Showing 68 results

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 company Savermo (Eire) Ltd. was found in 1947 due to falling whiskey sales and the production of Irish Mist started. The recipe was claimed to be the 1000 years old ‘Heather Wine’ from the time of the Irish Clan fights. It contains the blending and ageing process of four aged Whiskeys, heather honey and herbs.
In 1950 the name of the company changed to Irish Mist Liqueur Company Ltd.. William G. Jaffray was director and general manager - D. E. Williams managing director under the head of the Williams Group. E. P. Spollen was leading the marketing division.
The Irish Mist figurine was substantial for its marketing campaign and represented an Irish Hussar in the army of Empress Therese of Austria, ca. 1750.
The liqueur was sold on the home trade and from the 1960s also on an export basis. With the US importer and distributor Heublein Inc. Irish Mist gained a place on the American market from the year 1963 onwards.
In 1985 the Williams Group sold the Irish Mist Liqueur Company to the Cantrell & Cochrane Group (C & C) based in Clonmel, Tipperary.

Kenneth A. Kennedy joined the firm of A. & L. Goodbody after the death of Alfred Goodbody in 1924 and was probably a partner in the Tullamore office by 1930. Kennedy was called to the bar in 1917 and qualified as a solicitor in 1924. In 1930 Kenneth Kennedy, Lewis Goodbody and George Acheson Overend acquired the fee simple as joint tenants of the office premises at High Street, Tullamore held on lease since 1913. Lewis Goodbody died in 1933 and the ownership of the firm (at least as far as Tullamore was concerned) 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 £800.13. The A. & L. Goodbody partnership in the Tullamore office 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, known since the late 1940s as Goodbody & Kennedy, until 1989 when the business was sold to Dermot Scanlon by Kenneth C. P. Kennedy. Kenneth A. Kennedy had remained a partner in A & L Goodbody, Dublin until his death in December 1974 at the age of 80 but the Dublin office had no involvement in the Tullamore firm probably from the late 1940s.

Kenneth C. P. Kennedy (M 1949) was welcomed to the district court as a new solicitor in March 1950. Kenneth Kennedy practised with his father, K. A. Kennedy in the firm of Goodbody & Kennedy until the latter’s death and continued on his own account up to his retirement from full time practice in 1989. At that point the firm was incorporated into the firm of J D Scanlon, Tullamore where Mr Kennedy carried on as a consultant for several years.

The company was incorporated in 1962 and acted as the controlling company of the retailing division. In the 1970s there were around 30 Five Star Supermarkets opened, with off-licence sections offering the range of wines, spirits and mineral drinks manufactured by the Williams Group.
In the 1975 the company acquired 13 Allied Suppliers Stores trading under the Lipton name.
Quinnsworth acquired the chain in 1979. 2008 the company was dissolved.

Together with D. E. Williams Ltd. modern malting plants in Banagher were build in the 1950s. The Midlands Malting Co. Ltd. was incorporated in 1968.
The company Williams-Waller Ltd. was stablished as seed fertiliser and grain merchants in 1975 in corporation with D. E. Williams Ltd..

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’.