Pollagh also spelt as Pullough, is located in a small village in County Offaly, it is in the Civil Parish of Lemanaghan. A small parish, it extends from Ballycumber to Ferbane. Pollagh village can be found on the north side of the canal. The Parish lies in the territory of Dealbhna Eathra of the MacCoghlans – an ancient people. It has a rich heritage in its archaeology including the important monastic site, churches, and ringforts and the famous castles.
One of The townlands that we come along as we work our way down the line is Pollagh, the name in Irish is Pollach, meaning Place full of Holes.
Townland
Area
Pop in 1841
Pop in 1851
No. of Houses in 1841
No. of Houses in 1851
Pop in 1871
Pop in 1911
No. of Houses in 1871
No. of Houses in 1911
Pollagh
907
267
168
43
33
282
223
42
50
An interesting profile in the fall and rise of the population due one assumes to the successful brick industry.
There is an open invitation to all those interested in the River Brosna to come to the book launch on Friday 22 March at 7.30pm in The Star (GAA hall) River Street, Clara hosted by Clara Heritage Society.
John Feehan has dedicated much of his life to studying and communicating the evolution of the landscape and how we have lived in and changed it – his previous Offaly publications have included books on the Slieve Blooms, Croghan Hill, the Landscape of Clonmacnoise, An Atlas of Birr and more recently Killaun Bog and the Camcor River. This new publication focuses on the River Brosna and its catchment.
The River Brosna is one of Ireland’s hidden rivers, glimpsed over bridges and for short stretches as it travels through Mullingar, Ballinagore, Kilbeggan, Clara, Ballycumber and Ferbane on its journey from Lough Owel to ShannonHarbour. Until now very little has been written about it yet few rivers have a more fascinating and varied story to tell. In this beautifully illustrated book John Feehan brings his long experience as an environmental scientist and historian to bear on all aspects of the natural, cultural and industrial heritage of the river and its catchment. Successive chapters review geological origins, the biodiversity of the river and its tributaries as well as the great area of bogland it drains. The history of the mills along the course of the river, and of the two great arterial schemes that so altered the river are reviewed and particular attention is devoted to the extraordinary stories of Mesolithic Lough Boora and the Bronze Age Dowris hoard.
Part two of this presentation looks at the Charleville and Macartney aqueducts west of Tullamore and the Silver River aqueduct halfway between Ballycommon and Kilbeggan.
THE CHARLEVILLE AQUEDUCT
The Clodiagh River rises in Knockachoora Mountain in Sliabh Bloom and flows swiftly through Clonaslee and on under Gorteen, Clonad and Mucklagh bridges into Charleville Demesne before passing under the Charleville Aqueduct, just before its confluence with the Tullamore River at Kilgortin in Rahan. Less than half a mile upstream on the canal stands the Huband Aqueduct overlooked by the imposing Ballycowan Castle.
The Charleville Aqueduct is called after Charles William Bury who had become Viscount Charleville in December 1800 and it was as such, he was recorded in the lists of attendees of the Court of Directors of the Grand Canal Company during the years the canal was being constructed from Tullamore to Shannon Harbour, 1801-04.
Image 1.excerpt from the minutes
An excerpt from the minutes of a meeting of the canal company held 24th February 1801 where Lord Charleville’s request for the use of one of the company’s boats for the purpose of conveying Lady Charleville to town was accommodated. The memo further states that his wife was in a precarious state of health, most likely an allusion to her being in the advanced stages of pregnancy as her son Charles William Bury was born nine weeks later, on 29th April 1801. (Courtesy of National Archives of Ireland, Dublin)
Image 2. Charles William Bury, 2nd earl
Charles William Bury, 2nd Earl of Charleville, born late April 1801, seated in red cloak before a curtain, portrait by Henry Pierce Bone, 1835.
