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]
The Tullamore and County Offaly Agricultural Show may be described as a unique cross urban/rural community undertaking and a traditional family day out attracting up to 60,000 people to the show. The Tullamore show was rekindled in 1991 by a small group of local people representing urban and rural communities. The Tullamore and Co. Offaly Agricultural Show Society Ltd was founded in 1990 and since its inception the Tullamore Show has grown to become one of Ireland’s largest and finest one day shows with entries from the 32 counties. In the early years of the 1990s the Tullamore Show was held in the grounds of Charleville demesne and castle in the month of August.
A 2018 show launch courtesy of the Show Gallery(more…)
Please see an invitation from the community in Lemanaghan about two events this Saturday 12 August as part of Heritage Week. We are publishing early this week as part of our Heritage Week Specials from 12 to 20 August. So keep in touch with us on Social Media and do call to Offaly History Centre and Offaly Archives as part of next week’s 2023 programme.
The community of Lemanagahan extend a special invitation to you for a truly remarkable event – the book launch of “The Annals of Clonmacnoise” where the links with Lemanaghan will be discussed by the author Nollaig Ó Muraíle. Event Details: Date: Saturday, August 12th, 2023 Time: 2:30 PM Venue: The Granary, Boher, Ballycumber, Offaly, N35NX30 [beside St. Manchans Church]
“The Annals of Clonmacnoise” is a meticulously compiled chronicle that offers a panoramic view of Ireland’s past. Through its pages, you’ll be transported to a world of ancient tales, historical intrigue, and cultural treasures that have shaped the very essence of our heritage.
The abolition of Tullamore Town Council in 2014 evoked many memories for me of my years covering that body and its predecessor, Tullamore Urban District Council (UDC) from 1988 to 2007 for the Offaly Express, and for a year and a half before that for the Offaly Independent. I also covered a number of meetings as a freelancer for the Express following my ill-fated return from England.
When I first covered the council, I had the advantage of knowing all the councillors. Six of those early councillors are now deceased – Ernie McGuire and Lar Byrne of Labour, Billy Bracken of Fine Gael (FG), Ann Fox of Fianna Fáil (FF) and independent representatives May Keeley (who, in 1974, was the first woman ever elected as a councillor in Tullamore) and Anne O’Toole.
This week, in part 2 of his article on Mag Léna, John Dolan covers another split and a far more important event than a battle in Mag Léna. This synod was just one matter in a significant dispute between the Irish or Celtic church and Rome in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Background
The expansion of the Christian church out of Jerusalem was based on the infrastructure and administration structures of the Roman Empire. Building Roman roads throughout the empire to assist military and trade movement allowed Christians to expand and base themselves in cities. Christianity was just one religion that was practiced in the empire. Christianity developed in an urban setting with bishops based in cities.
Gildas dates the arrival of Christianity to England by 1st century. Bede tells us that in 156AD King Lucius of the Britons sought Christian instruction from Pope Eleutherus and that ‘this request was quickly granted, and the Britons received the faith and held it peacefully in all its purity and fullness until the time of Diocletian’. But by 303 – 312AD Diocletian was persecuting Christians in England by blaming them for military failures. By 380AD Christianity was recognised as the official religion of the empire.
Mag Léna is of interest for two events that occurred in the early historic period. The first event is the pseudo historic Battle of Mag Léna. The second event was the significant Synod of Mag Léna and the Letter of Cummain, part of the Irish church row with Rome over the dating of Easter.
Both incidents caused a split in Ireland!
What’s in a name?
Mag Léna is mentioned in logainm.ie as Moylena and places it in the parish of Kilbride, Co. Offaly. Mag or Magh translates as a plain or open country, there is no information provided on the meaning of the word Léna. Unusually, there are no additional references other than the basic location details, also this older relic from the original card index system below. A 13th century manuscript mentions Cath Mhuighe Léana. Magh Léana is mentioned elsewhere. In his Survey Letters we find O’Donovan used a variety of spellings for the name – Moylena, Moyléna, Moyleana, Moleany and Moy-leana.
Logainm index card for Mag Léna.
As usual there are difficulties with the older Gaelic placenames and how they were recorded over time. Today the only memory of the name is in Tullamore, where the Moylena road joins the Clara Road and eventually joins the Rahan Road through Glendaniel.
The 1937 Pulitzer Prize winning book and subsequent Oscar winning movie were set in Clayton and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of poverty following Sherman‘s destructive March to the sea.
The author of Gone with the Wind was Margaret Mitchell. While Margaret Mitchell’s Irish heritage is well known, most of the focus has centered on her maternal great-grandfather, Philip Fitzgerald. It’s believed Philip emigrated from the Fethard area of Tipperary and eventually settled on a plantation near Jonesboro, Georgia; where he had one son and seven daughters with his wife, Elenor McGahan, who was from an Irish Catholic family.
208 years ago, the Battle of Waterloo took place in Belgium. The armies under the command of the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon, putting an end to the Napoleonic Wars, which had begun in 1803. To mark the victory and acknowledge the men that fought at the battle, a campaign medal was decided upon by the House of Commons. Rather than given for acts of bravery, it was given to all those involved in the campaign. Similarly, other counties in the coalition issued medals of their own, however the medals issued by the British were named to the recipient, making it possible to trace them. In today’s post, we will look at one of these Waterloo medals, which was awarded to Private John Dargin of the 54th Regiment of Fo
John Dargin was born near the parish of Kilbride or Tullamore. He enlisted in the British Army on 6 May 1812 and was a labourer. Assuming he would have been around 18 years old at the time of his enlistment, this would place his birth around the 1790s.
This week we provide an extract from the book to be published in November 2023 on Irish Mist Liqueur, a unique Tullamore-based product for almost forty years. Many homes have the Irish Mist Soldier in pride of place on a dresser so here is some more information about it from John Flanagan, the production manager with Irish Mist for twenty-five years. The book will be published in the autumn. You can email us to reserve a copy for you. No money now thanks. The book has support from Creative Ireland and Offaly County Council.
The Irish Mist ceramic figurine was made by Coronetti, Cunardo, Italy. Each one was individually hand-painted by different artists in the factory. The figurine is a replica of an Irish soldier (officer) in the Austrian army about 1756. The Austrian connection is associated with the founder of the recipe for Irish Mist Liqueur who was Austrian. Irish Mist was known as the Legendary Liqueur.
The closure in 2012 of Offaly Express, where I served as a staff reporter from 1988 to 2007, marked the end of an era in local journalism.
When I was a schoolboy, living in Tullamore, the dominant local paper was the Offaly Independent, though the Midland Tribune circulated to a degree from Birr. The growth of Tullamore led to a feeling that a specifically local paper was needed, and in 1978, the Tullamore Tribune was launched, under the editorship of the late Geoff Oakley. He remained in that post until he retired in 1994, when he was succeeded by Ger Scully.
The Offaly Express emerged as a sister paper of the Portlaoise-based Leinster Express, which began to circulate around Tullamore in 1984, though it already had a presence in Edenderry and the eastern half of Offaly. Much of the credit for the Offaly edition must lie with the late Kevin Farrell, who would surely have enjoyed the irony of the fact that his death in July 2012 took place the very day on which the Offaly Express ceased publication and that it had to hold on to report the sad news of his passing.
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