Tullamore in 1843

TULLAMORE, or TULLAMOORE, a town in the barony of Ballycowan, in King's County, in the province of Leinster in Ireland, 63 miles west by south of Dublin.

No historical interest attaches to this place, which, before 1790, when it was nearly destroyed by fire, was an insignificant village. Having been rebuilt by the proprietor, the earl of Charleville, after the conflagration, in a superior manner, and being in the centre of a fertile district, it rose in importance; and the circumstance that the Grand Canal for some time had its termination here, before it was carried on to the Shannon, promoted the growing prosperity of the place. Tullamore contained, in 1831, 1,052 houses, inhabited by 1,314 families, 45 houses uninhabited, and 14 houses building: the population was 6,342. There are a neat market-house, a handsome county court-house, and a county gaol on the radiating principle; a small barrack for the military, and a police-station. There is a bridge over the little river Clodagh, which passes through the town and flows into the Brosna, a feeder of the Shannon; and there are several stores on the Grand Canal, which passes the town on the north side, and opens a communication with Dublin on the east, and with Limerick and other places on the Shannon on the west. The town is in the parish of Kilbride (the whole population of which, in 1831, was 9,673): the parish church, in which divine service is performed on Sunday and Wednesday morning, is at some distance from the town; but divine service is performed on Sunday and Friday evening in the market-house. There is a Roman Catholic chapel in Tullamore; and there are in the parish meeting-houses for Quakers and Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists. The earl of Charleville has a capacious mansion, and an extensive and beautiful demesne adjacent to the town.

The market is held on Tuesday and Saturday: it is the greatest market in the county for grain: the average yearly sale for the ten years from 1826 to 1835 was estimated at 45,000 barrels of wheat, of 20 stones to the barrel; 35,000 barrels of oats, of 14 stones to the barrel; and 20,000 barrels of barley, of 16 stones to the barrel. There are five yearly fairs. Brick-making, distilling, and brewing are carried on.

The assizes for the county are held here, having been transferred from Philipstown by an act of 2 & 3 Wm. IV, c.60. Quarter-sessions for the division are also held here. Tullamore is the residence of the sub-inspector of the county constabulary. The county infirmary is in the town.

The benefice of Kilbride is a rectory, the gross yearly income of which is £148, 0 shillings, 8 pence, the net yearly income £117, 6 shillings, 11 pence, with a glebe-house. The parish is in the diocese of Meath, and in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh.

There were in Kilbride parish, according to the Second Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction (Parl. Papers for 1835, vol. xxxiv.), twenty day-schools of all kinds, with 1,406 children (737 boys and 669 girls) on the books, and with an average daily attendance of from 900 to 950. Of these schools, two, with an average attendance of 280 boys and 200 girls, were in connection with the National Board, and were partly supported by local subscription; one, with 60 children in attendance, above two-thirds of them boys, was in connection with the London Baptist Hibernian Society; one, with 35 boys, was chiefly supported by Lady Charleville; and another, with 40 girls, was partly supported by a committee of ladies: the rest were private schools, some of them boarding-schools, affording instruction of superior kind.