In the second and final instalment of the story of Mary Daly, the last woman to be hanged at Tullamore in 1903, read about her trial and execution which was a sensation at the time. She was buried three times and said to haunt the gaol building, later the Salt’s factory, for many years afterwards. A full version of this article with extensive bibliography and sources (‘The Clonbrock Murder’) can be found in our journal, Offaly Heritage, Vol 2. (Esker Press, 2009). (more…)
Category: Places
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Mary Daly, the last woman to be hanged in Tullamore, Part 1, by Margaret Mulligan. Blog No 53, 28 October 2017
For years workers at the Salts factory in Tullamore, formerly Tullamore Gaol, spoke of the ghost of Mary Daly haunting the building. Margaret Mulligan, head researcher at Offaly History, recounts the tale of the last woman to be executed at Tullamore for the murder of her husband, John Daly.
Mrs. Mary Daly was the last woman executed at Tullamore on 10th January 1903, for complicity in the murder of her husband John Daly of Clonbrock, Doonone, Co. Laois. She was the second last woman to be hanged in Ireland. Until the early nineteenth century those convicted of most felonies were liable to be executed, and serious crimes such as robbery, rape and murder, received the death penalty. Mary Daly suffered the extreme penalty of the law, as it was alleged she was involved in a conspiracy in which she was the principal participator. She is still prominent in the folk memories of Tullamore town. Joseph Taylor was also executed for the murder of John Daly on 7th January 1903. (more…)
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Railway Competition in the Irish Midlands in the 1850s and the unfortunate experience of Peter Lumley of Tullamore, by Peter Burke. Blog No 52, 21 October 2017
The railway connection from Dublin was completed to Tullamore in 1854 and from Tullamore to Athlone in 1859. Here Peter Burke, a ‘railway buff’ tells of some of the shenanigans that went on to stifle competition. For what happened to Peter Lumley of that well-known Tullamore business family read on. (more…)
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The closure of Alesburys timber factory in Edenderry, by Dr Ciarán Reilly. Blog No 51, 14 October 2017
The extension and building of the railway line to Edenderry in the 1870s gave much needed employment to the area which was further bolstered by the arrival of two Quaker entrepreneurs from Bristol, England namely Daniel and John Alesbury. There had been a large Quaker community in Edenderry since the end of the seventeenth century and Daniel Alesbury commenced working with one such family, Williams, who owned a timber factory located in the towns market square. He subsequently married into the family and quickly commenced his own business before these premises were burned by fire in 1888. From here the factory moved to its location along the Grand Canal opposite New Row Corner at the junction which leads to the village of Rhode. (more…)
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Tullamore from the Famine to 1916: the recollections of Thomas Prittie (1833-1916), by Michael Byrne. Blog No 50, 07 Oct 2017
Thomas Prittie’s recollections of Tullamore from the Famine to the Easter Rising serve to confirm how much the town had improved both physically and in civility in that narrator’s own time. Thomas Prittie died on 29 April 1916 just at the close of Easter Week and was described by the Tullamore and King’s County Independent as ‘one of the oldest inhabitants of the town’ who helped in ‘our historical sketch of Tullamore published some months ago’. He was aged 83 according to his death certificate, but the reporter put him at ninety.[1] He lived, unmarried, in Henry/O’Carroll Street, Tullamore and, said the local press, left considerable house property. (more…)
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John’s Place, Birr and Foley’s Memorial to the 3rd Earl of Rosse, by Michael Byrne. Blog No 49, 01 October 2017
Birr has been referred to as Umbilicus Hiberniae, the navel or centre of Ireland. For many years it was also known as Parsonstown taking that name from its then proprietors, the Parsons family, earls of Rosse. That it is the centre of Ireland is often disputed but few will deny the accuracy of yet another appellation that of the ‘model town’. The late and much loved Jim Dooly, who was chairman of the town council in the mid-1960s, appeared on a Frank Hall programme in 1971 to defend Birr’s claim. He was no lover of television as can be seen in his performance, now viewable on the Frank Hall Archive of RTE on Youtube (‘Dead Centre of Ireland’). (more…)
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Rahan Looks Forward – a Creative Ireland collaboration. Blog No 48, 20 Sept 2017
Do you have interesting photographs relating to Rahan parish – place or people? Would you like to contribute to a growing archive of images from this area? Read on and see how you can help to visually document this important parish in Offaly.
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Memories of brick-making in Pullough, by Marie Regazzoli. Blog No 47, 16 Sept 2017
As part of Heritage Week on the 27th August 2017 our local Heritage Group, who came together just a couple of years ago, gave a brief history of Pullough brick-making. Around eighty people some of them the fourth generation of the same family, returned for the talk and met old acquaintances. It was a great day.
I was born and reared right beside where my grandfather, James Buckley, owned a brickyard. I live in the house next to the brickyard and all the chimneys and some of the walls were constructed with Pullough brick. I would have heard my mother, Bridget McLoughlin, talk about the making of the bricks, and the hard work it entailed. When she was just eight years old the woman in question and her nine other brothers and sisters all worked alongside their father in the making of the bricks. (more…)
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Captain Studholme of Ballyegan, by Stephen Callaghan.Blog No 46, 09 Sept 2017
Captain Lancelot Joseph Moore Studholme (1884-1916)
Behind Ballyegan House, on the side of a windswept hill stands an old oak cross. The tarnished bronze plaque commemorates the name of a brave Birr born Officer, Captain Lancelot Joseph Moore Studholme of the 7th Battalion, Leinster Regiment who was killed in action on 9 September 1916, 101 years ago. This is his story. (more…)
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The O’Sullivans in Santiago de Compostela, by Elías Cueto. Blog No 45, 02 Sept 2017
Galicia is known to many Irish people as Camino country. The Way of St James or Camino de Santiago begins for the Irish at St James’ Gate in Dublin, more usually known for the black stuff. For Irish peregriños, however, it will also conjure up memories of scallop shells, yellow arrows, meandering paths through the meseta, and the magnificent cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. Now as the summer ends and many of us back from our travels, let’s take a look at some of the historic links between Galicia and Ireland with this guest post from Elías Cueto , an historian from Santiago whose research on the urban history of the city has been recently published. (more…)
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