OFFALY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL

SOCIETY

Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly

Web site: www.offalyhistory.com  Email: ohas@iol.ie     Telephone: 057-9321421                                                             

     NEWSLETTER November - December 2007

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Booking form for Heritage Seminar being held on 10^th Nov which should be completed and returned to the Heritage Officer, Aras an Chontae, Charleville Road, Tullamore immediately.  

OFFALY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly

Web site: www.offalyhistory.com   Email: ohas@iol.ie     Telephone: 057-9321421                                           

NEWSLETTER October 2007

The famine was a watershed in Irish History and led to a fall in the population of County Offaly from about 146,000 in 1841 to less than half that by 1911. In the immediate aftermath the population declined by 25%. This is an important area and it is essential to the understanding of the population history of the County in the period from 1820 to 1920 and to the poverty afflicting Offaly and Ireland in that difficult decade.

Monday 26th March 2007, Dr. Harman Murtagh, will lecture on the battle of the Boyne. Dr. Murtagh has recently published a book and CD about this famous episode in Irish History.

23 April 2007 a Lecture will be given by Orla Egan and colleagues on the archaeological discoveries made during the NRA by pass works near Tullamore and further a field. More details to follow.

17th September 2007 Dr. Cormac O'Cleirigh will lecture on the subject of his PhD Thesis the O'Connor Faly Lordship of Co. Offaly in the medieval period.

Renewal of Membership, please ensure that you have discharged your membership fee for this year at the meeting or as per details already sent to you. Membership fees are €25 for individuals and €15 for students. Life membership is available for €350.

Local History Course 2007. The local history course is well under way with the two lectures given and four more to come. About 25 people are doing the course and the feed back has been good. Our thanks to our speakers and to those who are attending.

The course started on the 1st of February and will finish on the 8th of March. Late comers to the course are welcome. The fee is €30 for the remaining four talks which run from the 15th of February to the 8th of March on each Thursday night at 7.30p.m. details have already been issued with previous newsletters.

FAS Community Employment Scheme
Our new CE scheme commenced on 29th Jan. with 17 people, two of whom are dedicated to the Comhaltas office to help out with preparations for the forthcoming Fleadh Ceoil. Another person is on loan to the Special Olympics project.
One of the main aims of the scheme is to get participants back into employment and in this regard we are glad to report that during the past year three people on our project have got good full time jobs. We wish them well in their new careers.
At the Research Centre we continue work on a number of areas including family history research, computerisation of Laois and Offaly civil registers of births, marriages and deaths from 1864, the scanning and archiving of some 20,000 old photograph negatives of the Harris collection, extracting and typing local newspaper articles for publication, updating the library catalogue, typing articles for the web site, centre maintenance, and a host of other day to day tasks.
In the mean time participants are constantly engaged in training programmes to further develop their skills and knowledge both for the work on the project and their future careers.

Local History Certificate Awards
Congratulations to staff members Phyllis Caffrey, Emmet Keoghan, and Marie Smith who were recently awarded their NUI Maynooth certificates in Local History studies.

2007 Volunteering Projects
Below are set out projects which members of the Society could help with. If you would like to help why not contact Stephen McNeill, Dorothee Bibby, Michael Byrne or Breda Hoey.

1. Indexing Old Photographs

About eighteen thousand have been indexed and there are perhaps another twelve thousand to be done. In relation to the eighteen thousand already done there will be many names which could be identified by members and inserted into the index. The pictures will be scanned and you can learn to do this as part of the project. Dorothee Bibby is leading up this project.
DB and BH

2. Scanning existing photographs

There are some ten thousand existing photographs (apart from the Clara Collection) which could be scanned in over time at about 350 dpi. We have about four scanners and ten new computers to facilitate some of which will be dedicated for this work.

3. Website

Sandra Dunne, Dorothy Bibby and Alan Guerin are working together with a view to improving the website. In regard to articles there is a good deal of material available for proof reading which once it is checked carefully and corrected it would be available to put on to the website.

4. 1911 Census

The Census is not so urgent but it is important and date entry can be started anytime.

5. Tithe applotment books

There is still work to be completed here.

6. Graveyards

We have identified work that is done and to be done. Fred Geoghegan has agreed to check the entries for Durrow abbey and the catholic and protestant cemeteries.

7 Newspaper indexing

Christy Lennon did a lot of work here and we now have some 20,000 entries in the computer which is a valuable starting point for research.

