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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From ‘Tay Lane’ to a new Aldi store in Tullamore town centre. The four layers of development since 1790 – just 234 years ago. No 23 in the Offaly History Anniversaries Series By Michael Byrne. Blog No 669, 13th Nov 2024
Very soon now Tullamore will have a new Aldi Store at Tay Lane/O’Connell Street, Tullamore. This is the company’s second store in the town/The first was opened in 2000 at Cloncollog and preceded Tesco in 2004 (who once occupied the adjoining Tay Lane site and are near neighbours of Aldi at Cloncollog). Lidl and Dunnes already have two stores each in Tullamore and now Aldi will join this grouping with an investment in Tay Lane of close on €20 million when all expenses are taken into account.
Tea Lane (‘Tay’ Lane) is a popular old street name in Tullamore and most people seem to know that it was the area from the Al Conroy Printing Works (now again Stella Press under Brian Conroy) as far as the Offaly History Centre on the corner of Bury Quay and the former bonded warehouse (the Tullamore DEW Old Bonded Warehouse, 2000–20) and since December 2022 the Old Warehouse bar and restaurant (proprietor Shane Lowry). The name was in existence as early as 1821. The northern part of the lane was called the Old Fair Fields on a 1791 lease map. More changes are now in hand with the opening of a new Aldi store in late November 2024, following on the demolition of all the Irish Mist warehouses (erected from 1970 to 1985) and the great oats store of 1929. Irish Mist and Williams constituted the third layer. The first was that of long gardens from Patrick Street to almost the canal bank and before the canal (1801) the old fair fields. The second was the Williams buildings on these lands post 1897 and before their demolition for the new Irish Mist buildings of 1970-1985. Now Aldi will provide the fourth layer.
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The changing face of Offaly towns in the early 1900s, beautifully illustrated with historic pictures, to be launched on Friday 15 November, 7.30 p.m. at Offaly History Centre Tullamore by Cllr Tony McCormack, cathaoirleach Offaly County Council. Blog No 668, 9th Nov 2024
The changing face of Offaly towns in the early 1900s: An illustrated history edited by Michael Byrne with contributions from Paul Barber, Stephen Callaghan, Grace Clendennen, Kevin Corrigan, Michael Goodbody, Ger Murphy, John Powell, Laura Price, Ciarán Reilly and Brendan Ryan (Offaly History, Tullamore, 2024, 368 pp). Available from Offaly History Centre and Midland Books Tullamore and online at www.offalyhistory.com. ISBN 978-1-909822-38-2 (hard back), €27.99. The book will be launched at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore – beside the new Aldi and Old Warehouse. It is already available at the Centre, online at http://www.offalyhistory.com and at Midland Books, Tullamore. If you cannot attend in Tullamore we have a launch at Giltrap’s of Kinnitty on Thursday 21 Nov. at 7. 30 p.m. We will have copies in Bridge Centre for the Christmas Sale 14 to 24 December.
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20 Uptown Clara, a hive of activity from 200 years ago. Looking at Clara’s old families. No 20 in the Anniversaries Series. By Maurice G Egan. Blog No 665, 30th oct 2024
Recently, I walked Clara’s Main Street and was again reminded of its relative short length and the relatively small size of its adjoining, almost hidden, Market Square. A square and street where much trade, barter and banter, laughter, disagreements, or agreements on family member marriages, and heated discussions on political reform, occurred on a regular basis for hundreds of years.
Many local hostelries were frequented, where typically a farmer and his wife and family would come to settle bills, visit the local medic for advice, or attend religious services. Today the square is modernly paved, almost hidden and its well-maintained former Market House now tucked away from the passing motorised traffic. Sadly, as in the case of many Irish provincial towns several old buildings have fallen into a state of disrepair and exude an aura of reduced circumstances.
Back in 1826, Clara’s Main Street and Market Square was a hive of activity and was where many notable families conducted their commercial business and resided upstairs. As I strolled the street and looked above the ground floor level of today’s shop fronts, I wondered who were these former resident families and what ever became of some of them?
Clearly, this is just a chosen snapshot of some Clara families, and I would be keenly interested to hear from family members of their stories from those days’ past.
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19 Tullamore Irish National Foresters: One of the oldest organisations in Tullamore. A photo-essay to mark the 125th anniversary, looking at the first 25 years from 1899 to 1924. No. 19 in the Anniversaries Series by Michael Byrne and Offaly History. Part Three and concluded. Blog No 664, 26th Oct 2024
In early 1916 the Foresters accommodated a support dance for the war effort and a ceilidh organised by the new branch in Tullamore of Cumann na mBan. A report of the first Ceilidh Mhór of Tullamore branch of Cumann na mBan held in the Foresters in early January had over 100 couples in attendance. The Tri-colour prominent in the hall was that ‘of the ’48 men, green, white and yellow’. The decoration of the hall was carried out by a ladies committee of Cumann na mBan assisted by Messrs Bracken, McNally and others (all prominent in the First shot episode in Tullamore in March 1916).The president of the branch was in attendance, Mrs P.F. Adams, as was P.F Adams. The Ladies Committee included McBrian, Mooney, Neary, Conway, Galvin while Messrs Alo Brennan, Seamus Connor and H. McNally and Miss Long assisted. These men and women were all prominent in the national movement and the breakaway minority group from Redmond’s Volunteers.[1] In a strange decision Adams gave up his seat on the county council in February 1917 in favour of the Limerick-born T.M. Russell, the new full-time local organiser for Sinn Féin. The Foresters were not happy that Tullamore now had no representative on the council except ‘this new man’.[2]
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Listening to some well-known Offaly people: a Commemorative Lecture to mark the contribution of the upwards of 300 men and women who have given their time to build the audio library of memories of their area and life stories in County Offaly. Presented by Aidan Barry. Blog No 662, 18th oct 2024
The oral story of Offaly people in the Offaly History Centre sound archives collection. 21 October 2024, 8 p.m. Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay Tullamore, R35 Y5V.
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The presentation by Aidan Barry will consist of the following:
– An overview of the oral history resources available at Offaly History and how to access them.
– Commemorating the work of Maurice O Keefe (RIP) at Irish Life and Lore and Albert Fitzgerald (RIP) at — – Midlands103 and also the late James Kenny of Clara Bridge, Tullamore.
– Listening to samples from the Oral History collection at Offaly History
– Recording Oral History and editing recordings
– Transcribing Oral recordings using the latest technology
offalyhistoryblog 