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.
There is a popular saying in politics sometimes attributed to Ronald Reagan ‘When you’re explaining, you’re losing
History often involves explaining, but in recent times I’ve regularly watched people’s eyes glaze over as I described my latest research project.
Q: What’s it called.
A: ‘A Revolution in Profiles’.
Q: What’s it about.
A: Its about Offaly in the Revolutionary Decade.
Q: Okay. How many words in it?
A: Over 60,000, but it’s divided into profiles, each about 600 words long
Q: Is it a book?
A: No, it’s a website with over 100 different profiles of people from the period.
Q: So, it’s a blog?
A: Not really, it’s modelled on the RIA’s Dictionary of Biography.
Q: How much are you charging for It?
A: No, there’s no charge. Access is completely free. The RIA provided a bursary to build the website as part of the Decade of Centenaries programme, but anyone can view the profiles and there’s no fee.
At this stage the questioner runs the entire gamut of emotions from confusion, disbelief, pity and finally suspicion. ‘If its free there must be a catch’.
If we’re lucky the conversation shifts to the height of the Shannon or which senior clubs are still looking for a hurling manager, if not it peters out into a prolonged awkward silence.
‘I’ll tell what it’s not’
The site is not a definitive history of Offaly in the revolutionary period. That will come later, written by others more qualified to do so. It is a reference tool designed to educate on and simulate interest in Offaly’s revolutionary story. In time perhaps it may provide other researchers with a foundation from which a deeper understanding of the era might be developed. One of the ways it aims to do so is providing readers with the opportunity to compare and contrast different people from the period.
Don’t tell, show me!
Mark Twain reportedly once said ‘Don’t just say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream!’ Having struggled to explain the site, I usually take a leaf out of Twains book an give an example. Offaly History have been kind enough to host two profiles from the site dealing two elected officials.
The People’s Choice
Between 1918 until 1923 the constituencies of Kings County and Laois-Offaly were represented by Dr. Patrick McCartan. A leading member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from Tyrone; McCartan spent most of those years on diplomatic missions to the United States and the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile Hugh Mahon from Killurn outside Tullamore sat as a Labor representative in the Australian Parliament until his expulsion in 1920. His ejection was carried out in response to Mahon’s public condemnation of the British Empire in the aftermath of the death of Terence MacSwiney on hunger strike in Brixton prison.
Mahon and McCartan’s biographies are among 30 extra profiles which will be added to the site over the next year, but for now the focus centres on two other parliamentary representatives from Offaly, representing two different traditions. Frank Bulfin and Sir Robert Woods.
Frank Bulfin
Frank Bulfin was born in 1874 at Derrinlough, where his parents William and Ellen Bulfin (nee Grogan) owned a large farm.
His uncle Patrick Bulfin acted as Lord Mayor of Dublin and a cousin General Edward. S. Bulfin served with distinction in the British Army during the Boer and Great Wars. In 1900 it was reported that Frank’s brother, J.V. Bulfin had died while serving with the Rimington Guides in the Boer War. Frank and his brother Joe (who was later associated with Clonony and Edenderry) were keen agriculturists. During the Ranch War both men were vocal advocates for small farmers and imprisoned for their involvement in cattle driving.
Frank’s uncle Fr. Vincent Grogan served as provincial of the Passionist order in Argentina. The South American connection was to have important ramifications for the family, as Frank’s older brother William emigrated to Argentina where he enjoyed considerable success and eventually became owner of the Southern Cross newspaper. On his return to Ireland, William Bulfin helped to stabilise the Derrinlough farms finances, wrote a popular nationalist travel book Rambles in Erin, promoted the Gaelic League and political movements of his friend Arthur Griffith. William died aged 45 in 1910.
William’s son Eamon attended St Enda’s school and fought under his former teacher Patrick Pearse in 1916 Rising.
Following the release of republican prisoners from internment in late 1916, Eamon and Frank were involved in establishing the republican movement in south Offaly. They were arrested as part of the German Plot in the Summer of 1918 and imprisoned in Durham Gaol. Eamon was later deported to Argentina where he acted as an emissary for the republic during the War of Independence.
On his release from prison Frank Bulfin returned to Derrinlough, where he was involved in sheltering Sean Treacy, Seamus Robinson, Sean Hogan and Dan Breen during the summer of 1920. The so called ‘Big Four’ were on the run following shootings at Soloheadbeg and Knocklong.
