Liam C. Martin was born in Kilbeggan in 1934 so he must have known all about the Locke’s distillery in that town and the associated distilling history of the Williams family in Tullamore. In about 1980 he was commissioned by the Williams Group and the late Edmund Williams to record the Williams buildings in Tullamore for posterity. The drawings were printed in an issue of about 25 copies and presented in a specially printed folder. There are some of the drawings in Offaly Archives and complete sets in private collections. It was the act of a far seeng man to have the legacy recorded and Liam C. Martin was a great choice.
(more…)Category: Local history
-
Fergal MacCabe architect, town planner, artist and heritage brand ambassador for Tullamore. No 11 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 732, 19th July 2025
Fergal MacCabe is an architect, town planner and a topographical artist. He has managed to combine all three disciplines in his career. His fondness in recent years for the capriccio style of painting in many ways pulls together all his skills in how he views buildings and sees them in context. In his capriccio style Fergal MacCabe draws on real architectural elements and it is their juxtaposition that is whimsical. Yet he has regard to his own aesthetics, architectural and town planning skills in the buildings he selects and how he brings these buildings together.
For his jovial attitude to life we can probably thank his mother Winifred, who was by all accounts a character up to early passing in 1960.
(more…)
-
The memorial to the earl of Charleville (1712–64) in St Catherine’s Church, Tullamore. No 10 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. Offaly History Blog No 731, 16th July 2025
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism with his brother Charles, was the first person to record seeing the Van Nost memorial to the lately deceased earl of Charleville, the owner of Tullamore town and ‘the manor of Tullamore and Croghan’ – about 20,000 acres. Wesley recorded in his Journal:
Thursday 25 June 1767
I was desired to look at the monument lately erected for the Earl of Charleville. It observes ‘That he was the last of his family, the Great Moores of Croghan [sic].’ But how little did riches profit either him, who died in the strength of his years, or his heir, who was literally overwhelmed by them: being so full of care, that sleep departed from him, and he was restless day and night; till after a few months, life itself was a burden, and an untimely death closed the scene.
(more…)
-
Another brisk walk this Saturday in Tullamore to visit Harbour Street and the Canal Quarter. Tullamore Tour Saturday 12 July, 11 a.m. to 12 30 p.m. to include Harbour Street, Deane Place, Market Square, Gas Works Lane, Canal Harbour, O’Carroll Street, Store Street, Benburb Street and Chapel Lane. Blog No 729, 9th July 2025
Walk around Tullamore’s canal quarter with Michael Byrne as guide. Find out where was Charles Street, Deane Place and Gas Works Lane. Where did Lord Tullamore live before the family moved to Charleville in 1740. When did the canal arrive. Was there a barracks there before that? Where was Pentland’s Distillery. Who was the Thomas in Thomas Street? Find out where the largest meeting in Tullamore was held and why. Take care and thanks to our yellow-jacketed stewards Shaun and Pat and to Helen and friends for assistance with the teas.
We meet at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay (beside new Aldi and Tullamore Old Warehouse restaurant) for ease of parking from 10 30 a.m. All are welcome and the tour is free. Tea/Coffee/scones available from Offaly History Centre from 10. 30 a.m. Bathrooms available. We walk to Harbour Street through the new Aldi car park (over the former Williams oats store and Irish Mist warehouses and into Offally (sic) Street or Wheelwright Lane).
Harbour Street
Developed over the period from 1800 to 1825 it could be described as the opening to the canal quarter facilitating access to the new streets at Deane Place, Market Square, Chapel Street, Store Street, Gas Works Lane and O’Carroll Street. Surprisingly for such a great artery it was never an important trading street. The harbour takes up much of the eastern end of the street together with the great distillery of the 1820s – now the Granary apartments. The original name here was Charles Street and this can be seen carved in stone on the corner with O’Carroll Street.
