54 Charles Coote’s observations on Ballycowan barony and the district of Tullamore for his Survey of King’s County published in 1801. No 54 in the Grand Canal Series from Offaly History

The line of the Grand canal to Philipstown and Tullamore is the only navigation through this county, and is material advantage to the district, through which it passes.  Levels have been taken, and the line laid out for a further extension of this canal to the Shannon, with off branches to Birr and other towns, which is not yet put into execution.

The terminus of the line from Dublin to the Shannon was Tullamore for the years 1798 to 1804 when the link with the Shannon was at last completed. In the 1790s a line to Kilcormac and Birr was considered but on the grounds of expense that along the Brosna was selected.

[175] Ballicowan village is the estate of the [176] Earl of Mountrath, and here are the ruins of a castle, which  gives name to the barony.  Turf fuel is in plenty, and had on the cheapest terms. . .

Ballycowan castle c. 1958, it took its present configuration in 1626 and was destroyed by the Cromwellians in the early 1650s with the Cootes succeeding to the estate forfeited by the Herberts.

Tullamore is the market for grain, and indeed the produce of many adjoining baronies is sent thither, there being the fairest sale and a good demand amongst the buyers, occasioned principally on account of the many stores, which were established by the Grand Canal extending here, and which divides this barony for some distance.  This proves the value of inland navigation and gives the farmer in these distant parts the advantage (as we may say), of bringing Dublin market home to his door. 

Swimming pool opened in Tullamore in 1938 together with O’Molloy Street housing scheme. Damien Byrne

Thursday May 19^th 1938 was a big day in Tullamore. The occasion was the opening of 146 new houses on O’Molloy Street and the opening of a new outdoor Swimming Pool by the Tánaiste and Minister of Local Government and Public Health Mr. Sean T. O’Kelly. By Damien Byrne

The local newspapers of the day describe the town as being “profusely decorated with flags and bunting” with O’Molloy Street being “richly festooned with the Tricolour being strongly in evidence”.

The Tánaiste on his arrival at Tullamore, at 12:15 p.m., passed through a guard of honour of Civic Guards, drawn up outside Hayes Hotel. He was met at the door of the hotel by the members of the Council and public officials, and proceeded at once through Patrick St., Kilbride St., and Clara Bridge, where his arrival at O’Molloy Street was awaited by many clergy of all denominations and representatives of the laity. Along the route large numbers of people had gathered, and the Tánaiste smilingly bowed his acknowledgements of their greetings.

26-27 Vallancey’s account of the north Offaly towns in 1771 and the improvements that were expected to follow canal navigation. No 26-27 in the Grand Canal Offaly series featuring Edenderry, Daingean, Tullamore, Clara and Ferbane, County Offaly

This article looks at the north Offaly towns featured in Major (later general) Vallancey’s report carried out in 1771 and designed to support the construction of the new Grand Canal line to Tullamore and the Shannon.  Vallancey was then a young engineer, employed to report to the Commissioners of Inland Navigation and his findings were published in,  A Report on the Grand Canal or Southern Line (Dublin 1771).[1] This report is useful as a window on some of the north King’s County (hereafter generally referred to as Offaly) towns and villages.[2] 

‘Six’ fine works of public sculpture in Birr. By Fergal MacCabe and Paul Moore.

Would you like to know more about public sculptures in Birr and Offaly? Who commissioned them and what do they tell us?  Author, Architect and Town Planner Fergal McCabe will focus on the sculptures in and around Birr town, The Maid of Erin, The Column in Emmet Square, the Hurler, the third Earl and the Tullamore Road entrance piece ‘Looking to the Future’ with some other examples from the county.  He will be joined by photographer Paul Moore who documented the sculptures in 2023 and he will talk about his experience of how the images were photographed and the story behind each sculpture.  This illustrated talk will be on Monday 15 January 2024 at 8 p.m. in County Arms Hotel, Birr.  Signed copies of the new book Faithful Images will be available on the night for €20.00.  All are welcome.

For those who believe that the setting of public art is the key to its artistic success or failure, Birr offers five of the very best examples.

5 The Brewery Tap, Tullamore (1713- ): part of the story of the evolution of the market place to the Georgian Charleville/O’Connor Square, Tullamore, Ireland. A contribution to the Historic Towns Initiative funded by the Heritage Council.

Business and residential

The square proper never had a public house until that in GV 5 in recent times, while the Brewery Tap on the western side at GV 3 High Street has served the public for well over 100 years. It was only in 2018 that a new public house and night club was opened at GV 5, now known as The Phoenix. The great garage of G.N. Walshe (GV 1 High Street) replaced the Goodbody hardware store which was in business from the 1840s to 1930 and with a tobacco factory at the rear until 1886.