Archive CD Books Ireland newsletter are delighted to announce the latest releases. We are publishing six titles this month. These include one of the earliest topographical studies of Ireland, being Pococke's 1752 Tour of Ireland. Continuing our republication of George Bassett's important county directories, this month we release his Directories of Kilkenny (1884) and Louth (1886). We also continue our republication of the Statistical Surveys, this time for County Mayo. This month sees the publication of our first family specific title, The Crofton Memoirs, which contains an extraordinary amount of detail on that family in Connaught. We are also pleased to announce the release of Charles Hanna's 2 volume "The Scotch-Irish, or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America". This mammoth work details the settlement of Scots in Ireland and throughout North America since the 1600s. Further details about both titles are given below, with more details on our web site.
All are important additions to our catalogue, and as always are published at an affordable price. To find out more details about our new releases please take a look at our web site, or see full details below:
http://www.archivecdbooks.ie/acatalog/New_Releases.html

Official opening of Famine Memorial Garden at Arden Road, Tullamore on Monday next 19th of February at 5 pm..

The Offaly Famine Commemoration Committee will officially open to the public a Memorial Garden dedicated to the memory of those who died locally during the terrible famine of the nineteenth century, particularly the blackest year of 1847 - one hundred and sixty years ago. The Memorial is located on the site of the old Tullamore Workhouse where so many starving and destitute were forced to seek refuge during that nightmare period.

Tastefully designed with the assistance of the architects who designed and supervised the construction of the extension to Riada House and it was due to the work on Riada House (that is now a showcase for nursing care homes) that the Famine Memorial was delayed until now. Centrepiece is the Baptismal Font retrieved from the workhouse chapel at the time of demolition. Carved from a single piece of local limestone, induces visions of the many babies receiving the water of Baptism and whose life span was decided by the prevailing hunger. The Commemorative scripts are cast in metal and reflect not only the horrors of famines of the past but also those famines that are still parts of the world even today.

Monday evening's programme will be completed by a lecture entitled "Famine in Offaly" to be held at the Offaly Historical Research Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore at 8.15 p.m. The lecture will be delivered by Prof. Tim O'Neill.

Submitted on behalf of the Local Famine Commemorative Committee by Jim Kenny.

The Intelligence War in Offaly 1920-1921: Spies, Informers and Militant Loyalists

This illustrated lecture by Philip McConway is based on a much wider study of the Offaly IRA from the years 1920-1923. While a postgraduate student in Trinity College he carried out extensive research on the War of Independence and Civil War in Offaly. Maps, graphs, tables, photographs, and original documents will be employed in this lecture to reconstruct the Intelligence War in Offaly, 1920-1921. Despite being arguably the most important phase in modern Offaly history this pivotal period is largely ignored and neglected by historians.

A brief background will be given to the often flawed performance of the Offaly IRA. Setbacks, shortcomings and fallibility characterised the Offaly IRA's war. There is a strong contrast with the often outsized heroics in other areas which captured the limelight. The first large scale attack by the IRA was at Clara barracks on 2 June 1920. Up to 200 IRA Volunteers were involved in the attack which ended in a costly and ignominious failure. The botched attack left three IRA Volunteers seriously wounded, one fatally. The Offaly IRA was not ruthless and was hampered by a lenient, cautious and hesitant approach. The Offaly IRA lacked decisive leadership. Unglamorous sabotage not sensational ambushes were its main strength. The Offaly IRA often had a tempestuous relationship with GHQ in Dublin. The IRA Chief of Staff Richard Mulcahy berated the Offaly IRA, especially the No. 2 Brigade, for incompetence and slovenliness. GHQ had a significant input into the Offaly IRA and was instrumental in escalating the war in the midlands.

The RIC was a priority target for the IRA. As the RIC became ostracised from the local community, the traditional source of information for the British largely dried up. Members of the RIC and their families were intimated resulting in many resignations. The first killing of an RIC member by the Offaly IRA did not occur until 1 November 1920 after RIC Sergeant Henry Cronin was fatally wounded in Tullamore when shot at point blank range. The killing prompted Black and Tan reprisals in the town. Cronin was overzealous in his activities against the IRA and it is believed Michael Collins, IRA Director of Intelligence, ordered his killing. While the British Army was expendable and easily replaced the RIC was not, due to their extensive local knowledge, being the eyes and ears of the Crown forces. Eamonn de Valera denounced the RIC for 'brutal treason' describing them as 'spies in our midst.' Collins would later declare that 'To paralyse the British machine it was necessary to strike at individuals. Without her spies England was helpless.'

