The first overview of the street is available from the 1838 six-inch map and the 1843–54 valuations. By the early 1800s only one windmill survived and that was marked as in ruins on the 1838 five-ft manuscript map. Interestingly the 1838 six-inch map refers to windmills in ruins. Looking closer at both maps it does appear as if the second mill ruin was in the garden of no. 9 Cormac Street (see six-inch map). Moore Hall and ‘The Cottage’ were a hankering after rural life and as good quality houses were isolated from the town centre, but they made possible the attractive Willis-built Victoria Terrace of 1837–8.
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The houses and families of O’Moore Street, Tullamore, formerly known as Earl Street and Windmill Street. No. 1 in a new Offaly towns Built Heritage series supported by the Heritage Council. Part One: Developers and sub-tenants in O’Moore Street, Tullamore. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. Blog No 624, 22nd June 2024
Once on the edge of the town O’Moore Street, Tullamore was, in the 1800s, known as Windmill Street because of the two windmills erected by the 1720s on the hill south of O’Moore Street The hill (probably the Tulach Mhór giving Tullamore its name) is now obscured by the houses from the courthouse to Spollanstown Road erected after the 1790s. Today O’Moore Street still exhibits some of the mixed residential development that was commonplace before the 1900s and the building of class demarcated suburban housing. Yet O’Moore Street was itself comparatively rural in the early 1800s, but now serves as an artery for traffic to Cloncollog, Clonminch, Killeigh (Mountmellick) and Geashill – with their extensive housing and shopping facilities. In the once undeveloped field opening to Clonminch and Spollanstown the substantial Tullamore Court Hotel was built in 1997. The street has more than a 300-year history it its physical development. The lack of decisions on good planning neglected to be taken in the 1750s continue to impact almost 300 years later and contribute the configuration the street has today.
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Tullamore and the £1 million housing scheme of 1922. The new houses at John Dillon Street. By Peter Connell. Blog No 616, 25th May 2024
This is the story of eight new houses built by Tullamore Urban District Council in 1923 in what is now John Dillon Street. Turning into the street from Charleville Road, the first eight houses on the right were built as part of the Provisional Government’s £1 million scheme launch in 1922 in the midst of the Civil War. Opposite them are houses built by the Irish Soldiers and Sailors Land Trust for veterans of World War I. The eight houses may only have made a small dent in Tullamore’s chronically bad housing conditions in the early 20th century, but the circumstances surrounding when and how they were built provide some valuable insights into the history of the town and the country in these turbulent years.
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Remembering John Flanagan, the Tullamore builder and developer, who died on 9 May 2024. An obituary from Offaly History. Blog No 612, 11th May 2024
John Flanagan the well-known builder and advocate for Tullamore and County Offaly died on 9 May 2024. He was the modest man from the Meelaghans, Puttaghan and Bachelors Walk, Tullamore who invested his whole life in making Tullamore a better place for people to live, work, bank and even pray in. In 2018 he was awarded the Offaly Person of the Year Award. John Flanagan was a realist in the Lemass mode. His focus was on getting things done. At the time Lemass came to be Taoiseach in 1959 John Flanagan was just 28 years old. It was ten more years, in 1968-9, before he got his first major break with the purchase of the Tanyard Lane property in Tullamore from the P.&H. Egan liquidator. The Bridge House, also owned by the Egan firm, was bought soon after by Christy Maye, and thirty years on Tullamore had two fine hotels, developed by the new entrepreneurs of the 1960s and 1970s, on lands that had been part of Egan’s extensive portfolio.
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Tullamore Town Council: a short timeline of municipal events from its establishment in 1860 to its abolition in 2014. By Offaly History. Blog No 611, 10th May 2024
The town councils of Tullamore, Birr and that of Edenderry were abolished ten years ago in what some consider was a mistake and a hasty reaction to the calls for pruning in that recessionary period. Here we provides some headlines for significan events since the first council body – the Tullamore Town Commission – was established in 1860. This was followed by the urban council in 1900. We post this blog on the anniversary of the great balloon fire of 10 May 1785.
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AN AWKWARD SITE- The Building and Rebuilding of the Church of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, Tullamore. By Fergal MacCabe. Blog No 599, 13th April 2024
A New Church
Towards the end of the 19th century the 1840 Mercy Convent with its frontage to the landscaped banks of the Grand Canal, was the most prominent symbol of the increasing importance of the Catholic Church in the spiritual life of the people of Tullamore. In contrast, the almost one hundred year old St Mary’s Parish Church, which had a capacity for 500 worshippers at most, was of a modest character. Located on a backland site behind Harbour Street on lands gifted by Lord Charleville it shared its cramped accommodation with the Parochial House.
The old church of 1802 to 1903-4 As Michael Byrne records in his comprehensive historical survey of Tullamore Catholic Parish, the question of repairing the old church arose in 1897 but on the advice of the influential businessman and local politician Henry Egan, it was felt that building an entirely new church would be a better option.
