Just 100 years ago the closure of Tullamore prison was announced effective twelve months later. That was a legal formality as the prison had been severely damaged in the burning of July 1922 and by the extensive looting that followed. The town was without an effective police force since December 1921 and the new Civic Guard was not fully established in the town until May 1923. There had been sightings of them from September 1922 but the proposed new police barracks in the former county infirmary in Church Street was not ready due it being occupied by TB patients who were to be moved to Birr.
There is a popular saying in politics sometimes attributed to Ronald Reagan ‘When you’re explaining, you’re losing
History often involves explaining, but in recent times I’ve regularly watched people’s eyes glaze over as I described my latest research project.
Q: What’s it called.
A: ‘A Revolution in Profiles’.
Q: What’s it about.
A: Its about Offaly in the Revolutionary Decade.
Q: Okay. How many words in it?
A: Over 60,000, but it’s divided into profiles, each about 600 words long
Q: Is it a book?
A: No, it’s a website with over 100 different profiles of people from the period.
Q: So, it’s a blog?
A: Not really, it’s modelled on the RIA’s Dictionary of Biography.
Q: How much are you charging for It?
A: No, there’s no charge. Access is completely free. The RIA provided a bursary to build the website as part of the Decade of Centenaries programme, but anyone can view the profiles and there’s no fee.
At this stage the questioner runs the entire gamut of emotions from confusion, disbelief, pity and finally suspicion. ‘If its free there must be a catch’.
If we’re lucky the conversation shifts to the height of the Shannon or which senior clubs are still looking for a hurling manager, if not it peters out into a prolonged awkward silence.
‘I’ll tell what it’s not’
The site is not a definitive history of Offaly in the revolutionary period. That will come later, written by others more qualified to do so. It is a reference tool designed to educate on and simulate interest in Offaly’s revolutionary story. In time perhaps it may provide other researchers with a foundation from which a deeper understanding of the era might be developed. One of the ways it aims to do so is providing readers with the opportunity to compare and contrast different people from the period.
Don’t tell, show me!
Mark Twain reportedly once said ‘Don’t just say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream!’ Having struggled to explain the site, I usually take a leaf out of Twains book an give an example. Offaly History have been kind enough to host two profiles from the site dealing two elected officials.
The People’s Choice
Between 1918 until 1923 the constituencies of Kings County and Laois-Offaly were represented by Dr. Patrick McCartan. A leading member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from Tyrone; McCartan spent most of those years on diplomatic missions to the United States and the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile Hugh Mahon from Killurn outside Tullamore sat as a Labor representative in the Australian Parliament until his expulsion in 1920. His ejection was carried out in response to Mahon’s public condemnation of the British Empire in the aftermath of the death of Terence MacSwiney on hunger strike in Brixton prison.
Mahon and McCartan’s biographies are among 30 extra profiles which will be added to the site over the next year, but for now the focus centres on two other parliamentary representatives from Offaly, representing two different traditions. Frank Bulfin and Sir Robert Woods.
Frank Bulfin
Frank Bulfin was born in 1874 at Derrinlough, where his parents William and Ellen Bulfin (nee Grogan) owned a large farm.
His uncle Patrick Bulfin acted as Lord Mayor of Dublin and a cousin General Edward. S. Bulfin served with distinction in the British Army during the Boer and Great Wars. In 1900 it was reported that Frank’s brother, J.V. Bulfin had died while serving with the Rimington Guides in the Boer War. Frank and his brother Joe (who was later associated with Clonony and Edenderry) were keen agriculturists. During the Ranch War both men were vocal advocates for small farmers and imprisoned for their involvement in cattle driving.
Frank’s uncle Fr. Vincent Grogan served as provincial of the Passionist order in Argentina. The South American connection was to have important ramifications for the family, as Frank’s older brother William emigrated to Argentina where he enjoyed considerable success and eventually became owner of the Southern Cross newspaper. On his return to Ireland, William Bulfin helped to stabilise the Derrinlough farms finances, wrote a popular nationalist travel book Rambles in Erin, promoted the Gaelic League and political movements of his friend Arthur Griffith. William died aged 45 in 1910.
William’s son Eamon attended St Enda’s school and fought under his former teacher Patrick Pearse in 1916 Rising.