C. J. Woods’s entry for the first earl of Charleville, (1764-1835), in Dictionary of Irish Biography, R. I. A., (2009), gives a concise résumé of his adult life:
Bury was MP for Kilmallock in 1789–90 and 1791–7, becoming Baron Tullamore on 26 November 1797, Viscount Charleville on 29 December 1800, and 1st earl of Charleville (of the second creation) on 16 February 1806. He was an Irish representative peer from 1801 until his death. With Johnston he designed and built a Gothic castle on his demesne, Charleville Forest, 3 km south-west of Tullamore. Begun by November 1800, it was completed in 1808, to which a terrace, lawns, artificial lake, grotto, and 1,500 acres of woodland were added. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1803 and a fellow of the Society of Arts in 1814, Charleville had ‘wide intellectual interests which never came to fruition’. The earl of Charleville died 31 October 1835 in his lodgings at Dover and was buried at Charleville.
Fred Hammond’s great survey of the bridges in Offaly (2005) gives the following description of the building:
Triple-span masonry bridge carries Grand Canal over Clodiagh River. Abutments, piers and cutwaters are of dressed limestone blocks, regularly laid. The cutwaters are of triangular profile and rise to arch spring level at both ends of the piers. The arches are of segmental profile and each spans 3.07m; their voussoirs are of finely dressed stone. The soffits are very slightly dipped towards their centres to accommodate the bed of the canal. Dressed string course over arch crowns. Parapets are of random rubble, coped with dressed masonry blocks. The parapets are spaced at 10.08m and terminate in out-projecting dressed stone piers. The east end of the south parapet has been rebuilt. The canal narrows to 4.50m, with tow paths either side. The sides are stone lined at this point and there are timber stop slots at the east end of the aqueduct.
Hammond considered the edifice worthy of regional heritage importance.
THE MACARTNEY AQUEDUCT
Image 3.Detail of William Ashford’s painting
Detail of William Ashford’s painting of the crowded scenes at the opening of the Ringsend Docks, Dublin, 23 April 1796, showing Lord Camden, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, conferring a knighthood on Mr. John Macartney with the Westmoreland, Buckingham and Camden Locks in the background. Macartney can be seen in a genuflected position on the right-hand quay wall beneath a billowing British naval flag. (Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland)
This is the western-most aqueduct in Offaly straddling the townlands of Falsk and Derrycarney, south of Ferbane. The structure is named after Sir John Macartney, one of the more influential directors of the Grand Canal Company. As alluded to above he was knighted by the Lord Lieutenant at the opening of the Grand Canal Docks in 1796, “in consequence of his energetic exertions in the promotion of the inland navigation of Ireland.” Like Huband’s Aqueduct at Ballycowan, it has two commemorative plaques dating it to 1803.
Image 4. Commemorative plaque dated 1803
Commemorative plaque dated 1803 on the south parapet wall of the Macartney Aqueduct.
Fred Hammond’s appraisal of the building says it all:
This is the largest aqueduct on the Grand Canal in Co. Offaly and second only to the Leinster Aqueduct (Co. Kildare) in size on this canal. It is of high-quality construction and has been sympathetically refurbished. It is of historical interest due to attested date and link with Grand Canal Co. Also, a substantial landscape feature hereabouts. Of national heritage significance, meriting inclusion in Record of Protected Structures.
Image 5. A delightful drawing by Israel Rhodes
A delightful drawing by Israel Rhodes, dated to March 1802, showing details of the steam-powered pump that was used during the construction of the Macartney Aqueduct over the Silver River. This is from the minute books of the Grand Canal Company where such visual representations are very rare. The depiction is signed by Rhodes as engineer and by Arthur Chichester Macartney, then an influential director of the canal company. (Courtesy of National Archives of Ireland, Dublin)
The aqueduct crosses the fast-flowing Silver River after it has meandered over twenty-miles from the slopes of Wolftrap Mountain high up in Sliabh Bloom The river’s course takes it through Cadamstown, Ballyboy, Kilcormac and Lumcloon before joining with the Brosna half a mile downstream of the aqueduct.
