Fr. Thomas Feighan Gillooley was born in 1920, in Fore Co. Westmeath. He was Parish Priest of Tubberclair and a man who led Offaly to their first ever all Ireland Senior Football title. He served as a curate in Tullamore from 1958 to 1975 and in 1989 he became an Offaly Sports Star. After coming close to taking All Ireland glory in the early 1960s Offaly then returned to the bad old days of being eliminated in the first round. The first changes came about when Fr. Gillooley was appointed curate and shortly after his arrival he took over the Tullamore Minor Football Club. They won the Leinster in 1960 and 1962 and the All Ireland in 1964. He died aged 73 in 1993.
County architectural surveyor for County Clare and County Offaly.
J. & L. F. Goodbody was established in 1865 as a jute manufacturing business based at Clashawaun in Clara and also with offices in Dublin. Its directors were Jonathan Goodbody (1865-88), Lewis F. Goodbody (1865-87), Robert Goodbody (c1870-88), Joshua C. Goodbody (c1873-88), Fredrick R. Goodbody (1880-88) and J. B. Clibborn Goodbody (1880-88).
The business was formed into a limited company in 1888 and traded under the name J. & L. F. Goodbody Ltd. As well as jute, it also manufactured cotton and synthetics. Its main factories at Clara and Waterford were later joined by factories at Dublin, Limerick and Slane. In 1937, it became a public company when outside shareholders and directors were introduced. It was quoted on the Dublin Stock Exchange and wound up in 1984. The family crest was adopted as the registered trade mark.
James Lyttleton is an archaeologist living in Bristol. He has taught medieval and post-medieval archaeology in University College Cork, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Maynooth University. In 2006 he completed a PhD in UCC looking at the architecture and settlement of the seventeenth-century Jacobean plantations in Co. Offaly. In 2008 he was awarded a post-doctoral research fellowship in Memorial University of Newfoundland to carry out a comparative archaeological study of settlements established by the Lords Baltimore in seventeenth-century Ireland, Newfoundland and Maryland. Over the years, James has co-edited and contributed to a number of books looking at aspects of medieval and early modern Ireland. He has also written a number of books: Blarney Castle, an Irish tower house (Dublin, 2011); The Jacobean Plantations in seventeenth-century Offaly: an archaeology of a changing world (Dublin, 2013); and An archaeology of Northern Ireland, 1600–1650 (Belfast, 2017). He currently works as a Senior Heritage Consultant with AECOM UK and Ireland, an environmental and engineering consultancy.
Tullamore Town Commission was established in 1860 but no records survive for this body. The Commission became the Urban District Council in 1900 but there are no extant records between 1900 and 1906. The UDC was dissolved in June 2014 following the Local Government Act. Tullamore Municipal District (2014-present) replaces the UDC.
Roderick H. Moore was a schoolmaster in Banagher from 1897-1932. For most of that time he worked as the principal of the Cuba Avenue National School. He worked on education boards to improve teaching conditions and promote vocational and technical education.
Section 14 of the Agricultural and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899 allowed for the creation of an agriculture committee. Following on from this, the Agriculture Act of 1931 provided the rules for county agriculture committees, including membership, which was to consist of county councillors or partly others, as well as at least one resident member of each county electoral area. Committees of Agriculture were dissolved by Section 30 of the Agriculture, Research, Training and Advice Act, 1988.
The distillery was founded in 1757 by Matthew MacManus, and went through several owners until by 1843 it had been taken over by John Locke who transformed its fortunes. In 1893 it became a limited company. The 20th century saw a decline in profitability and by 1958, the distillery ceased production. In 1982, it re-opened as a whiskey distillery museum following restoration by the Kilbeggan Preservation and Development Association. In 2007 distilling recommenced at Kilbeggan and it is known now as Kilbeggan Distillery.
The Presbyterian Church in Birr grew in numbers in the 1840s following the Crotty Schism. Fr William Crotty (with his cousin Fr Michael Crotty) led this breakaway Catholic congregation to join the Presbyterian Church. Crotty's Church built to emulate a Presbyterian Hall was erected in Castle Street in 1839. A new church building for the Presbyterian congregation was erected in 1885 in John's Mall, not now in use.