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Frank O’Brennan was born in Tullamore c.1985, the younger brother of Séamus and Alo O’Brennan. He was active in the Tullamore Volunteers from 1913 and is listed on the charge sheet of those present during the Tullamore Incident of March 1916, after which he was arrested and court-martialled in relation to the wounding of RIC Sergeant Ahearn. After his release in June 1916, he rejoined the Irish Volunteers and took part in the usual activities. In 1919 he watched the movement of British forces and carried dispatches. In June 1920 he was in charge of road blocking during attacks on Geashill and Clara Barracks, and was involved in an armed attack on British forces at Ballycommon Bridge in which a civilian was killed. He took part in three raids for mail. In the autumn of 1920 he brought Seán McGuinness and members of his Active Service Unit (Flying Column) from Kilbeggan to Geashill where they killed an RIC Head Constable, but O’Brennan took no part in the shooting. He died in 1964.

The Tullamore Pipers' Band or St. Colmcille's Pipers' Band was founded in 1911 with the help of the Tullamore branch of The Gaelic League. Founder members included Alo O'Brennan and others active in the nationalist movement. The new Tullamore Pipers Band received additional encouragement from national figures such as F.J. Bigger (1863-1926) and Alice Stopford Green (1847-1929). The band first performed in public on St Patrick’s Day 1912 and was presented by Bigger with its fine banner at a feis in Tullamore in August 1912. The band played at the foundation of the Volunteers in April 1914 and the Geashill Cattle Drive in November of that year. In the aftermath of the affray or incident in 1916 the instruments of the band in the loft in Market Square were badly damaged and compensation awarded later that year. There appears to have been a split in the band along political lines in 1916-17. This was brought to a close at the same time as the split in the GAA and the two bands, St Colmcille’s and St Enda’s amalgamated with a combined strength of about forty. Judging by the financial supporters of St Enda’s band it appears to have been sponsored by Sinn Féin and the new organisation claimed the credit for bringing the split to an end.

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.

Tullamore GAA Club was founded on 26 May 1888 and won its first title in 1890 when it defeated Banagher in the final of the Offaly Championships (football). Its club colours were initially red and green, but inspired by the 1916 Rising, the club changed its colours to green, white and gold in 1917. In the early 1920s, Tullamore gave the county team the right to wear the tricolour as the county colours and adopted the blue and white colours which are still used today.

Having played in rented fields at Church Road, and then Tinnycross, the club acquired land at Ballyduff Park in the 1910s. In 1932, it developed a site on the Arden Road and in 1934, O'Connor Park was opened. Following the decision in 2001 to let Offaly County Board lease O'Connor Park, O'Brien Park was developed for use by Tullamore GAA Club.

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.

North Offaly GAA was a sub-committee of Offaly County Board consisting of delegates representing Ballinagar, Ballycommon, Ballycumber, Bracknagh, Clara, Cloghan, Clonmore, Cloneygowan, Edenderry, Durrow, Geashill, Gurteen, Killeigh, Knockballyboy, Philipstown (Daingean), Rahan, Raheen, Rhode, and Tullamore clubs.

Gaelic games were introduced to the Ballinamere area in the late 1880s and an official club was established in the early years of the 20th century. In 1909, Ballinamere players amalgamated with Tullamore to field a team which won the first hurling championship for North Offaly. Following a decline in the participation of the sport in the area in the succeeding years, it underwent a revival in the 1930s and the club exists to the present day.

Established probably at the turn of the 20th century, the committee of King’s County Farming and Agricultural Society organised agricultural shows in the county. From 1905 there were shows held in Edenderry, Daingean, Tullamore, Birr and Kilcormac. In 1913 a preliminary meeting was held to revive the old Tullamore show, which had first been held in 1840 under the patronage of the second earl of Charleville. The 1913 show was a success and was thereafter held annually until 1919. Due to the troubled state of the country, there were no shows held between 1920 and 1923. It was revived again in 1924 with the now renamed Offaly Farming and Industrial Society taking over the cricket grounds at Spollanstown, Tullamore, to be used as showgrounds. The show was in decline by the mid-1930s and a decision was taken in 1939 not to hold a show that year, a decision which was upheld for the duration of the Second World War. By the end of the war, the Society had decided to sell the show-grounds at Spollanstown to the combined soccer and rugby clubs, and the Tullamore Show was largely forgotten. It was revived in 1991 and continues with record attendances to the present day.

The present line of the Earls of Rosse (of the 2nd creation) is descended from Sir Laurence Parsons, one of four sons of James Parsons and Catherine Fenton of Diseworth Grange, Leicestershire, who had moved to Ireland by the late 16th century. The elder brother, William, was the ancestor of the Earls of Rosse of the 1st creation but the line died out in 1764. The younger brother, Sir Laurence lived in Myrtle Grove, Youghal, Co. Cork where he held several Munster-based government positions. He was knighted in 1620, the same year that he moved to Offaly, having exchanged his interest in a property at Leiter Lugna near Cadamstown with Sir Robert Meredith for the latter’s 1000 acres at Birr. In 1677, his descendent, Sir Laurence Parsons was created baronet, and successive generations of the Parsons Baronets have lived at Birr Castle since this time. The earldom of Rosse was inherited by Sir Laurence Parsons, 5th baronet, from his uncle Laurence Harman Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse, of County Longford, who died in 1807 without male issue.

Sir Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse (1758-1841), was an Irish peer, agitator against the Act of Union, an Irish parliamentarian and later joint postmaster-general of the Irish post office. His son, Sir William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800-1867), was an astronomer and in 1845 built the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’, the world’s largest telescope until the early twentieth century. Sir Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse (1840-1908) was also an astronomer and a keen photographer like his mother, Mary Rosse. Sir William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse (1873-1918), was a solider in the Irish Guards. He fought in the First World War and died in 1918 of injuries received in action two years previously. His son, Sir (Laurence) Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse (1906-1979) was heavily involved in Irish cultural affairs and a keen dendrologist. The present Earl of Rosse, and 10th baronet, Sir (William) Brendan Parsons was an officer in the Irish Guards from 1955–57 and worked for the United Nations from 1963-80. He lives at Birr Castle and has overseen the creation of the Historic Science Centre celebrating the scientific legacy of the Parsons family, and, with the assistance of Dr A. P. W. Malcomson of PRONI, has gathered together the archives of the Parsons family, now published as The Calendar of the Rosse Papers.