The founding of Tullamore Credit Union in April 1963 was one of the best things that ever happened in Tullamore. The same can be said of the credit union movement founded in Ireland in the late 1950s. How did it come about? How was it sustained? Who were the leaders, managers and staff at the front line? The success of a community-based, people-centred and voluntary effort is all the more relevant today when people often have only machines to turn to in the provision of services and some feel disenfranchised both at local and central government level. ‘We ourselves’ was heard a lot in this ‘Decade of Centenaries’. It was also the cry of the credit union founders in the Lemass-led early 1960s when practical steps were taken to stem the flow of emigration and provide employment opportunities at home through the provision of credit where it could be useful.
April 16th 2023 was the 100th anniversary of the death of James Perry Goodbody, a significant figure in business and political life in County Offaly. His family were connected with the commercial life of Clara from 1825 and were by the 1900s the largest employers in the county. He was a contributor to local government and pushed forward the provision of facilities for TB patients when nobody wanted such a hospital in their neighborhood.
James Perry Goodbody. Courtesy of Michael Goodbody
James Perry Goodbody was the second son of Marcus Goodbody and Hannah Woodcock Perry (a daughter of James Perry) and a grandson of Robert Goodbody who came to Clara in 1825. He was born in 1853 and married in 1875 Sophia Richardson, a daughter of Joseph Richardson, a prominent linen merchant of Springfield, Lisburn at the Lisburn Quaker meeting house.[1] She predeceased him in 1917. He graduated with a B.A. from Trinity College, Dublin. James Perry Goodbody was the principal partner in the Clara mills, M. J. & L. Goodbody, and also in Goodbody businesses in Tullamore and Limerick.[2] The three main family businesses of M., J. & L. Goodbody, J. & L.F. Goodbody and T.P. & R. Goodbody (besides the peripheral businesses) probably employed about 1,500 people in the 1920s.[3] Of this number about 700 jobs were in Clara, down from perhaps 1,000 in 1890, in the businesses, the houses and the farms.[4] This employment figure may be conservative. He served on the King’s County Grand Jury and was high-sheriff in 1893–4.[5] He was said to have been the only member of the old grand jury to be returned in the 1899 county council election and served as a member of the council up to 1920.[6] He was elected by the members to the vice chair of the county council in 1912. The Midland Tribune commented at the time that his dissent from a grand jury motion in 1895 against Home Rule was noted in his favour.[7] He was valued by the council members for his business acumen and chaired the Finance and Proposals Committee from 1899.[8] In 1916 he was instrumental in securing a dispensary for tubercular patients in Tullamore built at no cost to the council.[9] He served for many years as chairman of Clara Petty Sessions where his motto was ‘fair play’ to rich and poor alike and, it was noted, always disposed to temper justice with mercy.[10]
Today, 14 April 2023, will see the first event in the new Esker Arts Centre at High Street, Tullamore. Part of the new arts building was once ‘a ballroom of romance’ when owned by the Kenny family of musicians with their own dance hall to the back of their house at no. 12 High Street. Memories of that hall and the Kenny Band were recalled almost forty years ago in reports compiled by the Tullamore Tribune. We had no county archives at that time and wonder have the precious posters and scrapbook mentioned in the articles survived. In an earlier blog we looked at the story of no. 13 High Street. No. 12 dates to 1790 and nos 13 (Esker Arts) and GV 14 (Ulster Bank) may well be 1750s in date although the head lease to 13 and 14 High Street was to Elizabeth Crofton and dates from only 1801.
