Skip to content

    Founded in 1938 and re-established in 1969, Offaly History (Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society) aims to preserve and promote the rich heritage of County Offaly. Since 1993, the Society has occupied premises at Bury Quay, Tullamore offering a Bookshop, library, reading room, and lecture hall for researcher and members of the public.  Offaly History Centre is beside the new Aldi Supermarket and Old Warehouse restaurant), and best approached from Kilbride Street via Patrick Street or Main Street.

    The main objective of the society is the collection and sharing of research and memories. We do this in an organised way; through exhibitions, the publication of local interest books, weekly blog posts, monthly lectures, and more. The bookshop and reading rooms at Bury Quay are open to the public Monday to Friday, 9am-4:30pm. Regular updates can also be found at our website, www.Offalyhistory.com and on our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X.

    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.
    • Photographic collections of County Offaly
    • Purchase and sale of Offaly interest books though the Society’s book store and website with over 3000 history books in our shop and up to 1000 online.
    • Publication of books under the Society’s publishing arm Esker Press.
    • The Society subscribes to almost all the premier historical journals in Ireland.
    • The Society manages the collections if Offaly Archives under the care of a professional archivist.

    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 artefacts.
    • 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 social media. Organising tours during the summer months to places of shared historical interest.
    • The publication of an annual journal Offaly Heritage – to date twelve 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 1,000,000 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 artefacts (now over 25,000 items and a catalogue online)
    • OHAS Collections
    • OHAS Centre Facilities
    The financial activities of the Society are operated under the aegis of Offaly Heritage Centre c.l.g, 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.

    2024 Committee
    • Helen Bracken (President)
    • Shaun Wrafter (Vice President)
    • Michael Byrne (Secretary)
    • Dorothee Bibby (Treasurer)
    • Charlie Finlay (Assistant Treasurer)
    • Niall Sweeney
    • Ciarán McCabe
    • Noel Guerin
    • Angela Kelly
    • Rory Masterson
    • Oliver Dunne
    • Frank Brennan
    • Pat Wynne
    • Laura Price
    Co-opted
    • Reneagh Bennett
    • Michael Scully
    • Jim Keating
    • Eamon Larkin
    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 at [email protected] or let an existing member know.  
    +353-5793-21421 [email protected] Open 9am-4.30pm Mon-Fri

    Support for the Belgian Refugees in County Offaly and in Portarlington following the outbreak of the First World War. By Offaly History and the late Ronnie Mathews

    When we in Offaly History set out early in 2021 to mark the Decade of Centenaries in Ireland in our eighty plus contributed blogs on the Decade last year little did we think that an article on Belgian refugees to Ireland and the First World War would have resonance in the Ireland of 2022. Now we are talking of at least three million people forced out of Ukraine and have concerns about a third world war. Our efforts for the Belgians in 1914 look very slight when put beside what is needed today. In 1914 we were wholly reliant on the printed newspaper with no radio or social media.

    The plight of the Belgian refugees following on the outbreak of the First World War caught the imagination and as early as November 1914 a county organisation was formed in Offaly with immediate suggestions for the use of Charleville Castle, the Tullamore barracks and the big house in High Street (the home of the late James Hayes and now Donal Farrelly Solicitors).[1]  Hotels were few and the only major institution with beds was the workhouse.

    The County Secretary, Charles Kingston wrote to the local press on 5 November 1914 to advise:

    At a meeting of the Kings County War Relief committee held on Wednesday evening it was resolved to inaugurate County Fund to be known as “the King`s Co. Central Belgian Refugees Fund “for the purpose of aiding and supplementing the local efforts to be made for the maintenance and accommodation of Belgian Refugees whom it is proposed to locate in various parts of the county.

    The subscribers to the fund included:

    Mr J and L Goodbody Clara £50; The Lady Emily Bury. £50 ; E J Beaumont Nesbitt D L £50 ; J Perry Goodbody D L £25; Mr and Mrs Lewis Goodbody £25; Ernest H Browne D L £25 ; D E Williams LTD £20 ; J A Lumley Chairman of Tullamore Urban Council £10 10s. Henry Egan £10 10s. ; Very Rev, Philip Callary P P. Tullamore £5 5s. Walter Callen R M £5 5s. ;Ulster Bank Tullamore £5 5; Mrs Kingston £5 5s.

