See Page 3 - Offaly County Council

Tullamore is a vibrant and modern town. Its central location puts even thefarthest parts of Ireland within a day's journey. It has a catchment area of 45,000people for commercial and shopping services. There are many attractivefeatures, buildings, amenities, quality restaurants and accommodation and atthe old distillery harbour, Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre. The neo-classicalcourthouse, designed by J.B. Keane, is situated at the southern end of the town.Built in 1833, the building is set back from the street on a height, in a parklandsetting with boundary railings. The courthouse is the administrative centre forOffaly County Council and also provides court facilities. The Mallet Tavernsituated on the banks of the canal to the west of the town was the onlythatched pub to survive the great fire in Tullamore in 1785.Tullamore today has a population of around 15,000 and has been the capitaltown of Offaly since 1833. It's more than twice the size of its nearest rival, Birr.Yet records from the 1660s put Tullamore's population at 100, while Birr wasconsiderably larger with 700 inhabitants.John Moore, who was the son of Thomas Moore, an Elizabethan soldier, hadreceived lands at Croghan Hill, an extinct volcano in east Offaly in the 1570's aspart of the first British plantation of Offaly. The Moore family let long lease ontheir Tullamore lands throughout the seventeenth century, choosing to live atCroghan Castle instead.A future generation of the Moore family decided to leave their home atCroghan Castle in the early 1700s and built a house in Tullamore, near wherethe harbour is today. No trace of this house now remains. Through politicalinfluence, they had a barracks built to house 100 British foot soldiers in 1716,and by the late 1720s, a Protestant church was built in Church Lane, now ChurchStreet. This building also no longer exists.The arrival of the soldiers proved to be an attraction for businesses to the areaand a key factor in the early growth of Tullamore. The first recorded buildinglease is one from the Moore family to Richard Brennan, a tobacco spinner, in1713. His premises is now the Brewery Tap bar in O'Connor square.6