(more…)
-
Brisk walking tours of Tullamore town on 5 July and 12 July 2025. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. Some notes for the 90 minute tours. Please print off this piece or bring your phone. Blog No 727, 2nd July 2025
This year for the walking tours we move to Patrick Street and Church Street on Saturday 5 July, and to the ‘canal quarter’ on 12 July taking in Harbour Street, Store Street, St Brigid’s Place, the Harbour and O’Carroll Street. All are welcome. Admission is free. Wear high viz is helpful. The details are as follows:
5 July, Saturday morning from 11 to 12 30 p.m. Walking tour of Tullamore town: Patrick Street and Church Street with Michael Byrne. Explore the history of these old streets dating back to the 1700s, from the military barracks of 1716 to the church of 1726, county hospital of 1788, the Methodist chapels (4) and the families and shops over 250 years. Find out what is left of the old barracks; where was Swaddling Lane and Pike’s Lane, the linen factory. Who was the Henry in Henry Street – and so much more.
We can meet outside Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay (beside Old Bonded Warehouse restaurant) for ease of parking from 10 45 a.m. All are welcome and the tour is free. Teas/Coffee and bathrooms available from Offaly History Centre from 10. 30 a.m. A big welcome to Birr IGS members who are planning to join the tour.
12 July Saturday morning from 11 to 12 30 p.m.Walk around Harbour Street, Store Street, St Brigid’s Place, the Harbour and O’Carroll Street with Michael Byrne. We can meet outside Offaly History Centre for ease of parking from 10 45 a.m. All are welcome and the tour is free. Coffee and bathrooms available from Offaly History Centre from 10. 30 a.m. Tea and scones available.
(more…)
-
The drawings of Birr town and buildings in Cooke’s Picture of Parsonstown (Dublin, 1826) By Michael Byrne. No 7 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. Offaly History Blog No 723, 21st June 2025
Thomas Lalor Cooke, the Birr solicitor and historian, would be the last to consider himself an artist, but when pressed he was generally a good deal less self-deprecating. He published his first history of Birr in 1826 without adding his name to the title, rather akin to the ‘silver fork’ novelists fashionable at that time. Yet, there can be few in Birr or among the learned who did not know that it was Attorney Cooke of Cumberland (now Emmet) Street who was the author. No doubt he also provided signed copies for friends. And in Cooke’s own copy of the Picture he has recorded that he had two tokens (p. 109) and at p. 210 referred to one of the coins as ‘now in the possession of Mr Cooke of Parsonstown’.
(more…)
-
Fore, Co Westmeath and its History. By Rory Masterson. Offaly History tour. Blog No 722, 18th Jun 2025
Saturday 21 June Visit to Westmeath and Fore with Rory Masterson. Depart Tullamore at 10. a.m. Car sharing from Bury Quay let us know your needs.
St. Féichín’s Church by Rory Masterson, our guide
The walk will consist of a walk to St. Féichín’s church that was the church of the old monastery founded in the seventh century.
The Anchorite’s Cell
This will be followed by a visit to the Anchorites Cell. Anchorites were hermits who enclosed themselves in a cell for the rest of their lives in order to attain greater sanctity. The last recorded anchorite was at Fore in the closing decades of the seventeenth century. I am hoping to get the keys so that we can get access to the cell.
The North Gate
After the coming of the Anglo-Normans, Fore became a chartered borough. In the 15th century the borough came under attack from the neighbouring Gaelic Clans the O’Reillys and O’Farrells. So it received a murage grant to enable it to charge a tax on all good coming and leaving the town to cover the cost of building town defences
St. Feíchín’s Mill
Dating from the time of the early monastery founded by St. Féichín the mill is referenced at still in operation when the Normans arrived and is mentioned by Gerald of Wales in one of his stories The mill, like the church was an area that women were forbidden to enter as referenced by Gerald of Wales in the thirteenth century.
The Benedictine Priory
The large Benedictine priory of Fore that as commented by many looks more like a fortress than a monastery. Founded by Hugh de Lacy before his death in 1186 (at Durrow in Offaly) i’’s mother house was in Normandy in France. It was richly endowed by de Lacy but fell on hard times during the hundred years war. During that era England and France began to see themselves as separate (though most English nobility and kings continued to speak French as their everyday language until the end of the fifteenth century) as so the Benedictine priory came to be seen as ‘alien property’. As a result the monastery was taken into royal custody during the war and drained of as much of its resources as possible.