Following the release of republican prisoners from internment in late 1916, Eamon and Frank were involved in establishing the republican movement in south Offaly. They were arrested as part of the German Plot in the Summer of 1918 and imprisoned in Durham Gaol. Eamon was later deported to Argentina where he acted as an emissary for the republic during the War of Independence.
On his release from prison Frank Bulfin returned to Derrinlough, where he was involved in sheltering Sean Treacy, Seamus Robinson, Sean Hogan and Dan Breen during the summer of 1920. The so called ‘Big Four’ were on the run following shootings at Soloheadbeg and Knocklong.
Nominated as one of four Sinn Féin candidates, Bulfin was elected unopposed in the Laois-Offaly constituency at the 1921 general election. Arrested and interned at the Curragh, he was released with other TDs in August following the arrangement of the Truce.
Bulfin did not take a high-profile stance during the Treaty Debates but voted to accept the agreement. He was re-elected in the pact election. His nephew Eamon opposed the treaty but took no part in the Civil War following his return from South America and Frank’s niece, Catalina ‘Kid’ Bulfin a member of Cumman na mBan went on to marry well known anti-treaty republican Sean MacBride.
In August of 1922, Frank Bulfin was one of the pall bearers who carried Arthur Griffith’s coffin.
Although he rarely spoke in the Dáil, Bulfin continued to vote with the Cosgrave Government throughout the Civil War. In a statement to the Bureau of Military History Ernest Blythe suggested that because of republican intimidation, Bulfin attempted to resign his seat, but after the intercession of armed Free State Intelligence officers was convinced…
‘It might be more dangerous to resign from the dail than stay in it’. (1)
The veracity of Blythe’s story is difficult to authenticate.
Addressing an election meeting in July 1923 Bulfin commented…
‘Many unpleasant things we have had to do —many very distasteful decisions had to bemade, but we never sought popularity at the expense of the real interests of the nation’. (2)
After his re-election, rifts appeared in Cumann na nGaedheal. Bulfin did not support the Army Munity of 1924. Nevertheless, he was understanding of those who left the party at that time to establish the National Group and critical of some in the cabinet whom he felt were self-important and drifting too far from the party’s roots in Sinn Féin commenting …
‘Let these people not get their heads swelled. Greater men than they, Griffith and Collins, had to be done without.’ (3)
At local level his electoral machine was considered ineffective, and he lost his seat in 1927.
In the 1930’s Bulfin moved to Barrysbrook, Croghan close to his mother’s birthplace and farmed there until his death in 1951. He was buried at Rhode cemetery.
Sir Robert Henry Woods
Robert Henry Woods was born at Tullamore in 1865. His father Christopher and mother Dorothea (Lowe) operated a shop and held property in the town.
Sir Robert Woods
Educated at Wesley College and Trinity, he qualified as a doctor. An expert on the ear, nose and throat; Woods was considered a world leading physician. President of the Royal College of Surgeons he was knighted for his services to medicine in 1913.
His son Thornley died in 1916 while serving with British Army in Flanders.
In 1918 general election Woods was elected to Westminster for the National University constituency, a seat held until 1917 by Edward Carson.
Elected as an Independent Unionist, Woods was a moderate in personality and politics. He did not take up his seat at the first meeting of the Dail in January 1919. However, unlike other unionist MPs he did send a formal reply to decline his invitation to attend.
In July 1921 he was part of a delegation of southern Unionists who met with Eamon de Valera in the Mansion House Conference which facilitated the announcement of the Truce.
A rare contributor at Westminster, he made his last speech there in the aftermath of the signing of the Treaty when he told the House of Commons…
‘I hope the Prime Minister will permit me to offer him my congratulations on having brought this Conference to so successful a conclusion. If I may say so without offence, he has done a big thing, and he has done it in a big way. The Unionists in the South of Ireland have received the news of this agreement with feelings of satisfaction that can only be appreciated by those who have lived there in recent years, and perhaps by those who have got imagination to visualise what would have happened had these negotiations fallen through. I think I am correct in saying that the majority of Southern Unionists have for a long time seen that there was no other possibility of settlement of the age-long struggle, and the healing of this Irish sore, except through a Conference… I believe that the end of this Agreement will be an accession of strength, not only to Ireland herself, but to the peace and the prosperity of the world at large, and particularly of that great community of nations of which Ireland will, in the future, herself form an integral part.’ (4)
His last political intervention was an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1925.