Nominated as one of four Sinn Féin candidates, Bulfin was elected unopposed in the Laois-Offaly constituency at the 1921 general election. Arrested and interned at the Curragh, he was released with other TDs in August following the arrangement of the Truce.
Bulfin did not take a high-profile stance during the Treaty Debates but voted to accept the agreement. He was re-elected in the pact election. His nephew Eamon opposed the treaty but took no part in the Civil War following his return from South America and Frank’s niece, Catalina ‘Kid’ Bulfin a member of Cumman na mBan went on to marry well known anti-treaty republican Sean MacBride.
In August of 1922, Frank Bulfin was one of the pall bearers who carried Arthur Griffith’s coffin.
Although he rarely spoke in the Dáil, Bulfin continued to vote with the Cosgrave Government throughout the Civil War. In a statement to the Bureau of Military History Ernest Blythe suggested that because of republican intimidation, Bulfin attempted to resign his seat, but after the intercession of armed Free State Intelligence officers was convinced…
‘It might be more dangerous to resign from the dail than stay in it’. (1)
The veracity of Blythe’s story is difficult to authenticate.
Addressing an election meeting in July 1923 Bulfin commented…
‘Many unpleasant things we have had to do —many very distasteful decisions had to bemade, but we never sought popularity at the expense of the real interests of the nation’. (2)
After his re-election, rifts appeared in Cumann na nGaedheal. Bulfin did not support the Army Munity of 1924. Nevertheless, he was understanding of those who left the party at that time to establish the National Group and critical of some in the cabinet whom he felt were self-important and drifting too far from the party’s roots in Sinn Féin commenting …
‘Let these people not get their heads swelled. Greater men than they, Griffith and Collins, had to be done without.’ (3)
At local level his electoral machine was considered ineffective, and he lost his seat in 1927.
In the 1930’s Bulfin moved to Barrysbrook, Croghan close to his mother’s birthplace and farmed there until his death in 1951. He was buried at Rhode cemetery.
Sir Robert Henry Woods
Robert Henry Woods was born at Tullamore in 1865. His father Christopher and mother Dorothea (Lowe) operated a shop and held property in the town.
Sir Robert Woods
Educated at Wesley College and Trinity, he qualified as a doctor. An expert on the ear, nose and throat; Woods was considered a world leading physician. President of the Royal College of Surgeons he was knighted for his services to medicine in 1913.
His son Thornley died in 1916 while serving with British Army in Flanders.
In 1918 general election Woods was elected to Westminster for the National University constituency, a seat held until 1917 by Edward Carson.
Elected as an Independent Unionist, Woods was a moderate in personality and politics. He did not take up his seat at the first meeting of the Dail in January 1919. However, unlike other unionist MPs he did send a formal reply to decline his invitation to attend.
In July 1921 he was part of a delegation of southern Unionists who met with Eamon de Valera in the Mansion House Conference which facilitated the announcement of the Truce.
A rare contributor at Westminster, he made his last speech there in the aftermath of the signing of the Treaty when he told the House of Commons…
‘I hope the Prime Minister will permit me to offer him my congratulations on having brought this Conference to so successful a conclusion. If I may say so without offence, he has done a big thing, and he has done it in a big way. The Unionists in the South of Ireland have received the news of this agreement with feelings of satisfaction that can only be appreciated by those who have lived there in recent years, and perhaps by those who have got imagination to visualise what would have happened had these negotiations fallen through. I think I am correct in saying that the majority of Southern Unionists have for a long time seen that there was no other possibility of settlement of the age-long struggle, and the healing of this Irish sore, except through a Conference… I believe that the end of this Agreement will be an accession of strength, not only to Ireland herself, but to the peace and the prosperity of the world at large, and particularly of that great community of nations of which Ireland will, in the future, herself form an integral part.’ (4)
His last political intervention was an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1925.
A collector of antique furniture, he was also musical enthusiast, president of the Dublin Zoological Society he donated several animals to the Zoo following trips to Asia.
Robert Woods died at his home in Marino in September 1938 and was buried at Deansgrange Cemetery. At his own request the funeral service was private and attended only by his immediate family and household staff.
