Christmas Draw Winners

The Christmas draw this year realised over €1,000 which is a great help to the funds of the Society and we want to thank all those who contributed. The prize winners were as follows:-
1st Ms Anna Daly, Charleville View, Tullamore.
2nd Ms Mary Smyth, Charleville Road, Tullamore
3rd Ms Pee Lowry, Rathdrum, Ballycommon
4th Mr Peter Flynn, Leamore, Blueball
5th Ms Joan McGill, Collins Lane Tullamore
6th Mr Adam Fletcher, Boora, Ferbane.

The annual dinner for Christmas 2004 was also a great success with over eighty people in attendance. Our speaker was Dorothee Bibby and we have been asking her about a second tour to Germany in 2006.

All the best for 2005 to all members.

Researching Offaly History Thursday 20 Jan. 2005

Our first talk of the new year which will be illustrated with the material from the Society's website and databases will be held on Thursday the 20th of January at 8.15p.m. Speakers will include Mr. Steve McNeill on his work with Radio 3, Mr. Noel Guerin on computer related aspects of the development of the databases, Dr. Rory Masterson on the three journal issues and his work on digital sources and Michael Byrne on the contents of the website and data base.

This lecture is aimed at all the members who want to know more about Offaly History and at primary schools and post primary school teachers and their students who may be interested in doing projects on local history either for major national awards or for the Leaving Certificate.

More and more local history and heritage studies are becoming part of the first and second level courses in history and is important too for some of the students at third level in history and geography.

The lecture is very much an open meeting and all are invited and the more questions there are the better. Admission is free.

Offalyhistory.com and history on the web

Our own website has one of the highest number of visitors for any website in County Offaly and new material is being added to the site on a regular basis. Access is free.

Journal 2005

Our third Journal is now issued. Your support for it is very much needed. The cost of the Journal was circa €8500 and it runs to in excess of 200 pages with a wide range of articles including the following:
The Down survey map of Ballybritt and Birr area.
The story of John Killally the Canal Engineer.
Daingean Reformatory
Captain Kenneth Howard Bury
Colonel Howard Bury
Jack Williams of Tullamore and his experiences in the First World War
The Provincial Press in the South Midlands
The Parish of Leamonaghan
James P. Cullen formally of Rahan and now of New York

There is a great deal of material in the Journal and we are extremely grateful to Rory Masterson for his undertaking to edit it. We have now published three journals in all and to members there is a special offer of €40 for the three journals. Otherwise the journals will now cost €50 for all three or €20 from January 2005 for volume 3 only.

Other publications are also available including the History of the Midland Methodists which was launched last year.

In the year 2005 we hope to publish the following:-

1. Volume 4 of the Journal
2. Edward Egan's poems of the late 1890s which are of local interest
3. A new illustrated guide to Tullamore
4. The Coote survey of the County in 1801

Chronological Index of Events in County Offaly

We have compiled a Chronological Index in Offaly from the earliest times up to the present day and we are interested in adding to it on a regular basis. If there are members who are interested in going through the old newspapers and making notes of major activities in the County we would be glad if you would contact Michael Byrne or Steve McNeill. The Society now has three good quality readers for looking at microfilm and we also have hard copies of the local papers back from about 1980. This could be a very interesting project and we hope that there would be several members who would come into the Society's offices on a regular basis to help with this important work. Enclosed in this newsletter is an extract from the index searched under the word "hotel". The response is largely Tullamore based but does show the extent of the information available at the switch of a computer button for research purposes. We are also enclosing a second search on homicide in County Offaly which may be of interest to some members.

Parliamentary Papers on the website

The UK census including Ireland for 1821 to 1891 are now on the South Hampton University based website www.eppi.ac.uk. This will allow local researchers to look up the population from the original published summaries. Enclosed with this newsletter is extract from the website for the 1831 census showing the number of houses in Ballyboy and Mountbolus together with Birr and Crinkle and Tullamore.

FAS Scheme

A new FAS CE programme has now started and we look forward to helping all those on the scheme in relation to training opportunities and furthering the work of the Society.

