Church Street is unusual in Tullamore in that it does not have a common width throughout and its lower half, closest to the town centre, is clearly earlier than the upper half from the Methodist church to the Pound Bridge over Tullamore River. While the building pattern is now post 1786 in date it did have at least two earlier buildings in the Protestant church built by Mrs Ellen Moore in 1726. She was the mother of the first Lord Tullamore who died in 1725. Charles the second Lord Tullamore succeeded while still a minor, having been born in 1712.[1] In an earlier article we reproduced maps from the 1770s depicting the church and noted that the building was shown on the on the 1730 Mountrath (Coote) estate map. The church stood in what was post 1820 the yard shown as The Shambles and was not aligned to the later street.[2]
(more…)Author: Offaly History
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William Bulfin: Birr’s Fenian Travel Writer. By Luke Condron. No. 19 in the Offaly History Anniversaries Series. Blog No 749, 20th Sept 2025
On the 1st of February, 1910, a Gaelic League nationalist died quietly in his home in Derrinlough House, Birr, County Offaly. Four days later, in An Claidheamh Soluis, he was briefly memorialised in print by Seán Ó Ceallaigh:
On Tuesday, Lá Fhéile Brighde, the first day of spring, Señor Bulfin was carried off by a sudden attack of pneumonia, before even his friends knew he was ill. The Gaelic League loses in him a great champion of its ideals, and the Irish of Argentina their leader… He was known and admired wherever an Irish class existed.
The name William Bulfin, in our time, does not live up to the description offered above, though it may well arouse some curiosity at the mention of an Irish Argentine. However, Bulfin, though his credentials remain firmly intact — An Irish nationalist, a Gaelic Leaguer who was present at the opening of the Argentine Gaelic League branch in 1899 and at many important league summits in Ireland — has largely fallen by the wayside in the discussion of Irish nationalist figures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When reading the musings and sophisticated theses of Rambles in Éirinn, his seminal work, one realises that obscurity ought not to be the final resting place of this man of two countries, who loved both so well.
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The Bridge Centre in Tullamore: Town centre shopping over thirty years. A contribution to the Offaly History Anniversaries and Commemorations Series, By Michael Byrne. Blog No 748, 17th Sept 2025
The big developments of the 1990s were the Bridge Shopping Centre and the new Texas store both of which were completed in September 1995. The equivalent of perhaps 100 typical shops in terms of floor space was added to the Tullamore offering in one month. It was a turning point in the history of shopping in Tullamore and opened a brief period when Tullamore possibly dominated shopping in the midlands. These were the ‘good Tiger’ years for Ireland and for Tullamore with two hotels to follow in the same decade.
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Local Heritage and Family History Course: Sources and Methods, 24 September to 26 November 2025 (ten sessions of two hours each) at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore. Blog No 747, 13th Sept 2025
What? The course will give an overview of the sources and methods for the study of the archaeology, community and family history of County Offaly, and how to do research on areas that may interest you in local and family history. Thematic sessions will be delivered by experienced local scholars, who will introduce participants both to physical sources and to online resources. Offaly is taken as the example, but most of the records will have application for the entire country.
When? All talks will be held on Wednesday nights, from 7.30 to 9.30 pm.
Where? Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, R35 Y5V0
Fees? The course fee for all ten sessions is €50, payable to the Offaly Heritage Centre at the time of booking. Please provide your credit or debit card details when booking, or visit the shop Monday–Friday, 9:30 am–4:30 pm.
Alternatively, payment can be made by bank transfer: Best contact us first as only a few places are left.
This course is supported by the Heritage Council and Offaly County Council.
Places are limited to 25 participants, so early booking is strongly advised.Please call or email us to check availability and make your booking
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Banagher Ancient Cross is now on exhibit in the National Museum. By Kieran Keenaghan. Blog No 746, 12th Sept 2025
MUSEUM CAPTION :‘In preparation for our major temporary exhibition Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe, opening in late May this year, we reveal the ongoing conservation and scanning work on the famous high cross shaft from Banagher, Co. Offaly (1929:1497). The cross helps tell the story of the connections between art, belief and society in the world which produced the manuscripts.
‘The journey of a bishop, like Bishop Marcus and his nephew Moéngal’s journey from Ireland to St. Gallen, is shown on an iconic shaft of a high cross from Banagher, Co. Offaly. The sandstone carving shows a deer whose foot is caught in a trap, possibly symbolising Christ. Below this are four figures caught by their hair in a whirl of interlace in a similar way to the back-to-back figures on an Irish manuscript fragment from St. Gallen. The sides of the cross are decorated with C-shaped spirals, like those on the Gospel of St. John at St. Gallen. Banagher was a church site linked to St. Ríoghnach, who was said to be the sister of St. Finnian of Clonard or Movilla. Finnian, who was possibly of British origin, was associated with the earliest penitential, a book on a system of forgiveness by God for sins, which was also copied at St. Gallen.’
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Charleville School, Church Street, Tullamore. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. No 7 in the new Offaly History series on Church Street, Tullamore: houses, businesses and families, over 300 years. Part of the 2025 Living in towns series prepared with the support of the Heritage Council. Blog No 745, 10th Sept 2025
There are few buildings of interest on the northern side other than the Charleville School. McNamara’s Foresters Hall of 1923-4 had a fine façade spoilt in the 1950s to make way for the Morris hardware store at ground level.
