Remembering John Flanagan, the Tullamore builder and developer, who died on 9 May 2024. An obituary from Offaly History

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.

Offaly and the Great War essays published in 2018 now on Open Access to all. Thanks to the Decade of Centenaries

The bumper volume of essays (list below) in Offaly and the Great War (Offaly History, 2018) can now be accessed free online at www.offalyhistory.com thanks to the Decade of Centenaries. The book of 28 essays is also available in hardcopy from Offaly History for just €20. In all over 50 articles free to download. Go to the Decade of Centenaries on the offalyhistory.com website.

When the great historian and first ‘telly don’ A.J.P. Taylor published his short history of the First World War just in time for the remembrance days of over fifty years ago he wrote that the war reshaped the political order in Europe. That its memorials stood in every town and village and that the real hero of the war was the Unknown Soldier.

Former Tullamore Tribune journalist Séamus Dooley recalls the political career of veteran Fianna Fáil TD for Laois/Offaly Ger Connolly.

The death of Ger Connolly at Droimnin Nursing Home, Stradbally on 25^th January 2024 marks the end of an era in the political life of County Offaly.   

 Aged 86 Gerard C (Ger) Connolly was a former Fianna Fáil  councillor, TD and Minister of State  who might best be described as the great survivor of Offaly politics, with an unbroken record as TD from 1969 until his retirement in 1997.  He was witness to and an important figure in some of the most turbulent times in Irish politics, as a devoted supporter of Charles J Haughey during the Eighties.

His entry onto the national stage and his electoral record mark him out as one of the most significant figures in  a five seat constituency with no shortage of political titans including a former Taoiseach and three former cabinet ministers.

Colourful, engaging and often provocative in political debates  Ger Connolly was hugely popular throughout the constituency,  securing first preference across traditional party boundaries, especially in North Offaly. He loved the cut and thrust of politics and his one liners and bot mots, delivered with theatrical flair, often enlivened debates in Offaly County Council and Dáil Eireann.

He was also a diligent constituency worker and as Minister of State made a significant contribution to the implementation of new policies on urban renewal and inner city development. 

Strongly supportive of the construction industry and a firm believer in encouraging private sector development he relished his  role as Minister of State at the Department of the Environment.  He had a reputation as a decisive Minister of State and enjoyed good relations with civil servants, often surprising those who might have initially mistaken his mischievous smile and faux distain for detail.

The late Girvan McKay/Garbhan MacAoidh, Tullamore. By Declan McSweeney

The late Girvan McKay/Garbhan MacAoidh, who died recently at the age of 94, was Presbyterian Minister in Tullamore and Mountmellick from 1983-96 and made a huge contribution to the local community. After retirement, he and his wife Máire continued to reside at Clonminch, Tullamore. A service in his memory was held at the Presbyterian Church, Tullamore on Saturday 13 January 2024.

Our thoughts are with her and their sons Ruairidh, Conall and Somhairle and their families.

He was a distinctive figure within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) due to his never having lived in Northern Ireland, in contrast to the great majority of that church’s ministers.