Image 6. Map by John Longfield c.1810
Map by John Longfield c.1810 showing the Grand Canal turning sharply to the north-west just downstream of the Macartney Aqueduct and thus avoiding the Gallen, Cloghan and Lumcloon complex of bogs before meandering (almost) from Gallen to Belmont, always in close proximity to the River Brosna. The Silver River is depicted as the Frankford River in deference to the old name for Kilcormac, the last town it passes through before its confluence with the Brosna. (Courtesy of The National Library of Ireland)
SILVER RIVER AQUEDUCT ON THE KILBEGGAN BRANCH
To avoid confusion with the other Silver River crossed by the Macartney Aqueduct, this aqueduct straddles the Silver River which separates the counties of Offaly and Westmeath between the townlands of Bracklin Little and Lowertown. The river rises upstream of New Mill Bridge, in Rahugh, in Westmeath. In Offaly it flows via Derrygolan, Acantha, Gormagh, Ballyduff, Aharney, Coleraine, Coolnahely and Aghananagh before joining the Clodiagh at Aghadonagh, in Rahan. The 1838 six-inch map shows five mills on this relatively short river. The earliest of these mills is probably that at Ballynasrah or Tinnycross as it is shown on John Gwin’s map of the Barony of Ballycowan which was drawn c.1625, almost four hundred years ago.
Image 7. Detail of John Gwin’s map showing Silver River
Detail of John Gwin’s map of the barony of Ballycowan which shows the Silver River flowing from Ballynasrah in the bottom left-hand corner to its confluence the Clodiagh at Aghadonagh on the right- hand side, passing Ballyduff, Aharney and Tullymorerahan. The mill is indicated by a mill-wheel symbol. The map is part of a set of twenty-eight important maps of various parts of Offaly drawn four hundred years ago in the Mathew De Renzy papers in the National Archives in London.
KILBEGGAN BRANCH
As early as 1806 the Grand Canal Company’s engineer John Killaly had prepared a detailed map for a proposed branch from Ballycommon on the main canal to Kilbeggan. This line was closely adhered to when work finally begun twenty-four years later in 1830. An application for funding was made in 1825 and despite strenuous objections from the Royal Canal Company a loan was approved in 1828. In March 1829 Killaly had completed the plans and specifications for the line. A month later William Dargan’s proposal to build the line for £12,850 was accepted.
Image 8 William Dargan
William Dargan, (1799-1867)
From the outset work was slow due to continuous wrangling between the contactor and the company. Dargan had taken his own levels, but the canal company insisted he use those of Killaly. Even when progress was made recurring problems with staunching the huge embankments at Bracklin Little and Lowertown delayed construction. Allied to this was the major distraction of Dargan’s involvement with the building of Ireland’s first railway line.
Image 9. Bracklin Little and Lowertown townlands on the1912
Bracklin Little and Lowertown townlands on the1912 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, showing the meandering Silver River and the dense hachuring between Lowertown and Murphy’s bridges. This represents the steep slopes of the embankments which carry the aqueduct high above the surrounding landscape. Note the overflow at south end of the aqueduct. This was to prevent the level of the canal rising to a height where it would overflow the banks and lead to a major breach. Just like at the Blundell Aqueduct there were twenty-six miles of canal without a lock which would have poured out at this point if a burst occurred, leading to much destruction and a long-term closure of the navigation.
Dargan’s chief biographer Fergus Mulligan describes this episode in Dargan’s life in the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography:
Ireland’s first railway line, the Dublin & Kingstown, opened in 1834 and Dargan was fortunate to win the contract to build it against six competitors. Working under another Telford pupil, Charles Vignoles (qv), as engineer, Dargan began work near Salthill in April 1833, and although he was six months late finishing the line (which opened on 17 December 1834) the penalty clauses in his detailed contract were not enforced. The successful completion of this line gave Dargan a springboard to winning a substantial share of Irish railway construction contracts on offer in the 1840s and 1850s.
Again, we are greatly indebted to Fred Hammond’s monumental survey of all 407 bridges in Offaly in 2005 for a detailed description of this aqueduct:
A tall arched masonry bridge carries the disused Kilbeggan Branch of the Grand Canal over the Silver River at the county boundary. The abutments are of dressed limestone blocks, regularly laid and with finely dressed quoins. The arch is of semi-circular profile, with finely dressed radial voussoirs and dressed stone soffit blocks; it spans 3.59m. The arch is embellished with finely dressed string courses around the tops of the quoins and across the crown. Over the top of the upper string course are four regular courses of dressed stone blocks. They are surmounted by a slightly inset random rubble parapet. The sloping wing walls are detailed as the abutments and are coped with stone flags.