A collector of antique furniture, he was also musical enthusiast, president of the Dublin Zoological Society he donated several animals to the Zoo following trips to Asia.
Robert Woods died at his home in Marino in September 1938 and was buried at Deansgrange Cemetery. At his own request the funeral service was private and attended only by his immediate family and household staff.
On his death the Irish Independent commented…
‘Although a Unionist, his liberal and free-minded attitude on all Irish questions was very marked. Rather abrupt and unconventional in manner, the late Sir Robert was a man with a big heart. He was charming in private conversation and his humour was never hurtful, while his wit was always kind. He was extremely popular with his professional colleagues and was ever helpful to the young men attending’ his school. Physically a splendid type of Irishman, he was a familiar figure in Dublin, his broad shoulders, well-shaped head and rugged- features arresting attention.’ (5)
The rugby grounds at Spollanstown have been used for sporting activity in Tullamore for over 140 years. The establishing of the Spollanstown sports field is rooted in the difficult situation in the 1880s when the land war was at its height, the home rule movement was advancing steadily and, increasingly, sporting activities reflected the deep political and religious divide in the country.
Kilbeggan team in 1927-28. Birr was able to affiliate to IRFU in 1887 and Tullamore in 1937(more…)
Brother Pat Guidera S.J. (born 1900, died 1992) was a familiar figure in Tullamore over a period of forty-two years from his transfer to Tullabeg College in 1948 up to its closure in 1990. Today the old college is falling to ruin. Many will recall its very good order up to the 1990s and thereafter it was used in part as a nursing home. Brother Guidera wrote a short ‘Story of my life’ in 1991 and this is an extract from that now very scarce memoir – of which there is a copy in Offaly Archives (courtesy of the Irish Jesuit Archives). The college was opened in 1818 and several volumes have been published on its history but few as intimate as that of Bro. Guidera. His memoir is interesting also for the marked distinctions in the religious orders between those fully ordained and those who were effectively providing support services in the college or convent. Brother Guidera was a carpenter cum painter and many will remember him shopping in Tullamore and carrying the large carton of cigarettes in the town for his colleagues in the college
Pat Guidera was born in Mountrath in 1900 and died in 1992. The family saw lean times in his early years in the town. Here he talks about his time with the IRA from 1919 and with the Republicans in the Civil War, 1922–23. Some Tullabeg Jesuits provided support services to the old IRA in the War of Independence, especially after the attack on Clara barracks. That was long before Bro. Guidera arrived.
Early in the summer of the year 697, probably in May, a great assembly of kings, bishops and abbots, along with their followers and servants, took place in Birr. It was a joint meeting of kings (rígdál) and of church leaders (synod). They came together to proclaim a law for the protection of women, children, clerics and other people who did not bear arms, in times of conflict. The law was called Cáin Adomnáin or the ‘Law of the Innocents’ (Lex Innocentium) and later referred to in a poem as the ‘Great Law of Bir
In the last blog we noted that the August 1923 General Election in Laois-Offaly was remarkably peaceful given that the civil war had only ended in May. Offaly was still strong in support for the Republicans as was clear from the fact they gained two seats, but, of course, were committed to not entering the Dáil. Labour’s William Davin continued to have a strong vote but not nearly so much as in June 1922. Tullamore’ Patrick Egan gained a seat on Labour transfers. Egan polled only 9 per cent of the first preferences.[1] In Laois-Offaly the Republicans outpolled Cumann na nGaedheal, but the latter won the by-election of 1926 created by the disqualification of Republican John or Séan McGuinness.[2] Overall Cumann na nGaedheal secured 38.9 per cent of the 1923 vote as to anti-Treaty Sinn Féin’s 27.4 per cent.[3] The Sinn Féin vote was secured in difficult circumstances with many still in prison or in hiding. As Joe Lee recorded the outcome was a resounding success for anti-Treaty Sinn Féin and a loss for Labour. Cumann na nGaedheal secured 63 seats, but that was a gain of only five in a Dáil enlarged from 128 to 153 seats. This was the election in which the franchise was extended to all women over the age of 21, thereby expanding the electorate from 1.37 million in 1918 to 1.72 million in 1923.
