offalyhistoryblog

Category: Country House

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
(more…)

September 13, 2025
The memorial to the earl of Charleville (1712–64) in St Catherine’s Church, Tullamore. No 10 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. Offaly History Blog No 731, 16th July 2025

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism with his brother Charles, was the first person to record seeing the Van Nost memorial to the lately deceased earl of Charleville, the owner of Tullamore town and ‘the manor of Tullamore and Croghan’ – about 20,000 acres. Wesley recorded in his Journal:

Thursday 25 June 1767

I was desired to look at the monument lately erected for the Earl of Charleville. It observes ‘That he was the last of his family, the Great Moores of Croghan [sic].’ But how little did riches profit either him, who died in the strength of his years, or his heir, who was literally overwhelmed by them: being so full of care, that sleep departed from him, and he was restless day and night; till after a few months, life itself was a burden, and an untimely death closed the scene.
(more…)

July 16, 2025
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’.
(more…)

June 21, 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.

(more…)

June 11, 2025
Thomas Lalor Cooke (TLC) ‘the only antiquarian now living’ according to John O’Donovan in letters from Birr in 1838. The first in a series of articles to mark Cooke anniversaries. No. 15 in the 2025 Anniversaries Series from Offaly History. By Michael Byrne. Blog No 714, 21st May 2025

Thomas Lalor Cooke’s Picture of Parsonstown was first published in 1826 and a revised edition by his son William Antisell Cooke in 1875. So this year marks the 150^th anniversary of the revised issue and in 2026 we mark the 200^th anniversary of T.L. Cooke’s first and now rare book, the Picture of Parsonstown. A reprint of the 1875 greatly expanded history was issued by Esker Press in 1989 with a new introduction by Margaret Hogan. It is now also out of print. A reissue of the 1826 book is now under active consideration.
(more…)

May 21, 2025
Sharavogue Shinrone, County Offaly and the King’s County Polo Club. By Aidan Doyle. Blog No 710, 23rd April 2025

Polo traces its origins to the game of Chovgan, an equestrian team sport played by the aristocracy of the Persian Empire. It spread across Asia evolving along the way. By the 1400s it had arrived in India, supposedly introduced during the Muslim conquests of the subcontinent. During the Mughal period polo was dubbed the ‘Sport of Kings’ and the emperor Jalal ud-din Akbar introduced a set of rules governing the sport in the 1560s. In 1859, British soldiers and tea planters serving in India established the Calcutta Polo Club and the game was quickly introduced to Britain. When Carlow hosted Ireland’s first polo match in 1872, the local press referred to it as ‘Hurling on Horseback’. A year later the All-Ireland Polo Club was founded, with its grounds at the Nine Acres in the Phoenix Park. In 1875 the Hurlingham Polo Committee in London drew up a set of rules which would shape the polo in the century which followed. In the same year polo had migrated once again and in time the scions of Argentina’s richest families would establish that countries position as the global powerhouse of the game.
(more…)

April 23, 2025
Sacred Space and Historical Controversy: the Durrow Abbey Dispute of 1914. By Angus Mitchell. offalyhistoryblog.com series. Blog No 702, 19th March 2025

In early 1914, a controversy erupted over public access to Durrow Abbey that illuminates broader tensions regarding cultural heritage, religious identity, and national monuments in pre-independence Ireland. The dispute began when the Local Government Board ordered the closure of Durrow’s graveyard, citing “insanitary conditions.” This administrative decision catalyzed a remarkable public debate that revealed deep fissures in how Ireland’s sacred spaces were controlled, preserved, and accessed.

