The now online full census of 1926 is a great boon for family and local history. Already, most of us have looked up the manuscript returns for 1901 and 1911, now available online. Birr is fortunate in having the original returns for the barony of Ballybritt including the towns of Birr and Kinnitty for 1821. Nothing like this survives for the rest of Offaly – that is the other eleven baronies. However, the return of the number of people living in the lanes and streets of Tullamore was published in 1821 and provides an interesting insight into population and housing over 200 years ago. In a few weeks we take a closer look at the streets of Tullamore in new publications on the street names and its Bridge Street and High Street.
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In his second contribution to his Bulfin Bulletin Blog, Timothy Moloney previews his forthcoming lecture on William Bulfin at the Offaly History Society on 28 September. Offaly History Blog Series, Blog no. 818, 23 Sept. 2026.
A blog contribution had been planned closer to the envisaged eventual publication of the biography; however, following a request from Offaly History for an article prior to the lecture on 28 September, I have composed the following internet pages. I will return to the story of the biography from initial acceptance by my agent in 2022 in a separate blog.
[Monday 28 September 2026 at 7 30 p.m. Timothy Moloney on William Bulfin: his Life and Works at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore (beside new Aldi). All are welcome.]
Timothy Moloney describes the life of William Bulfin using his works as a frame in which to set the biographical details. Drawing on his as yet unpublished biography, Timothy surveys his main works, Tales of the Pampas and Rambles in Eirinn, but he also pays attention to his lesser-known creations ̶ ‘Sketches of Buenos Aires’ and a novel A Man of the Pampas, as well as a series of articles he wrote on a trip to the Andes in 1905. He accompanies the lecture with interesting slides showing samples from Bulfin’s oeuvre and pictures from his time and of his family members.
Editor adds: Bulfin was an important figure in Irish Ireland of the early 1900s. His premature death in 1910 robbed Offaly and Ireland of a leader in cultural nationalism who might well have been a senator and perhaps a candidate for the presidency. The family have lived in County Offaly since at least the 1800s if not much earlier. Bulfin was buried in the Eglish churchyard. ]
The topic was to be a choice of my own, and after consideration, I chose ‘William Bulfin: his Life and Works’. It should have been easy to prepare, but since I had been working on other projects since completion of the biography ̶ a novel completed in 2023, and another historical work in 2023 and 2024, it proved more difficult than I expected. I had to review his life again, and had to distil it into manageable chunks for a sixty minute lecture. The life itself was one aspect, but then there were also the works: I planned to examine the genesis of his well-known works such as Tales of the Pampas and Rambles in Eirinn, but also wanted to draw attention to his lesser known literary or journalistic creations, such as his ‘Sketches of Buenos Aires’ under the nom-de-plume Che Buono, an unpublished novel he wrote called A Man of the Pampas, and also a lengthy series of articles he composed about a trip to the Lower Andes in 1905.
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An Exciting Start: Fergal MacCabe recalls his first day at the School of Architecture U.C.D. in late October 1957. Blog no. 813 in the Offaly History Blog Series, 27.08.2026
At eight o’clock in the morning, my mother burst into my bedroom waving a telegram.
‘You have got a County Scholarship! You have to go to Dublin straight away!’
It was late October 1957. I had applied for a scholarship from Offaly County Council to study architecture in UCD but when the new term opened at the beginning of the month and I had no word I presumed that my Leaving Cert results simply weren’t good enough and had given up hope. Being an unemployed widow there was no way my mother could have found the money for fees and digs. A scholarship – of which there were only six- was my only hope.
At the last moment a student brighter than I had pulled out and I was next on the list. However, the offer had to be taken up that very day or else would be withdrawn. My mother thrust the telegram and three pounds into my hands and I raced to the station and caught the train to Dublin.
At Kingsbridge I got a taxi to the offices of the National University of Ireland in Merrion Square. My telegram from the Council was carefully scrutinised and to my great relief I was told that I was accepted but would have to be interviewed by the Professor of the School of Architecture who would have the final say. A call was made and I was told to race across to Earlsfort Terrace where Professor Desmond FitzGerald would interview me at one o’clock.
It was plainly obvious from the moment I entered his office that the Professor was unenthusiastic about my joining the course. I had already missed two weeks of projects and lectures and would never catch up, he said. Might it not be better if I used my scholarship to do an Arts degree. Anyway, why did I want to study architecture?
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T. L. Cooke of Birr and the Great Industrial Exhibition in Dublin of 1853. By John Dolan. Blog no. 809, in the Offaly History Series,7.8.2026
The 1850s was the decade of the Great Exhibitions. The London Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 was followed by Dublin and New York in 1853 and Paris in 1855. In Ireland there were regional/city exhibitions including in Cork (1852). It must be remembered that Ireland was still struggling to emerge from the disaster of the Great Famine.
The Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853 was the most ambitious exhibition ever held in Ireland up to that time. Staged in Dublin from 12 May to 31 October 1853, it was inspired by the famous Great Exhibition in London and was intended to showcase industry, technology, art, and manufacturing while encouraging economic development in Ireland. One of the developments of partcular interest was to copy the emergnce of Monster Houses (department stores) that began to appear in cities throughout Western Europe and the USA from the 1840s.
