The premises were first mentioned in a lease from Charles William Bury to John Shaw in 1790. It became a brewery in 1805 when Richard Deverell acquired the property. The ownership changed again, i.e. to George Wilkinson, a baker, in the 1850s.
Michael McGinn (1879-1973) bought the premises in 1920 from the widow Brophy under whose ownership a pub was run by the Keeney family. McGinn was from Mountmellick and managed a D. E. Williams grocery shop there before he bought the pub in Tullamore. He continued the pub trade and also operated a bakery and a grocery on the premises. The licence was transferred in 1967 to his son Philip McGinn who renovated the pub in 1978 and changed the grocery part to an off-licence in 1980.
Kenneth Arthur Kennedy was the youngest son of Doctor J. M. Prior Kennedy, JP, of Elmfield, Tullamore King’s County, and Anchoretta H. Jacob. He was born on 3 April 1894 and was educated at St Columba’s College and Trinity College. K. A. Kennedy was called to the bar in 1917 and qualified as a solicitor in 1924. He was a solicitor with A & L Goodbody with offices at Dame Street, Dublin, Moate and Tullamore becoming a partner by 1930. Alfred Goodbody had died in 1924 in the same year as Kenneth Kennedy qualified. In 1930 Kenneth Kennedy, Lewis Goodbody and George Acheson Overend acquired the fee simple as joint tenants of premises at High Street, Tullamore held on lease since 1913. Lewis Goodbody died in 1933 and the ownership of the firm was shared between G. O. Overend and Kenneth Arthur Kennedy, but not necessarily in equal shares. In 1947 a new partnership arrangement was entered into between Overend and Kennedy and the following year Kenneth Arthur Kennedy acquired the entire interest in the building at High Street for £800. The A & L Goodbody, Tullamore partnership appears at this time to have comprised of G. A. Overend, Kenneth A. Kennedy and G. G. Overend. The Tullamore building was to serve the Tullamore firm now known as Goodbody & Kennedy until 1989 when the business was sold to Dermot Scanlon by Kenneth C. P. Kennedy. He had been active in the firm up to his death on 9 December 1974 at the age of 80 and had served his clients in Tullamore for fifty years. He married Mary Lawrence in 1924, the same year as he qualified as a solicitor. She was better known locally as Bean Uí Chinnéide and was a keen landscape painter and with her husband a lover of nature. Mr Kennedy’s tombstone at Clonminch fittingly records – /He loved his birds/ and he loved his bible/The word of God/ a Lantern to his feet/. Court tributes were paid to Mr Kennedy by District Justice Tormey at Tullamore district court and on behalf of the solicitors by Mr Eugene Hunt.
Public house near Geashill, Co.Offaly, owned by Henry Bryan. Known to be meeting place of local Ribbonmen.
Architect to Lord Digby, Geashill Estate, Co. Offaly and winner in 1868 of best design for labourers' cottages in competition run by the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland.
Edward St. Vincent Digby, 9th Baron Digby of Geashill was born on 21 June 1809.He was the son of Admiral Sir Henry Digby and Lady Jane Elizabeth Coke. He gained the rank of Lieutenant in the service of the 9th Lancers. When his cousin, Edward, the unmarried 8th Baron and 2nd Earl Digby died, he succeeded to the title of 3rd Baron Digby of Sherborne, Dorset and to the title of 9th Baron Digby of Geashill, King's County on 12 May 1856. It seems his cousin was a very laissez faire landlord. Residing in his splendid residence at Sherbourne. He rarely visited Geashill and granted tenants very long and generous leases. However, because these grants extended beyond his own life-time, he was deemed to have exceeded his legal powers. This would prove to be a problem for his successor. When Edward St Vincent took up his new position he felt that his late ancestor had “no right moral or legal, to lease away his Irish lands for two thirds of their real value”. The new landlord was therefore determined to break the leases, which his predecessor had granted. This was to create much anxiety and upheaval at Geashill where the tenants were faced with loss of tenure, which they previously considered secure. Acting upon his legal rights, the 9th Lord Digby embarked upon breaking these leases, leading the tenants to look for redress and compensation to the executors. It was in the midst of this dispute that William Trench’s services were engaged.
When assessing his time in Geashill, the barony underwent a vast transformation with Lord Digby achieving both national and indeed international recognition for improvements carried out on the estate.The Geashill estate was much improved with bigger and better quality farms, improved cottages, a new school and estate office. It was perhaps no coincidence that the estate underwent a major transformation as Lord Edward Digby was the grandson of Thomas Coke, first earl of Leicester, who was not only a British politician but a noted agricultural reformer. Coke became famous for his advanced methods of animal husbandry used in improving his estate at Holkham in Norfolk. As a result he was seen as one of the instigators of the British Agricultural Revolution.
Edward St. Vincent married Lady Theresa Anna Maria Fox-Strangways, daughter of Henry Stephen Fox-Strangways. He died on 16 October 1889 aged 80.
Edward Henry Kenelm Digby, 12th Baron Digby was born 24 July 1924. He is a British peer, and retired British Army (Coldstream Guards). He is the son of Edward Kenelm Digby, 11th Baron Digby of Geashill and Hon. Constance Pamela Alice Bruce. He was educated at Eton College, Windsor, Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford University. He also studied at Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Berkshire. He fought in the Second World War and in the Malayan Emergency between 1948 and 1950. He was Aide-de-Camp to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Land Forces between 1950 and 1951 and Aide-de-Camp to the Commander-in-Chief, British Army of the Rhine between 1951 and 1952. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset between 1957 and 1965. He held the office of Justice of the Peace for Dorset in 1959. He succeeded to the titles of 12th Baron Digby of Geashill, King's County, and 6th Baron Digby of Sherborne on 29 January 1964. He was invested as a Knight, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (K.St.J.) in 1985. He was invested as a Knight Commander, Royal Victorian Order (K.C.V.O.) in 1998. He married Dione Marian Sherbrooke, daughter of Rear-Admiral Robert St. Vincent Sherbrooke, V.C. and Rosemary Neville Buckley, on 18 December 1952, with whom he had three children. He died on 1 April 2018.