Category: Historic Towns

• Urban Regeneration in Tullamore. By Fergal MacCabe. Blog no. 808 in the Offaly History Series. 31.7.2026

  PROJECT 2040

  Many may find it hard to believe, but Ireland has a pretty good planning structure and system.

  Some years ago we embarked on an exercise of estimating where as a nation- indeed as an island – we should be going. How many people would we need to cater for, where would they live, how would they get around and what about climate change?

  The outcome was Project 2040 which set out a broad overall framework and most importantly had a dedicated budget to deliver it. Its national vision is now filtering down through regional planning, to county planning, then to more detailed statutory plans for the cities and finally for the more important towns.

  As a ‘Key Town’, Tullamore has a particular role to play and, in anticipation of an additional population projection of 1 million persons in the State by 2040, is presently making its own contribution by upping its housing projections to provide for an additional c. 2,000 houses and identifying an ambitious new employment and enterprise zone with direct access to the national road network.

  (more…)

  July 31, 2026

  ---

• Tullamore Town Park and its historic associations: a walk in the park on Saturday 18 July 2026, 10 30 a.m. to 12 noon. Blog no. 806 in the Offaly History Series, 16.7.2026. By Michael Byrne

  The second guided town walk on 18 July 2026 is alongside Tullamore River to the town park and Cormac Street. We start from Bridge House Hotel on Distillery Lane at 10 30 a.m. on Saturday 18 July and make our way through a part of the old Water Lane (now Main Street) taking the path along the river to Lloyd Town Park while reflecting on its historical features and change in the landscape of the area and the town of Tullamore since the 1700s. All are welcome and the tour is free. Michael Byrne is your guide for the morning. Richard Jack will talk about the town park and its trees.

  In the park close to what is now the filling station can be seen the remains of a corn mill of c. 1800 and where Daniel E. Williams of Tullamore DEW fame started work as a young man in the mid-1860s. He lived nearby in the miller’s house (now demolished) until Dew Park was completed in 1900. Beside the corn mill was a flour mill demolished in the early 1990s to facilitate the Bridge Centre and new apartments. It was known as Cooke’s Mill and was said to be haunted by ‘old Ned Cooke’.

  (more…)

  July 16, 2026

  ---

• The Enduring Legacy and Future of County Offaly’s Industrial (Cultural) Heritage. No. 1 in a new series on Industrial Heritage. Blog no 790 in the Offaly History Series. By Anna Orman, Clara Heritage Society.

  The noun ‘palimpsest’ derives from the Greek words pālin (again) and psēn (to scrape), and it  relates to phenomena that have experienced temporal change and show clear evidence of such  transformation.¹In industrial heritage, the term ‘palimpsest’ is used to describe the ongoing  spatial and social cycles involved in the reutilisation of industrial sites. It indicates multiple layers  of activities and cultural practices that evolve within the same geographical space over time.  Elements that endure across different periods can be either tangible, such as built heritage structures and redundant machinery, or intangible, like traditional craftsmanship, traditional  knowledge systems, and cultural values.²It is important to recognise that the International  Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage (TICCIH), the International Council on  Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland classify  industrial heritage as a vital part of cultural heritage.³ 

  (more…)

  April 10, 2026

  ---

• An opportunity to see the old Tullamore jail and hear of its turbulent history in the 1880s, 28 March, Saturday from 10.00 a.m. A welcome to all and meet local history enthusiasts for coffee at 10 and the book launch at 11 a.m. An Offaly History blog, no. 788, 27 March 2026.

  28 March Saturday at 11.00 a.m. at the former Tullamore Prison/Kilcruttin Business Park, Cormac Street, Tullamore, for the Launch of a new edition of Prison Poems or Lays of Tullamore by T.D. Sullivan, edited by Terry Moylan and Padráig Turley. Sullivan like William O’Brien and John Mandeville were political prisoners who refused to wear the prison clothes.

  See Cormac Street from a new perspective

  

  Today we are reminded of the jail every time we stop at the lights at the junction with Cormac Street, Kilcruttin and Charleville Road and look to the magnificent limestone façade, memorial tablet, jail warders’ cottages and the very fine gates with their Roman fasces to remind us of the symbols of authority back to early times. Then who has not heard of the underground passage (now mostly closed off) that allowed the prisoners to be brought into one of the two semi-circular courts in the old pre-1922 courthouse.

  (more…)

  March 27, 2026

  ---

• The new Birr Urban District Council 1899: women were included on the electorate for the first time and the end of the Birr Town Commissioners. Blog No 774, 10th Jan. 2026. By Martin Hoctor

  Town Commissions in Ireland were possible from 1847 after the introduction of the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act that would allow the larger towns to introduce a series of measures starting with the appointment of commissioners to carry out works in a  town like drainage, paving, and other improvements to the infrastructure. Unfortunately, this legislation was neglected in Ireland during the years of the Great Famine and it was not until the early 1850s when events slowly improved in terms of lesser number of deaths that several towns began to explore embracing this legislation for their districts. Parsonstown (Birr) Town Commissioners held their first meeting on August 4 1852 with Laurence Parsons elected as the first chairman and slowly began to implement the 1847 Act and its subsequent consolidation statute in 1854. Over the next 46 years Parsonstown/Birr Town Commissioners attempted to run the town from the rates received from the ratepayers and loans from the Local Government Board as they engaged in constant disputes with the King’s County Grand Jury and the County Surveyor for decades over which authority was responsible for the scavenging and cleaning of the streets and the expenses incurred.

