Offaly Ireland

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Pubs in Offaly

E_Canal_View_Boat_View.jpg Offaly (Self Catering, Offaly, Ireland), lying in the heart of Ireland is a county of hidden treats, full of scientific and cultural history. Situated partly on the Shannon, many overseas visitors come to enjoy their pleasure cruises, touring around some of the most important historical sights in the county. This is a quaint old county full of winding roads and tiny villages. Most of the area looks very much like it did over a hundred years ago. You should check out some of Offaly interesting pubs while on your stay here.

This is a preview of Pubs in Offaly. Read the full post (330 words, 3 images, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

Posted on April 15th, 2008 under Entertainment. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Comments: None

Genealogy in Offaly

Gen_Little_Brosna_River.JPGOffaly also known as the King’s county, a county of Ireland, bounded N by E. and W. Meath, E by Kilkenny and Queen’s county, S by Tipperary, and W by Galway; 43 long and 39 broad, containing 707 square miles. With the exception of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, which form its southern boundary, the terrain of the county is mostly flat, with many large peat bogs; these now supply turf for the county’s power stations. The principal rivers of Offaly (Accommodation, Offaly, Ireland) are Shannon, Little Brosna, and Greater Brosna. It sends 2 members to parliament. The Irish name for the county reflects its pre-Norman history; it was part of the territory of U�Failghe, a tribal grouping whose name may be continued in the modern surname Faley or Fally. In historical times the most powerful families in the region were the O’Carrolls (who gave their name to Ely O’Carroll, an area in the south of the county), the O’Connors and the O’Molloys. Their lands were annexed to the English crown in the thirteenth century, but effective English control was not imposed until the sixteenth century, when county was planted with English settlers and renamed King’s County, to match its neighbour Queen’s County, now Laois. The counties acquired their present names after independence in 1922.

Gen_Tullamore_Town_Council.jpg The main towns in Offaly (Hotels, Offaly, Ireland) include Tullamore, Birr, Clara, Edenderry, Portarlington.

Surnames associated with this county include Dooley, Dunne, Egan, Dempsey, Lalor, Flattery, Daly, Condron and Lynam.

There was some emigration from this area from the late 18th century onwards but emigration dramatically increased during the period of the Great Famine. The chief destinations were Australia, Canada and the United States of America. During the period of the Great Famine the area overall lost about 25% of its population with some towns experiencing population reductions of up to 50%.

Laois & Offaly (Holiday Cottages, Offaly, Ireland) Family History Research Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co Offaly, Ireland

Gen_Birr_Town.jpg The Laois & Offaly Family History Research Centre is the designated research centre for the counties of Offaly (formerly called Queen’s County) and Offaly (formerly called King’s County). The Centre offers a Full Service. All initial enquiries are answered promptly while research usually takes from four to six weeks.

Church records in the Laois & Offaly area have various starting dates:

The earliest Roman Catholic parish records at this centre start at 1763 and the latest start in 1862

The earliest Church of Ireland (Anglican/Episcopalian) records date from 1699 and the latest from 1876.

Methodist records commence in1830

Gen_Birr_Castle.jpg In addition to the usual primary source material the Laois & Offaly (Holiday Homes, Offaly, Ireland) Family History Research Centre have indexed:

The Birr Workhouse register

Births, marriages and deaths recorded in the ‘King’s County Chronicle’ newspaper (1845 - 1865) and the ‘Leinster Express’ (1831 - 1851)

Entries in trade directories for the period 1788 to 1908

The Geashill Estate rental (1883).

About 750,000 genealogical records have now been computerised at this centre.

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Posted on April 15th, 2008 under Genealogy. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Comments: None

Geology in Offaly

Geo_Cadamstown_Formation_Old_Red_Sandstone.jpg The Carboniferous system in West Leinster is almost complete, from the first shales deposited as the sea came in over the Old Red Sandstone, and the still older Caledonian land-surface, up to the Middle Coal Measures, which remain on the high plateau of Laois and Kilkenny. The limestone is for the most part gently folded, and the plain of Offaly and Westmeath no doubt owes some of its character to the approximately horizontal position of its strata. Pro- longed denudation, however, would have in any case produced the same effect, as may be seen where the level surface cuts across crumpled limestones in the counties farther to the east. The plain, largely occupied by grass-lands and stretches of brown bog, is a part of the great Irish peneplain that developed throughout Cainozoic times.

Geo_Castle_Leap.jpg An interesting volcano of Lower Carboniferous age, comparable with the more extensive manifestations near Limerick, lies immediately north of Philipstown. A neck of dolerite stands up prominently as Croghan Hill, South-east of Maryborough, the limestone passes upward into a series of shales and sandstones, which correspond in part with the Yoredale Beds of England. Thin coal-scams occur near the top of this scries, followed by Lower and Middle Coal Measures with more important seams and abundant plant-remains and signs of Geo_Charleville_Castle.jpgterrestrial conditions. The higher and thicker coal- seams have been well worked in past times ; but a good deal of coal remains below in scams about two ft. thick. The beds are grouped in a synclinal upland, resembling the Forest of Dean, and the highest points occur around tile margin of a depression, in which the town of Castle- comer lies. The Coal Measures of Kilkenny are famous for the remains of amphibians and limuloid arachnids The Armorican earth-crumpling was by no means so severe in West Leinster as in the Cork and Waterford region. The influence of the pre-existing chain of Leinster is seen in the trend of the folds in Laois and Kilkenny, where they run parallel with tile far older Caledonian lines. It seems probable that the whole block of the Leinster Chain was thrust back upon the Carboniferous masses that overlapped it, thus forcing them into folds which repeat those of the earlier series.

Geo_Limestone.jpg The Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic periods are un- recorded in West Leinster, and we have no trace of Cretaceous strata, though chalk may have been laid down here during the overflow that certainly affected a large part of Ireland. The whole Cainozoic era seems to have been one of terrestrial conditions and subaerial wasting, and at the opening of the glacial epoch the surface, both of plain and mountain, was covered with de- tritus and deep soils. Tlie continental type of ice-sheet, spreading across the plain, worked these up into boulder- clay, together with blocks plucked from the rocks beneath, and left a loamy deposit, full of limestone boulders, as it finally stagnated and melted away. The south- easterly and easterly courses of the streams that rail beneath the ice are marked by some of the finest eskers in Ireland. These are conspicuous as steep-sided gravelly ridges, notched here and there by the more recent drainage, in the neighbourhood of Clara and Tullamore, and elongated mounds of the same character form dry areas with swelling surfaces above the boglands of Kildare. A number of Bronze Age remains have been discovered, including the hoard of bronze spear-heads, swords, trumpets, etc., found at Downs in Offaly (Self Catering, Offaly, Ireland) in 1825.

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Posted on April 15th, 2008 under Geology. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Comments: None