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Photograph album created by Lt. Col. M. O'Carroll Fitz-Simon, M.C. , who began his military career in Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment, which was headquartered at Birr. The photographs document a peace-keeping mission the Leinsters undertook in Silesia (now part of Poland) from their departure at Dover on 31 May 1921, through Germany and to their destination of Oppeln (Opole in Poland today). Following the disbandment of the regiment in June 1922, Fitz-Simon joined the King's Own Regiment, Lancaster and the remaining photographs in the album depict scenes from missions in India and Burma. There is also a small number of photographs of people and houses in the Birr area including Whigsborough House, and the burnt out remains of Birr Barracks (following its destruction in the Civil War in July 1922).

Minutes recording proceedings of meetings of the Hospital and Homes Committee containing various reports such as Superintendent's Report from the County Home; Superintendent's Report from County Hospital; Registrar's reports; and Sub-committee reports from Birr Rural District, Edenderry Rural District, Tullamore Rural District, and Roscrea No 2 Rural District on matters relating to dispensaries and hospitals in their respective areas. Also contains lists of 'Letters and Sanctions' from the Ministry of Local Government.

Matters arising include employment and remuneration of staff; building and maintenance of hospitals and dispensaries throughout the county; the winding up of the poor law unions and final audits of their accounts; the administration of home assistance and the employment of home assistance officers; transfer of patients to extern hospitals; notification of a new 'most fatal' disease of encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness) in the fever hospital (p22, 13 May 1924); the TB hospital in Birr; proposal to appoint a dentist to the county hospital on recommendation of Surgeon Meagher; military occupation of the dispensary residence in Kinnitty and damages arising therefrom (p60, 10 June 1924); the designation of Edenderry District Hospital and Birr District Hospital (St. Brendan's) as permanent institutions by the Ministry of Local Government; the burial expenses of the poor; and financial distress of the Board due to Offaly County Council's inability to transfer funds and consequent non-payment of home assistance to the poor (p95, 19 August 1924)'.

Includes report of the Visiting Committee on the state of the County Home (p2, 8 April 1924). Responds critically to the proposal by the Ministry of Local Government to replace some attendants with 'inmate' labour. Also requests resolution of the 'urgent matter' in providing a separate institution to house unmarried mothers, noting that there are twenty-one unmarried mothers in the county home for which there is not sufficient accommodation. Proposes taking over a disused workhouse for this purpose to which two or three counties would contribute to its upkeep.

Includes resolution made in response to a request by Tipperary North Riding Board of Health to set up an institution under the care of religious orders for maintenance and education of children at present in various county homes: 'This Board is not in favour of bringing up children in any institution believing that boarding-out in suitable homes throughout the county is better for the child as well as for the community.'(p68, 26 May 1924).

Includes copy of the order issued by the Ministry of Local Government dissolving Offaly County Council and the Offaly County Board of Health and placing them under the commissionership of David O'Keefe, Blair's Hill, Cork. (p125, 12 September 1924).

Contains details of boarded-out children, names and addresses of foster parents and general conditions of children and their accommodation.

This collection is comprised of the records of Patrick Moore & Sons, Victuallers of Edenderry and Rathangan. They were a family business who sold meat to the surrounding towns including Edenderry, Rathangan, Allenwood, Clonbulloge, Enfield, Kinnegad and Rhode. The collection includes ledgers, cash books, stock books, daily order books and van sales books. There are also documents regarding financial accounts such as bank account books, customer account books, bills of account with local traders, Dublin traders and a trader from Manchester. Also includes documents of their accounts with other businesses and legal costs as well as personal family photographs. A note in ledger P1/C/17 from 1923 recounts that Judge Wakely's house, Ballyburly, near Rhode, was 'burned by irregulars' in 1923.

Individuals and businesses that had an account with Patrick Moore & Sons include:
Coopers & Bailey, Central Market London.
H.M. Hawkins, Seifond, Dorchester.
Doctor Hamilton, Edenderry.
E.J.B. Nesbitt, Rutland Gate, London.
E.J.B. Nesbitt, Penton Lodge, Andover.
D. Alesbury.
Civic Guards, Edenderry.
J. Joly, Clonbologue.

Patrick Moore & Sons had accounts with:
William Bros, Edenderry (Grocery Account)
M.J. O'Brien, Edenderry.
William Bros. (Petrol Account)
Offaly County Board of Health and Public Assistance.

Letters to the Viscountess de Vesci, mother of the sixth earl, to her brother-in-law, the Hon. Geoffrey L. Parsons, and to the agent for the Rosse estates, Toler R. Garvey Junior, (the only person permanently on the spot at Birr during the minority of the sixth earl), concerning the Civil War as it affected Birr Castle and other places; and also including a letter from the Countess of Bandon about the destruction of Castle Bernard, Co. Cork, and the kidnapping of her husband, Lord Bandon, 1921. The principal topic however, is the Free State government’s responsibility to the Rosse family for loss and damage incurred as a result of the Free State army’s occupation of Birr Castle from 1922 to 1924, which the shrewd and resourceful Garvey construes as extending to the cost of Lord and Lady de Vesci’s London house, No. 1 Hyde Park Street. Included in the bundle is a copy of a letter from Garvey to the Irish Land Commission arguing that compulsory acquisition of any more of the home farm at Birr would serve as a major disincentive to the sixth earl’s taking up residence and therefore giving widespread employment there on his coming-of-age, 1926.

Includes quotation for removal of six vans of furniture from Birr Castle to London by John Dooly, & Sons, Birr (April 1923)

Includes list of goods taken over by the National Army 28th September 1923, Property of the Trustees of the Earl of Rosse. Value of £235.16.0

Includes draft claim against Free State Government seeking rent and remedy £3000 and rent of Hyde Park (£600).

Includes letter from Office of Public Works settling claim for £3502.2.11 (7 August 1925)

Includes letter from Captain J.F. Hollins, Quartermaster No 2 Brigade, Athlon to Toler Garvey: ‘I wish to inform you that the Troops presently in occupation of the castle will evacuate same as from the 28th inst. In accordance with our regulations it will be necessary for a representative of the Owner, a representative from the Board of Works and of the Military Authorities to examine the premises after evacuation and compile a report as to its condition in comparison to that in which it was taken over by the Military (12 August 1924)

Includes a list by A. Panton Watkinson, painter and decorator, Stephens Green, Dublin, of wear and tear and damage in Birr Castle due to the military occupation. (July 1923)

Includes list of articles missing from Birr Castle May 1927.

Also includes letter from the Committee involved in arranging a plaque to be erected at the archway to the front of Birr Castle in memory of the three young men executed by Free State Troops in 1923. Appends text of the address given by Margaret Hogan, local historian, on the events of 1923. (2003)

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).