These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Tulach Mhór· Irish · main form · validated name
Tullamore· English · main form
Place & story
The fair-day fire
On 10 May 1785 a balloon experiment ended in a major fire in Tullamore. Offaly History’s examination of the surviving accounts identifies a letter written two days later as particularly valuable evidence. It describes a fire-balloon launched for amusement and a blaze spreading among buildings on a busy fair day. Later accounts differ in details and totals.[3]
People & connections
Charles William Bury and rebuilding
The fire coincided with the coming of age of estate owner Charles William Bury, later Earl of Charleville. Rebuilding and expansion under his direction reshaped the town. The local authority's historical framework identifies much of the centre's street pattern on William Larkin's map of 1809.[4]
Six years at the canal terminus
The Grand Canal reached Tullamore in 1798. For six years the town served as its western terminus, before the route continued to Shannon Harbour in 1804. That temporary position brought opportunities for storage, transport and trade. Lewis’s account of 1837 describes stores beside the canal and a commercial district serving the surrounding agricultural country. The canal’s significance lies in that changing network, as well as in the surviving waterway through the town.[4][2]
Buildings for a county town
Tullamore replaced Daingean as county town in 1835. The gaol, dated by NIAH to 1826–30, and courthouse, built in 1832–35 to John Benjamin Keane's design, express this civic growth. The prison's imposing gatehouse survives.[4][5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Tullamore — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Tullamore, Offaly — 2011 legal town and environs; 2016 census settlement
Published census settlement populations
14,607people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
View population figures
Tullamore, Offaly — 2011 legal town and environs; 2016 census settlement — census population
placenames