On his death the Irish Independent commented…
‘Although a Unionist, his liberal and free-minded attitude on all Irish questions was very marked. Rather abrupt and unconventional in manner, the late Sir Robert was a man with a big heart. He was charming in private conversation and his humour was never hurtful, while his wit was always kind. He was extremely popular with his professional colleagues and was ever helpful to the young men attending’ his school. Physically a splendid type of Irishman, he was a familiar figure in Dublin, his broad shoulders, well-shaped head and rugged- features arresting attention.’ (5)
Father Grogan was born on June 14th, 1873, in Brocca, Screggan County in Offaly. His parents were Joseph Grogan and Mary Molloy. He received his early education at Mucklagh National School, Saint Columbus School, Tullamore and Saint Finian’s College Navan. At the solicitation of his uncle, the Reverend, Anthony J. Molloy of the New York Archdiocese, came to the United States and was admitted to Saint Joseph Seminary then located in Troy, New York. He continued his studies there and at the new St. John’s Seminary in Dunwoody, where he was ordained on May 27th, 1899. He celebrated his first mass at Saint Peter’s church in Yonkers, NY, where his uncle was the Past
His first assignment was to Rosendale, NY for one year. He was transferred to the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary, where he remained uninterruptedly serving as assistant until 1922.
The growth of middle-class housing after 1900 may be said to have begun with the building of four ‘villas’ at Clonminch in 1909 by Charles P. Kingston, the then county secretary to King’s County Council. It was preceded earlier by the substantial house of Daniel E. Williams completed at Dew Park in 1900. Were it not for the war and the scarcity of materials we might have seen more housing in the 1916–23 period. However, there was a further scarcity of building materials and high prices in the early 1920s and it was not until about 1930 that middle-class housing began to grow again and almost entirely on Charleville Road and Clonminch the period prior to the Second World War. After a slow start in the late 1920s council housing was constructed in earnest from 1933–4 and up to 1940, resuming again in the late 1940s (see my earlier blog).
As the decade of centenaries draws to a close, one centenary not on the government’s list of official commemorations is the 1922 visit to Ireland of the Hon. Hugh Mahon, a former cabinet minister in the Australian government. Nevertheless, at a local level, the people of County Offaly may find more than a passing interest in this event from one hundred years ago.
Born in 1857 at Killurin, six kilometres south of Tullamore, Mahon was forced to leave his native land in 1882 and emigrate to Australia to avoid being arrested for his activities in the Land League. Forty years later he returned to Ireland for the first time, visiting family and friends in and around Tullamore. The years in between had been eventful for Mahon, leading to one of the most contentious episodes in Australia’s political history. And the return visit to his homeland also was not without controversy.
The summer of 1873 was marked in Tullamore with a great outpouring of support for the coming of age of Charles William Francis, the fourth earl of Charleville (1852–74). He had been an orphan for fourteen years and taken care of by his uncle Alfred Bury (1829–75). The fourth earl’s parents, Charles William George and Arabella Case, had both died at a young age in 1857 (countess of Charleville) and 1859 (the third earl). He was only 37 and left five young children of which the fourth earl was born 16 May 1852. His sister had been killed in an accident on the stairwell at Charleville Castle in 1861 and his younger brother John died in 1872 when only 21. Now the young earl had reached his maturity and his 21st year. He could mark the occasion with his two sisters Lady Katherine and Lady Emily. The celebrations ought to have been on 16 May 1873 but the party had been deferred for a few weeks so that the coming of age could be celebrated at the same time as the marriage of Lady Katherine to Captain Hutton A.D.C. The celebration in the town with triumphal arches and fireworks was the last such for the earls of Charleville. Over the period from 1782 to 1873 there had been three such Welcomes from the Tenantry. Lady Emily inherited Charleville under the will of the fourth earl who died in 1874 aged only 22. Emily came into possession on the death of her uncle Alfred in 1875 childless. She was still a minor and there was no official welcome. Lady Emily married Captain Kenneth Howard in 1881 but was a widow by 1885. The Land War began in 1879–80 and cast a shadow over landlord and tenant relationships permanently. Lady Emily died in 1931 and the estate passed to her only surviving child Lt Col. Kenneth Howard Bury (died 1963 aged 80).
The address of Dr Michael Moorhead in his capacity as chairman of the town commissioners at the celebration dinner in 1873 is replete with irony given that the young earl died in a little over a year after on a fishing and hunting trip near New York.
