offalyhistoryblog

Category: Astronomy

STEA2M Engineering Heritage October Festival at Birr, 19th Century Pioneers to inspire 21st Century Engineers 18th to 20th October 2024. Blog No 660, 12th Oct 2024
The Great Telescope at Birr

Agenda for the Festival

Friday 9am to 5pm – Discover Birr Castle Demesne by taking on the engineering trail through the gardens and science centre.

Friday 7pm – Welcome reception with tea and sandwiches followed by opening lecture(1) – 8pm. Note: All lectures in Birr Theatre and Arts Centre
1. 8.00pm Lady Alicia Clements – Introduction to the Engineering Weekend Festival
2. 8.15pm John Burgess – The Parsons Families of the 19^th Century
Saturday – 10.00am Lecture (2) – Power on Land
1. Brian Leddin TD – Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action – Welcome and Opening Remarks
2. Geoff Horseman (Formerly Head of Turbine-Generator Engineering at Parsons and Chief Turbine Engineer at Siemens Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) – Evolution of the Parsons Land Steam Turbine
Saturday – 11.30am guided discovery tour in Birr Castle Gardens to visit (Please note to wear non-slip footwear and outdoor gear for walking on garden trails):
1. The Leviathan and LOFAR Telescopes – Peter Gallagher or Joe McCauley
2. The refurbished suspension bridge,
3. Rejuvenated hydro-electric turbine, and
4. The secret of the lake’s ingenious water level management system.
Saturday – 1.15pm Lunch at the Kellys Bar

Saturday – 2.30pm Lecture (3) – Power at Sea
1. 2.30pm Ian Whitehead – Turbinia – a daring venture in marine propulsion
2. 3.00pm Geoff Horseman – Engines of the First Giant Turbine Passenger Liners
3. 4.00pm Jody Power – Marine Propulsion Steam Turbines – A Personal Journey
A recess of 2 hours from 4.30pm to regroup at 6.30pm in John’s Hall

Saturday – 6.30 pm Exhibition in John’s Hall, Birr.

8.00 pm Dinner in Doolys Hotel

Sunday – 10am – Lecture (4) – Power to Change
1. 10.00am – Benita Stoney – The Stoney family collaboration and achievements
2. 10.45am – Una O’Grady – Renewable Energy in the Midlands – Wind, Water and Stars
3. 11.30am – Stephen Grant – Engineering at a time of change – 21^st to 19^th Centuries parallels to inform a paradigm shift in addressing climate change
4. 12.15pm – Lady Alicia Clements – Farewell notes
Sunday 1pm and 2pm – Guided tours of castle
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October 12, 2024
‘Six’ fine works of public sculpture in Birr. By Fergal MacCabe and Paul Moore. Blog No 562, 8th Jan 2024

Would you like to know more about public sculptures in Birr and Offaly? Who commissioned them and what do they tell us? Author, Architect and Town Planner Fergal McCabe will focus on the sculptures in and around Birr town, The Maid of Erin, The Column in Emmet Square, the Hurler, the third Earl and the Tullamore Road entrance piece ‘Looking to the Future’ with some other examples from the county. He will be joined by photographer Paul Moore who documented the sculptures in 2023 and he will talk about his experience of how the images were photographed and the story behind each sculpture. This illustrated talk will be on Monday 15 January 2024 at 8 p.m. in County Arms Hotel, Birr. Signed copies of the new book Faithful Images will be available on the night for €20.00. All are welcome.

For those who believe that the setting of public art is the key to its artistic success or failure, Birr offers five of the very best examples.
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January 8, 2024
Birr and the 1821 census: the case of Castle Street, Birr. An exploration for the Living in Towns series. By Michael Byrne. Blog No 537, 26th Oct 2023

In the Pigot directory of 1824 Birr was described ‘as far the most considerable of any of the towns in the King’s County. Birr was the leading town in the county from the 1620s until the 1840s By the 1820s Birr had new Protestant and Catholic churches (the latter nearing completion at the time of the census and the publishing of the Pigot directory), two Methodist chapels and a Quakers’ meeting house. The charitable institutions of Birr, were a fever hospital and dispensary, supported by county grants and annual subscriptions; a Sunday school for children of all denominations; a free school for boys, and another for girls. Birr had a gaol and a courthouse where the sessions were held four times a year. The prisoners were sent to Philipstown/Daingean which was the county town until 1835 for trial for serious crimes. From 1830 when the new gaol was built in Tullamore Birr prison was more a holding centre only. . One mile from the town were the Barracks, ‘a large and elegant building, capable of holding three regiments of soldiers’. Birr has two large distilleries and two breweries, which, it was said, gave employment to the poor of the town.

