Showing 9 results

Authority record
Corporate body Offaly (King's)

Banagher Improvement Committee

  • Corporate body
  • 1890-1938

The Banagher Improvement Committee was involved in the development of public housing, drainage and sanitation, local industries, electricity supply and street lightning, employment schemes, local infrastructure and the revival of Banagher Great Fair.

Banagher Refugee Commitee

  • Corporate body
  • 1914-1918

The Committee had been established during World War I to support Belgian refugees with accommodation and financial assistance after the German invasion into Belgium.

Birr Business & Professional Women’s Association

  • Corporate body
  • 1967-1982

Birr Business and Professional Women’s Club was formed in the County Arms Hotel, in November 1967. It was the first business and professional women’s club to be formed in Ireland outside of Dublin.

J. & L. F. Goodbody Ltd.

  • Corporate body
  • 1865 – 1984

J. & L. F. Goodbody was established in 1865 as a jute manufacturing business based at Clashawaun in Clara and also with offices in Dublin. Its directors were Jonathan Goodbody (1865-88), Lewis F. Goodbody (1865-87), Robert Goodbody (c1870-88), Joshua C. Goodbody (c1873-88), Fredrick R. Goodbody (1880-88) and J. B. Clibborn Goodbody (1880-88).

The business was formed into a limited company in 1888 and traded under the name J. & L. F. Goodbody Ltd. As well as jute, it also manufactured cotton and synthetics. Its main factories at Clara and Waterford were later joined by factories at Dublin, Limerick and Slane. In 1937, it became a public company when outside shareholders and directors were introduced. It was quoted on the Dublin Stock Exchange and wound up in 1984. The family crest was adopted as the registered trade mark.

King's County Infirmary

  • Corporate body
  • 1788-1921

King’s County Infirmary was established under King George III’s reign with the passing of the Irish County Infirmaries Act of 1765. This act enabled the creation of infirmaries in thirty Irish counties. In an amending act from 1768, King’s County Infirmary was moved from Philipstown (Daingean) to Tullamore, the new county town. During the redevelopment of Tullamore town by the Earl of Charleville, a new infirmary building was erected in 1788 on Church Street and was further extended in 1812.

The County Infirmaries Act was enacted to provide healthcare to the poor which fulfilled the eighteenth century philanthropic ideals of the landed gentry who supported these institutions through donations and subscriptions. King’s County Infirmary was supported by an income comprising of parliamentary funds, grand jury presentments, governor subscriptions, donations, and patient fees. The infirmary was managed by a Board of Governors who paid subscriptions for their position on the board. Governors had absolute control over the infirmary including staff appointments and patient admissions. To gain access to the infirmary, Governors issued tickets of admission which were most likely given to their employees, tenants, and servants. The governors who supported the hospital were made up of local gentry and landowners such as the Earl of Rosse, Lord Digby and prominent businessowners such as the Goodbody family.

During the War of Independence, King’s County Infirmary came under the jurisdiction of the new Sinn Féin majority council, now renamed Offaly County Council. On the 21st of January 1921, the secretary to Offaly County Council attended a meeting of the board to inform them of the closure of the infirmary. It was to be closed under the Offaly amalgamation scheme whereby the workhouse hospital would become the new County Hospital. The board pleaded with the council to delay the closure in order to settle the affairs of the hospital in relation to critical patients and financial matters. The hospital eventually closed in August 1921 after it was reported by the surgeon and registrar to the board, that the bedding and beds were carried out of the infirmary by unknown persons suspected to be under orders of the county council.

Following its closure, King’s County Infirmary accommodated the civil guards and then housed the county library until 1977. The façade of the original King’s County Infirmary can still be seen on Church Street, Tullamore, which has now been repurposed into apartments.

McGinn's Bakery

  • Corporate body
  • 1920-1996

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.

Patrick Moore & Sons, Victuallers

  • Corporate body
  • c.1890 - 1960

Patrick Moore & Sons were a family run victuallers who supplied meat to many local people and businesses in the towns of Edenderry, County Offaly and Rathangan, County Kildare and many smaller towns in the surrounding area.

Pattersons & Co. Ltd.

  • Corporate body
  • 1821-1970s

Pattersons & Co. Ltd. traded at the Old Established House, J.K.L Street, Edenderry and consisted of a public house, a general provisions shop and an undertakers.

Presbyterian Church, Birr

  • Corporate body
  • c.1839-

The Presbyterian Church in Birr grew in numbers in the 1840s following the Crotty Schism. Fr William Crotty (with his cousin Fr Michael Crotty) led this breakaway Catholic congregation to join the Presbyterian Church. Crotty's Church built to emulate a Presbyterian Hall was erected in Castle Street in 1839. A new church building for the Presbyterian congregation was erected in 1885 in John's Mall, not now in use.