A Brief History of Tullamore
In the case of almost every place name in Ireland,
British rule meant that the Irish name was anglicised to suit
the english tongue. The original names had meaning and character,
the new names were easy for the settlers to say. For example,
'Beal Feirste', meaning 'mouth of the sand bank'
was changed to 'Belfast', and 'Ros Comán', which
means 'Cománs wood', named after St. Comán who founded
a monastery in the area, was changed to 'Roscommon'. And
so 'Tulach Mhór', meaning 'Big Hill', in reference to the
area behind the junction of Cormac street and O'Moore street,
became 'Tullamore'.
Tullamore today has a population of around 15,000 and has been the
capital town of Offaly since 1833. It's more than twice the size
of its nearest rival, Birr. Yet records from the 1660s put tullamore's
population at 100, while Birr was considerably larger with 700
inhabitants.
John Moore, who was the son of Thomas Moore, an Elizabethan soldier,
had received lands at Croghan Hill, an extinct volcano in east
Offaly in the 1570's as part of the first British plantation of
Offaly. The Moore family let long lease on their Tullamore lands
throughout the seventeenth century, choosing to live at Croghan
Castle instead.
A future generation of the Moore family decided to leave their home
at Croghan Castle in the early 1700s and built a house in Tullamore,
near where the harbour is today. No trace of this house now remains.
Through political influence, they had a barracks built to house
100 British foot soldiers in 1716, and by the late 1720s, a Protestant
church was built in Church Lane, now Church Street. This building
also no longer exists.
The arrival of the soldiers proved to be an attraction for businesses
to the area and a key factor in the early growth of tullamore.
The first recorded building lease is one from the Moore family
to Richard Brennan, a tobacco spinner, in 1713. His premises is
now the Brewery Tap bar in O'Connor square.
By the mid 1760s Tullamore would have consisted of Patrick Street,
Church Street, Bridge Street, part of O'Connor Square and part
of High Street. Town development then suffered a setback following
the death of Charles Moore, first Earl of Charleville who had
encouraged building development.
On Charles Moore's death the property passed first to his sister's
husband, John Bury of Shannongrove, Limerick who died soon after
in a bathing accident at Ringsend, Dublin.
Tullamore then passed to Moore's nephew, Charles William Bury, a
child of six months. During his younger years there were no leases
for more than 21 years granted and thus no new building activity.
Charles William Bury's coming of age in 1785 coincided with the
famous balloon fire in Tullamore.
A hot air balloon crash landed in the town leading to a fire that
caused serious damage to around 100 houses in the Patrick Street
area. Exact details of the damage caused are sketchy and some
accounts are conflicting, but it is believed that most of Kilbride
Street was also burnt to the ground, with the exception of Molloy's
pub, the Mallet Tavern, the oldest pub in tullamore, which still
stands today and is still a pub. This flight of a hot air balloon
took place only two years after the first flight in Paris.
An old photo of The Mallet Tavern (It still has the trademark
thatched roof today)
Charles William Bury presided over the fortunes of Tullamore 'til
his death 50 years later. The burning of Patrick Street gave him
an opportunity to let the properties there on new leases and widen
the street in the process. During this time the population trebled
to over 6,000 in 1841. There was also the matter of the Grand Canal which was linked to
Tullamore in 1798 and to the river shannon in 1804. The canal
marked the northern boundary of the town until the 1900s, as did
the railway line from 1858 on the southern side.The canal provided
a link to Dublin and a great method of transporting goods to and
from the capital. Tullamore is now the biggest urban area the
grand canal passes through outside of Dublin.
The town is laid out on a gridiron pattern with the principal street
running from the road to Kilbeggan at the north end of the town
to the road to Birr at the south and beyond it to Charleville
Castle, situated in Charleville woods just outside the town.
The castle was completed between 1800 and 1812 and became the
home of the former owners of the town, the earls of Charleville.
It was designed by Francis Johnston who also designed Dublin's
GPO, is considered one of the finest Gothic style country houses
in Ireland and is now open to the public.
Charleville Castle
The new streets, such as Offaly Street, Harbour Street and William
Street all followed the grid iron pattern and a second Market
square was provided in the 1820s, still named Market Square today.
The Tullamore tenants petitioned the Irish House of Commons in
1784 and in 1786 to designate Tullamore as the county capital
in place of Daingean, but because of the significant political
influence of the Ponsonby family, now owners of Daingean, this
was not achieved until 1833. The county jail was built in Tullamore
in 1826 and the county courthouse in 1835.
The origins of the town's most famous export, Tullamore Dew -
the legendary Irish whiskey - can be traced back to 1829 when
the Tullamore Distillery was founded by Michael Molloy. In 1887,
following the death of Mr Molloy, the distillery passed into the
hands of the Daly family with Captain Bernard Daly in charge of
the business. A keen sportsman, Captain Daly left the routine
running of the distillery to one of his colleagues, Daniel E Williams.