The population in 1821 was 5,400. The market day was Saturday and the fairs were four in the year. And that was it. The brief introduction to Birr in the 1820s did not engage in any detail with the census of the town in 1821 other than to produce an abstract.
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October 26, 2023
Charles W. Kelly of New York remembers Birr in the early 1900s. From the Offaly History Collection and thanks to Offaly people who emigrated many years ago for these recollections of their native place. Blog No 440, 19th Nov 2022

I write in the hope that you may find space to record my memories of the town of Birr fifty or sixty years ago. The following recollections are all from memory only – no notes – and I am sure a lot of boys and girls I knew will get a thrill.

Birr, as you know, is situated in the South-West of Offaly, known then as King’s County, near the borders of Leix County – known then as Queen’s and Tipperary County. It is about one mile and a half in length and one mile in width.

It was a military town. The Military Barracks were in the village of Crinkle, which is about one-half mile outside the town. The main thoroughfare was from the high path of Drumbawn to the New Line. You passed Moorpark Street, Bridge, Market Square, Main Street, Duke Square, Cumberland, Melsop and Townsend Street, – that is the length. Now the breadth was from Clonoghill Cemetery through Newbridge or Crinkle and the Military Road, John’s Mall, John’s Place, The Green and some of the Lusmagh Road to the back of the Castle.

[On Friday and Saturday 18 and 19 Nov. 2022 the annual heritage seminar will be held in Birr. The programme started on Friday at Birr Library at 5 p.m. with the launch of the collected poems of J De Jean Frazer and will be followed on Saturday with walks in the morning and talks in Oxmantown Hall (1889) in the afternoon. The exile here was Charles Kelly who wrote to the Offaly Chronicle from New York in 1952. It appears that his children moved to the United States. These memoirs give an insight into life that is so valuable. Well done to the Birr Annual Review who have published many such memoirs since 2001. Back issues of the Birr Annual Review have been uploaded to http://www.offalyhistory.com Ed]
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November 19, 2022
Christmas Reading from Offaly History – twelve new titles of Offaly interest, one for every day of the Festive Season. Another bumper year for local studies. Blog No 337, 4th Dec 2021

All the books here can be purchased from Offaly History (Bury Quay, Tullamore and online) and at Midland Books, Tullamore. You can also view/ borrow at Offaly Libraries and consult at Offaly History Centre.

Rathrobin and the two Irelands: the photographs of Middleton Biddulph, 1900-1920. Michael Byrne (Offaly History, Tullamore, 2021), 330 pages, 280×240, hardcover, €24.99.

Rathrobin is a book that keeps on giving. Its 250 Biddulph photographs from the 1870s to 1920s, all carefully captioned, depict the two Irelands – unionist and nationalist, Catholic and Protestant, landed and cabbage garden. What is interesting about the pictures of Colonel Biddulph (1849-1926) of Rathrobin near Mountbolus are the nuances. He was of the lesser gentry, was a tenant of the Petty Lansdownes, and was well aware of the Plantations of the 16th and 17th centuries. He appreciated the needs of the farm labourers and was decent to his own tenants, staff and farm workers. His entire estate was not much more than a 1,000 acres. Biddulph’s circle was also the lesser gentry and those who served it such as land agents, bankers and clergy. The Catholic Protestant divide was strong but landed Catholic families did mix in Bidduph’s set, but not merchants or traders (even if very rich). Biddulph had an empathy with his farm workers and their families and sought their advancement. Many local families were photographed, together with the farming activities of his own employees.

Biddulph’s story, and that of his associates and friends, is illustrated by a selection of over 300 pictures in all, of which 250 are from the Biddulph Collection in Offaly Archives, and fifty more to illustrate the introductory essay and provide the all-important context. The essay and the photographs provide a more nuanced understanding of Ireland in the revolutionary period of 1900–23. Biddulph’s wonderful house at Rathrobin that he had so carefully ‘restored’, and all his farm improvements, were lost in the Civil War in 1923. Many other big houses from Ashford, to Ballyfin, Durrow, Brookfield, Screggan Manor and Charleville are also recorded in this volume. Some such as Brockley Park in Laois are now gone thereby making this an important work of record. The photographs by Middleton Biddulph were taken at a crucial moment in Ireland’s history. Their publication now could not come at a better time. Rathrobin is the portrait of one small estate and Killoughy parish in Offaly from the 1650s to the 1920s, but the story is of national interest. T.E. Lawrence spoke of the Arab Revolt, perhaps in Ireland we can talk of the Irish Revolt and not the full circle Revolution. You decide.

