Category: Mapping

• The Silver River of Slieve Bloom. From John Feehan’s address at the launch in Kilcormac on 20.11.2025. Blog No 764, 3rd Dec 2025

  It’s almost exactly 50 years since I had the great privilege of studying the geology of Slieve Bloom as a postgraduate student in Trinity College. For over 4 years after that my job was to reach into every corner of the mountains where rock might have poked through to the surface, and then bring together the clues these pieces, of the jigsaw that told the story of the formation and subsequent history of the mountains, to form a more or less coherent picture.

  But I soon began to understand two things. First of all, that in looking at the rocks I was seeing less than half of the story; even if I included the flora and fauna they supported. The other half was the human story. Slieve Bloom is what its people have made it down all the centuries, and a parallel investigation is required to assemble all the pieces of this jigsaw together into a coherent story, and then place it over the first jigsaw. And then you begin to see how they are really two sides of the same coin. 

  And then, at the end of the four years, as some of you will know, I wrote a book about it.

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  December 3, 2025

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• Portavrolla not Portavolla Banagher. By Kieran Keenaghan. Blog No 752, 1st Oct 2025

  The place name ‘Portavrolla’ in Banagher can be traced back at least 450 years. Just very recently one ‘r’ was dropped so we now have Portavolla. ‘Port an bhrollaigh’ means ‘the port or harbour at the breast’ (of the hill). Moiler McCoghlan, pardoned by Queen Elizabeth in 1571 was of Porteabroghla and Portwroly  appears on a 400 year old map.

  

  ‘Logainm’ makes it clear that the correct name is ‘Portavrolla’.

  

  Unfortunately when the Portav(r)olla housing estate development took place about 30 years ago an ‘r’ was dropped..

  

  The sign above  by Offaly County Council ‘Beats Banagher’! – ‘Port an bhrollaigh’ being correct and ‘Portavolla’ being incorrect. Regrettably the beautiful sign itself has recently  disappeared.

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  October 1, 2025

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• Mapping the Past, Shaping the Future: the Changing Story of Ireland’s Boglands. Blog No 692, 12th Feb 2025

  News of a temporary exhibition at NLI Kildare Street, Dublin for February only

  

  A new temporary exhibition at the National Library of Ireland explores the history of the Irish Bogs Commission and how its 19th-century maps are now shaping the future of Ireland’s peatlands.

  Peatlands are among the world’s most vital carbon stores and play a crucial role in climate regulation. But when they’re drained, they lose their carbon sink potential and unique biodiversity and contribute to climate change. In Ireland, peatland drainage for agriculture and industry has shaped the landscape for centuries. Now, as part of national efforts to combat climate change, restoration of these ecosystems is a top priority.

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  February 12, 2025

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• 1  Cormac Street, Tullamore: a significant achievement in the planning process, 1786–2024. A contribution to the Living in Towns series supported by the Heritage Council. By Michael Byrne and Offaly History. Blog No 632, 17th July 2024

  Cormac Street is somewhat unique in the story of Tullamore Street development with its forty houses, two major institutional buildings, a folly and a town park. Rarely is a street preserved without blemish with so many elements over a two-hundred-year period. Cormac Street was also the home of the town’s major property developer and rentier Thomas Acres (d. 1836) who built his Acres Hall in 1786 (now the home of Tullamore Municipal Council). To the earl of Charleville and Thomas Acres is due most of the credit for the transformation of a green field site with Kilcruttin Hill and cemetery to the western side and the Windmill Hill to the east with the terraces in Cormac Street and O’Moore Street. Acres could thank the war with France, 1793–1815, for the boost to the local economy that provided him with tenants for the terrace of houses on the east side. The expansion of Tullamore after 1798 due to the Grand Canal connection with Dublin and the Shannon provided the impetus to secure a new county jail (1826–30), county town status in 1832 and to take effect in 1835 with the completion of the county courthouse. War, politics and pride of place all contributed to the mix. The Bury contribution was rounded off when Alfred (later the fifth earl) got a new railway station at Kilcruttin in place of that at Clonminch in about 1865. Alfred died in 1875 soon after he succeeded his nephew to the earldom.

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  July 17, 2024

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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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  June 22, 2024

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• 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.

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  August 19, 2023

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• The recent discovery of the earlier name for Banagher, County Offaly and its significance. By Kieran Keenaghan and James Scully. Blog No 484, 26th April 2023

  In 1120 Turlough O’Connor, high-king of Ireland, built a ‘principal’ bridge on the River Shannon at a place called Áth Cróich. Recent study has proven that this is an earlier name for Banagher.

  SIR MATHEW DE RENZY (1577-1635)

  Sir Mathew De Renzy writing in December 1620 about West Offaly with particular reference to roads and passageways made two clear statements regarding a major crossing point on the River Shannon at Banagher and how there was practical and convenient access to the West and Galway from that location.

