HAPPY BIRTHDAY TULLAMORE: 400 years old and still going strong!

How old is Tullamore really? And how did it change from its early beginnings to the town we know today? 

It is impossible to be conclusive about the very moment when a group of houses becomes a village or a town. In Ireland, only the New Towns of Shannon in the Republic and Craigavon in Northern Ireland can definitively state the date upon which their first sod was dug.  Nonetheless, it is perfectly legitimate for local people to nominate a particular date and say ‘Before this we were of no importance; after it, we were’.

The event which transformed Tullamore from an inconsequential hamlet at a ford on a river into something more significant, was the implementation of the licence conferred in 1622 on the new land owner John Moore, to hold a weekly market and an annual fair.

It is likely that local farmers and traders had always struck informal deals, but now a certain place was identified at which on a specified day, goods would be exchanged. Sellers could now plan how much of their cattle or produce would be presented and buyers would have greater choice and better prices struck. Travelling salesmen would service the attendance and a pub might cater for a post-deal drink. That is how almost all human settlements evolve.

But what did Tullamore actually look like in 1622? John Moore’s lease describes his new lands as including   ‘a ruined castle, two watermills and ten cottages’. The castle was most likely in the vicinity of the future Harbour and where Moore’s successors later built a house for themselves. The watermills might have been somewhere to the east or west of the river crossings, but were unlikely to have been between as the river was shallow enough in that stretch to be fordable. It is anybody’s guess where the ten cottages were. We have no way of knowing precisely because no reliable maps, drawings, illustrations, anecdotes or written records exist. No trace of the buildings remain and much of the original  road pattern of the  town was obliterated over the years.

The little hamlet may have looked something like my sketch (illus.) which assumes that the Puttaghan road, which was then the main route from Dublin to the south west of Ireland, continued in a straight line to ford the river at the point which is today the location of the ‘Hidden Bridge’ behind the Library. It then continued into the Fair Green-later O’Connor Square. However, in the absence of any physical evidence, that can only be guesswork.

Tullamore’s emerging strategic importance as a regional market required protection and in 1716, another significant date in the history of the town, a barracks for two companies of foot soldiers was built on the edge of the little village. The notorious balloon fire of 1785 prompted a radical building programme which brought a new phase of development. Recent valuable work by Michael Byrne, based on leases and property transfer documents has provided us with the first reliable image of the town in the year before that transformative event.

In order to create a useful basis for comparison, I have shown the footprints of the buildings which existed on four dates which best exemplify the changing nature of the town, 1784, 1838, 1960 and 2020.

1784

The barracks is the most prominent feature and Barrack Street (now Patrick Street) is the principal thoroughfare of the little village and joins what is today Colmcille Street and Church Street to form a crossroads. The Fair Green is the central space of the town and merchants and professionals' houses are beginning to spill northwards and southwards. The original Church of Ireland lies on Church Street and the County Infirmary has been established. Charles Street (Harbour Street) is in place and linking northwards to connect to the road to Philipstown (Daingean). It is likely that this road continued westwards to connect with the junction of the Clara and Rahan roads but it vanished following the arrival of the canal.

With a population of around 2,000 persons and a stock of almost 300 houses in 1784 it is likely that there were also several back lanes of poorer quality housing whose actual location  cannot be identified today. 

1838

The 1838 Ordnance Survey Map gives us the first completely reliable picture of the footprint of the town 

The explosion of development following the arrival of the Grand Canal has transformed the northeastern quarter which is now dominated by the harbour and a new market place. Industry and manufacturing cluster around the river which is a source of power and a waste receptor. Poorer housing is provided in tight terraces close to the centre. Better class housing and prestige buildings including the Gaol and Courthouse extend southwards but little development has occured on the northern and eastern edges. Tanyard Lane and Bachelors Walk are in place.

The population has risen to 6,343 persons.

1960

The railway has arrived but the overall  form of the town has changed little since 1838 other than the new local authority estates located on the western and northern edges of the centre and which have almost doubled its footprint. Private housing is beginning to sprawl out the approach roads and along the minor lanes such as Spollenstown and Spade Avenue, but large areas of land within or on the edge of the centre remain undeveloped though it is still the principal location for manufacturing industry.

Despite this physical expansion, the population of the town has declined to 6,243 persons.

2020

A booming national economy and almost universal car ownership have led to a proliferation of low density housing estates. While the lands in the centre have changed from manufacturing to shopping, large scale retailing is moving to edge locations and farther afield. The schools and institutional facilities have consolidated on their generous sites directly adjoining the centre. Extensive areas of central land  are either still open or awaiting redevelopment. The town park has arrived.

Today, the population is reckoned to be around 13,000 persons

2040?

Tullamore expanded rapidly between 1798 and 1838 following the arrival of the canal. That era determined the form of the town for the next hundred years until a massive local authority house building programme almost doubled its footprint between 1940 and 1960. Rapid growth occurred between 1960 and 2008, expanding out into the countryside but leaving many gaps in its wake.

It is now  planned that the population of the Tullamore Municipal District will reach 19,000 persons by 2027. A population in the order of 25,000 persons by 2040 might even be anticipated, but this next period will be all about filling in those remaining gaps rather than further edge expansion. 

A different town, even a small city, is in the making.