Rathrobin was supported by the Decade of Commemorations Unit in the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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December 4, 2021
Opening of Offaly Archives by Minister Malcolm Noonan, 18 Nov. 2021. Blog No 332, 20 Nov 2021

Offaly History is pleased to announce the opening of Offaly Archives at unit 1F, Cluster Two, Axis Business Park, on Thursday 18 November 2021, by minister of state at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Malcolm Noonan.

Offaly History completed the building of its second premises in 2019 to coincide with its 50^th anniversary. The new repository is a state-of-the-art archives building managed by a professional archivist, Lisa Shortall, and houses the collections of Offaly History and Offaly County Library. The mix of the voluntary and the public sectors, under professional management, provides a unique blend of enthusiasm, specialist knowledge and continuity that can only enhance Offaly Archives over time.
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November 20, 2021
‘The town of Birr or Parsonstown, is the prettiest inland town in Ireland.’ – The Illustrated London News of 1843. Blog No 324, 16th October 2021

A two-page feature on Birr and its new telescope (s) was featured in the Illustrated London News of 9 September 1843. It was the first such international treatment for Birr and was combined with valuable illustrations of the town. It was also the first treatment by a national or international publisher promoting ‘Offaly Tourism’. It was the third earl of Rosse who organised the publicity for Birr and was now on the UK stage himself with his presidency of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The window on Birr would be the first of many arising from the completion of the larger telescope in 1845. Birr town was the principal settlement in Offaly since the 1650s and was the premier shopping town, as is clear from the Pigot directory of 1824. Cooke would go on to write of the town’s significant history in his 1826 book – a first in the midlands and just six years after Hardiman’s Galway. What is interesting about the article of 1843 was the active role given to Mary Rosse in her work in the demesne and the town of Birr.
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October 16, 2021
ROBERT BALL, ASTRONOMER AND TEACHER AT BIRR 1865-1867, DESCRIBES HIS TIME AT BIRR CASTLE. Presented by Michael Byrne. Blog No 158, 26th Oct 2019

The Great Telescope about 1845 with the castle in the background

Surviving diaries and accounts of activities in Offaly (King’s County) in the nineteenth century are uncommon and because of this all need to be catalogued and evaluated. Diaries of travel writers, correspondence and memoirs can all throw light on activities of that time. One such source recently acquired by the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society for its library is Reminiscences and Letters of Sir Robert Ball edited by his son W. Valentine Ball and published in 1915. It sets the scene for the intellectual milieu in which the children of the third earl of Rosse grew up and provides further information on the construction of the great telescope. Recently, a history of the building of the telescope was reprinted by Cambridge University as a cheap paperback while the Royal Society hosted a lecture on the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’ now available as a podcast.

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October 26, 2019
Marking the Wonderful World and Tragic Death of Mary Ward on the 150th anniversary of Ireland’s first recorded road fatality in Birr in 1869.Blog No 149, 24th August 2019

How many people have died in road fatalities since the first to occur in Ireland at Birr in county Offaly (then known as King’s County) on 31 August 1869, just 150 years ago next week? Few of us have not been touched by some sad incident involving collision with a motor vehicle. That in Birr involved a steam-powered carriage possibly constructed by the fourth earl of Rosse, a brother of Charles Parsons, later famous for his steam turbine. Perhaps the making of the engine was the work of the two brothers. The fatal accident occured at the corner of Oxmantown Mall and the junction with Cumberland/Emmet Street near the church and close close to where the theatre is today. It was here that the young Mary Ward, then aged 42, a woman of talent and a mother of a large family (11 pregnancies), was killed on the last day of August 150 years ago.

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August 24, 2019

F. H. Sheilds, Mary Ward, road fatalities, Sir Charles A. Parsons, Sketches with the Mircoscope, steam powered engine, steam turbine
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…)

October 1, 2017

Archival collections