Lecture on History of Tullamore Jail, Thursday 21st August, 2003.
A Lecture by Michael Byrne with Illustrations at OHAS, Bury Quay at 8.p.m. This talk is part of the Tullamore Festival week.

Tullamore Town Walks
Part 1 - The southern side of the town from O'Connor Square to the Courthouse will be held on Saturday 23rd of August at 1 p.m. meeting at OHAS/Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre. Tour guide - Michael Byrne.

Part 2 - The northern side of the town from the Heritage Centre to O'Connor Square will be held on Sunday 24th August at 2 p.m. Tour guide - Steve McNeill.

Dublin Tour - 23rd August
This has been cancelled until further notice and will be held probably in late September on a date to be advised.

Bury Family History Exhibition
This exhibition will open on Friday evening the 22nd of August and will be opened by Marian Keaney, former librarian of Longford/Westmeath County Library who has published books on Charles Howard Bury. Official opening at Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre at 6 p.m.

Heritage Week 7th -14th September
We have an attractive programme lined up and we will write to members especially about this, it will include walks and talks during that week. The Heritage Week programme material will be advertised in the local papers and the programme will also be available from the Centre.

The Irish Country House: Its Past, Present and Future
This is the subject of a conference to be held at N.U.I. Maynooth on 13th September, 2003. Speakers include Toby Barnard, Dr. Patrick Kelly and Dr. Terence Dooley. The conference commences at 8.45 a.m. and will finish around 4.30 p.m. If you are interested in attending perhaps you would contact Michael Byrne or Steve McNeill as we may be able to organise three or four people to go. Further details can be had from Dr. Terence Dooley at 01-7086152 or Terence.A.Dooley@may.ie The conference fee is e35.00 including conference dinner (optional).

Birr Vintage Week
This is being held from 15th to 21st August and has an attractive programme.

County Offaly Industrial Archaeological Documentation
Dr. Fred Hamond is continuing with his excellent work on this project and we hope to receive a final draft of the production in the Autumn.

New Offaly Books
"The Shinrone Photographic Record" by Noel McMahon was launched in late July. Upwards of fifteen of our members attended and the book is now available in hardback (e35.00) and softback (e25.00) from OHAS at Bury Quay. It is probably one of the finest of the photographic records to be produced in County Offaly and is in similar format to earlier publications by the Society on Rahan, Tullamore, Killeigh and Clara. Congratulations to Noel McMahon on an excellent production.

Another new publication is that on the History of Offaly County Council which was launched on the 21st of July at 6 p.m. and is available at e20.00 from the County Library. The name of the book is "Grand Jury Rooms to Aras on Chontate: Local Government in Offaly" and is an attractive and useful publication which will be of great benefit to Local Government studies.

Shannon Fortifications
Mr. Paul Kerrigan, now living in England, is coming to Dooley's Hotel, Birr on Tuesday the 9th of September at 8 p.m. to give a lecture on the Shannon fortifications to the Birr branch of the Irish Georgian Society. All are welcome to attend and he has extended a special invitation to society members.

Mystery Man found at Croghan
The remains found at Croghan back in May have now been transferred to the National Museum and a report is awaited in due course.

Edward Egan's Poems
A copy of "King's County Couplets" has been received by the Society. It was published by Edward Egan of The Meelaghans, Tullamore in 1892 and includes a number of local poems and advertisements. We hope to re-print this book on some occasion and in the meantime to add it to our local poems and songs collection.

Lusmagh Video
An attractive video on Lusmagh and the History of Lusmagh has been produced recently and copies are available from the Society at e20.00.

Purchase of New Technology for the Centre
With the help of an Offaly Leader II grant we are in the process at the moment of acquiring the following:

  1. A high powered computer to hold all our data and with the assistance of Noel Guerin should be in operation in two to three weeks.
  2. Ancillary to this we are acquiring a computer projector to enable us to visit schools and give classes and lectures on local studies using illustrated material from CDs which will also connect into material available from our website.
  3. As some readers will know we do not currently have a microfilm reader printer that operates well and a new machine is about to be acquired at a cost of about e17,000 which will enable us to transfer microfilm to digital. This will mean that we should be able to print off pages of old newspapers and so forth to a computer printer or store them on the computer or CD. A demonstration will be given at a future meeting of the Society.

Outreach Programme for Historical Research
If you would be interested in helping with the correction of articles on Offaly history for our website or you would like to add to our material on local studies, including family history, why not do the following:

  1. Place new articles on our website.
  2. Volunteer for scanning projects.
  3. Type material of local history interest and send it to us by e-mail or disc for inclusion in our database or on our website.

To see what can be done why not have a look at our website www. offalyhistory.com or indeed other sites such as that known as www.dungarvanmuseum.org.

Visit of the Society of Australian Genealogists
This will take place on Sunday morning, 21st September with a party to arrive at Birr for a walk around Birr and subsequently to visit Tullamore, including a talk on the history of the centre and Tullamore town. Lunch will be in Tullamore where the party will be staying that evening. We hope a number of members will be able to meet with the visitors. The tour leaders are Perry McIntyre and Richard Reid.

"Farming in Ireland: History, Heritage and Environment"
This is the title of a substantial new book by John Feehan which is to be published in the Autumn at a pre-publication price of e50.00 and thereafter e90.00. If you would like to order a copy please send your order direct to George Cunnigham at Parkmore, Roscrea or to the Society.

Journal
Our journal is almost ready for publication but if you have an article or a book review which you would like to get included, would you please contact Rory Masterson as Screggan immediately.