    The treasurers of the fund were Very Rev. Philip Callary P.P. Tullamore and J. Perry Goodbody, D. L., lnchmore Clara, Vice Chairman of the County Council. Both were practical men and not reluctant to cross the religious divide when the need arose.

    Garrycastle/ West Offaly had its first relief committee meeting in early November with Dean Monahan, P.P. as chairman and the indefatigable R.H. Moore as secretary.[2] Other suggested accommodation in the county included Arlington School, Portarlington and in November fourteen Belgians arrived in that town.[3] In Tullamore over £400 was collected by mid-November 1914 with street collectors appointed. Eight Belgians arrived in December and were met at the Tullamore railway station by ‘a respectable committee’. They were placed at Richardson’s of Mullaghhill, Killurin (or perhaps Mullaghcrew) where opportunities were available for market gardening.  (Both houses were burned by Republicans in 1923 during the civil war.) A further nine Belgians arrived in January.[4] Within a year to fifteen months the Belgians had gone from Kilcormac and Banagher (where they had stayed at Curraghvarna owned by a Mrs Horton).[5] The support for the Belgians appeared to be an all-middle-class activity cutting across religious divides.  

    It seems the refugees were scarce: the Midland Tribune reported (perhaps mockingly, as it was not a supporter of participation in the war).

    Fr Callary, P.P Tullamore, 1899-1925.

    Belgian Refugees [wanted in south King’s County]

    ‘A number of persons who have made provision for the accommodation of Belgians in the King’s County portion of the Roscrea district, have been disappointed. They cannot get the refugees. They are catered for before they reach this part of the country. Mrs White-Spunner succeeded only because she met the boat. The efforts of Mr Darby and others who set aside cottages and arranged for the supply of provisions, have been so far, in vain. In addition to the old gentleman whose arrival at the Monastery we mentioned last week, there is a little Belgian boy going to the College.[6]

    Essays published in 2018 and available from Offaly History

    In an article published in Offaly Heritage in 2005 by the late Ronnie Mathews he took up the story of the refugees in Portarlington.

    When the German army invaded Belgian in the summer of 1914 many of the locals fled their homes and attempted to get across the sea to England and Ireland, as had the Huguenots from France in earlier years.  It is estimated that upwards on 250,000 managed to make the trip, nearly twice as many as at the end of the seventeenth century.  Oddly though much is recorded about the Huguenots migration, very little is written about the unfortunate Belgians.

    By September of 1914 a Central Committee for Refugees had been set up in Dublin to try and find places of shelter throughout Ireland.  Outside the capital the towns of Naas, Celbridge and Portarlngton were amount the first to provide some accommodation and help, while Limerick also expressed a willingness to take a large group of the refugees.

    In October 1914 the Leinster Express reported. “A meeting of the Portarlington General Committee of the Belgian Relief Association was held in the Courthouse, on Monday last.  Rev. Cannon Cole M.A. presided, with Rev. Thomas Kelly, Emo; Rev. Father Beauchamp, Portarlington; Rev. Dudley Fletcher, B.A. B.D., Coolbanagher, and Rev. M. Vincent were present, in addition to a large and representative attendance of ladies and gentlemen. The hon. Secretaries, (Messrs. Joseph Shanley and J. Cummins) intimated that the subscription towards the fund amounted already to £180, roughly.

    In the course of the proceedings it was stated that Arlington School, was capable of accommodating some 300 persons and had been renovated for the reception of the refugees; that the secretaries were in communication with the Central Relief in Dublin as to the number of refugees to be sent to Portarlington; that the committee were prepared to maintain fifteen refugees, who must be either lace-makers, wood-carvers or carpet-makers, and that infirm people and babies who had lost their parents would not be received. 

    A resolution was passed to the effect that if the King’s County Association decided to send any refugees to Arlington School they would be accepted, the rate of maintenance to be fixed by the Portarlington committee.  Rev. Dudley Fletcher suggested that in addition to the ordinary church collection that monthly collections be held in aid of the funds.  He would be glad to give any help if the suggestions were carried into effect.