The intelligence operations and information gathering techniques of the Crown forces, in particular the British Army, will be examined. Mutual suspicion and internal friction undermined the RIC and British Army's counter-insurgency campaign in Offaly. Local IRA intelligence was mediocre. However, precise and accurate intelligence provided by an informer working for the IRA led to the Kinnity ambush on 17 May 1921. An IRA Active Service Unit (ASU) mounted one of the most successful IRA operations in Offaly which resulted in the deaths of two RIC constables and the serious injury of two others.
In the final three months of the War of Independence in Offaly, from May to July 1921, at least six people were executed as spies and informers. The lecture will give an in-depth profile and analysis of the spies and informers executed by the Offaly IRA. Who were they, why did they inform and to what extent did they damage the IRA? Philip McConway will attempt to answer these and other pertinent questions such as the role of ex-soldiers in the Intelligence War. The activities of the Pearson family of Coolacrease, Cadamstown will be covered. Two members of the family, Richard and Abraham, were executed and their home burned down by the IRA in retaliation for their militant loyalist activities which culminated in an attempt to kill IRA Volunteers manning a roadblock. The male members of the family were deeply hostile and presented a dangerous threat to Republicans in the area. The Pearsons were also suspected informers. Recent revisionist claims that the Pearson killings were sectarian, propounded in sections of the media, will be challenged and debunked.

The lecture will conclude with a reference to the ripple affects and implications of spies on the IRA. Offaly IRA prisoners often experienced harsh conditions, ill-treatment, and on occasion, torture in Irish and British prisons. The spies, informers and the RIC who put them in prison explain why these groups represented the highest fatalities in Offaly during the War of Independence.

The ruins of Coolacrease House, Cadamstown, once home to the Pearsons, militant loyalists and suspected informers. The house was burned down in retaliation for the attempted killing of IRA Volunteers manning a roadblock.

Christmas Draw
The recent draw was a great success resulting in the best proceeds to date. The winners were:
1. John Mollen, Tullamore
2. Cormac Egan, Terenure
3. Liam Mulligan, Tullamore,
4. Peter Flynn, Leamore,
5. J A Wrafter, Tullamore,
6. Eilish Fogarty, Tullamore.

FAS Scheme
The current scheme ends at the end of the month and a new one resumes immediately. We are now in the process of recruiting new staff to fill vacancies for the next project. In the next week or two we are taking on two extra staff to assist the Comhaltas committee in their preparations for the forthcoming Fleadh Ceoil.

Membership Renewal 2007 and new members

Please note that the annual membership of €25 for 2007 is now due. Thanks to those who have renewed already.
Stories from a Sacred Landscape Exhibition
The exhibition of "Stories from a Sacred landscape: selected images by photographer James Fraher" will be launched by Niall Sweeney, Offaly County Manager on Thursday 11th Jan 2007 at 8 pm in Aras an Chontae, Tullamore.

Forthcoming lectures.

Mon. Feb 19th at 8.15 pm Timothy P O'Neill 'The Famine in Co. Offaly'

Mon. 26th March at 8.15 pm Harman Murtagh 'Battle of the Boyne'

Local History Course 2007 at OHAS Centre Bury Quay
Commencing Thursday 1 Feb 2007 at 7.30 pm

All talks will be held on Thursday night from 7.30 to 9.30 pm. The course will run for 6 nights and will cost €30 which will be payable at commencement. This is to pay the expenses of speakers. The course is intended to give an overview to the history of County Offaly and how to do research on areas that may interest you. All talks will be illustrated with computer projection with a view to making the exercise as interesting and entertaining as possible.

It is some years since the Society organised such a course and we look forward to a good attendance and enjoyable sessions. All the talks will be presented with illustrated material and list of further reading where appropriate.

1 February 2007 Early Christian Offaly - Darrell Hooper and Mary Jane Fox
8 February 2007 The Medieval History of County Offaly Rory Masterson
15 February 2007 The Modern History of County Offaly 1540 - 1900 Michael Byrne
22 February 2007 Offaly in the twentieth century Richard Egan.
1 March 2007 The use of computers and the internet in local history studies and Research Noel Guerin, Rory Masterson and Michael Byrne.
8 March 2007 Case Study of Leamonaghan Parish Stephen McNeill.

All those participating will be invited to write a short essay of their own choosing for the 2008 Offaly Heritage Journal (this is optional).

We look forward to seeing you for the course and for the first night on 1 February 2007. Please book earlier as numbers will be limited.

For further details and booking contact OHAS Bury Quay, Tullamore, 0579321421 email info@offalyhistory.com