offalyhistoryblog

Category: Athlone

Shannon Bases and Viking Raids in Offaly. By John Dolan. Blog No 761, 21 Nov. 2025

There are a number of references in the Annals to Viking bases been set up on the Shannon, particularly in the larger lakes of Lough Derg and Lough Ree. There were two distinct periods of Viking activity on Lough Ree starting In the ninth century when the Vikings had a fleet on the lough. The Annals of Ulster for 845AD say ‘There was an encampment of the foreigners i.e. under Tuirgéis on Loch Rí, and they plundered Connacht and Mide, and burned Cluain Moccu Nóis (Clonmacnoise) with its oratories, and Cluain Ferta Brénainn (Clonfert), and Tír dá Glas (Terryglass) and Lothra (Lorrha) and other monasteries’. Later another base was built between Dromineer and Castlelough in the lands of the O’Sextons. It was from the Shannon that the majority of raids into County Offaly were carried out. A very early and unusual entry in the Annals of Ulster for 749 says ‘ships with their crews were seen in the air above Cluain Moccu Nóis’.

The following year Tuirgéis was captured by Maelsechlainn and drowned by him in Lough Owel outside Mullingar. The Annals of Ulster for 922AD say ‘The fleet of Limerick, that is of Ailche’s son went on Loch Rí, plundered Clonmacnoise and all the islands on Loch Rí and took great booty in gold, silver and much treasure’. In 924AD the entry reads ‘Kolli son of Bárðr ‘Lord of Luimnech’ raids Lough Ree’.
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November 21, 2025
Vikings on the Shannon. By John Dolan. Blog No 760, 14 Nov. 2025

There is little doubt that contact by sailors from Norway had occurred over many years in the 8^th and 9^th centuries between the islands of northern Scotland, the east coast of England and with Ireland. Most of these sailors would have been fishermen or traders and would have acquired details of the Irish coastline, location of rivers and awareness of monastic sites. This intelligence was readily available when the Viking raiders came calling.

Tony Lucas in his paper on the plundering of Irish churches makes the point that of the 309 ecclesiastical sites that were plundered between 600 and 1163AD, the Irish themselves were responsible for 139 of these. Only 140 of these can be directly attributed to the Vikings and 19 raids are attributed to the Irish and Norse together. An entry in the Annals of Ulster for 755 records ‘The burning of Cluain Moccu Nóis on the twelfth of the Kalends of April’ by the Irish long before the arrival of any Viking.
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November 14, 2025
21 ‘Rambling Jack’, Ned Holohan, a ‘knight of the road’ (died 1931) recalled in this article of 1961 by the late Alo O’ Brennan, War of Independence activist and late manager of the Tullamore Labour Exchange, and Pat Fanning, Offaly journalist, with a poem from Athlone. No 21 in the Offaly History Anniversaries Series. Blog No 666, 2nd Nov 2024

In his entertaining reminiscences last week, John Freyne laments the “Vanishing Knights” and incidentally recalls a Prince among them, the sightless Edward Holohan, better known over a great part of Ireland as “Rambling Jack.”

Mr Freyne tells of the respect and affection, with which this famous wandering minstrel was held in Moate. It was only symptomatic of the esteem-amounting almost to veneration in which he was held in the many counties, that he traversed twice each year, from his native Limerick of the rich pastures, to the shores of Lough Sheelin. A noble hearted Fenian himself, Ned Holohan was a living link with ’67 [The Fenian Rising of 1867] and everything that Fenianism stood for. He was born at Darnstown, near Killmallock, on the way to Bruree in 1839, and he died there on 27^th December, 1931 in his 92^nd year. He lost his eyesight in the attack on Killmallock Police Barracks in 1867 and his famous old fiddle, which up to then, had been his amusement, became for him his means of livelihood. His herculean physical strength failed, one brown October day, on the main road between Birr and Banagher, while making his way to the later town. He was removed to the old County Hospital at Tullamore where he was among real kind-hearted friends, many of whom still survive. He recovered and took up his permanent abode in Tullamore where he lived until shortly before his death. He returned to his beloved Limerick to die on the spot where he was born. No Irishman did more than Ned Holohan in a humble way, without pension, fee, or reward of any king to tend the Phoenix flame of Irish nationality. He was one of the real old Fenian stock, staunch and true, an inspiring rebel to the end.
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November 2, 2024
15 Tullamore and Geashill railway stations, 170 years of the Portarlington to Tullamore line, marked this 2 October 2024. By Peter Burke. No 15 in the Anniversaries Series by Offaly History. Blog No 657, 2nd October 2024

The railway line from Portarlington to Tullamore was opened on 2 October 1854. It was a quiet affair, but the commencement of the line was to mean significant growth in the years that followed. This was particularly so from 1857 when the extension to Athlone and Galway was completed.

