. Offaly, who has been officially declared the oldest man in Ireland. By Frances Browner. Blog no 783 in the Offaly History Series, 27 Feb. 2026

Paddy Claffey was born in Noggusboy, Ferbane, on April 17th, 1921, three months before the end of Ireland’s War of Independence. His parents were Sarah (Flaherty) of Gallen and Kieran Claffey, Noggus. The youngest of their ten children, Paddy had six sisters – Maryann, Maggie, Kit, Ellen, Jane, and Sarah – and three brothers – Ned, Kieran, who died aged 27, and Johnny, at birth.

The siblings attended Gallen NS, where Paddy’s teacher was Master Goodwin. In Brendan Ryan’s book, On Gallen Green, a 1927 school photograph on page 122 shows P.J. Claffey in the front row.

For his 90th birthday party in the Bridge House Hotel, I had the pleasure of interviewing my granduncle and writing his story. Paddy was a natural storyteller. Recalling his first time away from home for a long spell, he was thirteen and had taken an awful pain. Doctor Maher advised hiring a car to drive him to Tullamore. The hospital was the very same as a big hayshed, Paddy said, with auld lads smoking; they couldn’t see one another with the smoke. His sister, Ellen, cycled in to see him every day, and the woman who owned Lawless’s shop sent her two daughters with books and sweets. He was glad to go home, but couldn’t get used to the small house in Noggus for the longest time.
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February 27, 2026
The Termans at Clonmacnoise. By Pádraig Turley. Blog no 782 in the Offaly History Blog series, 20 Feb. 2026.

A few years back I met up with some members of the Offaly diaspora in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin, for coffee, and we had a reflective chat about the Faithful County. My fellow aficionados were Laura Price and the late Dr. Michael J.S. Egan. Dr. Egan, a truly wonderful Offaly man, raised the idea of marking the termans at Clonmacnoise.

While I had grown up in the area I had never heard the expression. He explained it was the point where funeral corteges paused on the way to the cemetery. I was well aware of the practice, for as a child in the area every funeral paused at what was called the `coffin bush`. I have enquired from local folk and found nobody had used the expression in this context.
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February 20, 2026
The Law of the Innocents, Birr 697 AD: Part 2. Its resonance for the Geneva Convention. By Jim Houlihan. Blog no. 781 in the Offaly History Series. 13 February 2026

Hello again.

I have good reasons to write a follow up article to my blog of September 2023 on the above topic, as have Four Courts Press to produce a paperback version of my book Adomnán’s Lex Innocentium and the Laws of War (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2020). This welcome decision was made, not only because the hardback version is now out of print, but because world events since 2020 have given the book an urgent relevance for our modern times.

First a quick recap: In the last blog I told the story of the great assembly in Birr in 697 AD of ninety-one leaders of the Irish world, lay and ecclesiastical, which proclaimed this law for the protection of non-combatants or innocents in time of war. The inspirer and driving-force behind it was Adomnán of Iona, a man with an unique awareness of the suffering of the innocent victims of war, and a leader who had the moral authority to persuade his peers, many of whom strongly resisted, to travel to Birr from all over Ireland and northern Britain to formally accept and guarantee the law. We saw that this law was unique for its time and, indeed, for many centuries thereafter. It was not until the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and additional protocol of 1977 that the nations of the world, having learnt the lessons of two world wars in which millions of innocents were killed, that a comprehensive law for civilian protection was agreed. Down through the centuries innocents have always suffered greatly in war; the sheer scale of their suffering in the first half of the twentieth century impelled nations to take steps to limit it.
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February 13, 2026
Garret FitzGerald was born 100 years ago today (1926–2011). Offaly History Anniversaries Series 2026. Blog no. 780, 9 Feb. 2026

Today we mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of that hugely popular politician Garret FitzGerald. An intellectual in politics he was greatly respected in Ireland, Britain and Europe. Recent estimates such as that of Eoin O’Malley’s Charlie vs Garrett (2025) have not been so flattering to his handling of the economy in the 1980s. And yet his achievements and those of John Bruton have underestimated their roles in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

FitzGerald, according to the DIB life by Patrick Maume (summarised here) was one of the most influential Irish political figures of the late twentieth century, known for his intellectualism, his commitment to European integration, and his efforts to modernise Irish society. Born in Dublin to the prominent revolutionary and cabinet minister Desmond FitzGerald and his wife Mabel McConnell, Garret grew up in a household steeped in politics, culture, and international connections. His parents’ mixed religious backgrounds—his father Catholic, his mother Protestant—shaped his lifelong interest in reconciling Irish identities and overcoming sectarian divides.

The DIB (above in green binding) runs to eleven printed volumes and is now online and free to use – a wonderful resource. Pic from Offaly History Centre.
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February 9, 2026

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