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Edenderry’s Poor Law Union was formed on the 7th of May in 1839. The Union was controlled by twenty-two elected Board of Guardians, as well as seven ex-officio Guardians, who all met weekly. It covered an area of 172,410 acres, representing electoral divisions from three different counties: from Offaly (King’s) – Ballaghassan, Ballyburly, Ballymacwilliam, Bracknagh, Clonbullogue, Clonmore, Clonsast, Croghan, Edenderry, Esker, Knockdrin and Monasteroris. From County Kildare – Ballynadrummy, Cadamstown, Carbury, Carrick, Cloncurry, Drehid, Dunfierth, Killinthomas, Kilpatrick, Kilrainy, Lullymore, Rathangan, Thomastown and Windmill Cross. From County Meath – Ardnamullen, Ballyboggan, Castlejordan, and the Hill of Down.

Edenderry workhouse, designed to accommodate 600 people, was completed in 1841 and took in its first residents in 1842. While the workhouse closed in 1921, the administrative structures of Edenderry Union were abolished in 1925, with the Board of Guardians powers being formally transferred to the county council’s Board of Health. The workhouse building itself had various uses in the following decades before being levelled in 1976 to make way for a home for the aged ‘Ofalia House’.

James A. Ennis (NUI) (E 1925), a native of Rhode, County Offaly, was educated at Mount St Joseph, Roscrea and later at University College, Dublin and qualified in 1925. A year later he was admitted a solicitor taking first place in Ireland in his final examination. He took over the Rogers practice on James Rogers being appointed county registrar in 1926. James Ennis became a member of the Tullamore Urban District Council in 1932 and later its chairman. Like his father he became a member of Offaly County Council representing Fianna Fáil of which he was a committed member. He was appointed county registrar for Offaly in September 1943 when his old partner, James Rogers decided to give up the registrarship and return to private practice. Prominent in bridge circles he was also a foundation member of the Offaly Archaeological and Historical Society and was its treasurer for many years. James A. Ennis died in March 1983 and is buried at Rhode cemetery. He had retired from the position of county registrar in 1971 but went back into private practice at his residence for a few years following his retirement as county registrar.