The act to enable the line to be commenced was passed in 1847, but no action was taken until 1851. The connection to Tullamore was part of the line of the Great Southern and Western Railway (GSWR) while that to the west via Mullingar was backed by the Midland and Great Western Railway (MGWR).
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October 2, 2024
14 Registration of motor vehicles in Offaly commenced in 1904, or 120 years ago. No. 14 in the Anniversaries Series. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. Blog No 656, 28th Sept 2024

The registration of motor vehicles began in 1904 and the early registers are now in Offaly Archives. In the period from 1904 to 1923 about 820 motorised vehicles were registered in Offaly. This would include motorised bicycles and some registrations from other counties. In the first year 14 motor cars and 20 motor cycles were registered in Offaly.[1] The Birr-based King’s County Chronicle published the first list in 1909 of 68 registered motor vehicles and commented:

In view of the fact that motoring has come to stay it will be of interest to publish a list of gentry in the King’s County, whose means have enabled them to add this new form of locomotion to their personal luxuries. Through the courtesy of Mr. C.P. Kingston, Secretary of the King’s County Council, we are enabled to place the full list before the readers. C indicates the four-wheel coach, and B the bike petrol machine. The code letters for this County are I.R. …. It should be added that there are several local owners in Birr not in this return whose registration is entered in other counties, for example:- Mr. Dunn-Pattison, I.K. 113; Dr. W.A. Morton, I.K., 357; J.W. Nolans, V.S. 8243; Captain Dalrymple, 10, 187; H. Gairdner, R.I. 853; Dr. D’Alton, R.I. 846; G.A. Lee, I.K. 236; J. Green, I.K. 237; C. Ludgate, R.I., 488; Captain Cowan, R.I., 542.[2]
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September 28, 2024
Shannon Harbour, completed in 1804, and described by Sean Olson in 1979, 45 years ago. Canal events this August weekend, 45 years on, in Pollagh and Tullamore. Article no. 7 in the Offaly History Anniversaries Series. Blog No 645, 23rd August 2024

The Grand Canal was completed to the River Shannon in 1804, 220 years ago. By 1864 passenger traffic was finished and commercial by 1960. Cruise traffic was only in its infancy and when this article was written 45 years ago things were bleak. In looking at the building of the Grand Canal from Tullamore to Shannon Harbour, we need to look at a piece written in the Irish Times by Sean Olson with photographs by Pat Langan, which was published on Thursday, 7 June 1979 in the Irish Times. The newspaper had been a good supporter of keeping the canal open in the 1960s when it was under threat from Dublin Corporation.

Things have improved so much in recent years with the towpaths now the focus of attention to promote walking and cycling. Today 23 August see the launch of an excellent study of the canal system as illustrated. Then on Saturday evening and Sunday there are two events from Waterways Ireland to be held in the Offaly History Centre Exhibition Hall beside the canal at Bury Quay (neighbour to Old Warehouse Bar and Restaurant), as illustrated.

Olson is worth reproducing to remind us that we do not want to go back there and was an excellent record of its time. Also worth mentioning is our over 60 blog articles on the Grand Canal available as blogs at http://www.offalyhistory.com. All free to read and download.

‘If the steps of the ruined canalside hotel at Shannon Harbour, Co. Offaly could talk they would have a tale to tell. It would be a story of bustled Victorian ladies and their potb-bellied merchant husbands, of trade, of business deals finalised in airy rooms overlooking the still waters of the canal.

For once the pulse of commerce beat hard at Shannon Harbour. It was an inland port – a staging post leading to the mighty Shannon river. It was built by the commerce of a different age, a monument to an era when the first hesitant puff of the steam engine sounded the death knell for trade on inland waterways. It was a slow lingering death. When it finally came in 1960, there were few obsequies for Shannon Harbour. Those there were hardly took the place into account at all. It all but died with the departure of the last barge.