Rathrobin House, Mountbolus was the most modern and one of the finest of the ‘Big Houses’ burnt by the anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War of 1922-3. Its loss was a tragedy for the district and for its owner and builder Lt Col Middleton Biddulph. Today the house is a ruin and the intended tomb of the old colonel in Blacklion churchyard remains empty. Biddulph was a generous man of independent means and was not dependent on exacting high rents from his tenants and employees with whom he was on the best of terms. Much has been written of the trauma experienced by participants in the Civil War, of the needless killings and the executions (81). It was a shocking time for the two sides and many innocent people suffered also. Perhaps some of the post-Civil War trauma and the silence can be attributed to the consideration that the war may have been an unfortunate and costly mistake. It may have seemed so to some of the participants following the success of the Free State and Fianna Fáil governments in rolling back on the oath, dominion status and the ports in the 1930–38 period. Thus confirming the ‘stepping stone’ thesis. As with the Spanish Civil War (much more violent) there is, even now, a kind of Pact of Forgetting (Pacto del Olvido) with people wanting to move on and forget about something that should not have happened. Yet, it is important to record the events of that period and what brought about the shocking atrocities especially in Kerry. County Offaly had its share in these tragedies.
This week saw the launch of John Feehan’s latest work Camcor the River of Birr published by Offaly County Council. It could be argued that it is a book that he has been working on for a lifetime as he was reared on the banks of the Camcor in Birr town and has been living close to it for the majority of his life, exploring and observing over the decades. While it is the river associated with Birr the book sets out the formation of the geology of the tributaries in the Slieve Bloom and follows the progress of the river to where it meets the Little Brosna in Birr Demesne. As with all John Feehan’s books it is a masterpiece in presenting knowledge about all aspects of the landscape in a digestible and engaging format. The book is A4 in format, softback, full colour, and extensively illustrated with upwards of 200 photographs, charts, maps and drawings – all carefully selected. Some of the chapters open with double page spreads and the overall effect is pleasing as there is no sense of clutter. Full marks to the author, designers and printers of this important addition to Offaly’s local and natural history. John Feehan has been a major contributor to Offaly’s growing library of publications since his seminal Slieve Bloom in 1979.
The contents of the book are wide ranging with chapters of The Course of the Camcor, The main tributary, the Nature of Rivers, Natural History, Mills and Distilleries, Draining the Camcor basin, The River in our Service, Crossing the river and the bridges of the Camcor and the concluding Afterward appropriately titled ‘Looking ahead’.
With preparations for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement now underway, and especially with the historic visit of President Joe Biden to Ireland fast approaching, I find myself thinking again about the crucial importance of Irish America throughout our recent history. This is true not only with regards to current events, but also to the earlier part of the 20th Century whose decisions and conflicts so profoundly shaped the challenges we still face, as we work to maintain peace, stability and democracy across our island.
From the mid 19thCentury the Irish Independence movement was always closely connected with the huge Irish American population dispersed across many parts of the USA during and after the Famine, and those struggling for Independence benefitted from Irish America’s long standing and vital support for positive change in the country which so many Americans still called home. This dynamic was as true in the volatile situation of early 1922, of which I have written in my recent book, Fierce Tears, Frail Deeds, as it is now.
The ‘Second Reformation’ initiated by Magee was marked by:
An exhibition charting the development of the ‘Second Reformation’, one of the most significant periods of nineteenth-century Ireland, is currently running in Birr Library and is open to the public. Furthermore, a public lecture by Dr Ciarán McCabe (QUB) in Birr Library on Wednesday 5 April (at 6.30pm) will discuss the ‘Second Reformation’ (including the infamous Birr Crotty Schism) and the development of the exhibition.
