Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1921-1923 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Toler Roberts 'Rob' Garvey was the third generation of Garvey land agents. He took over the land agency business, with its headquarters at his residence at Tullynisk Park, Birr, in 1914 on the death of his father, Toler Roberts Garvey Sr. He looked after the estate at Birr Castle and other estates of gentry in south Offaly and north Tipperary during the revolutionary period 1916-23 and beyond. As a result he managed the estates through turbulent times, notably the requisitioning of Birr Castle by the Free State Army during the Irish Civil War (1922-23). He died at the age of 80 on 1 April 1946 and is buried at Clonoghill cemetery, Birr.
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Scope and content
Includes a letter from Toler R. Garvey Jr land agent at Birr Castle to ‘V.J. Beaumont Nesbitt’, Tubberdaly, Edenderry on 9 June 1921 who records agitations in Birr, and laments a former way of life:
‘...Although things are bad they are not a bit worse than I had anticipated, but we must reach an end of it sometime and we, or whoever is left, may once again be able to live in peace, though I don’t think they will ever know the comfort and good times which we had in the past.’
Also includes letter to Hon. Geoffrey Parsons on 8 December 1921, revealing the anxiety surrounding the situation for landowners following the War of Independence:
‘I enclose... Notice from the Local Government Board of their intention to take the land at Croghan after all, but in view of the Settlement just arrived at on the Irish question, it seems very doubtful that they will proceed with the matter. Things have moved rapidly since I saw you and we shall be face to face with a totally new situation.’
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Access strictly by appointment only. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
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Allied materials area
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Alternative identifier(s)
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Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Nesbitt, V.J. Beaumont (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
ISAD (G)
Dates of creation revision deletion
July 2019, Sarah Dunning
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Shortall, L. Sources for the study of the revolutionary period in King’s County/Offaly (1912-1923) in Offaly Heritage 9, 2016