It would be nice to write that Durrow Abbey house, Tullamore is in course of restoration and that it, the High Cross and Church and the parklands adjoining will soon be properly open to the public. It’s possible but getting more difficult as the house continues to deteriorate. It has been vacant for a considerable time. Councillor Tommy McKeigue drew attention to it recently at Offaly County Council and Paul Moore has reminded us of it in his photographs that are too kind to its present sad condition. But there are hopeful signs. The footpath from Durrow Woods should be completed this year and will allow walkers to come close to the house and the old church at Durrow and High Cross. At least more people will see it and become aware of its potential to midlands/ Ireland East, or is it Lakelands Tourism.
Category: Decade of Centenaries
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Memories of the old days on Charleville Road, John Mahon, sleeping sickness, school to the nuns, O’Moore Street people, Mrs Kenny’s dancehall, Mahons of Killurin and more. Part 2, By Nuala Holland (nee Mahon). Blog No 62, 30 Dec 2017
You can read part 1 of this story on Offalyhistoryblog. This is our 51st blog this year and have had almost 16,000 readers. Enjoy this one and thanks to all our contributors living and remembered. Nuala Holland, now deceased, late of Charleville Road, Tullamore lived in England in her later years. About fifteen years ago she wrote for Offaly History of her childhood memories in Tullamore. She was a daughter of Sean or John Mahon (the county accountant with the first Offaly County Council) and her mother hailed from Kerry. They lived at Knockaulin, Charleville road. This was one of the first of the new houses on Charleville Road and was almost opposite the entrance to Dew Park on the Birr side. Nuala recalled the War of Independence, saving turf in Ballard bog, and schooling and living in Tullamore. Part one appeared in our blog last week. This week Nuala has recalled for us her own father John Mahon, the sleeping sickness in Tullamore, school in Bury Quay, Killeavy’s butcher’s stall, some people who lived in O’Moore Street and Mrs Kenny of the Tullamore musical family.
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Memories of the old days on Charleville Road, Dillon Street, Tullamore and saving turf on Ballard Bog by Nuala Holland (nee Mahon). Blog No 61, 23 Dec 2017
Nuala Holland, now deceased, late of Charleville Road, Tullamore lived in England in her later years. About fifteen years ago she wrote for Offaly History of her childhood memories in Tullamore. She was a daughter of Sean or John Mahon (the county accountant with the first Offaly County Council) and her mother hailed from Kerry. They lived at Knockaulin, Charleville road. This was one of the first of the new houses on Charleville Road (1911) and was almost opposite the entrance to Dew Park on the Birr side. Nuala recalled the War of Independence, saving turf in Ballard bog, and schooling and living in Tullamore.
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Brigadier General James P. Cullen (retired U.S. army), a fine Offaly man who served Ireland and his adopted homeland, 1945-2017. Died, New York, 8 December 2017.Blog No 60, 16 Dec 2017
Brigadier General James P. Cullen died at his home in Scarsdale, New York on 8 December 2017 at the age of 72. He was born in Queens, New York on 27 January 1945 to Agnes Gorman and Patrick Cullen but came to Ireland and to Rahan, Co. Offaly when he was four and spent almost four years in the Offaly parish before returning to New York where he took his first job soon after. Thereafter Jim never stopped working, giving of his time whether for remuneration or in a voluntary capacity. (more…)
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The closure of Alesburys timber factory in Edenderry, by Dr Ciarán Reilly. Blog No 51, 14 October 2017
The extension and building of the railway line to Edenderry in the 1870s gave much needed employment to the area which was further bolstered by the arrival of two Quaker entrepreneurs from Bristol, England namely Daniel and John Alesbury. There had been a large Quaker community in Edenderry since the end of the seventeenth century and Daniel Alesbury commenced working with one such family, Williams, who owned a timber factory located in the towns market square. He subsequently married into the family and quickly commenced his own business before these premises were burned by fire in 1888. From here the factory moved to its location along the Grand Canal opposite New Row Corner at the junction which leads to the village of Rhode. (more…)
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Tullamore from the Famine to 1916: the recollections of Thomas Prittie (1833-1916), by Michael Byrne. Blog No 50, 07 Oct 2017
Thomas Prittie’s recollections of Tullamore from the Famine to the Easter Rising serve to confirm how much the town had improved both physically and in civility in that narrator’s own time. Thomas Prittie died on 29 April 1916 just at the close of Easter Week and was described by the Tullamore and King’s County Independent as ‘one of the oldest inhabitants of the town’ who helped in ‘our historical sketch of Tullamore published some months ago’. He was aged 83 according to his death certificate, but the reporter put him at ninety.[1] He lived, unmarried, in Henry/O’Carroll Street, Tullamore and, said the local press, left considerable house property. (more…)
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Captain Studholme of Ballyegan, by Stephen Callaghan.Blog No 46, 09 Sept 2017
Captain Lancelot Joseph Moore Studholme (1884-1916)
Behind Ballyegan House, on the side of a windswept hill stands an old oak cross. The tarnished bronze plaque commemorates the name of a brave Birr born Officer, Captain Lancelot Joseph Moore Studholme of the 7th Battalion, Leinster Regiment who was killed in action on 9 September 1916, 101 years ago. This is his story. (more…)
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Eamon de Valera made his first visit to Tullamore on 29 July 1917. Blog No 40, 29 July 2017.
‘England will give nothing to Ireland out of justice or righteousness. They will concede you your liberties when they must.’ T.M. Russell quoting C.S. Parnell
by Cosney Molloy
Intimations of the change of mood in Ireland were, of course, obvious from May 1916 and none more so than a year later when de Valera visited Tullamore on 29 July 1917, shortly after his win in the famous Clare by-election. (more…)
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The Tribune generations: from broadsheet to compact edition. Blog No 37, 08 July 2017.
The Midland Tribune and Tullamore Tribune went to a new compact edition in June 2017 after a broadsheet format in the case of the Midland since 1881 and that of Tullamore since 1978. A few whimsical reflections are ‘posted’ here on happenings since 1881, derived from many hours spent looking at the old files of both newspapers. (more…)
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Liam Ó Briain visits Tullamore on Easter Sunday morning 23 April 1916 to issue countermand orders to the Volunteers and tell them the Rising was off. Blog No 31, 27 May 2017.
Ó Briain set off early on Easter Sunday morning 1916 in a motor taxi to deliver the countermand order to the local Volunteer contacts in Offaly and Tyrrellspass. Beatty he located in Edenderry but not finding Smith in Tyrrellspass, went on to Tullamore to a small shop owned by Eamonn Carroll. O’Carroll had worked in Scally’s shoe store in Columcille Street, now the AIB bank, but was dismissed after the fracas on 20 March and how had his own store in the same street. In the kitchen of a house in Church Street Ó Briain met Séamus O’Brennan, who was on the run since the fracas in Tullamore and had been in Kimmage.
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