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File of correspondence between Banagher Parish Council, Offaly County Board of Health and Offaly County Council in relation to fencing off the Cowpark at Banagher to permit, tillage cultivation. Includes ms letter of 18th July 1941 making application for each of the five acres set aside by the Board of Health for tillage.

File of photographs of friends, acquaintances and unidentified portraits.
The file contains a wide variety of photographs. One notable example includes a photo of 'little Henry' baring the inscription 'for Sheelah with love and best wishes'.
Another notable photograph is that of Edward Aurelian Ridsdale. Attached to the back of the photograph is a copy of a letter of condolence from Sir Frederick Treves to Lady Ridsdale. The letter dated 8 Sept 1925 expresses Fredrick's admiration for Edward Aurelian Ridsdale. He writes 'During the war, he bore upon his shoulders the heaviest burden of the Red Cross work. He sought no prominent position no applause and indeed not even thanks. He thought never of himself but undertook whatever duty- agreeable or disagreeable came in his way. His absolute integrity, his unselfishness, his devotion is the cause and his great administrative ability did more than did the work of any other man to make the Red Cross organisation the success it was in the great war.' 2 framed photographs of an unidentified soldier.

File of photographs taken during the St Barnabas pilgrimage to the battlefields and war graves of Salonika and Gallipoli. The file contains a mixture of personal photographs and professional photographs taken by Graphic Photo Union, Tallis Street, London, England and Central Press Photograph, 119 Fleet Street, London, England. The file also includes Rev. Mullineux at the unveiling of the New Zealand memorial at Gallipoli in April 1925.

Includes letters about Disestablishment, Poor Law reform, Orangeism, Conservative registration, Home Rule and the Irish Land question. Also includes letter from M. McCormack, CC, Kinnitty to Lord Rosse concerning agrarian dispute in Kinnitty parish between Francis Foley and Delaney at Newtown (3 March 1911).

Box of in-letters from correspondents whose names begin with ‘A’ and ‘C’, including correspondence about Sir Nesbitt Armstrong’s trusts, and letters from James Callaghan (a thatcher employed by the Rosse estate), from the ‘Chief of Staff, January 1923’ about the occupation of Birr Castle by the Free State Army, from W. Y. Chisholm (manager of the Rosse sawmill [see Q/327]), from Miss Edith A. Cramer, [see M/18], from Messrs Coutts & Co., etc.

Includes: Letter from Padraig Ua Maolchatha, Col. Comdt., G. O. C. 3rd Southern Command, Roscrea: I am directed by the Chief of General Staff to inform you that it will not be possible to evacuate any portion of the premises occupied by the troops before Christmas. I am at present unable to give you any idea when we may be able to evacuate Birr Castle but assure you that we will not occupy it any longer than necessary. I regret being unable to facilitate Lord Rosse’s family in this matter but trust that the owner will appreciate the circumstances which force us to remain in occupation.’ (4 December 1922)

Includes letter from Capt. F. O’Brien for the Chief of General Staff, Dublin, to Toler Garvey: ‘I have been in communication with the General Officer Commanding of the Area who informs me that we was aware of game being shot on the Rosse Estate, but did not prevent it, as he was not aware that the game was preserved.’ (8 January 1923)

‘P’, ‘Q’, ‘R’ and ‘T’ - including letters from the Hon. Geoffrey L. Parsons, in Basingstoke, relating to the affairs of Birr Castle Demesne, during the period in which he acted on behalf of the sixth earl in his minority (1918-1924). Also includes letters from members of the Pigott family [see V/24], Mrs Manning Robertson, the 5th and 6th Earls of Rosse, J.H. Tyler (the Womersley agent [see H/117]), etc, etc.

‘W’ and ‘’Y’ - principally Edward Walsh (town clerk of Birr, who writes about all manner of local government matters), Harold J. Wiley & Co., insurance brokers of Dublin (who write about Birr Castle insurance), Mrs F. White Spunner of Milltown Park, Shinrone, King’s County (whose estate Garvey managed [although, apart from these letters, no other record of this agency survives in the archive at Birr Castle]).

Includes minor letters from Captain P. Wall, Castle Barracks, Birr (1922-1923).

Letter from Benjamin Bloomfield, New Ross, Co. Wexford to his brother-in-law, Thomas Ryder Pepper, describing his experience with the Crown forces during the Battle of New Ross (5 June 1798). Copied from the original by Georgiana Trench, his daughter, who mistakenly attributes it to the Battle of Vinegar Hill. Also includes typescript transcript.

Within the letter Benjamin describes the battle, 'They appeared as insensible of danger as if there really had not been the least, they were so desperate as to march up in the face of my gun several times, tho' I was supported by strong detachments of Infantry.' He also discusses his sadness at being separated from his wife Harriet.

Letter from Gay White , Lissiniskey, Nenagh dated 13 July 1922. The letter describes Gay experience during the Irish Civil War.

'My dear Tom,
Yours of the 10th to hand. I think since the 29th of June we have had no post here. Dreadful things have happened since I wrote you April 25th. I left Rathurbet April 30th & went to Ballygibbon. On May 15th a body of men took forcible possession of 30 acres of land there. They cut trees down, yet returned. We were left with 9 cows to milk, calves & all sorts of fowl, young & old to feed. Over 90 sheep & lambs to care, all the work of the house to do. Well we did it. The sheep were the great trouble, it was the time for them to be dipped, washed & shorn. They could not be dipped or washed but Betty, Lilla & David sheared all the sheep, but we lost a good many on account of the sheep not being dipped. They got full of maggots. It was dreadful. The cows were easily managed, we all milked them. I got quite good at it I did two night & morning. We just worked all day. On the night of June 14th we had dreadful raid starting about 2.30. The raiders smashed every window & the hall door first. We had collected in one room, they rushed into it. David & Betty were badly beaten by them with their clenched fists. Lilla was not so badly beaten & Poll only got one blow on her face, we were in a dark room most of the time, it was hell. I escaped without a blow. Over & over they held revolvers & shotguns at us & said they would shoot us. They did awful mischief in the house, breaking china & table glass, drank all whiskey & claret. They emptied every drawer out on the floor, Oh such a state - the dirty swine- they left the place in. They stole heaps of things, especially belongings, one thing was my dressing case.'

Personal and military papers of William Edward Parsons, Major Lord Oxmantown, (from 1908 the fifth earl of Rosse) including commissions; illuminated addresses from the Heaton and Shipley tenants on his coming-of-age, 1894; and from the Birr Parish Vestry on his marriage, 1905; a fairly savage attack on him in The Midland Tribune at the time of his return from the Boer War in 1900 to join the newly formed Irish Regiment; letters from him to Toler R. Garvey during the Boer War and the first World War; a page recording the signatures of Lord Oxmantown and other Irish notabilities who attended a shoot at Ashford, Cong, Co. Mayo; during a visit by the Prince of Wales, 1905; and the fifth earl’s London address book, 1911.

Also includes copy of his birth certificate (1873); commissions and applications to Officers’ Reserve (1908); appeal to be allowed to appear before Medical Board in Dublin, not London (1916); detailed medical reports on the extent of his wound, by shell to the head, where a palm-sized piece missing, damage to his speech, comprehension and gait causing 80% disability with epileptic attacks; his death certificate plus further obituary of the fifth earl by Michael Pegum prepared for the Kildare St and University Club for publication in a book of memorials to those members of the Club who gave their lives in WWI and WWII (2010).

Includes letters to Toler R. Garvey (‘Rob’) from the front describing poisonous gas attacks in the trenches (26 April 1915 and 11 May 1915).