Letter from E A Merrey, agent at the Downshire Estate office, Blessington, Wicklow, to Mr Patterson regarding the latter's possible purchase of holdings on the Downshire Estate near Edenderry. Reply from Patterson overleaf states that he hopes that Lord Downshire will accept £100 for the holding (6 May 1922).
Also includes a printed notice of Merrey's attendance at the Downshire Office, Edenderry for the collection of rents (1 May 1924).

Incomplete records of Edenderry No 1 Rural District Council, notably missing minute books. The first series comprises sanitary officers' records in the form of a report register and a diary of works completed. Both of these registers continued to be used beyond the life of the rural district council, which was abolished in 1925, and its functions subsumed into the Offaly Board of Health and Public Assistance.

The second series comprises abstracts of accounts prepared in final years of Edenderry RDC in 1924 and 1925.

Envelope of leases of Clonivoe and other parts of the Sprigge estate in the barony of Coolestown. [In date order.]

Copy of private account and stock book of Catherine Finlay and Elizabeth Patterson, Edenderry.

Account lists stock in trade, includes; bread soda, whole ginger, pearl barley, whole pepper, caraway seeds, liquorice stick, spices, herbs, paper supplies, cocoa, French brandy, whiskey cordials, logwood. Profits calculated and divided equally between the partners.

Correspondence, accounts and memoranda of Henry F. Brenan, solicitor, of Hoey & Denning Solicitors, Tullamore, relating to the 1923 general election. Matters referred to include the appointment of Brenan as election agent for Daniel Williams (Mountmellick), Francis Bulfin (Derrinlough), Patrick J. Egan (Tullamore) and Seán Ua Ceallaigh (Edenderry). Also refers to the issue of university electors, the collection of funds, subscriptions and election expenses. Also includes preparatory material for the election, correspondence concerning the appointment of E. J. Delahunty as law agent for Cumann na nGaedhal candidates, lists of personating agents, and results from the poll recording Bulfin (5689 votes) and Davin (6323 votes) elected.

Correspondence (1963-70), mainly between Swayne and W. H. Milner, Portarlington, relating to a film made by Fr. Kennedy in 1921 ostensibly on the turf-cutting industry in the area, but also features the exhumation of skulls of the ‘Ballynowlart Martyrs’ who were purportedly burned alive in Ballynowlart church by English forces in the 1600s. Correspondence culminates in the deposit of the film in the National Library of Ireland.

Offaly Sinn Féin material: original resolution from North and South Offaly Executive Sinn Féin signed by Comd. Ua Duinn relating to its support of the Treaty (29 December 1921) and calling on Offaly’s representative Dr McCartan to vote for ratification, and a pamphlet entitled 'Terms of Reference 23 May 1922 Adjourned Árd-Fheis of Sinn Féin'.

Leaflets and other printed material relating to Croghan Feis organised by Offaly Vocational Education Committee (1949).
Manuscripts notes on placenames and history of Killeigh Parish and Philipstown (Daingean).

Publications: Programme for Walsh Island Second National Turf-cutting competition (1935); Knockbeg Centenary Year Book (1948); and Suncroft, a Parish Magazine (1970).

Includes a letter from Toler R. Garvey Jr land agent at Birr Castle to ‘V.J. Beaumont Nesbitt’, Tubberdaly, Edenderry on 9 June 1921 who records agitations in Birr, and laments a former way of life:

‘...Although things are bad they are not a bit worse than I had anticipated, but we must reach an end of it sometime and we, or whoever is left, may once again be able to live in peace, though I don’t think they will ever know the comfort and good times which we had in the past.’

Also includes letter to Hon. Geoffrey Parsons on 8 December 1921, revealing the anxiety surrounding the situation for landowners following the War of Independence:

‘I enclose... Notice from the Local Government Board of their intention to take the land at Croghan after all, but in view of the Settlement just arrived at on the Irish question, it seems very doubtful that they will proceed with the matter. Things have moved rapidly since I saw you and we shall be face to face with a totally new situation.’

Envelope of leases of Lisclooney and Clonbaniff, barony of Garrycastle. The earliest lease, of 1701, was granted by William Sprigge of Clonivoe, so these townlands, together with Clonivoe itself [see Q/30] and probably all the lands in the barony of Garrycastle, must have formed all or part of the Parsons family’s inheritance from the Sprigges. [In date order.] The envelope also includes papers relating to the sale of Lisclooney Cottage to Oliver Claffey.

Rental of the ‘Outer estate’, which includes [the Sprigge lands of] Lisclooney, Clonivoe and Lumpcloon, and has a half-yearly rental of £6,500.

Only 10 minute books survive as records of Edenderry Union covering the years 1879-1919, with many large gaps. There are no extant workhouse registers, registers of deaths, workhouse ledgers, outdoor relief registers, or registers of accounts.

A further known minute book from 1895, which was rescued from the workhouse following its demolition in 1976 and is now in private hands, has been transcribed by Dr Ciaran Reilly in an article ‘The minute book of Edenderry Poor Law Union, 1895’ in Offaly Heritage, Vol. 7 (Tullamore, 2013)

The minutes contain the proceedings of the meetings of the boards of guardians and contain reports from the clerk of the union, the master of the workhouse, the sanitary officers and others.