Offaly Heritage Books for Sale 2005

Brady, Fr. Ray PP Rahan Memorial Garden 15 pp SB; €3
Brennan, Sr Bonaventure Mary Ann Doyle, first companion of Catherine McAuley 375pp €15
Bielenberg, Andrew Locke's Distillery: a History 119 pp. SB €9
Byrne, Michael Tullamore Catholic Parish 187pp HB €25 SB €16
Byrne, Michael The People of Tullamore in the Twentieth Century, An album of memories HB €25
Byrne, Michael (ed) Durrow in History 299pp SB €19 HB €30
Byrne, Michael Towards a history of Kilclonfert 141pp SB €9
Campbell, R. & Dunne, B. Tombstones Inscriptions of Castlebrack 32pp SB €5
Claffey, Sr. Magdalene The Sisters of Mercy in Meath (Diocese) 79 pp SB €9
Cooney, Dudley Levistone So Civil a People SB €15.00
Davison, David H The Photography of Mary Countess of Rosse 45pp HB €19
Brennan, Sr Bonaventure, Mary Ann Doyle, first companion of Catherine McAuley, pp 375 €15
Egan, Oliver Tyrellspass Past and Present 210pp SB €19
Ferbane Parish and its Churches 158p. HB €13
Dalton, Michael From Civic Guard to Garda Siochana 275pp HB €20
Evans, Maireád & Abbott, Therese Safe Harbour, the Grand Canal at Edenderry €5
Farrell, Noel Exploring your Family Origins in Tullamore or Birr 48pp SB €13 Each
FitzPatrick, Elizabeth; Heaney, Paddy & Rosse, Alison The Wet Hillside of Saint Lugna 39pp € 4
Graham, B.J. & Proudfoot, L.J. Urban Improvement in Provincial Ireland 68pp
SB €9
Heaney, Paddy At the foot of Slieve Bloom HB 369pp €23
Irelands Own Special Offaly Edition 79pp €1
Joyce, J. St. George The King's County, Epitome of its History & Topography (1883) (Rep.1998) 79pp SB €6
Kearney, John The Long Ridge [Killeigh parish] 174pp SB €10
Kehnel, Annette Clonmacnoise - the Church and Lands of St. Ciaran 347pp SB €25
Kilcormac Historical Society Kilcormac - Killoughey Parish Album 190 pp SB €19
Killoughey Jubilee 2000 Committee Killoughey - A Pilgrimage to our past 288 pp HB €18
King, Heather A (ed.) Clonmacnoise Studies Volume 1 144 pp SB €15 Volume 2 €20
Laois History & Society 748 pp €60
Laois Heritage Society Journal Vol. 1,2 €15 ea
Lewis, Samuel A-Z of Offaly in c.1837 160 pp SB €10
Lyons, Sean The Forgotten Navigator - St Barron of Drumcullen 173pp HB €20
MacMahon, Noel Shinrone & Ballingarry in Focus 239pp SB €25 HB €35
McDonald, Theresa & Higgins, Jim Kilbride, Clara: A Study of its Archaeology, Architecture, History and Folklore SB €6
McKenna, John Tullamore Soccer Club 1941-1991 Golden Jubilee Memoir 194pp SB €12
Maguire W. A. Letters of a great Irish landlord [Edenderry] A selection from the estate correspondence of the third Marquess of Downshire, 1809-45. 189pp SB €25
Moore, Desmond Love's Old Sweet Song. [Account of James Lynam Molloy] 44pp SB €5
O'Brien, Caimin & Sweetman, P. David Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly
232pp HB €28
O'Brien, Caimin & FitzPatrick Elizabeth Offaly Medieval Churches 186pp HB €23
Offaly Heritage, 2003 2004 and 2005 Journal of the Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society, 168pp, €20 each or €50.00 for the three
O.H.A.S. Farming in Offaly Down the Years 38pp SB €4
Ó Muraíle (ed) Irish leaders and learning through the ages, Paul Walsh 636pp, HB €95
O'Neill & Nolan Offaly History & Society 1100pp HB €60
Offaly Anniversaries 2004 Trade Roots 38pp SB €7.00
Offaly County Council Grand Jury Rooms to Aras on Chontae 276pp €25
Office Public Works Clonmacnoise 48pp SB €4.00
O'Reilly, Barry Living under Thatch 88pp SB €15
Pey, Sean Eglish & Drumcullen - A Parish in Firceall 435pp HB €25
Powell, John S Huguenot Planters, Portarlington 176pp SB €12
Ryan, Brendan Dear old town (Ferbane) 342 pp HB €25
Scully Tony Slieve Bloom, from father to son 240pp HB €35
Shaw, Rev. Andrew The History of Ballyboy, Kilcormac and Killoughy SB €9 [Reprint]
Sheil, Helen Falling into wretchedness: Ferbane in the 1830's 60pp SB €8
Trodd, Valentine Banagher on the Shannon 68pp SB €13
Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre Tullamore, Co.Offaly: A short introduction and trails of the town €4
Walsh, Sr. Dolores Grow where you are planted, A History of Tullamore Mercy Sisters 229pp SB €13
Wrafter, Sr. Oliver Rahan looks back. 144pp SB €13
Wright, John Offaly One Hundred Years Ago (reprint of King's County Directory of 1890) 344pp HB €32

MAPS
Old Ordnance Survey Maps:
Banagher 1909: €3
Birr 1909: €3
Tullamore 1910: €3
Map of Slieve Bloom: €4

POSTERS
Two attractive A3 size posters relating to the History of Tullamore Gaol
Exhibition poster €3
Reproduction of 1826 poster of opening of Gaol €3

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