The story of Alderborough Nursery, Geashill is a must have for delightful summer reading. This book tells the story of Reamsbottom & Co., Alderborough and West Drayton, and the development of the Alderborough strain of the St Brigid Anemone which made it famous around the world. Geashill was for decades at the center of Irish horticulture with an international reputation for the quality of its plants. Alderborough Nursery competed with the best nurseries in the world, winning awards, medals and accolades from judges and gardening publications. From 1890 to the 1980’s Anemones and a wide range of plants were exported from Geashill. Archives of all the important horticultural shows in Ireland and Britain record that Reamsbottom & Co. exhibited their produce and won prizes, particularly for their St. Brigid Anemones. By 1907, Reamsbottom & Co., had won 33 medals for Alderborough St. Brigid Anemones, including four gold. [This is a beautiful book and adds to the growing Geashill library of attractive volumes reaching a wide and enthusiastic market.]
On Monday 21 February 2022 Offaly History will host a public lecture on the photographic work of Middleton Westenra Biddulph (1849–1926) of Rathrobin, Tullamore. The lecture will also be streamed via Zoom and will start at 8 p.m. at/from Offaly History Centre. Biddulph’s photographs of Offaly and midlands interest together with Big Houses in Ireland have been published in Michael Byrne, Rathrobin and the two Irelands (Tullamore, 2021).For the link to Zoom email info@offalyhistory.com. There is no charge.
The new large format book has over 300 photographs with context and captions and is available for €25 in hardback. The publication was supported by the Decade of Centenaries and took fourteen months to prepare.
Middleton Westenra Biddulph was born on 17 August 1849 at Rathrobin, Mountbolus, King’s County. He was one of six children and the eldest surviving son of Francis Marsh Biddulph (1802–1868) and Lucy Bickerstaff (d. 1896). She was born in Preston, Lancashire and they married in 1845 when F.M.B. was 45 and Lucy 24.[1] The Bickerstaff connection was to be an important one for the surviving sons of F.M.B. and led to a substantial inheritance in the 1890s for Middleton W. Biddulph (M.W.B.) and his brother Assheton who lived at Moneyguyneen, Kinnitty. F.M.B. was of a large family of eleven children. All were girls save their one surviving brother. F.M.B. lived with at least three of his sisters at Rathrobin, few of whom married and at least three emigrated to Australia or the United States.
In person and online. For link email info@offalyhistory.comContinue reading →
In the aftermath of the Anglo-Irish Treaty Birr Barracks in Offaly was one of the first to be evacuated by the British military. It was also the largest in the county. Stephen Callaghan takes up the story.
Wednesday, 2 February 2022 marked the centenary anniversary of the departure of the Leinster Regiment from Birr Barracks. A historically significant event which little is known about. The signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921 effectively saw the withdrawal of the British Army from Ireland which would take place over the coming months, with British military barracks around the country being handed over to the newly created National Army. This mass exodus included the Leinster Regiment depot staff based in Birr Barracks, which it had called home for the past 41 years.
King’s County Infirmary was established under the reign of King George III with the passing of the Irish County Infirmaries Act of 1765. This act enabled the creation of infirmaries in thirty Irish counties. During the redevelopment of Tullamore town by the Earl of Charleville, a new infirmary building was erected in 1788 on Church Street and was further extended in 1812.
The County Infirmaries Act was enacted to provide healthcare to the poor which fulfilled the eighteenth century philanthropic ideals of the landed gentry who supported these institutions through donations and subscriptions. King’s County Infirmary was supported by an income consisting of parliamentary funds, grand jury presentments, governor subscriptions, donations, and patient fees. The infirmary was managed by a Board of Governors who paid subscriptions for their position on the board which gave them absolute control over the infirmary including staff appointments and patient admissions. Governors were made up of local gentry and landowners such as the Earl of Rosse, Lord Digby, and prominent business owners such as the Goodbody family.
While surviving records are limited, the Board meeting minute books provide a colourful insight into the running of an infirmary in late 19th and early 20th century Ireland. The Infirmary’s Surgeon, Dr James Ridley, was linked to a scandal that pervaded the county in 1887 and 1888. Ridley, who also acted as one of the Tullamore jail physicians was reported to have died by suicide on the morning he was due to give evidence at the inquest into the death of John Mandeville, a national league activist. Mandeville who was imprisoned under the Irish Crimes Act of 1887 was subject to harsh and cruel punishment at the hands of his jailors and died shortly after his release from prison.
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