In the fifteenth century the priory was run down and with the Gaelic resurgence a change of government policy occurred. Instead of seeing the priory as French property they now came to see it as vital for the defence of the Pale from the Gaelic Irish. The priory was granted to a series of loyal local Anglo-Normans who seem to be responsible for the addition of the two towers to the priory. In fact the priory became a fortress cum monastery with both sharing the same space. The priory was dissolved in 1539
St. Féichín, the founder of the Gaelic monastery at Fore, Co. Westmeath, was born in Billa, in the townland of Collooney in Co. Sligo. A student of St. Nathí of Ardconry he is associated with a number of foundations in the west of Ireland, including Cong in Mayo, Omey and High Island in Galway as well as Termonfeckin in Co. Louth. However, Fore in Westmeath is considered as his most successful establishment. He is said to have died in 665 of the Yellow Plague or Buidhe Chonnail. While we cannot be certain what the disease was it is reputed to have lasted for almost ten years and was followed by leprosy. The name ‘Yellow’ suggests that it was some form of jaundice. Three ‘lives’ of St. Féichín have come down to us, one in Latin and two in Irish. In addition we have Colgan’s commingled Latin life of the seventeenth century. Lives of the Irish saints were not historical biographies of the saint in question actual life. Written long after the subject under discussion had died, their purpose was to promote the sanctity of the founder as his or her value as a saint to venerate. Details of relics of the saint, real or fabricated, which the monastery retained, were interwoven into the saint’s live to demonstrate their powers.
(more…)
-
“Voices of Offaly” Launch of New Offaly History Resource available from Offaly History. By Aidan Barry. Blog No 721, 14th June 2025
Introduction
(more…)
In June Offaly History launched “Voices of Offaly” – a website which serves as a digital archive dedicated to preserving and sharing the personal histories of individuals from County Offaly, Ireland. By collecting and presenting oral histories, the platform offers a window into the lives, experiences, and memories of the county’s residents. Blog no 7 in the Offaly History Series
This new resource is accessible from the main Offaly History home page.
http://www.offalyhistory.com
-
Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Journal of a Tour in Ireland A.D. 1806 (London, 1807). The earliest drawing of Srah/Sragh Castle, Tullamore and another of Charleville with building well advanced. By Michael Byrne. No 6 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. Offaly History Blog no. 720, 11th June 2025
Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s account of his visit to Ireland in 1806 is of interest to us in County Offaly for his comments on the progress of building at Charleville and the two surviving drawings of the Srah and Charleville castles in a book of drawings of Colt Hoare’s in the RIA. These drawings are important for the catalogue of topographical drawings and paintings of King’s County/Offaly interest and hence their inclusion here. Srah/Sragh Castle can be described as Tullamore’s oldest surviving house and was erected in 1588. The fortifed house has attracted the interest of antiquarians since the 1800s. The Colt Hoare drawings are among the earliest and certainly that is so for Tullamore where paintings and drawings of topographical features are scarce until the contemporary artists began to fill the void.
(more…)
-
Thomas Lalor Cooke the Mr ‘B’ of Birr with his Dublin Penny Journal article of 1834 on Seir Kieran. No. 16 in the 2025 Offaly History Anniversaries Series. Blog No 715, 28th may 2025
John O’Donovan was in Birr in early 1838 and having obtained a copy of The Picture (1826) by Thomas Lalor Cooke thought better of him as a scholar, but one subject to some foolish ideas after the school of Charles Vallancey. O’Donovan identified Cooke as ‘B’ in the Penny Journal articles he wrote and one of these was on the monastery of Seir Kieran at Clareen. It is interesting to compare the article in the 1834 issue of the DublinPenny Journal with that in the 1875 publication. Also of interest is to take into account the manuscript annotations to the Picture of 1826, now in Birr Castle Archives. And if that was not enough Cooke has letters and other MS sources in the RIA, NLI and the National Archives. In his letters of 1850 to the Cork antiquarian, John Windle (now in RIA) he tells Windle that he was the author under the pseudonym ‘B’ of articles in the Penny Journal and under his own initials of articles in the Dublin Evening Post. Despite the published work of George Petrie on the Round Towers (1833 and 1845) Cooke continued to put forward the Vallancey-style notion that the origin of the round towers lay in early times and were temples of fire.
Read more: Thomas Lalor Cooke the Mr ‘B’ of Birr with his Dublin Penny Journal article of 1834 on Seir Kieran. No. 16 in the 2025 Offaly History Anniversaries Series. Blog No 715, 28th may 2025 (more…)
