offalyhistoryblog

Category: Arts

Tullamore’s Irish National Foresters building in Church Street. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. In the Offaly History series on Church Street, Tullamore: houses, businesses and families over 300 years. No. 10 in the 2025 Living in towns series prepared with the support of the Heritage Council. Blog No 755, 15th October 2025

The Foresters building fronting Church Street would not be so easy to recognise today as the ground floor is part of the Chanapa Thai restaurant east of the old Shambles.

In March 2024 we published two articles in this series by Aidan Doyle marking the 125^th anniversary of the founding of the Tullamore branch of the Irish National Foresters (I.N.F) and the 100^th anniversary of the opening of its new cinema in Market Square. As was noted in a Midland Tribune article forty years ago[1] the Irish National Foresters Benefit Society is an organisation about which most people know very little about although the Tullamore (Conn of the Hundred Battles) branch has been part and parcel of the town since 1899. The I.N.F. may be the fourth oldest organisation in Tullamore after the Freemasons (1759), GAA Tullamore (1888) and the Tullamore Golf Club of 1895-6.

The home of the club in the early years was the CYMS , later called St Mary’s Hall in Thomas/Benburb Street. By 1903 Tullamore I.N.F had its own building on part of the harbour site at the junction of Harbour Street and Henry/O’Carroll Street. The new building worked well for four years but things went badly against them with a fire in the clubhouse in Harbour Street in July 1907: ‘The Tullamore blaze destroyed what was probably one of the finest Forester Halls in the provinces. And what makes the occurrence all the more lamentable is the fact that it had been built only four years.’
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October 15, 2025
Local Heritage and Family History Course: Sources and Methods, 24 September to 26 November 2025 (ten sessions of two hours each) at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore. Blog No 747, 13th Sept 2025

What? The course will give an overview of the sources and methods for the study of the archaeology, community and family history of County Offaly, and how to do research on areas that may interest you in local and family history. Thematic sessions will be delivered by experienced local scholars, who will introduce participants both to physical sources and to online resources. Offaly is taken as the example, but most of the records will have application for the entire country.

When? All talks will be held on Wednesday nights, from 7.30 to 9.30 pm.

Where? Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, R35 Y5V0

Fees? The course fee for all ten sessions is €50, payable to the Offaly Heritage Centre at the time of booking. Please provide your credit or debit card details when booking, or visit the shop Monday–Friday, 9:30 am–4:30 pm.

Alternatively, payment can be made by bank transfer: Best contact us first as only a few places are left.

This course is supported by the Heritage Council and Offaly County Council.
Places are limited to 25 participants, so early booking is strongly advised.

Please call or email us to check availability and make your booking
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September 13, 2025
Artist and art teacher Oliver Connolly, Tullamore. No 16 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. 743, 3 Sept. 2025

Oliver Connolly must be one of the best-known artists in the midlands given that he has taught art to thousands of children and adults largely drawn from the wider Tullamore area for over forty years. Practising very much as a topographical artist it is a pleasure to include his work in this series.

Oliver Connolly was kind enough to make available a series of drawings of the buildings of Tullamore for the publication A walk through Tullamore issued in December 1979. Now long out of print it was the first historical study of an Offaly town to provide illustrations by an artist since Thomas Lalor Cooke issued his Picture of Parsonstown (Birr) in 1826. We have already featured that book in this series.
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September 3, 2025
The Birr family of George Morrison of Mise Eire fame, died August 2025, aged 102. No 15 in a series on the arts heritage of County Offaly, 1750-2000, explored through the works of artists from or associated with County Offaly. By Michael Byrne. Offaly History Blog No 737, 6th August 2025

One of Offaly’s pioneering photographers living in Birr in the late nineteenth century was George Morrison, son of Edward, both were jewellers in the town in Duke now Emmet Square. George Morrison was a trained photographer who had opened a studio in his Birr jewellery shop in 1894. He was grandfather to the now acclaimed documentary artist George Morrison of Mise Éire (1959) fame who has just died at the age of 102. It can be said that George Morrison inherited a tradition commenced in the family by his grandfather, but following in the footsteps of many others including Mary, third countess of Rosse.

Another Birr neighbour of the Morrison family was Archie Wright, of nearby Cumberland House, Birr had also trained in photography and would assist his father in producing photographs weekly for the local King’s County Chronicle newspaper from 1885. At the time an innovation in the provincial press. The Chronicle was one of the first provincial papers to use the block process and Wright had been sent to London to study the process.
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August 6, 2025
Irish personalities depicted in the Williams calendars in the 1950s and 1960s, based on commissioned drawings from Irish artists. By Michael Byrne. No 14 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. Blog No 735, 30th July 2025

Desmond Williams (1908–1970), a director of the Williams Group of companies spent over thirty years with the company in promoting Tullamore Dew whiskey, Irish Mist liqueur and the company’s wine distribution network. He died prematurely in 1970 at the height of the sales decade for Irish Mist with exports to over 100 countries.
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July 30, 2025
Liam C. Martin (1934–98), Kilbeggan born artist and his work on the D.E. Williams buildings in Tullamore. By Michael Byrne. No 13 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. Blog No 734, 26th July 2025

Liam C. Martin was born in Kilbeggan in 1934 so he must have known all about the Locke’s distillery in that town and the associated distilling history of the Williams family in Tullamore. In about 1980 he was commissioned by the Williams Group and the late Edmund Williams to record the Williams buildings in Tullamore for posterity. The drawings were printed in an issue of about 25 copies and presented in a specially printed folder. There are some of the drawings in Offaly Archives and complete sets in private collections. It was the act of a far seeng man to have the legacy recorded and Liam C. Martin was a great choice.
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July 26, 2025
Lady Beaujolois Bury (1824–1903) the prayerful artist of Charleville Castle, Tullamore. By Michael Byrne. No 12 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. Blog No 733, 23rd July 2025

Beaujolois Elenora Catherine, the only daughter of the second earl of Charleville (1801–51) and his wife Harriet Charlotte Beaujolois Bury née Campbell (1803–48) was born on 4 December 1824 and survived almost as long in years as her later cousin, Col. Howard Bury. In case anyone would think that the name Beaujolois is in recollection of some Bacchanalian festive evening we should know that the unusual name was (as De Beer writes) due to her having as her godfather, Louis Charles d’Orleans, Comte de Beaujolais, brother of Louis Phillipe.[1] There is much about this connection in the Charleville Papers in Nottingham University. Beaujolois married Captain Hastings Dent in 1853 and died in 1903. Dent died in 1864. Lady Beaujolais had been married for only eleven years and was a widow for almost forty.
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July 23, 2025
Fergal MacCabe architect, town planner, artist and heritage brand ambassador for Tullamore. No 11 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 732, 19th July 2025

Fergal MacCabe is an architect, town planner and a topographical artist. He has managed to combine all three disciplines in his career. His fondness in recent years for the capriccio style of painting in many ways pulls together all his skills in how he views buildings and sees them in context. In his capriccio style Fergal MacCabe draws on real architectural elements and it is their juxtaposition that is whimsical. Yet he has regard to his own aesthetics, architectural and town planning skills in the buildings he selects and how he brings these buildings together.

For his jovial attitude to life we can probably thank his mother Winifred, who was by all accounts a character up to early passing in 1960.
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July 19, 2025
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
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