Kenneth Arthur Kennedy was the youngest son of Doctor J. M. Prior Kennedy, JP, of Elmfield, Tullamore King’s County, and Anchoretta H. Jacob. He was born on 3 April 1894 and was educated at St Columba’s College and Trinity College. K. A. Kennedy was called to the bar in 1917 and qualified as a solicitor in 1924. He was a solicitor with A & L Goodbody with offices at Dame Street, Dublin, Moate and Tullamore becoming a partner by 1930. Alfred Goodbody had died in 1924 in the same year as Kenneth Kennedy qualified. In 1930 Kenneth Kennedy, Lewis Goodbody and George Acheson Overend acquired the fee simple as joint tenants of premises at High Street, Tullamore held on lease since 1913. Lewis Goodbody died in 1933 and the ownership of the firm was shared between G. O. Overend and Kenneth Arthur Kennedy, but not necessarily in equal shares. In 1947 a new partnership arrangement was entered into between Overend and Kennedy and the following year Kenneth Arthur Kennedy acquired the entire interest in the building at High Street for £800. The A & L Goodbody, Tullamore partnership appears at this time to have comprised of G. A. Overend, Kenneth A. Kennedy and G. G. Overend. The Tullamore building was to serve the Tullamore firm now known as Goodbody & Kennedy until 1989 when the business was sold to Dermot Scanlon by Kenneth C. P. Kennedy. He had been active in the firm up to his death on 9 December 1974 at the age of 80 and had served his clients in Tullamore for fifty years. He married Mary Lawrence in 1924, the same year as he qualified as a solicitor. She was better known locally as Bean Uí Chinnéide and was a keen landscape painter and with her husband a lover of nature. Mr Kennedy’s tombstone at Clonminch fittingly records – /He loved his birds/ and he loved his bible/The word of God/ a Lantern to his feet/. Court tributes were paid to Mr Kennedy by District Justice Tormey at Tullamore district court and on behalf of the solicitors by Mr Eugene Hunt.
Lord William Clere Leonard Brendan Parsons, 7th Earl of Rosse, Baron of Oxmantown, 10th Baronet of Birr Castle, was born 21 October 1936 to Lord Laurence Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse, and Anne Messel. Lord Brendan Parsons attended Eton College, Aiglon College, University of Grenoble, and Christ Church, Oxford. He served as an officer in the Irish Guards from 1955-57 and worked for the United Nations from 1963-80. On 15 October 1966 he married Alison Margaret Cooke-Hurle. He succeeded his father as the 7th Earl of Rosse in 1979. During hias first thirty years as earl, Lord and Lady Rosse facilitated research by A.P.W. Malcomson resulting in the production of a comprehensive Calendar of the Rosse Papers in 2008. Lord Rosse lives at the family home of Birr Castle, County Offaly, with the Countess of Rosse. They have three children: Lawrence Patrick Parsons, Lord Oxmantown (b.1969), Lady Alicia Parsons (b.1971), and the Honourable Michael Parsons (b.1981).
Private local history group comprised of about 10 mostly university students. Notable for publication of 'Towards Croghan Hill' and 'The state of post-primary education in Tullamore.' Members included Michael Byrne and James Scully.
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.
Public house near Geashill, Co.Offaly, owned by Henry Bryan. Known to be meeting place of local Ribbonmen.
Edward St. Vincent Digby, 9th Baron Digby of Geashill was born on 21 June 1809.He was the son of Admiral Sir Henry Digby and Lady Jane Elizabeth Coke. He gained the rank of Lieutenant in the service of the 9th Lancers. When his cousin, Edward, the unmarried 8th Baron and 2nd Earl Digby died, he succeeded to the title of 3rd Baron Digby of Sherborne, Dorset and to the title of 9th Baron Digby of Geashill, King's County on 12 May 1856. It seems his cousin was a very laissez faire landlord. Residing in his splendid residence at Sherbourne. He rarely visited Geashill and granted tenants very long and generous leases. However, because these grants extended beyond his own life-time, he was deemed to have exceeded his legal powers. This would prove to be a problem for his successor. When Edward St Vincent took up his new position he felt that his late ancestor had “no right moral or legal, to lease away his Irish lands for two thirds of their real value”. The new landlord was therefore determined to break the leases, which his predecessor had granted. This was to create much anxiety and upheaval at Geashill where the tenants were faced with loss of tenure, which they previously considered secure. Acting upon his legal rights, the 9th Lord Digby embarked upon breaking these leases, leading the tenants to look for redress and compensation to the executors. It was in the midst of this dispute that William Trench’s services were engaged.
When assessing his time in Geashill, the barony underwent a vast transformation with Lord Digby achieving both national and indeed international recognition for improvements carried out on the estate.The Geashill estate was much improved with bigger and better quality farms, improved cottages, a new school and estate office. It was perhaps no coincidence that the estate underwent a major transformation as Lord Edward Digby was the grandson of Thomas Coke, first earl of Leicester, who was not only a British politician but a noted agricultural reformer. Coke became famous for his advanced methods of animal husbandry used in improving his estate at Holkham in Norfolk. As a result he was seen as one of the instigators of the British Agricultural Revolution.
Edward St. Vincent married Lady Theresa Anna Maria Fox-Strangways, daughter of Henry Stephen Fox-Strangways. He died on 16 October 1889 aged 80.
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.
Founded probably in the winter of 1887/1888, King's County (Offaly) GAA County Committee, met in a hotel in Birr on 6 March 1888, to arrange for the holding of championships in hurling and football. The county committee became known as Offaly County Board over time, and is responsible for Gaelic games within the county and for selecting inter-county teams to play in the national championships.
Offaly GAA Southern Committee was a sub-committee of Offaly GAA consisting of delegates representing Banagher, Belmont, Birr, Clareen, Coolderry, Cloghan, Doon, Drumcullen, Eglish, Erin's Own, Ferbane, Kilcormac, Killoughey, Kinnitty, Lusmagh, Seir Kieran and Shinrone clubs.