  1. ‘At the Benghar there ought a towne or a good fort to be made, to keep that passage of the Shannon, for that in no other place can come any horsemen near the river to take passage out of Connaught but only here, by reason of the impediments of the bogs and woods; from this passage it is but 30 or 34 miles to Galway all hard and fair ground.

  2.  At Banagher ‘…to be no more than about 30 miles (from the Shannon at Ahcro or Benghar to) to Galway over the Shannon, all hard and faire ground

  Both these references leave no doubt that there was a major crossing point at Banagher in the 1620s. More importantly the second quote equates Banagher with a place called Ahcro (Áth Cróich). This information was crucial to the recent acceptance by the Locus placenames project (Locus) that the two places are synonymous. Consequently, in future editions of their definitive dictionary of Irish placenames, Banagher and Áth Cróich will be recorded as one and the same place. The implication of this decision is that it requires a major revision of Banagher’s early history.

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  April 26, 2023

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• Cormac Street, Tullamore: a significant achievement for the planning process, 1786–2020. A contribution to Tullamore 400th and the Historic Towns Initiative to support town regeneration. By Michael Byrne. Blog No 456, 18th Jan 2023

  Cormac Street is somewhat unique in the story of Tullamore street development with its forty houses, two major institutional buildings and a town park. Rarely is a street preserved without blemish with so many elements over a two-hundred-year period. Cormac Street was also the home of the town’s major property developer and rentier Thomas Acres (d. 1836) who built his Acres Hall in 1786 (now the home of Tullamore Municipal Council). To the earl of Charleville and Thomas Acres is due most of the credit for the transformation of a green field site with Kilcruttin Hill and cemetery to the west and the Windmill Hill to the east. Acres could thank the war with France, 1793–1815, for the boost to the local economy that provided him with tenants for the terrace of houses on the east side. The expansion of Tullamore after 1798 due to the Grand Canal connection with Dublin and the Shannon provided the impetus to secure a new county jail (1826–30), county town status in 1832 and to take effect in 1835 with the completion of the county courthouse. War, politics and pride of place all contributed to the mix. The Bury contribution was rounded off when Alfred (later the fifth earl) secured a new railway station at Kilcruttin in place of that at Clonminch in about 1865.

  Cormac Street has had the benefit of careful planning in its first hundred years and has managed to survive the excesses of the post 1960 and post 1997 periods of rapid development. The saving of Acres Hall in the 1980s was a significant achievement. What are these elements that contribute to the street and how did it all come about? Here are set out twenty points and probably more could be added.

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  January 18, 2023

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• New light on Irish county map-making in the early 19th century – tracings from William Larkin’s map of King’s County/ Offaly, c. 1808. Blog 415, 25th August, 2022

  To conclude our Heritage Week series of talks online we want to tell you the illustrated talk New light on Irish county map-making in the early 19th century – tracings from William Larkin’s map of King’s County/ Offaly, c. 1808 has now been uploaded. You get a 30-minute introduction from the leading expert on the early maps of Offaly. This is followed by minute comparisons of the Larkin tracings for west Offaly with the published Larkin atlas of 1809. Dr Arnold Horner has prepared an in-depth lecture on map-making in King’s County in the early nineteenth century where he analyses the significance of the new map tracings attributed to William Larkin which were donated to Offaly Archives last year, and conserved by Liz D’arcy through Heritage Council funding. He particularly looks at features in the landscape around Birr, Banagher, and Ferbane.

  With thanks to Offaly Archives last Tueday’s lecture (16 Aug. 2022) by Dr Arnold Horner is now online as are the maps which are recently conserved.

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  August 25, 2022

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• The grant of Tullamore in 1622 to Sir John Moore of Croghan: the 400th anniversary of the beginning of township in Tullamore. By Michael Byrne, Blog No 376, 23rd April 2022

  Tullamore is a well-preserved town and is the county town of Offaly since an act of parliament in 1832 displaced Philipstown (Daingean) which had been the county town since the shiring of Offaly as part of the new colonial government policies in 1557. The new county to be known as King’s County was then comprised of the baronies reflecting the Gaelic lordships of the O’Connors and that of the O Dempseys. The king in question was none other than Philip II of Spain married at that time to the tragic Queen Mary of England (1553–58) hence the new forts of Philipstown and Maryborough (Portlaoise). The county was extended about 1570 to include the territory of the O Molloys (now to be the baronies of Ballycowan, Ballyboy and Eglish) and also that of the Foxes in Kilcoursey and the MacCoghlans in what would be called Garrycastle. In 1605 the territory of the O Carrolls (to form the baronies of Ballybritt and Clonlisk) was added, as also was the parish of Clonmacnoise (1638) at the behest of Terence Coghlan of Kilcolgan. Those looking for an exciting seventeenth-century history for Tullamore will be disappointed as the surviving evidence of town growth in that troubled century is thin. This week we continue to series to mark the 400th anniversary of Tullamore as a town.

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  April 23, 2022

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