The pioneering travel book on the Irish canals was Green and Silver (London, 1949) by L.T.C. Rolt. Tom Rolt made his voyage of discovery by motor cruiser in 1946 along the course of the Grand Canal, the Royal Canal and the Shannon navigation from Boyne to Limerick. The Delanys writing in 1966, considered Rolt’s book to be the most comprehensive dealing with the inland waterways of Ireland. [1] In this extract Banagher gets a severe press very unlike the optimism of the 1890-1914 period and again in the 1960s. Banagher also got a severe jolt post 2008. Things are now improving with sunlit uplands breaking through.
Moving off to Shannon Harbour Rolt got sight of the many arched bridges at Shannon Bridge and passed beneath the swinging span. See last week’s blog by Donal Boland covering the same trip in 2023 as far as Tullamore.
Shannon Harbour with the police barracks and the collector’s/agent’s house.
“Just below, was the Grand Canal depot with a canal boat lying alongside the quay. Opposite, and commanding the bridge was a gloomy fortress backed by a defensive wall of formidable proportions which extended westward like a grey comb along the crest of yet another of the green esker ridges. It was a symbol of the more peaceful times that have now come to the Shannon that, according to the signs displayed, part of the fortress had now become a village shop and bar.”[2]
A contribution to Tullamore 400 and the Living in Towns initiative of the Heritage Council. Sit down and have a cup of tea with this blog!
A visit by an Irish Press journalist to Tullamore in 1933 provided a nice puff for the Williams tea business and its brand Red Cup Tea. At the time Williams provided regular advertising in the Irish Press for its tea and Edmund Williams (d. 1948) was a founder director of Irish Press. D.E. Williams’ interest in tea can be traced back to 1895. In the Chronicle and the rest of the local press for February 1895 advertisements appeared in connection with the opening of a wholesale tea business by Daniel E. Williams. In a comment the Chronicle stated that most of the blending was done in London where D.E.W. had larger stores than hitherto. The draft 1917 accounts for DEW Ltd show sales at £8,324. This had risen to £13,807 by 1923. The business was much expanded in the 1930s led by the blender, a Mr O’Shea.
From the Irish Press, 5 May 1933. The picture is from an old postcard rather than sending a photographer.Continue reading →
…..The soft and dreary midlands, with their tame canals,
Wallow between sea and sea, remote from adventure….’
‘Dublin Made Me’ Donagh MacDonagh
Lumcloon
Once a month, my uncle Billy Holohan who was the Assistant County Engineer for West Offaly, would come to Tullamore to report to his superior, the County Engineer Tom Duggan, in the courthouse.
After the meeting he would sometimes pick me up from my mother’s house in Clonminch and bring me to stay with himself and his wife Nell in Gallen Lodge in Ferbane. The highlight of the journey, for both of us, was an inspection of the progress on the construction of the two cooling towers of Lumcloon Power Station.
We watched as immense rings of slim, angled columns emerged and were tied together by large circular bands to form the base from which the structures would rise. Over the next few years we marvelled at the gradual ascent of the elegantly modulated shapes, first curving inwards and then subtly outwards to form a lip. Billy tried to explain to me the structural engineering concepts behind the design, but as a small boy I could only marvel at the height and sheer scale of the undertaking.
An impression of the proposed mills at Leamanaghan. Very high and very prolific. Our thanks to Kenneth Smyth for this picture.
Leamanaghan Castle
Unusually for an engineer, Billy had a deep interest in history. He brought me along on his site inspections and introduced me to Clonmacnoise and Sier Kieran. His favourite stop on our return journey to Tullamore was Leamanaghan where we roamed amongst the remains of the Monastery. He delighted in showing me the hoof mark inside the gate of the school which marked the passage of St Manchan’s stolen cow and then brought me over the fields to St Mella’s Kell which I still believe is one of the most romantic spots in Ireland.
Lemanaghan Castle, top left. This was where the Annals of Clonmacnoise was completed. The castle was demolished in the 1950s as was Kilcolgan nearby to provide filler. Courtesy of Offaly Archives
Then in 1959, in an act which was deeply symbolic of Ireland in that peculiar time between economic stagnation and rapid growth, Leamanaghan Castle was bulldozed to provide hardcore for works at Lumcloon Power Station. The Castle, which was derelict but still substantial, had been the ancestral home of the Mac Coghlans. Cardinal Rinuccini had stayed there (or more likely nearby Kilcolgan, also demolished) during his time as Papal Nuncio to the Confederation of Kilkenny and the Annals of Clonmacnoise were translated into English in the house. I was dumbfounded but hadn’t the courage to ask Billy whether it was the ESB or the County Council who were responsible.