On Monday, 24 March. at 7 30 p.m. (please note the earlier time) Angus Mitchell will speak at Offaly History Centre, Tullamore. All are welcome. The public lecture is titled:

Sacred Space and Public Access: The Durrow Abbey Controversy of 1914

The 1914 controversy over public access to Durrow Abbey serves as a compelling lens through which to examine broader questions of cultural heritage, national identity, and preservation rights in pre-independence Ireland. When historian Alice Stopford Green published her indignant letter about restricted access to this ancient monastic site, she ignited a significant public debate that transcended local boundaries. The ensuing discourse, played out in Ireland’s leading newspapers, revealed deep tensions about proprietorial rights, Protestant privilege, and the role of local authorities in monument preservation. This controversy emerged at a crucial moment when sacred spaces were being reimagined as vital coordinates in Ireland’s cultural landscape. The debate highlighted a fundamental disparity in how ancient monuments were protected under British law in Ireland compared to Britain itself, raising questions about cultural sovereignty that would resonate well beyond independence. Though the immediate controversy lasted only weeks, its implications for heritage management and public access endured well past 1922. That Durrow Abbey remains largely inaccessible to the public in 2025 invites reflection on the persistent challenges of balancing preservation, private property rights, and public cultural access. This lecture examines how historical controversies about sacred spaces shaped, and continue to shape, dialogues about cultural identity and heritage management in Ireland.
(more…)

March 19, 2025
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.
(more…)

November 16, 2024

history, Local history, news, Photography, travel
17 Shocking attack on Violet Magan near Mountbolus, Tullamore on 8 December 1924: one of ‘the most barbarous acts’ in the history of Killoughy. No 17 in the Anniversaries Series. Blog No 659, 9th Oct, 2024

Violet Magan (aged 48), a sister of Shaen Magan, was acting as land agent to Colonel Biddulph of Rathrobin, Mountbolus, Tullamore and had continued to run the estate business of after the burning of Rathrobin House in April 1923. She was born in 1876 and was well known in the midlands as a volunteer worker with the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society ((I.A.O.S.) and went everywhere on her bicycle. Colonel Biddulph departed Ireland in a hurry in June 1921. It was soon after the killing of two RIC men in an ambush at Kinnitty. At the end of June there took place the killing of two brothers at Coolacrease near Cadamstown over land or over obstruction of the IRA or being alleged informers. The jury is out on this, but it can be said that many of the big house burnings were in the interest of securing for distribution the remaining demesne and home farmlands of the once big landlords. The Biddulph brothers of Kinnitty and Mountbolus had up to 2000 acres most of which they farmed themselves. Colonel Biddulph had about 700 acres and gave good employment in the area and was popular with his workers and tenants. His brother Assheton of Kinnitty had died in 1916 and the lands were in course of being sold in 1921-22. Shaen Magan was the husband of Kathleen Biddulph, the favourite niece of Col. Biddulph was was childless.
(more…)

October 9, 2024
A map of the Philipstown/Daingean Estate of the fourth Viscount Molesworth, 1786. The map was conserved with the support of the Heritage Council Project D.17701. This important map of Daingean is the earliest of an Offaly town to provide such significant detail. An Offaly History Heritage Week Project 2023. See also the video presentation on OffalyHistory YouTube channel. Blog No 516, 19th August 2023

Neville’s Atlas of the 3,000-acre estate at Philipstown in 1786 has not before been seen by the public and has probably not been consulted for fifty years. The surveyor was Arthur Richards Neville who was Dublin City Surveyor, 1801-1828 and he prepared the map on the instructions of the Molesworth Estate, the owner of 3,000 acres including the town of Daingean. Neville was in practice as a land surveyor from the 1780s or earlier. He succeeded RICHARD BURLEIGH WORTHINGTON as City Surveyor in 1801. He retained the post until his death in 1828 when he was succeeded by his son ARTHUR NEVILLE (Dictionary of Irish Architects online). The map is 154×128 cm and is 20 perch to the inch, taking in almost 3,000 statute acres and 130 land holdings. The map was conserved with the support of a grant from the Heritage Council. The map was donated to Offaly Archives in 2022. Our thanks to Arnold Horner for his assistance.
(more…)

August 19, 2023