-
The Gas Men of Maryborough
THE GAS MEN OF MARYBOROUGH John Dunne On the evening of Thursday, January 21, 1858, the town of Maryborough (Portlaoise since 1920), was, for the very first time, lit by gas. But why did this landmark event, this ‘brilliant spectacle’, [1] in the town’s history come as a surprise to the very Company set up to bring gas to the town? Let’s go back to when, so to speak, the first flame was lit… The first piped-gas street lamps appeared in Dublin in 1825. