Kilcruttin cemetery is located off Cormac Street and close to the boundaries of what is now Scoil Mhuire. Indeed, the original access lane and entrance to this cemetery is still to be seen. It’s the oldest cemetery in Tullamore town and dates back to the 1700s. At one time it was on the outskirts of the town and in soft poor ground close to the Tullamore river. It was not the cemetery of choice for the upper ten in Tullamore, but nonetheless has some very good monuments including that to the Methodist merchant Burgess and the German baron Oldershausen of the King’s German Legion, the heroes of Waterloo.
Tullamore
Remembering John Walsh of Tullamore, executed behind enemy lines at Guise in Northern France on 25 February 1915: a man of Iron.
Presented by Offaly History
The men were taken from their cells and subjected to a savage beating. Half-conscious they were led into a courtyard at the giant fort of Guise in northern France. All hope was extinguished once they saw that a ditch had been dug. The men were executed by a German firing squad in batches of six and dumped in a shallow grave. A German officer provided the coup de grâce to the French civilian Vincent Chalandre. When his body was exhumed after the war, he was found to have a bullet in the back of his head. Continue reading
Eamon de Valera made his first visit to Tullamore on 29 July 1917
‘England will give nothing to Ireland out of justice or righteousness. They will concede you your liberties when they must.’ T.M. Russell quoting C.S. Parnell
by Cosney Molloy
Intimations of the change of mood in Ireland were, of course, obvious from May 1916 and none more so than a year later when de Valera visited Tullamore on 29 July 1917, shortly after his win in the famous Clare by-election. Continue reading
The Tribune generations: from broadsheet to compact edition
The Midland Tribune and Tullamore Tribune went to a new compact edition in June 2017 after a broadsheet format in the case of the Midland since 1881 and that of Tullamore since 1978. A few whimsical reflections are ‘posted’ here on happenings since 1881, derived from many hours spent looking at the old files of both newspapers. Continue reading
James I. Fanning, editor of the Midland Tribune, 1947-89
‘Father of Slieve Bloom’ and ‘Patron of the Tullamore Regional Hospital’
This blog is published to mark the new compact edition of the Midland Tribune and Tullamore Tribune (from 15 June 2017) and to reflect on the history of the Tribune since 1881. One who contributed much to the newspaper and to County Offaly was editor proprietor James I. Fanning of Birr who died in 1990. Continue reading
From Edenderry to the Cape of Good Hope: The Story of the Right Rev. Bishop John Rooney, Vicar Apostolic of the Western Cape. By Maurice Egan
‘I found him’ I declared to my wife.
You see, as a child his was the Consecration Cross above my mother and father’s bed. On enquiring the significance of the cross, my mother would dismissively direct ‘Ask your father’. So, the story went that the cross came all the way back from Cape Town, South Africa to Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland and was the Consecration Cross of the late Bishop John Rooney, Vicar Apostolic of the Western Cape Vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.
Bishop Rooney died 90 years ago in 1927. Continue reading
The Egan Brothers and the Battle of Messines, 7-14 June 1917, a precursor to the 3rd Battle of Ypres, by Maurice Egan
The battle was an offensive planned by the Allied forces on the western front, taking place from the 7th to the 14th June 1917. British, Canadian and ANZAC forces were actively involved in the objective of taking the German, heavily fortified and ‘impregnable’ 15kms long, Messines Ridge in western Belgium. The New Zealand division was assigned the task of attacking the southern bastion of the German defences upon the ridge. The Irish 16th Division, including the Royal Irish Regiment were assigned the task of attacking the north eastern fortified ridge. Continue reading
Liam Ó Briain visits Tullamore on Easter Sunday morning 23 April 1916 to issue countermand orders to the Volunteers and tell them the Rising was off.
Ó Briain set off early on Easter Sunday morning 1916 in a motor taxi to deliver the countermand order to the local Volunteer contacts in Offaly and Tyrrellspass. Beatty he located in Edenderry but not finding Smith in Tyrrellspass, went on to Tullamore to a small shop owned by Eamonn Carroll. O’Carroll had worked in Scally’s shoe store in Columcille Street, now the AIB bank, but was dismissed after the fracas on 20 March and how had his own store in the same street. In the kitchen of a house in Church Street Ó Briain met Séamus O’Brennan, who was on the run since the fracas in Tullamore and had been in Kimmage.
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.
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 5th Fusiliers by Private George Jubee, this is their story. Continue reading
