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Offaly History (short for Offaly Historical & Archaeological) was first formed in 1938 and re-established in 1969 and is located at Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly since 1993(next to the new Tullamore D.E.W Visitor Centre).

We are about collecting and sharing memories. We do this in an organised way though exhibitions, supporting the publication of local interest books, our website Offalyhistory.com , Facebook, open evenings, our library and offices at Bury Quay.

Our Mission
To promote Offaly History including community and family history

What we do:

  • Promote all aspects of history in Co. Offaly.
  • Genealogy service for counties Laois and Offaly.
  • Co. Offaly photographic records for study and sale in addition to a limited number of publications on Laois and Irish general historical interest.
  • Purchase and sale of Offaly interest books though the Society’s book store and website.
  • Publication of books under the Society’s publishing arm Esker Press.
  • The Society subscribes to almost all the premier historical journals in Ireland.

Our Society covers a diverse range of Offaly Heritage:

  • Architectural heritage, historic monuments such as monastic and castle buildings.
  • Industrial and urban development of towns and villages.
  • Archaeological objects and artifacts.
  • Flora, fauna and bogs, wildlife habitats, geology and Natural History.
  • Landscapes, heritage gardens and parks, farming and inland waterways.
  • Local literary, social, economic, military, political, scientific and sports history.

Offaly History is a non-profit community group with a growing membership of some 150 individuals.

The Society focuses on enhancing educational opportunities, understanding and knowledge of the county heritage while fostering an inclusive approach and civic pride in local identity. We promote these objectives through:

  • The holding of monthly lectures, occasional seminars, exhibitions and film screenings.
    Organising tours during the summer months to places of shared historical interest.
  • The publication of an annual journal Offaly Heritage – to date nine issues.
  • We play a unique role collecting and digitising original primary source materials especially photographs and oral history recordings
  • Offaly History is  the centre for  Family History research in Counties Laois and Offaly.
  • The Society is linked to the renowned Irish Family Foundation website and Roots Ireland where some 900,000 records of Offaly/Laois interest can be accessed on a pay-per-view basis worldwide. Currently these websites have an estimated 20 million records of all Ireland interest.
  • A burgeoning library of books, CD-ROMs, videos, DVDs, oral and folklore recordings, manuscripts, newspapers and journals, maps, photographs and various artifacts.
  • OHAS Collections
  • OHAS Centre Facilities

The financial activities of the Society are operated under the aegis of Offaly Heritage Centre Limited, a charitable company whose directors also serve on the Society’s elected committee. None of the Society’s directors receive remuneration or any kind. All the company’s assets are held in trust to promote the voluntary activities of the Society. Our facilities are largely free to the public or run purely on a costs-recovery basis.

Acting as a policy advisory body –  Offaly History endeavors to ensure all government departments, local authorities, tourism agencies and key opinion formers prioritise heritage matters.

Meet the current committee:

Our Committee represents a broad range of backgrounds and interests. All share a common interest in collecting and promoting the heritage of the county and making it available to the wider community.

2017 Committee

  • Helen Bracken (President)
  • Pat Wynne (Vice President and Joint Treasurer)
  • Niall Sweeney (Vice President)
  • Michael Byrne (Secretary)
  • Lisa Shortall (Deputy Secretary)
  • Dorothee Bibby (Record Secretary)
  • Charlie Finlay (Joint Treasurer)
  • Darrell Hooper
  • Brian Pey
  • Fred Geoghegan
  • Noel Guerin
  • Henry Edgill
  • Peter Burke
  • Angella Kelly
  • Rory Masterson
  • Shaun Wrafter
  • Ronnie Matthews
  • Oliver Dunne
  • Ciara Molloy
  • Stephen Callaghan (Heritage Items)

If you would like to help with the work of the Society by coming on a sub-committee or in some other way please email us or let an existing member know.

+353-5793-21421 [email protected] Open 9am-4.30pm Mon-Fri

Davitt and Irish revolution, 1846-82. – T. W. Moody.

65.00

Only 1 left in stock

Description

This book is a study of Michael Davitt in the context of two revolutionary movements – the Irish republican or fenian movement, and the ‘Land for the people’ movement. Born in Ireland in 1846, Davitt spent his childhood and youth in industrial Lancashire, where, at the age of eleven, a factory accident cost him his right arm. He joined the I.R.B. (Irish Republican Brotherhood), the secret organisation of the fenian movement, was convicted for arms trafficking in 1870, and spent the next seven years in penal servitude. Released in 1877 on ticket of leave, he stepped into the forefront of Irish politics as an unrepentant fenian, but a searching critic of fenian methods and fenian dogmatism.

Within a year he had pioneered with John Devoy, the leading spirit in Irish-American fenianism, a ‘new departure’ for the fenian movement – a combination between the I.R.B. and parliamentary nationalists of the kind typified by Parnell, in an effort to win national independence and a radical settlement of the land question. This scheme did not materialise, but it prepared the way for the nationalist popular front that took shape in the Land League, of which Davitt was the founder, chief organiser, inspiring genius, and of which Parnell was the president. Drawing indispensable support from fenian energy and capacity for leadership, the league mobilised the tenant farmers in a war of ‘aggressive moral force’ against the landlords with the immediate object of resisting eviction during an acute agricultural depression, and with the ultimate object of abolishing ‘landlordism’ altogether. This ‘land war’ proved to be the watershed in landlord-tenant relations, opening up a social revolution that eventually liquidated the landlords, and transformed the tenants into owner-occupiers.

By 1882, as ‘father of the Land League’ Davitt had earned a secure place in Irish history. He was never again to be at the centre of Irish politics, but for the rest of his life (he died in 1906) his characteristic role was that of free-lance nationalist and democratic reformer, striving for national independence and social justice by constitutional means, and widely known and respected not only in Ireland and Great Britain but also in the U.S.A. and rest of the world. The book traces the career of this unique Irish nationalist in detail to 1882, and in an epilogue reviews his last twenty-four years, and assesses his personality and achievement.

This is a rare, second hand book.

Additional information

Weight 1.069 kg
Dimensions 24 × 16.2 × 3.2 cm
Hard Or Paper Back

Pages

Place of Publication

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