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Maura O'Brennan, of Cormac Street, Tullamore, spent her early years in Wexford. She came to Tullamore in the early 1920s and was a member of the teaching staff of the convent national school, and except for a brief period in Mucklagh spent all of her teaching career in Tullamore. She married Alyosius O'Brennan in {??]. She was a founding member of Tullamore Guild ICA, and appeared as a guest of honour at the ICA 25th anniversary party in the Bridge House in May 1984. She died in July of that year, aged 79.

Tenant in Killurin on the Geashill Estate who entered into a dispute with land agents W. S. and T. W. Trench. His cause was supported by local Ribbonmen but he ultimately yielded possession of his own farm and that of his deceased brother to the Trenchs in 1860.

Ribbonman active in Geashill 1859-1860. Ejected from Geashill Estate by land agents, W.S. and T. W. Trench in 1860 and left with his family for Australia.

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.

James Dillon was born in Clara in 1788 to Simon and Catherine Dillon. His father, Simon, was involved in property and his mother ran a shop and also had extensive property on New St. In the 1820s and 1830s he was politically active in opposing tithes, supporting Daniel O'Connell and the cause of Catholic Emancipation. He was appointed coroner for King's County in July 1836. In 1847, the county was split into two districts and he was assigned the Tullamore district serving the northern half of the county. He had married Alice Kelly in the 1820s and they had 10 children, 6 daughters and 4 sons. He died at the age of 71 in 1859 while on the way to Edenderry to undertake another inquest. He was succeeded in the post by William A. Gowing of Tullamore.

Born in 1846, the eldest son of 9th Lord Digby, he was educated at Harrow and then joined the Coldstream Guards, where he made his career, rising to the rank of Colonel and serving in the Sudan from 1885 to 1889. He also served as M.P. for Dorset from 1876-1885. On the death of his father in 1889, he resigned his commission and came home to Minterne. In 1893 he married Emily Beryl, daughter of Col. the Hon. Albert Hood and they had three sons and three daughters.

He became involved in local affairs, accepting the appointment as Chairman of the Board of Herrison Hospital, Charminster and serving as a J.P. and local magistrate, Chairman of the Dorchester Agricultural Society and honorary Colonel in the Dorset Regiment. He planted the rhododendron gardens at Minterne and sponsored plant expeditions to China and the Himalayas, breeding his own varieties in his glass houses and becoming a member of the Royal Horticultural Society.

The house at Minterne suffered from damp and dry rot, and in 1906 he fulfilled his promise to his wife to build a new house. He employed the architect Leonard Stokes, who had built Post Offices and was famously difficult to get on with. However, Lord Digby’s friendly and practical approach charmed him and he produced a marvellous design for his only country house which is still comfortable to live in.

He took an active interest in his estate at Geashill, and was saddened when the Irish Land Act of 1903 resulted in the end of the link with a number of his tenants, some of whom had been on the Digby estate for generations.

Edward Kenelm Digby was born in 1894, the eldest son of 10th Baron Digby. After Eton and Sandhurst, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards in 1915. He fought at the battles of Aubers Ridge and Loos in 1915 and was promoted to second-in-command at the age of 21, after his CO was killed. He took part in the battle of the Somme in 1916, when tanks were first used; 11 officers of his battalion were killed on one day in September 1916 and all the others were wounded except him. In 1917 he fought at Passchendaele and played a major role in the occupation and final defeat of Germany in 1918.

On his return home, he married Constance Pamela Bruce, daughter of 2nd Baron Aberdare in 1919 and inherited Minterne from his father when he died in 1920. He couldn’t afford to live at Minterne, so he took the post of Military Secretary to the Governor of Australia from 1920 to 1923. With his bank balance restored, he came back to Minterne, where he bred Channel Island cattle and established a thriving dairy herd. On the outbreak of war in 1939, Minterne was taken over by a naval hospital, and the family moved to Cerne Abbas. During the war, he and Lady Digby delivered the milk around Cerne Abbas.