There was an extraordinary Synod held in Birr in 697AD. This synod was called by Adomnán, abbot of Iona, who arrived in Birr with the princes of church and state and who produced an edict that fundamentally challenged the way warfare was carried out in Ireland and beyond.
Laois Offaly is again to be divided into two three-seat constituencies according to the just announced electoral commission report. ‘This would be the first time that the Offaly constituency would fully align with its county boundary.’ For the 2016 General Election Laois and Offaly were divided and to the Offaly constituency was added 24 electoral divisions from North Tipperary. Laois-Offaly was adopted again for the 2020 general election. Now what was it like in the first Free State election in 1923 just 100 years ago? It was remarkable that the 1923 general election held on Monday 27 August 1923 was in general peaceful. It was only in early July 1923 that Ministers Milroy and Blythe spoke at a Cumann na nGaedheal (CnG) meeting in Tullamore in what was described by the Chronicle as scenes of an unprecedented character in the history of public meetings in Tullamore. The ‘supporters of Mr de Valera’ had posted anti-government posters about the town recalling the executions of Byrne and Geraghty, and also the three young men shot in Birr on a charge of armed robbery. On the office of the state solicitor, James Rogers, in High Street, Tullamore was pasted the words ‘Come inside and see the executioners’. Rogers would have been known both sides in the civil war as someone who defended Sinn Féin prisoners in the 1917–21 period. The newly appointed civic guards kept the peace between Cumann na Gaedheal supporters and supporters of the Republican IRA.[1]
We are drawing to the end of a period of remembrance and reflection on the events that took place during the period 1912–1923 and the emergence of the Irish state as we know it today. These commemorative events have been referred to as the Decade of Centenaries (www.decadeofcentenaries.com)
As we proceeded through the decade of commemoration, it became apparent that little was known or reported about the many women who were active throughout this period, with some notable exceptions such as Constance Markievicz and Mary MacSwiney, but including thousands of other women. Mary McAuliffe has pointed out that there has been a failure to see the women of 1916 and the subsequent years as historical figures. An additional strand has been added to the Decade of Centenaries online resource. ‘Mná 100’ is an online women’s initiative for the final phase of the Decade of Centenaries Programme and continues to work in highlighting the role of women in the revolutionary period (www.mna100.ie). Caitlín Kingston was one such woman.
Caitlín Brugha (nee Kingston)
Caitlín Kingston was born in Birr, Co Offaly, in 1879 to William Kingston and Catherine Roche. The Kingstons were quite prosperous and owned a large store in Main St, Birr dealing in groceries, spirits and delph. They also owned land outside the town. Caitlín had two brothers, John was a Holy Ghost priest in Rockwell College and Charles was Offaly County Secretary during the difficult period of 1900 to 1921, steering the county through the minefield that was local government during the transition from British rule to Irish rule. She had two sisters, Máire who went to live with Caitlín and helped her raise her family after the death of her husband, Cathal Brugha, and Hanoria/Nora who joined the Sacred Heart order of nuns in Roscrea. Caitlín herself was educated in Roscrea. On the death of her father William in 1904, Caitlín helped her mother to run the business. However, they sold that business in 1910 and moved to Dublin.
Rathrobin House, Mountbolus was the most modern and one of the finest of the ‘Big Houses’ burnt by the anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War of 1922-3. Its loss was a tragedy for the district and for its owner and builder Lt Col Middleton Biddulph. Today the house is a ruin and the intended tomb of the old colonel in Blacklion churchyard remains empty. Biddulph was a generous man of independent means and was not dependent on exacting high rents from his tenants and employees with whom he was on the best of terms. Much has been written of the trauma experienced by participants in the Civil War, of the needless killings and the executions (81). It was a shocking time for the two sides and many innocent people suffered also. Perhaps some of the post-Civil War trauma and the silence can be attributed to the consideration that the war may have been an unfortunate and costly mistake. It may have seemed so to some of the participants following the success of the Free State and Fianna Fáil governments in rolling back on the oath, dominion status and the ports in the 1930–38 period. Thus confirming the ‘stepping stone’ thesis. As with the Spanish Civil War (much more violent) there is, even now, a kind of Pact of Forgetting (Pacto del Olvido) with people wanting to move on and forget about something that should not have happened. Yet, it is important to record the events of that period and what brought about the shocking atrocities especially in Kerry. County Offaly had its share in these tragedies.
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