KILBEGGAN GRAVEYARD HAS A FEW INTERESTING STORIES TO TELL, by Stan McCormack

 A group of volunteers, supporting the work of Renew Kilbeggan, got together some time ago with the idea of cleaning up St Beccan’s Church of Ireland graveyard. The result of this work has recovered 28 gravestones and a booklet has been produced showing the inscriptions. However, there is much more to this event, as the  gravestones reveal stories that travel from Ireland to Australia, a young woman described as the first female paediatrician in Ireland, events like the 1798 rebellion, the founding of Kilbeggan Distillery,  the famous Knighthood of a local innkeeper,  Ribbonmen and  Secret Societies, cattle driving, a rector who had an affair with the wife of  Kilbeggan MP John Philpott Curran, and a Wesleyan who provided the first building for the  Sisters of Mercy in Kilbeggan in 1879.

Lost Archives of Offaly: Part 1

The lost archives series: no 1, the original diaries of Bishop Plunket of Meath (1738-1827) and the Meath Diocesan Archive

Michael Byrne

An  Offaly History Project for 2016-22

Offaly History has embarked on the provision of an archive for the housing of historical records for County Offaly. A building has been acquired and the work of renovation and fitting out will soon begin. Partners will be needed and financial support for a capital project that will cost €300,000 at least. The Society opened its present offices in 1992 at Bury Quay, Tullamore. That building is an historical research centre, comprising a public reading room, a bookshop, library of 15,000 volumes (catalogue on line at offalyhistory.com), exhibition space and a lecture hall. Archival material has been collected by the society since the 1990s and now needs a safe home. Each item needs to be catalogued and  housed properly. The work of bringing it to the notice of the public has started, and for this see http://www.offalyhistoryarchives.com, where an ever increasing amount of material is now being placed online. This weekly blog is intended to keep you informed of historical matters in the county. If you would like to contribute a piece email us at info@offalyhistory.com. If you have papers to donate be sure to call us. We will visit, assess and advise on retention or not (in itself a big decision).

Clara and the Goodbody textile factory and mills, by Michael Goodbody

Clara has the distinction of being one of the only towns in the Irish midlands to have increased in size in the years between the Famine and Independence in 1921. This growth was entirely due to the industrial activities of the Goodbody family, whose mills and textile factories provided employment for large numbers drawn from the surrounding countryside.

The Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement and its South Kildare meeting, 5-7 May 2017.

The Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement

South Kildare meeting, 5-7 May 2017

Michael Byrne

Welcome to the South Kildare Conference on Friday 5 May from Kildare County Council

The Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement (GSIHS) was founded by Dr Robin Glasscock, then of Queen’s, in 1969. We are now talking of a celebratory conference in Dublin in 2019 to mark that occasion. GSIHS can rightly be proud of all that it has achieved over the last forty-eight years. Not only has it held together but it has gone from strength to strength. The aim of the Group was clearly set out at its inaugural meeting and was often repeated in the bulletins and newsletters of the 1970s.

Hugh Mahon

Book  launch on 27 April 2017 at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore at 8pm on Hugh Mahon, Killurin, Killeigh parish native who made a name for himself in Australia

This year marks the 160^th anniversary of the birth of Hugh Mahon, a native of County Offaly, who, after a difficult start in Ireland, found fame and fortune in Australia, where he rose to high political office, serving as a Labour member of the Australian parliament for two decades and as a government minister four times.

A new book, Hugh Mahon: Patriot, Pressman, Politician tells the fascinating life-story of this son of the county, whose relations still live in and around Tullamore. The book will be launched at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore on Thursday 27 April 2017 at a lecture to be given by the book’s author Australian historian Jeff Kildea.

Kilbeggan Races 1840-2017, by Stan McCormack

Next meeting 21 April 2017

It is probable that some form of racing took place in Kilbeggan before the first recorded meeting on 9^th March 1840, which according to tradition was held in the townland of Kilbeg. The main race was the Challenge Cup worth 40 guineas and an entry fee of £3, which clearly indicated that it was for the gentry and not the common people. The race was won by T. Crofton’s Razor but “not without very keen stroping”. The races were held over three heats of two miles- all run on the same day. It was stated that 30,000 attended and “on every side was to be seen happy hearts, smiling countenances and sparkling eyes”. The races continued during the famine years and mass emigration with the support of families like the Locke’s, Codd’s, Connolly’s of Loughnagore, Clarkes of Meldrum, Colgans, Kelly’s,  etc. The racing ended in 1855 due to financial problems & faction fighting. The first ever races in the current Loughnagore site was held in 1846.

P. & H. Egan of Tullamore, 1852-1968, by David Egan

Patrick and Henry Egan are perhaps the two brothers whose names are most synonomous with the Tullamore business of P. & H. Egan Ltd. However it was Patrick and Henry’s father, Patrick Egan snr, who first established the business in 1852, and under whose name the company traded in the early years.

The King’s County: Epitome of its History, Topography & C. (Birr, 1883, reprinted 1998.) Review by Dorothee Bibby

Recently, I purchased a little booklet ‘The Kings County: Epitome of its History, Topography & C. by J. St. George Joyce ’ at the Offaly History bookshop at Bury Quay, Tullamore. Joyce was the first editor of the Midland Tribune in 1881. This pamphlet style read was published by him in 1883. It is remarkable that the original booklet would be a rare treasure to have today (maybe you should check your loft…). I enjoyed the old advertising with sentences like: Liver Complaints cured by Dr. King’s Dandelion and Quinine Liver Pills (without Mercury). Hair loss and Gout were all curable thanks to newly discovered ointments. Also monthly painless dentistry visits from Dublin Surgeon Dentists to the midland towns are listed, and every advertisement promises ‘modest rates’ for the product! (The book can be ordered online at http://www.offalyhistory)

A Murder at Birr Barracks, by Stephen Callaghan

 

Birr Barracks was constructed by Bernard Mullins between 1809-1812, during the height of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) in Europe. The Barracks saw various regiments of the British Army stationed there. The Barracks was burned to the ground in July 1922 by North Tipperary Brigade, IRA. In 110 years of existence there were many notable, interesting events and scandals, one of the more macabre events was the murder of Adjutant Robertson Mackay of the 5^th Fusiliers by Private George Jubee, this is their story.

Arthur Bell Nicholls’ Return to Banagher, 1861 – 1906, Part 1: A New Lifestyle by James Scully

Haworth

Arthur Bell Nicholls first came to Banagher in 1825 when he and his brother Alan were adopted by their uncle, the Rev. Alan Clerke Bell, master of Banagher Royal School and his wife, Harriette. Following a successful education there he entered Trinity College Dublin and graduated in 1844. The following year he was ordained and entered the curacy at Haworth in Yorkshire where Patrick Brontë was perpetual curate. He remained there for sixteen years. During this time he became a dedicated and trustworthy friend of the Brontë family and would have witnessed at close quarters the joyful  and  heartbreaking  events that befell them. Within the first three years of his curacy the Brontë sisters had their poems and first novels published. Jane Eyre by Charlotte, Wuthering Heights by Emily and Agnes Grey by Anne were all highly acclaimed. Tragically between September  1848 and  May 1849  Branwell,  Patrick’s only son, and both Emily and Anne died leaving Charlotte as the last surviving of  the six Brontë siblings.