Cooling towers of the old economy, so succesful for Offaly from the 1950s to the 2000s in regard to employment.
The Cooling Towers
The cooling towers were completed and over the years, became part of the public perception of the Midland landscape.
Driving westwards you knew you were approaching Kildare and Offaly when the Allenwood towers became visible, then Portarlington and Rhode emerged with Lumcloon in the far distance. Their harmonic shapes complemented Croghan, Endrim and Bellair hills and provided points of vertical interest in an otherwise soft and dreary plain. The bogs, which had been perceived for centuries as profitless and impassable were now a proud testimony to national energy self-sufficiency and local technological advance.
However, with the passage of time, what was originally considered a solution, became a problem and peat extraction began to be wound down with grievous personal and economic consequences which are still being felt. The Power Stations were closed, their towers and buildings demolished and their sites converted to other uses.
Portarlington was the second last to go. At 10.30 on the morning of the 4th of April 1997, the cooling tower that had taken three years to build and stood for forty seven years, vanished in three seconds at the hands of an English demolition expert who already had many redundant cooling towers on his c.v..
Futile last minute efforts to save it were led by the Heritage Council and a local preservation group organised by Progressive Democrat Senator, Cathy Honan. Architect Gerard Carty of Clonbullogue, now a director of the world famous Grafton Architects, wrote in protest that the Power Station was ‘A monument to those visionaries who grafted a semi-industrial outlook onto the principally agricultural psyche of the Midlands’. Their protests crumbled in the face of the ESB’s assertion that ’ It was built for power generation and that function is over’.
The crowds watching the spectacle of the demolition were serenaded by local accordionist Louis Melia who played his composition ’The Tower I Loved So Well’ during the countdown to the explosion.
An era had ended and the advent of wind power was at hand.
Wind Turbines
Because of the absence of nearby dwellings but with existing connections to the national grid, the Midland bogs were identified very early on as first choice locations for large scale wind energy generation. But, whatever about their ecological impacts, the visual impacts of turbines can be a lot more substantial than those of cooling towers.
Unlike one or two isolated towers, turbines spread haphazardly over large areas of the landscape. Though man-made, their scale and large array results in their being read as part of the natural landscape itself- which can be visually disturbing. As the blades rotate in different cycles, they can often cause visual irritation, even from very far away. The scale of the turbines can be incongruous and though they are generally no higher than the former cooling towers, there are a lot more of them. All in all, their visual impacts are significant and often unassimilable. But then, maybe the cooling towers were also, but in the 1950s any development was welcome, while today’s affluence allows us to make choices.
But whether it is cooling towers or turbines, the greatest sensitivity should always be shown when their development impinges on historic sites. Leamonaghan paid a price for the construction of Lumcloon and shouldn’t be put in the firing line a second time.
The old world that was partly destroyed in the 1950s.But the shrine at Lemanaghan survived in its original locus. A remarkable survival in its locale. Ballycumber castle was used for filler as was Kilcolgan. So much for heritage in 1920s to 1960s Ireland. Heritage was in a linguistic form only and divorced from real life.So much empty platitudes.
A Flashpoint
With the imminent lodgement by Bord na Mona of its proposal for a 17-turbine wind farm with blade heights of up to 220 m, the bogland island of Leamanaghan with its ancient monastery and graveyard will be in the forefront of the conflict between architectural heritage and power generation. Preliminary images show turbines dominating its surrounding landscape on its northern side.
However, just as in the 1950s, the likelihood is that national energy needs will trump all other considerations- particularly in the light of the recent correspondence from the Office of the Planning Regulator directing the Council to dramatically increase Offaly’s megawatt production.
This should not mean that the vulnerable character of Leamanaghan be disregarded, but that the most careful consideration needs to be given to the interface between it and the future wind farm. As one of the most sensitive locations in Offaly (and also to make restitution for the shameful razing of the Castle) the balance of the argument should favour the protection of its history and beauty.