The exhibition aimed to move Ireland away from solely agricultural production towards industrialisation, promoting a shift toward Victorian consumer culture.
[Congratulations to Birr Historical Society on the reprint of Cooke’s first book on Birr published in 1826 and launched on 5 August 2026. Ed.]
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The Birr Weekly Journal: Birr’s first local newspaper, sidelights on the hazards of retailing in 1774. Michael Byrne. Offaly History blog no. 803 26 June 2026.
The Birr Weekly Journal: Birr’s first local newspaper, sidelights on the hazards of retailing in 1774. Michael Byrne. Offaly History blog no. 803 26 June 2026. Birr’s newspaper publishing tradition began in earnest 181 years ago with the issue of the King’s County Chronicle by Francis Sheilds of Emmet Square (or Duke or Cumberland Square as it then was). It was staunchly Protestant and unionist and grew out of the Leinster Express, first issued in 1831. The latter was intended to serve the counties of Kildare, King’s and Queen’s (Laois). Sheilds saw an opportunity and set up the Chronicle in Birr in September 1845. It was not the first Birr newspaper nor would it be the last. For the Midland Tribune was founded in Birr in 1881 as an antidote to the Chronicle’s unionism and Orangeism. The Chronicle spawned titles to gather in sales and advertising in Roscrea and Tullamore. The Tribune did likewise for Nenagh and Portumna, but its most important offspring was the Tullamore Tribune established in 1978. But what about Birr’s first local paper.
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A new study of Offaly’s two Great Houses at Birr and Charleville, Tullamore Blog no. 802 in the Offaly History Series, 18 June 2026.
A new study of Offaly’s two Great Houses at Birr and Charleville, Tullamore just published
Two of the great houses of Ireland, are here in County Offaly at Birr and Tullamore. Both regularly feature in articles and magazine stories. Birr Castle much more so as it has been the family home of the Parsons family, earls of Rosse, since the 1620s. The present earl and his wife from the death of the sixth earl in 1979, have worked for almost fifty years to promote the castle and gardens for the benefit for tourism and build on the enthusiasm of the sixth earl to create a science museum commemorating the work of the third and fourth earls and that of Charles Parsons, the engineer who helped win the First World War. Both earls worked tirelessly for the gardens at Birr Castle.
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A Prima Donna in King’s County/ Offaly, Dame Nellie Melba 1861-1931. By Aidan Doyle. Blog no. 798 in Offaly History Blog Series, 22 May 2026
A Prima Donna in King’s County/ Offaly, Dame Nellie Melba 1861-1931. By Aidan Doyle.
Melbourne, February 26 1931-
The usually busy streets of Melbourne were hushed today when Britain’s “Queen of Song” Dame Nellie Melba, was taken in a simple farm cart on her last journey to her beloved village of Lilydale, 20 miles from Melbourne not far from her own beautiful home, to be buried by the side of her father. Australia’s last respects were paid by thousands of people who reverently lined the route of the funeral cortege from the Presbyterian Church to the cemetery, and the world’s tributes were represented by a mountain of wreaths from mourners in every corner of the globe. Throughout the early part of the morning crowds filed past the coffin in the Presbyterian Church in which the famous singer lay in state, and in which as a girl she used to sing in the choir. When the memorial service began every pew was packed. The Federal and State Governments and the worlds of music and art were fully represented. Dr. Borland, State Moderator, conducted the service which was fully choral. “Our sorrow and sympathy” he said in a striking tribute to Melba” are shared by millions in every land who feel grateful that God raised up in our nation for the benefit of the whole world the gifted singer they mourn. 1
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The Goodbodys of Birr. By Michael Goodbody. Blog no. 793 in the Offaly History Blog Series, 24.4.2026
The Goodbody family is widely associated with the prosperous Quaker industrial dynasty that emerged in Clara and Tullamore during the nineteenth century. However, this article focuses on a lesser-known and far less successful branch of the family: the descendants of Thomas Goodbody (1783–1848), brother of the prominent miller Robert Goodbody (1781–1860). While Robert’s line flourished, Thomas’s life and that of his children was marked by repeated financial failure, instability, and eventual decline, culminating in the disappearance of the Goodbody name from Birr by the early twentieth century.
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Concrete and Community Kieran Keenaghan – An Appreciation by Offaly History. Blog no. 792, 18 April 2026
Kieran Keenaghan began his professional journey in 1967 as a civil engineer working on motorway construction in County Down. After gaining experience in the North, he returned to his native Offaly in 1969 to work for Bantile, a precast concrete factory near his home. He later moved to Charleville, Co. Cork to work as a project engineer for Golden Vale, overseeing significant building projects during a period of major investment in the dairy industry. In 1976, Kieran took a significant entrepreneurial risk by partnering with five others to buy the insolvent Bantile premises and establish Banagher Concrete. Under his leadership as Managing Director for over 40 years, the business grew from a small local operation into a national leader employing up to 500 people. Throughout his career, he integrated his professional engineering expertise with a deep commitment to the GAA, often leading major local development projects such as the Faithful Fields in Kilcormac.
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