The recently announced sale on 11 March 2025 by Noonans of Mayfair of the Jutland medals of Tullamore man Arthur Craig (assumed Waller in 1920 on inheritance) is a reminder of the fact that despite being an inland county Offaly (King’s County up to 1920) has a significant association with the Royal Navy through the celebrated achievements of Birr-born Charles Parsons (1854–1951), of Dreadnought fame; Birr-born Sir Frederick Charles Dreyer (1878–1956), the expert in naval gunnery; and Tullamore-born Alexander Percival McMullen (1885–1916) who was killed at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The Birr men could have lost the war in an afternoon! Both McMullen and Craig were associated with St Catherine’s, Tullamore – the first of an old Tullamore family who emigrated to Canada in 1910, and Craig as a son of the rector of the parish from 1869 to 1902. His brother succeeded in 1902 and was parish rector up to his death in 1929.
(more…)Category: Archival collections
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Inter-Provincial GAA Hurling Competitions and successful Offaly players who won Railway Cup medals. By Sean McEvoy. No. 4 in the Offaly Anniversaries Series 2025. Blog No 691, 8th Feb 2025
In the history of the GAA, Inter Provincial competitions have had three distinct phases. The first was known as the Railway Shield and began in 1905 when the Great South and Western Railway Company provided two shields for the winners of the competition. A rather strange rule included in the competition was that the first team to win the shield in two consecutive years, or three times in total, would be deemed the outright holder of the trophy. Not surprisingly, the football version only lasted three years in total as Munster won the 1906 and 1907 deciders after Leinster had captured the inaugural title in 1905. The hurling title lasted a little longer and resulted in a play-off to decide the outright winners in 1908 which Leinster won.
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Can town planning make Tullamore a better place? An opening debate on the upcoming ten-year Local Area Plan. By Fergal MacCabe. Blog No 689, 22nd Jan 2025
Can town planning make Tullamore a better place?
Fergal MacCabe: Can town planning make Tullamore a better place? An opening debate on the upcoming ten year-Local Area Plan. The talk is at 8 p.m. on Monday 27 Jan. and will be held after the AGM which commences at 7 p.m. An illustrated presentation by Fergal MacCabe architect and town planner at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore R35 Y5VO.
Since 1967 the growth of Tullamore has been guided by seven successive Development Plans which delivered the Bypass, the Town Park, the pedestrianisation of O’Connor Square and many other improvements. Though promised in 2021, no statutory plan which would identify future local projects like these has yet been revealed. The next opportunity would appear to lie in the upcoming 2027-37 County Offaly Development Plan which will hopefully promote a Tullamore Local Area Plan.
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The first public elections by secret ballot in King’s County/Offaly were held in Birr and Tullamore in October 1872. Offaly History Anniversaries Series, no. 1 of 2025. Blog No 687, 8th January 2025
The year 2024 saw the local and general elections held and, of course, voting was by secret ballot. The polling centres of 2024 were remarkably quiet as if one were attending confession in a quiet corner of a church. Long gone were the days when a glass of Birr or Banagher or Bernie Daly’s Tullamore whiskey would be proffered by candidates or their agents to thirsty voters. The right of secret ballot extends back to 1872 and the Ballot Act. Before that time voting was in public and held in the towns in Offaly of Tullamore, Birr and Philipstown (Daingean).The Birr-based Chronicle newspaper had thought to describe the polling booth as the voter having to go ‘behind a screen, a la Punch and Judy mode, and there make the sign of the cross with a pencil on the voting paper opposite the names of the favourite men’. This was 50 years before the STV (single transferable vote was used in parliamentary elections in 1922 (see note 5 below) The Chronicle had noted in 1872 the emergence of the polling districts and the practice before 1872 in parliamentary elections:
Formerly, [before 1800] the county sent six members to the Irish Parliament, two for the county at large, and two for each of the boroughs, Philipstown and Banagher; but since the Union its representation has been limited to the two members for the county, and in 1836 the number of registered votes amounted to 1700. The election under the new Ballot Act will, of necessity, assume a different form, and will not be confined to Tullamore, Parsonstown and Philipstown.
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The changing face of Tea (‘Tay’) Lane/O’Connell Street and Tullamore town centre shopping. Blog No 685, 30th Dec 2024
Much has been written about the changing face of Offaly towns in the 1900-23 period and the same can be said for the period from the mid-1990s to 2007. For towns such as Tullamore the recession lasted up to about 2017 and since then building has improved. The former Tea/ ‘Tay’ Lane, later called O’Connell St (from Stella Press to the canal bank), saw change in the 1950s with the demolition of the old Tea Lane houses. Next came the new wine warehouse for D.E. Williams (now Offaly History Centre, also in the early 1950s), followed by the new Irish Mist warehouses in the early 1970s and early 1980s. This was followed in 1982 by the opening of the Quinnsworth supermarket on part of the Williams ‘yard’ behind the head office of that company. Three years later, in 1985 the Irish Mist bottling facility was sold to C&C and the business transferred to Clonmel with the loss of up to 75 local jobs. Urban renewal tax relief in the late 1980s and early 1990s saw two blocks built close to the lane and off Kilbride Street by M/s Forrestal and Walsh for use as shops and apartments. (Chipland, florist etc).
