offalyhistoryblog

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
Change, resilience and imagination at Lough Boora: New Sculptural Works by Kevin O’Dwyer unveiled at Lough Boora Discovery Park. Blog No 763, 29th Nov 2025

Two new sculptural works by artist Kevin O’Dwyer have been officially launched at Lough Boora Discovery Park, marking the first major additions to the park’s sculpture collection in over a decade. The works, titled Regeneration and Light as a Feather, reflect the park’s evolving story of transformation from industrial peatlands to a landscape of ecological restoration, culture and public enjoyment.

Regeneration draws inspiration from the seed as a symbol of renewal, growth, and cyclical change. Rising vertically from the ground, the work acknowledges the industrial history of the site while pointing toward its continued regeneration.

Light as a Feather offers a contrasting visual language — a suspended, airy form that engages with space, balance, stillness and the quiet expansiveness of Boora’s open horizon.

“Lough Boora is a place shaped by change, resilience and imagination,” said Kevin O’Dwyer. “These works are rooted in the landscape’s capacity to hold memory while continually becoming something new. O’Dwyer says it has been an honour to contribute to this next chapter in the park’s cultural and environmental renewal.”
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November 29, 2025
Tullamore Jail moves the muse in T.D. Sullivan. The new annotated edition of Prison Poems; or Lays of Tullamore (1888, new edition 2025). By Terry Moylan and Pádraig Turley. Blog No 762, 26th Nov. 2025

Timothy Daniel Sullivan MP published Prison Poems; or Lays of Tullamore in 1888, printed by The Nation at 90 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin. What are these about? What made Sullivan write them?

[Before moving to that we wish to congratulate the authors on the issue of the new annotated edition of Prison Poems; or Lays of Tullamore from Terry Moylan and Pádraig Turley and published by Offaly History with the support of the Decade of Commemorations funding. The book is now on sale and is available from Offaly History Bury Quay and online at www.offalyhistory.com. Ed.]

These were written during a most tempestuous, unsettled, tumultuous decade in Irish history, the 1880s. The Land War was at its height under the leadership of Charles S. Parnell. The campaign for Home Rule had turned to dust. William Ewart Gladstone the British Prime Minister had brought forward a Home Rule Bill in 1886, which by today`s criteria might appear modest, but for its time was seen as revolutionary. This set off alarm bells which would do irreparable damage to the ruling Liberal Party.
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November 26, 2025
Shannon Bases and Viking Raids in Offaly. By John Dolan. Blog No 761, 21 Nov. 2025

There are a number of references in the Annals to Viking bases been set up on the Shannon, particularly in the larger lakes of Lough Derg and Lough Ree. There were two distinct periods of Viking activity on Lough Ree starting In the ninth century when the Vikings had a fleet on the lough. The Annals of Ulster for 845AD say ‘There was an encampment of the foreigners i.e. under Tuirgéis on Loch Rí, and they plundered Connacht and Mide, and burned Cluain Moccu Nóis (Clonmacnoise) with its oratories, and Cluain Ferta Brénainn (Clonfert), and Tír dá Glas (Terryglass) and Lothra (Lorrha) and other monasteries’. Later another base was built between Dromineer and Castlelough in the lands of the O’Sextons. It was from the Shannon that the majority of raids into County Offaly were carried out. A very early and unusual entry in the Annals of Ulster for 749 says ‘ships with their crews were seen in the air above Cluain Moccu Nóis’.

The following year Tuirgéis was captured by Maelsechlainn and drowned by him in Lough Owel outside Mullingar. The Annals of Ulster for 922AD say ‘The fleet of Limerick, that is of Ailche’s son went on Loch Rí, plundered Clonmacnoise and all the islands on Loch Rí and took great booty in gold, silver and much treasure’. In 924AD the entry reads ‘Kolli son of Bárðr ‘Lord of Luimnech’ raids Lough Ree’.
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November 21, 2025
Vikings on the Shannon. By John Dolan. Blog No 760, 14 Nov. 2025

There is little doubt that contact by sailors from Norway had occurred over many years in the 8^th and 9^th centuries between the islands of northern Scotland, the east coast of England and with Ireland. Most of these sailors would have been fishermen or traders and would have acquired details of the Irish coastline, location of rivers and awareness of monastic sites. This intelligence was readily available when the Viking raiders came calling.

Tony Lucas in his paper on the plundering of Irish churches makes the point that of the 309 ecclesiastical sites that were plundered between 600 and 1163AD, the Irish themselves were responsible for 139 of these. Only 140 of these can be directly attributed to the Vikings and 19 raids are attributed to the Irish and Norse together. An entry in the Annals of Ulster for 755 records ‘The burning of Cluain Moccu Nóis on the twelfth of the Kalends of April’ by the Irish long before the arrival of any Viking.
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November 14, 2025
An Old Charmer: Meeting Eamon de Valera, Uachtarán na hÉireann, in theÁras. By Fergal MacCabe. No. 22 in the 2025 Offaly History anniversaries series. Blog No 759, 7th Nov 2025

As this year is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Eamon de Valera it is probably a good time to recount meeting this towering (literally) but often controversial figure.

It would now appear to have been discontinued, but in those days the newspapers regularly printed a sort of Court Circular announcing the official engagements of Uachtarán na hÉireann. Dev’s visitors seemed to be drawn almost exclusively from visiting American priests and nuns, so in 1970 I wrote him a rather provocative letter accusing him of being out of touch with ordinary Irish people – especially go ahead modern youngsters such as myself and my wife Brid. How could he possibly know what was happening in the real world!
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November 7, 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.
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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’.
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October 24, 2025
A hidden jewel: The Chapel of the County Hospital in Tullamore. By Fergal MacCabe. A contribution to our Anniversaries series No 20. Blog No 756, 18th October 2025

The recent decision of the Health Services Executive to allocate funding for the renewal of the windows, doors and walls of the chapel of the original Offaly County Hospital, Tullamore is a welcome and well-timed architectural conservation initiative.

Opened in 1964, the building, which is a Protected Structure of Regional Importance, is an interesting example of stylistic change in Irish church architecture in the mid-20th century.

Though its exterior has been compromised by surrounding buildings, the serene and elegant interior is still totally intact.
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October 18, 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.’
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October 15, 2025