New Offaly interest publications issued in 2023, thoughtful Christmas presents/reading 2023

The publications below are available from Offaly History’s history shop at Bury Quay, Tullamore beside the Old Warehouse restaurant, online 24/7, and open Mon to Fri 9 to 4. 30. We are also in Bridge Centre from 14th to 24 Dec. as in previous years. We look forward to seeing you. All our work is to promote Offaly History on a selfless basis. All the publications below are from authors pro bono, pro deo, pro condado.

Offaly Heritage 12 (Offaly History, Tullamore, 2023), pp 512, ISBN 978-1-909822-33-7, Softback €18.00 Hardback €25.00

Offaly History is delighted to produce another volume of Offaly Heritage which is the twelfth collections of essays and writings on the history of the Faithful County’. The essays in section one reflect the ongoing research in Offaly into aspects of life in Ireland 100 years ago as we come to the end of the Decade of Commemoration (1912-1923). The essays reflect the changing nature of society in Offaly at that time, particularly during the years 1920 to 1923 and readers will enjoy contributions as varied as they end of the Wakely family of Rhode; the final years of the Leinster Regiment at Birr; the Protestant minority in Offaly during the revolutionary period; the courts of assize in King’s County in the years 1914-21; the burning of Tullamore courthouse, jail and barracks in 1922; the story of Belgian refugees in Portarlington, and Offaly claimants in 1916. A series of short lives are presented in this volume, as they were in Offaly 11 and includes entries on individuals as diverse as J.L. Stirling, Averil Deverell. Middleton Biddulph; Robert Hames Goodbody and volunteer Sean Barry. This volume of Offaly Heritage is also strengthened by a wide array of essays on aspects of Offaly history stretching from Colmcille to early soccer activity in Offaly in the late nineteenth century. The editors are particularly pleased to include essays from a number of contributors for the first time. The compilation of writings on Offaly history topics continues in this volume. The volume concludes with information on the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society, the county’s heritage office and reviews of recent books of Offaly interest.

1 The making of O’Connor Square, Tullamore, Ireland, 1713–2023: the first market place or Market Square. By Michael Byrne. A contribution to the Living in Towns series promoted by the Heritage Council.

Over a series of articles, it is intended to examine the evolution of the ‘market place’, Tullamore to the fine square it is today. It is intended to look first at the evolution of the square over the period from 1713 to 1820 with additional comments on the building history in the last 300 years in the second article. This will be followed with analysis of the return for the 1901 and 1911 censuses and thereafter case studies of two of the houses in the square. Both are public houses, the Brewery Tap and The Phoenix, and business is conducted in the original houses albeit that both have been extended. Both are well known with the Brewery Tap one of the oldest pubs in Tullamore and The Phoenix the newest. The Brewery Tap house can be dated to 1713 and The Phoenix as a house to 1752.

High Street : Tullamore’s leading street since 1720. A contribution to the Living in Towns series from Offaly History

Standing at the bridge in Bridge Street and looking south towards the Windmill hill at Cormac Street is to observe 300 years of development comprised of three and two-storey houses and no single-storey properties or ‘cabins’. The latter were reserved for the lanes, side streets and long gardens to the rear of these large houses. When Arthur Young passed through Tullamore in 1770 he remarked that part of the town was well built. We have already looked at the intended first class development of Crow/Tara Street in an earlier article. T.W. Freeman, the geographer, noted in his 1948 article on Tullamore that there was firm ground on either side of the inconspicuous bridge and a slight rise northward to the canal, 203ft. above O.D., some ten feet higher than the river, and southwards to the courthouse, at 225ft. O.D.  Near to the bridge on the west side was the town watermill drawing on the power from the Tullamore or Maiden River and at the high ground behind O’Moore Street and Cormac Street was a windmill dating from the early 1700s. One hundred years later the building of the street was almost completed.

High Street in 1821 contained eighty-four houses and 543 inhabitants. As almost all the houses were built before 1821 and there were only forty-two in 1901 this would suggest that this calculation includes the houses in Bridge Street and sub-divided properties.

In 1901 High Street with a population of 225 had forty inhabited and two uninhabited houses and forty-one families of whom 158 were Roman Catholic, 50 were C of I, 4 Presbyterians and thirteen Methodists. The houses were all slated and stone-walled, twenty-six were placed in the first division and fourteen in the second. As to out buildings there were nineteen stables, five coach houses, three harness rooms, two cow houses, one calf house, one piggery and five fowl houses.