There are a few surviving published diaries of soldiers who served in the British army in Ireland from the 1700s to the 1900s.[1] One such is that of colour sergeant Calladine whose account of his time stationed in the Midlands in 1822 (at pp 108-109) is of interest as to how soldiers were occupied at the time.[2]
George Calladine was born in Wimeswould, Leicester in 1793, the son of a gardener. After his father died, he was apprenticed to a framework knitter, but found the work boring. He joined the Derbyshire militia in 1810, and then the 19th Foot in the regular army. In 1814, his regiment was posted to Ceylon, and helped to put down a rebellion. The 19th Regiment of Foot was sent to Ireland in 1821, where Calladine, by now married, lived with his wife and children in barracks. In 1826, he chose to remain in Ireland as a hospital sergeant, rather than accompany his regiment to the West Indies. He was discharged from the army after twenty-seven years’ service in 1837, with a pension 2s. 1½d. per day. He returned to Derby and became the master of a workhouse. He and his wife had thirteen children, eleven of whom died in infancy. Calladine himself died in 1876, aged 83. In the excerpt below, Calladine discusses some of his courting experiences as his regiment moved from Hull to Westminster to Weedon. While he was unsuccessful, he was not the stereotypical irresponsible soldier seducing any young woman whom he came across. (From Women, Soldiers and the British army, 1700–1880 (London, 2020).
Calladine was in Clare Castle, County Clare in 1828 – a poor miserable place about a mile from Ennis and where two of his children died (see A tale of Old Clare per Google).
Calladine spoke well of Tullamore town but described the barracks as old. The barracks had been built in 1716 (located where the garda station is now located and the streets around) and survived until destroyed by the Republican IRA departing from Tullamore on 20 July 1922 during the course of the Civil War. Now read the diary extract:
Do you want to know more about your townland? In this article you will discover the origin name, meaning and history of some of the townlands in the parish of Kilbride, Tullamore. The civil parishes of Kilbride and Durrow are closely aligned with the boundaries of the Catholic parish of Tullamore
The description of the parish of Durrow and Kilbride from Petty’s Down Survey of c. 1654.The soil is fertile and watered by the Silver River and the Brasnagh – with great store of fish. The forfeited lands were those of the Briscoes of Srah Castle and the Herberts of Ballycowan Castle. Tullamore lands were owned by the settler Moores from the 1600s-20s period and as such Protestant and not for planting with new owners.(more…)
Bell Hill is a small townland close to the village of Clareen, Co. Offaly. The Bell Hill itself is situated on high ground with good views in all directions. A large bush sits on the hill and is known locally as the Bell Bush. There are a few other locations in Ireland called Bell Hill.
The story of Bell Hill starts with St. Ciarán of Saighir and is mentioned in nearly all of the Lives of the Saint. The story links St. Ciarán with St. Patrick and is probably best told in the Life of Ciarán as translated by Ingrid Sperber from the Codex Kilkenniensis, held in Marsh’s Library, Dublin.
In this Latin Life we find that when Ciarán ‘heard of the existence of the Christian religion in the city of Rome, he left Ireland and travelled thither. On his arrival, he was baptised and instructed in the Catholic faith, he remained there for 20 years, reading the Sacred Scriptures, collecting holy books, and studiously learning ecclesiastical rules. And when the people of Rome saw the wisdom and discretion, the piety and faith of the holy man Ciaran, he was ordained bishop and afterwards sent to Ireland, his native country.
And St Patrick, the Archbishop of all Ireland, met him on the road in Italy, and God’s two saints rejoiced in their meeting…. at that time St. Patrick was not yet a bishop, but he was later ordained archbishop by Pope Celestine and sent to preach in Ireland… and Patrick said to Ciaran, ‘go before me to the centre of Ireland, to a spring called Fuaran, on the border between the Southern and the Northern Irish. Build a monastery there, for there will be your estate and your resurrection’. St Ciaran said to him, ‘the location of this spring is unknown to me’. St Patrick answered him, ‘dear brother, proceed without anxiety, and God will be with you. Accept as your travelling companion this bell, which will remain dumb until you arrive at the same spring. When you have reached it, the bell will emit a clear sound and ring sweetly.… when St Ciaran reached Ireland, God directed him to the spring called Fuaran, and there the bell of the holy man rang clearly. This bell is called Bardan Ciaran and is kept and greatly honoured in the monastery of St Ciaran and throughout his entire diocese’.
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