In a departure from the Gibney plan the town council sold sites in nearby St Kyran Street for offices and apartments as part of the urban renewal scheme. About 1994 the large carpark was developed by the council from lands that had been set aside for the Kilbride park and playground. The year 1995 saw the conversion of the 1929 large Williams oats store to a department store by Tom McNamara. By 2007 the entire area was sold to an investment company for about €50 million with full planning for a supermarket and shops granted in 2009. Alas it was too late as the recession was developing and Ireland (outside of Dublin) did not recover for up to ten years. It was a case of ten years of plenty (the Tiger Years) followed by ten desperately lean years. Covid came next in 2020—21 and it was 2022–3 before the kettle was on the boil again in Tea Lane. Aldi demolished the Irish Mist warehouses and, at a cost of perhaps €1 million. the old 1929 store and former Texas shop that had been opened to great fanfare in 1995.
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Clara and Tullamore’s very own ‘Bat Mobile’, the Jaguar XK120. By Maurice G Egan (with much appreciation to Chris Metcalfe, Brendan McCoy and Don Kissane). Blog No 683, 21st Dec 2024
In January 1953 Clara and Tullamore district was introduced to its very own ‘bat mobile’ the recently launched sports car, the Jaguar XK120. After the austerity years of WW II its sleek design and incredible speed was said to have inspired the creators of the fictitious ‘bat mobile’ in 1966. It was owned by Larry Egan of Gayfield, Clonminch Road. Larry was joint managing director (with his relation Paddy [P. V.] Egan, Cloncon and later Spollanstown) of the firm P. & H. Egan Limited headquartered on Tullamore’s Bridge Street. Their relation and good friend, Clara’s ace motorcar and motorcycle racer Charlie O’Hara raced it for them.
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Tullamore in the Sixties launch – pictures capturing the period. Blog No 678, 7th Dec 2024
Tullamore in the Sixties was launched to great acclaim on 6 December. Most of the contributors living in Ireland participated in the proceedings with three to five minute talks. The book was launched by architect, town planner and artist Fergal MacCabe. A few of his own watercolours grace the contents of this 450 page book with extensive essays (from 18 writers) and 350 pictures. The book is available from Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore and Midland Books and the pop up at Bridge Centre. It can also be ordered on line.
Some of the contributors to Tullamore in the Sixties Some of the pictures capture the period:
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Tullamore in the Sixties. A new book of essays on Tullamore in an eventful decade, just published. Blog No 674, 29th Nov 2024
This volume of essays brings together the contributions of eighteen people who kept a keen eye on developments in Tullamore in the 1960s. Perhaps none more so than the late Joe Kenny who came to Tullamore in the 1950s as a vocational schoolteacher and was held in high esteem for his sound judgement and abilities as an impartial chairman. In that capacity he was the inaugural president of Tullamore Credit Union in 1963. Fergal MacCabe, as a Tullamore native, with a professional life in architecture and town planning in Dublin, brings a unique contribution by way of his recollections of Tullamore in the 1950s and his review of the first town plan of the 1960s. The same can be said of Vincent Hussey as a planning officer with Offaly County Council with his recollections of Tullamore since the 1960s. Niall Sweeney, an engineer and former Offaly County Manager, takes a close look at the provision of public infrastructure in Tullamore over the period from the 1960s to 2014. The late Jack Taaffe, as town clerk in Tullamore in 1970–72 demonstrates just how underfunded urban authorities were in those years. He went on to become county manager in Westmeath presiding over the progress of the county from 1981 to 1988. Michael Byrne looks at the history of business in Tullamore and sought to cover the principal enterprises of the 1960s in manufacturing, distribution, shopping, entertainment and dancing. Noel Guerin, as a former employee of ‘the bacon factory’, was able to write of a company that employed up to 100 people in Tullamore over forty years and made the name of the town famous for the Tullamore sausage. Ronnie Colton, from his own extensive involvement in the motor business brings a knowledge from the garage floor and sales yard that few others can match.
Miss Savage, a well-loved teacher in the Mercy primary school Alan Mahon, as the grandson of an innovative cinema proprietor, recalls two cinemas in Tullamore whose cultural contribution is perhaps forgotten now but was all important to the people of Tullamore and district over a period of sixty or seventy years, if one takes it from the commencement of the Foresters cinema (later the Grand Central) in 1914.
Sport, so important to so many, brings us to the essay by Kevin Corrigan who looks at a formative decade leading on to the GAA Senior Football All-Ireland victories in the 1970s. Kevin had the challenging job of reducing to a short essay what could fill twenty books were one to address in detail each of the sporting activities that came to the forefront in the sixties.
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Up Offaly: Offaly’s Day at the Heritage Council Heritage Week Awards in Dublin on 15 November 2024. ‘Well that Beats Banagher’ and Ballycumber, Lemanaghan and Shinrone. Blog No 670, 16th Nov 2024
It was a big day for Offaly at the Heritage Week Awards held in the wonderful Royal Hospital Kilmainham on Friday 15 November 2024. As Amanda Pedlow, the Offaly Council Heritage Officer noted:
It was Offaly’s day at The Heritage Council Heritage Week Awards in Kilmainham today. James Scully is the well-deserved winner of the national Heritage Hero Award.
Ballycumber Tidy Towns Group won the Water Heritage Day award with their ‘Folly Tales and Treasure Trails’ event; The Heritage Boat Association and Inland Waterways Association with Waterways Ireland were runners up in this category with their ‘A Boatman’s Journey: Navigating the heritage of the Grand Canal’ held in Tullamore.
Lemanaghan Bog Heritage and Conservation Group were runners up in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Award (The Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh Award) for their project recording traditions and folklore of Lemanaghan.
Shinrone Heritage Group won the County Award for their Shinrone Gown project.
Well done to all the winners and to the 70+ organisers of events for this year’s Heritage Week in Offaly.
The big cheer was for the win by James Scully of the 2024 Heritage Hero award.
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