Following in his father’s footsteps, he bred rhododendrons and azaleas, sponsored collecting expeditions abroad. He was appointed President of the Royal Show in 1949, and President of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1959. He was Lord Lieutenant of Dorset from 1952 until his death. He was appointed Gentleman at Arms 1939, and a member of the Household Body Guard in 1952, resigning on grounds of ill-health. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1960.

He died in 1964 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward Henry Kenelm, 12th Baron Digby.

Peadar Bracken was born in Tullamore in 1887. A lifelong nationalist, he joined the Tullamore branch of the Gaelic League in 1902 and was recruited into the IRB in 1904 at the age of 17. A stone-cutter by trade, he emigrated in 1911 to Perth in Western Australia where he joined his brother Denis in the stone-cutting business there. On hearing of the formation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, Peadar returned to Tullamore and was elected by the Tullamore Volunteers as their First Captain. In November 1914, he was arrested along with 45 others for his involvement in the Geashill Cattle Drive. Due to the fact that he had discharged a fireream during the melée, he was sentenced to six months imprisonment in Mountjoy Gaol but only served two.

In 1915 he was appointed First Commandant of the newly formed Athlone IV Brigade. In March 1916, he was a key figure in the Tullamore Incident and fired ‘the first shots’ in the affray. He and Seamus O’Brennan subsequently went on the run. During the 1916 Rising, he held key positions in the heart of the fighting, as OC O’Connell Bridge and holding the GPO until surrender. He was released from Kilmainham Gaol in June 1916 and immediately reorganised the Athlone IV Brigade. During the War of Independence he was appointed overall Commandant of No 1 and No 2 Offaly IRA Brigades and Staff Officer to IRA-HQ. He was interned in the Curragh Camp in 1921 but was released in October of that year. Following the establishment of the Free State, he was appointed first clerk of the courts for Tullamore and later to Daingean, Clara and Ferbane. In 1934 he was appointed commissioner for oaths and in the 1940s he served as staff officer with the Tullamore Local Defence Force. His military pension application was approved in 1940 and he was awarded medals for his involvement in the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence. He died in January 1916.

Frank O’Brennan was born in Tullamore c.1985, the younger brother of Séamus and Alo O’Brennan. He was active in the Tullamore Volunteers from 1913 and is listed on the charge sheet of those present during the Tullamore Incident of March 1916, after which he was arrested and court-martialled in relation to the wounding of RIC Sergeant Ahearn. After his release in June 1916, he rejoined the Irish Volunteers and took part in the usual activities. In 1919 he watched the movement of British forces and carried dispatches. In June 1920 he was in charge of road blocking during attacks on Geashill and Clara Barracks, and was involved in an armed attack on British forces at Ballycommon Bridge in which a civilian was killed. He took part in three raids for mail. In the autumn of 1920 he brought Seán McGuinness and members of his Active Service Unit (Flying Column) from Kilbeggan to Geashill where they killed an RIC Head Constable, but O’Brennan took no part in the shooting. He died in 1964.

Of Ballycumber, King’s County. Fourteenth child of Thomas Homan-Mulock of Bellair, King’s County. Born on the 25th July 1848, educated at the Royal School, Enniskillen, and Trinity College, Dublin. Appointed to the Indian Civil Service in 1869, serving in North Western Provinces as Assistant-Magistrate and Collector, and Joint-Magistrate 1871-1886; on special duty at Imperial assemblage at Delhi, 1876; Assistant-Commissioner, 1886; Joint-Magistrate, Ballia, 1887; Deputy Commissioner at Lucknow, 1889; Magistrate and Collector, 1890; Commissioner at Fyzabad, 1896. Retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1898 and purchased the Ballycumber Estate in King’s County. Served as Justice of the Peace for King’s County and High Sheriff in 1902. On 4th August 1878 he married at Bhavghulpore, Bengal in India Miss Ethel Annie Braddon, daughter of the Right Hon. Sir Edward Braddon, P.C., K.C.M.G., Premier of Tasmania and author of the Australian Constitution. Of this marriage there was issue, one son and two daughters.