    Meanwhile a proposal was made at a meeting of the nearby Cloneygowan and District Council by Mr. Michael Dempsey “that the Government should take over AnnavilleHouse from the occupier of the farm, Mr. James Dunne.  He claimed no rates had been paid for several years by Mr. Dunne, and that the house was lying unoccupied, had over fifty rooms and was admirably suited for the purpose of housing the refugees”.  His proposal, seconded by Mr. Patrick Flanagan, was passed unanimously by all present.  It was also agreed to forward copies of this motion to the local M.Ps;  Mr. Birrell, the Prime Minster, Mr. John Redmond and the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

    On 9 November 1914 the first group of the Belgian refugees arrived at Arlington House.  They numbered fourteen and were met with brakes and cars (horse drawn), placed at the disposal of the committee by Mr. Wm. J. Browne of the Imperial Hotel, Main Street.  A large crowd assembled to welcome them, and several motor cars were also in readiness to assist in their transport if required.  The vehicles were all gaily decorated with flags of all Allied nations.  On their arrival at Arlington they were fed and were evidently delighted with the quarters prepared for them.

    Six weeks later it was reported that; ‘The Refugees have quite settled down in Portarlington now.  They are quite habituated to the town and vivaciously express their thanks in broken English, of course, as far as they can speak it, at the kind and generous manner in which they have been received and treated by the people of Portarlington.  They feel their position keenly and would rather be back in their own country, but it is the fortune of war.  A meeting of the Belgian Refugee Committee was held on Wednesday, and the usual accounts for payment were passed.  It was resolved to notify the traders of the town that all accounts must be henceforth furnished weekly on Wednesdays, if payments are to be made that week.  Mr. A.H.M. Odlum, Chairman occupied the chair, and there were also present – Messrs. W.H.M. Cobbe, J.P.; H.C. Carey, and Henry Farrell.  Mr. Joseph Shanley, assistant hon. sec. was also present.’

    That by the beginning of 1915 it is evident that the many refugees who had come not only to Portarlington, but to other centres throughout Ireland, had blended into Irish life.  For from that period they were no longer a ‘news itemr, and were seldom mentioned in the newspapers of the time.  It is remarkable today that less than ninety years since the Belgian group, who were numerically far greater than the earlier Huguenots and who also lived in Ireland and the U.K., are completely forgotten.  Why is this?  Was it that they brought little wealth etc. with them.  Or could it be there was in general a clash of national identity and personality between the Belgians and their Irish hosts?

    To support this theory, I recollect a story about one refugee, M. de Winters, who worked in our family business as a “pastry cook”.  It seems that because of bad feeling between him and one of our regular bakery staff, that a gold ring, a treasured personal belonging of the Belgian, which he had removed during his working day, was placed within a cutting machine which he was operating   thereby causing the valuable ring to be cut in two.  The ensuing altercation can easily be imagined.

    Then in the memoirs of Lord Carlow (late of Emo Park) he recalls Portarlington’s Dr. Thomas Rice thus “in his self-assumed position as advisor, he had to cope with drunks, Belgian refugees, with which the town was unavoidably encumbered, rogues, ruffians, representatives of the law, fugitives as such, and also my father.  With the exception of the last mentioned they regarded him as all powerful and never questioned his authority”.

    Could it be that the reason for Dr. Rice’s rather poor opinion of the Belgians can be based on a twinge of professional rivalry, for in another issue of the local newspaper we read; “that, at the funeral of the town’s Dr. Joseph Manley Tabuteau, many others attended including a number of the Belgian refugees”. Was Dr. Tabuteau their officially appointed doctor?

    One of the few people in Portarlington who I could find that even remembered the refugees was the late Mrs. Keenan, Patrick Street, who as a young girl had befriended some of the Belgian children at Arlington.  She recalled that by mid 1915, quite a good number had arrived in the town.  She remembered only two of the families’ names, De Blett and De Winter.  The latter I believe was the unfortunate man who had his gold ring smashed in our bakery.  She also recalled how after the War he went to live in Newcastle in the North of England, and that for a few years he had kept in touch with her brother.

    The speical issue to mark 1916 and available from OH.

    ­­­­­

    [1] Ibid., 5 Nov. 1914, 12 Nov. 1914, 26 Nov. 1914.

    [2] KCC, 12 Nov. 1914.

    [3] TKI, 17 Oct. 1914.

    [4] TKI, 19 Nov. 1914, 24 Dec. 1914, 9 Jan. 1915.

    [5] MT, 5 Feb. 1916, 24 June 1916.

    [6] MT, 30 Jan. 1915.

    Back To Top