Now the once fine hotel, later home of several families who made their living from the barges, stands staring roofed, inside gutted, steps broken and lifted. The warehouses once full of goods and porter, are roofless sentries before the lock gates that lead down to the Shannon.
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August 23, 2024
58 Henry Inglis travels on a River Shannon steam boat and includes Killaloe, Portumna, Banagher and Athlone on his Tour in 1834. No 58 in the Grand Canal series. Blog No 618, 1st June 2024

Last week we looked at the history of steamers on the Shannon. Today we take the account of Henry D. Inglis published in 1835. Inglis was a professional travel writer and author of Spain in 1830, A Journey through Norway etc, published his A Journey throughout Ireland during the Spring, Summer and Autumn of 1834 in London in 1835. His account is well thought of and in his concluding remarks he says why jest or narrate the curious and witty eccentricities of Irish character when ‘God knows there is little real cause for jocularity, in treating of the condition of a starving people.’ So there was a degree of sympathy rather than of superiority.

Inglis was born in Edinburgh and was the only son of a Scottish lawyer. His Irish travels volume was published the year of his death, (first edition, 1835, fourth edition 1836). While considered a ‘fairly benevolent interpreter’ he could find no explanation for the Irish situation other than defects of character.

Inglis spent a week there and also visited Killaloe, Portumna and Banagher. He went from Banagher to Athlone by road and thought the latter was a remarkably ugly town – but not withstanding an interesting and excellent business town. He spent a week in Athlone and used it as a base for touring in the county of Longford to see Goldsmith’s Country.
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June 1, 2024
57 The Golden Era of Shannon Steamers. No 57 in the Grand Canal series. Blog No 617, 29th May 2024

The history of passenger steamers on the Shannon, covering a period of 140 years, was traced by Dr McNeill of Southampton University, in a lecture jointly sponsored by the Old Athlone Society and the local branch of the Inland Waterways Association, and held in the Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone, in January 1966.[1] Dr McNeill soon after published two volumes on the subject of steamer transport. Ruth Delany has also published material in her The Shannon Navigation (Dublin, 2008).[2]

McNeill, in his 1966 Athlone lecture, said that Ireland had a tremendous heritage of water transport. Mentioning that the first experiment in the idea of iron bulkheads in streamers was tried out on the Shannon in 1829, he said that we were apt to forget the work done by Irishmen in the technical field in the last 150 years. Iron steamers were cradled in Ireland in the 1820s.

Mr. McNeill acknowledged his debt to the late Dr Vincent Delany and to the files of the Westmeath Independent for much information on Shannon steamers.

Recalling that in 1829, the first commercial passenger steamer service commenced plying on the lower Shannon, he said it was operated by the City of Dublin Steampacket Company for roughly thirty years. The fleet included the Garryowen, the largest iron steamer in the world at that time and first development of the new idea of iron bulk-heads. Another steamers, Erin Go Brath, made marine history at that time by keeping her engines running for six days without stopping.
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May 29, 2024
Offaly and the Great War essays published in 2018 now on Open Access to all. Thanks to the Decade of Centenaries. Blog No 609, 4th May 2023

The bumper volume of essays (list below) in Offaly and the Great War (Offaly History, 2018) can now be accessed free online at www.offalyhistory.com thanks to the Decade of Centenaries. The book of 28 essays is also available in hardcopy from Offaly History for just €20. In all over 50 articles free to download. Go to the Decade of Centenaries on the offalyhistory.com website.

When the great historian and first ‘telly don’ A.J.P. Taylor published his short history of the First World War just in time for the remembrance days of over fifty years ago he wrote that the war reshaped the political order in Europe. That its memorials stood in every town and village and that the real hero of the war was the Unknown Soldier.
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May 4, 2024
52-53, Grand Canal Townlands East to West: Ballysheil to Clonony Beg No 52-53 in the Grand Canal Offaly Series. By Philomena Bracken, Offaly History. Blog No 607, 1st May 2024

Ballysheil is in the Electoral Division of Gallen, in Civil Parish of Gallen, in the Barony of Garrycastle, in the County of Offaly. The Irish name for Ballysheil is Baile Uí Shiail meaning the town of O Siail.

Ballysheil townland.ie/ Image Source: https://www.townlands.ie/

In this area we come to two smaller bridges, not far part from each other. Glyn and Judge’s Bridge. You will find the remains of the old Ballysheil house, once a beautiful tall building that stood out for its unique stone work and design. Where it once called home to noble guests, where it saw a number of events over its time, which would have had servants pacing back and forth doing the bidding of lord and lady of the house[1]. You will also find a bawn here this property was owned by the Sheil family, well known for their medical skills. The house and bawn exchanged hands to new owners when the Sheil family were forcibly transplanted to Galway in the mid17^th century. If looking around this area along the way, you may also find evidence of a corner tower[2].
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May 1, 2024