The former Charleville school is an attractive building in rough-cut limestone ashlar with Georgian glazing bars was built in 1811 and vacated as a school in 2006 when the new building was completed at Church Avenue. Erected by the earl of Charleville (1764–1835) for the education of the poor children of the parish of all religions, it was operated originally on the plan on Joseph Lancaster. Lancaster’s system was to have small classes with the elder pupils (monitors) doing much of the teaching of the younger. Louisa Tisdall, a daughter of the countess of Charleville by her first marriage, wrote a few interesting details about the school in 1824:
The school was built by Papa and is a handsome building. It was originally arranged by dear Mama on the Lancasterian plan, but in our absence it was remodelled and is now a mixture of the Bell system and Lancaster’s with other additions. Introducing the bible among the school books has given great offence to the Catholics, and the whole thing was nearly overturned: there are still however a tolerably good attendance of children in the boys’ school; the girls’ we hope to revive soon again – but subscriptions were withdrawn in our absence and as usual it will all fall again on Mama’s purse. The schoolmaster [Taylor] is clever but appears methodistical [that may have been true]… The Irish peasantry has great natural quickness and talent, and warmth of feeling very congenial to my own. Were they but educated, civilised, done justice to, would they not be a charming people.
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The firefighting Foley family of Ferbane and the supreme sacrifice at 9/11 New York. By Aidan Doyle. A contribution to the Commemorations Series 2025. Blog No 744, 6th Sept 2025
The 1920’s saw high levels emigration to the United States from Ireland. Among those crossing the Atlantic Ocean was James Foley from Endrim near Ferbane. James was 21 when he boarded the RMS Cedric at Cobh enroute to New York in March 1927.
His brother Peter had arrived in the Big Apple a year earlier. In 1929 the Wall Street Crash heralded the end of the Roaring Twenties and the beginning of the Great Depression. Offalians in the city found mutual support in the Offalyman’s Association, an organisation in which the Foley family were closely associated.
James was living on Milton Street in the Greenpoint district of Brooklyn when he applied for US citizenship in 1933. After his marriage to Mary Egan, the daughter of Mr & Mrs Lawerence Egan from Kilcormac, the couple lived at Inwood on Manhathan and later in the Bronx.
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Artist and art teacher Oliver Connolly, Tullamore. No 16 in a series on the paintings and drawings heritage of County Offaly, 1750-2000, explored through the works of artists from or associated with County Offaly. By Michael Byrne. Blog No. 743, 3 Sept. 2025
Oliver Connolly must be one of the best-known artists in the midlands given that he has taught art to thousands of children and adults largely drawn from the wider Tullamore area for over forty years. Practising very much as a topographical artist it is a pleasure to include his work in this series.
Oliver Connolly was kind enough to make available a series of drawings of the buildings of Tullamore for the publication A walk through Tullamore issued in December 1979. Now long out of print it was the first historical study of an Offaly town to provide illustrations by an artist since Thomas Lalor Cooke issued his Picture of Parsonstown (Birr) in 1826. We have already featured that book in this series.
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Memories of Church St. Tullamore in the 1960s and 70s: living in flatland. By Imelda Higgins. From the Offaly History series on Church Street, Tullamore: houses, businesses and families, over 300 years. No 6 in the 2025 Living in towns series prepared with the support of the Heritage Council. Blog No. 742, 29th August 2025
I left Tullamore years ago but I enjoy reading the Offaly History blogs and delighted with the articles on Church Street. A friend of mine died there a few years ago and it brought back many memories of my time sharing in a flat in Church St, Tullamore. I was there in the late 1960s and 70s and it had certainly changed when I saw it lately. I came to work in the hospital from a small farm near the Mayo Sligo border and found the midlands a bit strange at first. I came to love Tullamore. I lived in hospital accommodation at first but eventually a friend and I branched out into a flat. There were lots of flats in Church St in those days. Nobody called them apartments! We were down near Merrigan’s furniture store in the terrace below the Methodist church. There were two of us. We had one bedroom and a living room. Our kitchen was actually little more than the passage between the two rooms with a two-ring cooker and oven, a sink and a little press. Ikea eat your heart out! We shared a bathroom and toilet with the girls across the corridor and it was fine .We took turns to clean it and we never fought! We also took turns to answer the phone in the hall and answer the front door. We all certainly knew each other’s business! There were lots of people living in similar flats right along Church St and we knew each other well to see. You could set you watch by one lad who used to drive his car around from Church St to Harbour St every morning to collect his paper from Francie Gorry ! I think he was one of the teachers from near the Manor.
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The five Methodist Churches in Tullamore town, 1760–1889. In the Offaly History series on Church Street, Tullamore: houses, businesses and families, over 300 years. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. No 5 in the 2025 Living in towns series prepared with the support of the Heritage Council. Blog No 741, 23rd August 2025
John Wesley, the founder with his brother Charles, of the religious movement, Methodism, visited Ireland on twenty-one separate occasions between 1747 and 1789 and has left eight volumes of journals (the Curnock edition) to tell the tale. The journals are mainly spiritual in character but nevertheless contain much that is useful about Irish life, the towns, estates and even the weather. The late T. W. Freeman, in his ‘John Wesley in Ireland’ used the Everyman edition The Journals of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., edited by the Rev. F. W. Macdonald.[1]
Freeman noted that Wesley generally visited Ireland in the late spring and stayed for two or three months; making what was in those days, the perilous journey across the Irish Sea. Wesley was born in 1703 and died in 1791 and was the fifteenth child of Samuel Wesley. His ‘conversion’ is dated to this time and following the example of George Whitefield (1714 – 70), the originator of Methodism, he began his open-air preaching of which he did much across his ‘parish’ which was effectively England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The ODNB noted that his journal of missionary travel would serve as a guidebook to Britain and Ireland.[2] To the last he continued to travel and is said to have preached 40,000 sermons and travelled 250,000 miles.
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