The windmills of the past or a message of hope. Lemanaghan 120 years ago before the data centres and when most things were in the head of the local person and not in the Cloud.Courtesy of Offaly Archives
A Return to Profitless Bog?
As wind replaces peat extraction, it is not unthinkable that it may in turn be replaced by a less visually obtrusive or ecologically harmful form of energy production.Turbines last for about twenty years before they need replacement and a point may come when this is no longer economical.
In March of this year the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe declared that ‘Nuclear energy can be a critical component of a decarbonised energy system for those member states that choose to consider it as a part of their sustainable development and climate change strategy’. It will be interesting to see how other European countries respond to the technological advances which are now delivering safer nuclear energy.
I wonder if in seventy- or eighty-years’ time, as the last of the turbines come down and the land gently recedes back into its ancient role of profitless bog abounding in nesting snipe, will a small and nostalgic group emerge to campaign for the preservation of the remaining few of these iconic structures?
Over three years later and we are settled in our 210-year-old house in the heart of Tullamore, far from finished but we are happy to date. We tried to keep as much character as possible within the house with the stone walls. We also kept the original height of the ceilings in the bedrooms which are over 14 feet. Two of the bedrooms have the old iron cast fireplace and we restored them by sanding and spraying them back to their original look.
Store Street and the old church in the mid- 1880s with two or three of the big houses demolished . O’Connell Hall is now the Parish Centre.
Store Street is one of the quieter streets in Tullamore now, but from 1800 to the 950s it was a busy place with the canal stores in use beside the busy harbour. The passenger boat traffic finished in the 1850s with the advent of the railway and the canal hotel became a parochial house for the Catholic clergy. Besides the bustle of draymen was that boys heading up to the old St Brigid’s School from the late 1870s to 1961 while the younger children attended the convent primary school on the corner of Thomas Street and Store Street. Like Harbour Street the new Store Street of the early 1800s owed its origins to the building of the Grand Canal to Tullamore in 1798. The new chapel on the site of the present one was completed in 1802 and the CYMS hall (later St Mary’s Hall) and now the Parish Centre was in use from 1860 to the 1960s for meetings and dancing. If Store Street was quiet as to houses (only 12 to 15) it was still a busy spot at mass and school times and with the comings and goings of horses and drays to the canal stores (burned about 1960).
Jane W. Shackleton’s Ireland compiled by Christiaan Corlett (Cork, 2012) is an attractive large format publication from the growing stable of books issued by Collins Press and consists of 180 well produced photographs by Jane Shackleton. Jane Shackleton (nee Edmundson) was born in 1843 and in 1866 married Joseph Fisher Shackleton of the famous Ballitore, County Kildare family of Quakers. Thirteen Shackletons are included in Richard S. Harrison’s, Dictionary of Irish Quakers (second edition, Dublin, 2008) including Jane’s husband, Joseph Fisher Shackleton. Like his father he was a miller and in 1860 took over the Anna Liffey Mills in Lucan.
As a Ferbane student wrote in the School Folklore Collection: “There’s a large amount of bogland in the locality round here.” County Offaly is a place covered in peatlands–more than a third of the county was classified as peat soil by in the National Soil Survey of Ireland published by Teagasc in 2003. Offaly is also the county with the highest proportion of homes using those bogs for turf. At 37.9% of households heated with turf according to 2016 Central Statistics Office data, Offaly outcompetes the next county highest county, Roscommon, where 26.6% of households have the turf fire burning. The prevalence of bogs and bog-connected people is what brought me to live in Tullamore for a year.
As part of Heritage Week on the 27th August 2017 our local Heritage Group, who came together just a couple of years ago, gave a brief history of Pullough brick-making. Around eighty people some of them the fourth generation of the same family, returned for the talk and met old acquaintances. It was a great day.
I was born and reared right beside where my grandfather, James Buckley, owned a brickyard. I live in the house next to the brickyard and all the chimneys and some of the walls were constructed with Pullough brick. I would have heard my mother, Bridget McLoughlin, talk about the making of the bricks, and the hard work it entailed. When she was just eight years old the woman in question and her nine other brothers and sisters all worked alongside their father in the making of the bricks. Continue reading →
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