Category: Places

• The Tithe Wars. The English’s of Wexford and Tullamore. By Maurice Egan. No. 19 in the Anniversaries Series 2025. Blog No 730, 12th July 2025

  The Tithe Wars 

  In the period 1831 to 1836 a campaign of agitation occurred against the imposition of tithes or taxes on landholders to pay for the imposed established state church, the Church of Ireland. The tithes were imposed on all regardless of religious belief but particularly affected the mostly Roman Catholic peasantry. 

  ‘Regular clashes causing fatalities continued over the next two years, causing the authorities to reinforce selected army barracks fearing an escalation. Taking stock of the continuing resistance, in 1831 the authorities recorded 242 homicides, 1,179 robberies, 401 burglaries, 568 burnings, 280 cases of cattle-maiming, 161 assaults, 203 riots and 723 attacks on property directly attributed to seizure order enforcement.’¹

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  July 12, 2025

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• 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.

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  July 9, 2025

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• More light on Charles Jervas (1675–1739), a leading portrait painter from Shinrone, County Offaly. No 9 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 728, 5th July 2025

  An article in the current edition of the Irish Georgian Society journal sheds more light on the Shinrone-born portrait painter Charles Jervas.[1] He was born in 1675 (or perhaps 1670) near Shinrone, King’ County (now County Offaly) and about eight miles south of Birr (Parsonstown) and was the son of John and Elizabeth Jervas (sometimes Jarvis, Jervis, Gervase and Gervaise). His mother was a Baldwin of Corolanty, Shinrone who were Cromwellian grantees. The old castle there (there are still ruins of it) was replaced in 1672 (other say 1698) by a large house – modified again in the eighteenth century and still standing. Jervas’s father, a Cromwellian, soldier-settler is said to have emigrated to America in 1688 to avoid the troubles then brewing due to the accession of a Catholic monarch and the changing power structure in Ireland as a result. He is said to have returned to Shinrone in the late 1690s and died there soon after, possibly in 1709. Another source has it that he died in America, but this seems unlikely.[2]

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  July 5, 2025

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• 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.

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  July 2, 2025

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• George Petrie (1790–1866) a key landscape painter for Offaly’s heritage of ruins on the landscape: Clonmacnoise. No 8 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 726, 28th June 2025

  Let Erin remember the days of old

  Alongside John O’Donovan and Eugene O’Curry the name of George Petrie (1790–1866) will forever be remembered as one of Ireland’s greatest scholars of the first half of the nineteenth century. It was a time when tremendous work was done for Irish archaeology and history. Petrie was a major figure in the historical research section of the Ordnance Survey.  Jeanne Sheehy in her The Rediscovery of Ireland’s Past 1830–1930 states that he was the founder of systematic and scientific archaeology in Ireland.

  Petrie was involved in the work of the Ordnance Survey from 1833 for  ten years. He was very much a polymath and in his late years published a volume of Irish music arising from his efforts to collect  and preserve old Irish music. 

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  June 28, 2025

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• That Beats Banagher and Banagher Beats The Devil! Offaly History – a very special Bangs Banagher book launch on Friday 27 June. No 18 in the Offaly History Anniversaries Series. Blog No 724, 23rd June 2025

  Two local historians have collaborated to create a new lavishly illustrated book exploring the meaning behind the regularly used phrase ‘That Beats Banagher! and Banagher Beats the Devil! The book was written by Kieran Keenaghan, a retired businessman and engineer living in Banagher and James Scully, a retired primary school teacher originally from Tullamore and now living just outside of Banagher in Clonfert, Eyrecourt, County Galway.

  The book, designed and printed by the Guinan Brothers, Ciarán and Diarmuid, at Brosna Press, Ferbane, explores the Banagher phrase that dates back to 1787 and how history formed the saying which became a humorous expression of amazement used since all around the country, throughout Britain and across several continents.

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  June 23, 2025

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• 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’.

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  June 21, 2025

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• “Voices of Offaly” Launch of New Offaly History Resource available from Offaly History. By Aidan Barry. Blog No 721, 14th June 2025

  Introduction
  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

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  June 14, 2025

  Oral History

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• 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.

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  June 11, 2025

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• The Offaly County Hospital Tullamore:  The Fruits of Independence. By Fergal MacCabe. No 5 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 718, 4th June 2025

  In the early days of the Irish Free State two ambitious projects stood out as justifying the struggle for national independence.

  In 1925, out of a total national budget of £25 million, the fledgling government bravely invested £5.2 in the Shannon Hydro Electric Scheme. Finished within four years, it ensured a degree of energy autonomy and dramatically improved living conditions, particularly in towns and later in rural areas.

  In a second progressive advance the State embarked on a programme to build a modern hospital in every county.

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  June 4, 2025

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