Life stories of well-known Offaly people to be focus of Tullamore lecture

A LECTURE to mark the contribution of the upwards of 300 men and women who have given their time to build the audio library of memories of their area and life stories in County Offaly will be given by Aidan Barry on Monday, October 21 at 8 pm at Offaly History Centre, Bury Quay, Tullamore.
Entitled "The oral story of Offaly people in the Offaly History Centre sound archives collection", the presentation will consist of an overview of the oral history resources available at Offaly History and how to access them. It will commemorate the work of Maurice O Keefe (RIP) at Irish Life and Lore and Albert Fitzgerald (RIP) at Midlands103 and also the late James Kenny of Clara Bridge, Tullamore. As part of the presentation, attendees will listen to some audio clips about three minutes long each from the audio archives.
These are from the Irish Life and Lore recorded by the late Maurice O’Keefe. They're also from the Midlands 103, and they're also from some of Offaly history's own recordings made by the late James Kenny and others.

These include people like Emily O'Reilly talking to Albert Fitzgerald about her early days in Tullamore; Richard May talking about the difficulty of accessing a phone line when he started up his business in Tullamore in 1977; Sister Oliver Rafter about the secondary top schooling at Killina; Martin Furlong about his decision to move his entire family to America in 1988; Johnny Flanagan talking about his early days as a raw recruit working for Sonny Duffy; Joe Kenny arriving in Tullamore in 1954, talking about his first views of Tullamore when he stepped off the train.; May Martin talking about her life living in Boland's Lock with her aunt Nan Boland and growing up there and being effectively fostered there by her aunt; Bill Jaffray talking about Irish Mist and the difficulty of what happened when they went to export Irish Mist to the American market; Ollie Clancy and Seamus O'Connor are talking about the time and motion man at Williams’s, and how that went down with some of the workers.
Attendees will also hear about the railway station in Tullamore as Charlie Finlay will talk about life in Tullamore railway station in 1967.
Finally, those in attendance will also hear a special recording done by James Kenny. Some of his early recordings are in the Offaly History Collection and also in the Irish Life and Lore series, and it includes an interview with John Jack Egan about his carpentry and his apprenticeship.
Aidan Barry is a retired primary teacher and school principal who has worked in the midlands since 1985. He has been volunteering with Offaly History since January 2023 gathering and cataloguing Oral History resources in the centre. Aidan is also a part time broadcaster with Midlands 103.
Tea, coffee after the talk.
Admission is €5 to non-members and €2 to members. It is a public lecture and we welcome non-members and those who might wish to join and get involved.
Queries to info@offalyhistory.com.
The lecture will also be broadcast on Zoom for the link. Email, info@offalyhistory