Williams was the major influence in the expansion and development
of the distillery His initials D.E.W inspired the whiskey to be
named 'Tullamore Dew' with its slogan "Give every man his Dew"
which appeared on the bottles for many years. In 1947, the distillery
also gave birth to Irish Mist liqueur. Sadly, the huge
canalside building is no longer a functional distillery with both
drinks now being made elsewhere. However, thankfully the place
was preserved and is now the tullamore dew heritage centre, housing
a bar and a superb museum for visitors to take a trip down memory
lane.
The famous D.E. Williams Distillery
Building developers were draughted in to oversee the expansion of
tullamore. Chief among these developers was Thomas Acres whose
house is now the headquarters of Tullamore Urban District Council
at the top of high street. There was large scale building and
development in the town from this time right up until the beginning
of the famine in 1845.
In 1845 Ireland was hit by the Great Famine. The potato crops failed
and much of the grain it produced was sold to England by profit
hungry landowners. The wages in the public works was approximately
1 shilling per day but a family needed 2 shillings to stay alive.
When conditions got really bad people often had no choice but
to go to the poorhouses. The poorhouse in Tullamore was designed
for 700 people and was catering for 1700 people by 1850. Birr
poorhouse was designed for 800 people and was catering for 1800
people by 1850. Tullamore workhouse had given relief to over 6000
people by the end of the 1840s. There was an average of 5 to 10
deaths per week in Tullamore workhouse at this time.
The post-famine years, and up to the end of the First World War,
saw the steady consolidation of Tullamore's position as the leading
town in Offaly. Whereas the population of Tullamore and Birr was
virtually the same, at 6,300 in 1841, by 1926 the population of
Birr had fallen to almost half that figure, and Tullamore to about
5,000. The towns had not fared as bad as the rural areas and the
county during the famine and the years that followed it. The population
of Offaly in 1841 was almost 147,000. By 1926 it was 53,000.
Since then it has hovered around the late 50,000's even though tullamore
appears to be growing all the time. More and more of Offaly's
rural population seem to have either moved to tullamore or left
the area altogether. In fact tullamore has 50% of the business
of the entire county and draws from a hinterland of at least 35,000
people.
In December 1921, after many years of fierce struggle for Irish independence
and freedom from Britain, the anglo-Irish treaty was signed, and
26 of Ireland's 32 counties became the republic of Ireland. Kings
County, which the british had named it, immediately became County
Offaly again, and in the late 1930's Tullamore General hospital
was built. The building was fronted in local limestone in order
to encourage employment in the construction of the hospital.
The main sources of employment up to the 1930s were in malting, distilling,
stone quarrying and distribution. In the mid-1930s, Salts (Ireland)
established a spinning mill in the old jail which provided employment
for about 1,000 people. Salts closed in 1982.
In recent years increasing reliance has been placed on international
firms, which have established factories here, to generate new
industrial employment. Many of these firms come and go. The recent
closure of several factories, including Flextronics who provided
tullamore with 600 jobs, dealt a severe blow to the town. However,
most experts believe the town is too prosperous now to suffer
any permanent damage.
The construction of the Bridge shopping center (the town's third
shopping centre, and by far it's biggest) provided a new road
system, over 300 car parking spaces, 44 residential units and
80,000 sq. ft. of shopping space. This, combined with the opening
of the new 'Main Street' shopping development has almost doubled
the town center in size and there would appear to be more similar
type of projects being planned at the moment. There are local
authority housing estates, supermarkets, industrial estates and
private house building developments in progress around the towns
outskirts all the time, making tullamore now one of the fastest
growing towns in Ireland. It's population is expected to double
to thirty thousand by the year 2030.
All the usual multi-chain names you would expect to find in major
towns have arrived in the town such as Tesco, Dunnes Stores and
McDonalds. Tullamore also has many local successful retail outlets.
For example Texas Department Store is a family owned business run by Tom and
Teresa McNamara. The business was established in 1981, has grown
steadily into the largest single retail store in Tullamore and
the greater Midlands area and now employs around 75 people. And
of course Texas will always be able to say that it was the first
shop in tullamore with an escalator.
Tullamore has managed
to preserve much of its original townscape. The major public buildings
are very well presented, especially in O'Connor Square, and appear
to live side by side and in harmony with the new modern structures.
The emphasis on timber shopfronts with painted lettering rather
than neon signs is having a very positive effect. The town is
now served with three local newspapers and a local radio station.
All sports facilities, including one of Ireland's few tartan tracks,
are available. All that is lacking for the moment is more job
opportunities.