No time was lost and on the 16th January 1898 a preliminary meeting of a Parish Council to plan for the new Church was assembled and six days later appointed the Cavan based architect William Hague whose brief was to provide a 1,600 seat structure with additional space for 500 more on special occasions.
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Swimming pool opened in Tullamore in 1938 together with O’Molloy Street housing scheme. Damien Byrne. Blog No 598, 12th April 2024
Thursday May 19th 1938 was a big day in Tullamore. The occasion was the opening of 146 new houses on O’Molloy Street and the opening of a new outdoor Swimming Pool by the Tánaiste and Minister of Local Government and Public Health Mr. Sean T. O’Kelly. By Damien Byrne
The local newspapers of the day describe the town as being “profusely decorated with flags and bunting” with O’Molloy Street being “richly festooned with the Tricolour being strongly in evidence”.
The Tánaiste on his arrival at Tullamore, at 12:15 p.m., passed through a guard of honour of Civic Guards, drawn up outside Hayes Hotel. He was met at the door of the hotel by the members of the Council and public officials, and proceeded at once through Patrick St., Kilbride St., and Clara Bridge, where his arrival at O’Molloy Street was awaited by many clergy of all denominations and representatives of the laity. Along the route large numbers of people had gathered, and the Tánaiste smilingly bowed his acknowledgements of their greetings.
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37-38, Grand Canal Townlands East to West: Tullamore along the line,Puttaghan/ Srah / Ballydrohid/ Killiskea No 37-38 in the Grand Canal Offaly Series. By Philomena Bracken, Offaly History. Blog No 592, 27th march 2024
Tullamore is the county town of Co Offaly, it lies on the Grand Canal. It is a large and thriving place that has seen great development over the years. In this article, have a look back with a picturesque timeline through from 1798 when the canal reached Tullamore. We will return to Tullamore stories of the canal when the east west tour is completed.
Kilbride Parish: Seven Miles from East to West. The Parish lies in the ancient O’Molloy territory of Fir Ceall, or Men of the Church. It contains main archaeological sites some of which have sadly been destroyed or taken back by nature.
Tullamore is in the Electoral Division of Tullamore Urban, in Civil Parish of Kilbride, in the Barony of Ballycowan, in the County of Offaly. The Irish name for Tullamore is Tulach Mhór meaning Great Hill. The rising ground in Tullamore leads to the hill at High Street – Cormac Street.
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17 The Finest Building in Offaly: The Grand Canal: A Modest Declaration. By James Scully, No. 17 in the Grand Canal Offaly series. Blog No 572, 3rd Feb 2024
A case can be made for declaring that the Grand Canal in Offaly is the county’s greatest building. No other structure has contributed so much to the economic development of so many of its towns and villages over the last 230 years. In addition, it has supported the recreational wellbeing of local citizens for a hundred years or more and seems set to do so exponentially in the decades ahead. It also preserves a relatively undisturbed wildlife corridor for many of our threatened flora and fauna species. The canal has its own rich cultural identity, much celebrated in literature and music. Its components, listed below, still combine to create an architectural entity that is almost fully operational although in a fashion undreamt of when it was first conceived in 1715, well over 300 years ago.
Combining the Shannon or Main Line (1793–1804) and the Kilbeggan Branch (1830–35), the stretches of the canal in Offaly and Westmeath took just over fifteen years to build. As it flows forty-four miles from Cloncannon, south-east of Edenderry, to Bunbrosna and Minus, downstream of Shannon Harbour, and eight miles along the Kilbeggan Line, its architectural components present a staggering list: it tumbles through sixteen locks; crosses five large aqueducts; supports and reflects forty or so ancient and modern bridges; funnels into its own channel an array of supplies or feeders, kept in control by a strategically placed system of overflows or overspills; conducts scores of unwanted streams, syphoned and otherwise, through scores of tunnels or culverts, under its non-porous bed to nearby rivers and gently glides along between a hundred miles of well-staunched towpaths and embankments to a seamless confluence with the brimming Brosna and the Lordly Shannon.
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3 From bonded warehouse and grain store to Old Warehouse bar/ restaurant and Aldi Retail Store: the changing uses of canal side buildings at Bury Quay, Tullamore, Ireland. No 3 in the new Grand Canal Offaly series from Offaly History. Blog No 559, 30th Dec 2023
The recent demolition of all the former Irish Mist liqueur warehouses in Tullamore and the upcoming demolition of the great oats store of D.E. Williams have prompted this lookback at the site that may have been intended for the first canal harbour or docking point in Tullamore close to Pound Street, later called William Street and now Columcille Street and Bury Quay – where the Old Warehouse (‘Shane Lowry’s’) is now located. The newly cleared site is intended for a 1,644 sq. metre Aldi retail store and associated parking. The bonded warehouse or now Old Warehouse and the oats store south of it were built close to the canal as part of a strategic acquisition by the distiller, maltster and merchant Daniel E. Williams and at a time when the Grand Canal provided a commercial transport artery for smooth access to Dublin and Limerick. This article is no. 3 in the series on the impact of the Grand Canal on Offal
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