William Larkin's map
William Larkin's map of County Offaly 1809. It is reported that this manuscript map would be reproduced in Atlas format in 2006. It is an important publication and it is important that this hand drafted, hand coloured map for King's County (now Offaly) made by the map maker William Larkin will be published. It is of special interest because no other detailed large-scale map of King's County is known for the period before the ordnance maps of 1837. We are very glad to be working with Dr. Arnold Horner and the Offaly County Council on this project and will let you know more of it next year.

Birr Atlas
 The Birr Atlas is available at OHAS, Bury Quay for €45 and is selling very well. Only a limited number of copies have been published and if you are interested in maps this is a must.

Collecting Ephemera
Now that summer cleaning is on and if you have any old historical material on County Offaly, post cards, invitation cards, event posters, election posters, concert posters, concert programmes, etc. or indeed any kind of material that is casually produced of local interest and usually thrown out when finished with. Could you please keep any for the Society as we are for the last twenty years collecting such material.

Library acquisitions
In addition to this month's purchase of books for the OHAS research library are some important source documents which have been purchased on CD and are searchable. For example we have purchased copies of publications of family history and local history such as the 1846 trade directory for Ireland which can now be searched, although it is an image of an original booklet and any page which you are interested in can be printed off. This is an important new area of source material and should mean that in the future old books will be much more widely available.

Ordnance Survey maps
The ordnance survey first edition is to go on digital format. We expect there will be a fee involved for access to a particular page but at least it will be available to those who are strongly interested.

Aerial photographs of Offaly 2005
We have lately acquired a further batch of 2005 aerial photographs which are currently being added to the Society's photographic collection.

Index to Local Newspapers
Our work on the index of local newspapers is continuing over the summer months. We have now some twenty thousand entries in an Events Database. Our thanks to Christy Lennon in this regard and to Steve McNeill.

Laois and Offaly Cemeteries Listing
John Kearney and Maureen Kincaid are working on a listing of the Offaly and Laois Cemeteries for the Journal 2006. We are also trying to compile an all-in database of all the cemeteries recorded to date for family history purposes while at the same time keeping a record of each cemetery on our computer index. If you would like to help with the reading of tombstones why not contact Michael Byrne or Steve McNeill or indeed any member of the committee. John Kearney is in a position to let you have information as to what graveyards still need to be recorded in the County and procedures for such. Ballykane old graveyard, near Geashill, was recently recorded by members of the Society. While the graveyard is very overgrown, the 20 tombstones there were in surprisingly good condition and date back to 1690.


Late Vincent McDonald
As the Newsletter goes to press, news has just reached us of the untimely death of Vincent McDonald. Vincent was a longstanding member of the Society and supported every event, including outings, lectures, launches, etc. We would like to extend our sincere sympathy to his family and friends.

New Publication from Birr Castle
Preserved in an album for Birr Castle for 250 years is a book of drawings by Samuel Chearnely. A book has now produced in large format at €85 per copy (which is available from Birr Castle or on order from the Society). This manuscript comes with important commentary from a distinguished team including Toby Barnard, Christine Casey, Peter Harbison and William Lavin.

The book consists of some eighty drawings for grottos, obelisks, fountains and triumphal arches and it is an important book for architectural history.

Its publication should bring forward further our interest in reprinting Cooke's history of Birr of 1826 which should be done in 2006.

Healion Garden Furniture
We wish to thank sincerely Mr.Tony Healion of Healion Garden Furniture, Cappincur for donating a scaled down replica of Durrow high cross and other items to the Society.


Heritage Week 2005
This is a European wide event which takes place from 4th to 11th September.

On Thursday 8th September at 8.15 pm in the Research Centre OHAS is planning to have an illustrated talk entitled "Towns and villages of Offaly from the air in 2005" This is a unique opportunity to get a bird's eye view of Offaly's modern landscape.

On Saturday 10th September there will be a conducted Walk through Tullamore commencing at 2.30 pm from the Research Centre. The duration will be circa 2 hours.