  We are glad to welcome the second of our Young Historians blogs this week and this year. If you have an article or an idea for an article do contact us at info@offalyhistory.com. Offaly History blogs now number 774 and reach 80,000 to 100,000 views each year. So do join the panel of authors of this treasure trove of easily accessed articles since 2016. Doing (or have done) a Leaving Cert History Project on local history -keep Offaly History in mind for your piece of research. We can help with editing and illustrations.

  (more…)

  January 9, 2026

  ---

• The ‘Elite’ of Tullamore skating at Charleville Lake on St Stephen’s Day 1864. By Cosney Molloy. Blog no 770, 26 12. 2025

  Skating on Charleville Lake, Tullamore was a popular pastime when I was a young lad. I remember the cold icy winters of 1962, 1982 and 2010. I can recall as a young man the Tullamore people skating on Charleville Lake in 1962. I am a long time now in D 4 but I got down a few weeks before Christmas of 2020 to the nice butchers in Tullamore – old Tormey’s was still going strong and then you had, Hanlon’s, Crossan’s of Main Street, Ray Dunne and Fergus Dunne, and a few more I would not know. I was sorry to see Grennan’s main shop closed for now in 2020. I miss Paddy Mac’s, Cleary’s and Joe ‘the Butch’ Kearney and not forgetting Dunne’s butchers off the Square. It was Treacy’s later. Liver we got a lot of and sheep’s hearts in that fine shop. Many old friends gone to the heavenly pastures. I always like to get my turkey in Tullamore and a nice ham even though I am out of the town now for over forty years. What with the bacon factory open until 1989, and now Tullamore Meats, the town has a long tradition in fine food. Come to think of it the bacon factory did a huge business in turkeys back in the 1940s and 1950s when my father was rearing same.

  (more…)

  December 26, 2025

  ---

• The making of O’Connor Square, Tullamore: People, Houses and Business will be launched on Wednesday 10 December 5 p.m. at the Brewery Tap, Tullamore and Ferbane 1950-2000 on 12 Dec. in Ferbane Blog No 766, 9th Dec 2025

  The making of O’Connor Square, Tullamore: People, Houses and Business will be launched on Wednesday 10 December 5 p.m. at the Brewery Tap, Tullamore. The Brewery Tap is the longest established business in the square dating back to the 1830s as a pub and brewery. The lease of the site was dated to 1713 with the property in possession of the Brennan and Thornburgh families, later Deverell, Egan, Adams, Carragher and now Paul and Cathy Anne Bell.

  We look forward to meeting you at the launch where savouries and tea/coffee will be served. Parking will be available at this time and should not cost more than 1 euro for an hour. Walkers and cyclists go free.

  The making of O’Connor Square, Tullamore: People, Houses and Business (Offaly History, Tullamore, 2025), pp 440, p/b €23, h/b €29. ISBN978-1-909822-45-0 (hardcover) ISBN978-1-909822-46-7 (softcover). The book contains fifteen essays by Michael Byrne, Fergal MacCabe, Rachel McKenna and Timothy O’Neill. Publication is supported by the Heritage Council.

  At the same event we launch Offaly Heritage 13. This the 13^th issue of the Offaly History Journal It’s another bumper issue with over 330 pages and well-illustrated, €19 soft and €25 hardback. The issue is dedicated to the late Christy Maye – a great friend to Offaly History.

  The two books are now available from Offaly History Centre, Midland Books and at www.offalyhistory.com for online.

  (more…)

  December 9, 2025

  ---

• Church Street, Tullamore 125 years ago: the ‘families’ (including boarders, lodgers, and assistants in 1901) – at a time of solid fuel cooking, no sewerage, poor lighting and piped water a recent novelty. No. 12 in the 2025 Living in towns series, prepared with the support of the Heritage Council. By Michael Byrne and James O’Brien. Blog No 758, 31st Oct 2025

  Did you have old friends or family in Church Street 125 years ago? Probably not. It was a busier trading street 125 ago than it is today. That could be said even sixty years. As to its trade it probably suffered from the introduction of one-way systems and restricted parking in the 1960s. Yet another factor may well have been the closing of the markets in Market Square, and also the decline of the Methodist community in the street. Back in 1901 and further back to the first printed valuation of the mid-1850s it had about 57 rateable units – almost all private houses and shops, but also including Hayes’ Hotel, the Methodist church,  the Costello private second-level school, the county infirmary (from 1942 the County Library), Charleville School (until 2006) and the Foresters Hall and Shambles (the meat and veg market).

  Church Street is an interesting street to study with a good mix of mostly middle-class housing, good shops and trades, institutions, and good terraces with lots of boarders and lodgers to add novelty.

  (more…)

  October 31, 2025

  ---

• King’s County/Offaly Infirmary, Church Street, Tullamore, 1767–1921. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. No. 11 in the 2025 Living in towns series, prepared with the support of the Heritage Council. Blog No 757, 24th October 2025

  You might wonder what was Library Hall used for before being transformed into 15 apartments in about 1995 with a new block of ten to the rear (PD 2824). Yes, some will recall when it was the county library and the happy hours borrowing books and perhaps sitting in the large windows or close to its pot-bellied stove in winter. That was almost fifty years ago. From 1923 to 1927 the building served as the first garda station in Tullamore. And before that: yes, it was the county infirmary or county hospital from 1788 to 1921. How many beds? It had 50 and thirty were generally in use. Budget was £2000 per annum by 1920. That might get you ‘a procedure’ now or a very ‘short stay’.

  (more…)

  October 24, 2025

  ---

• 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.’

  (more…)

  October 15, 2025

  ---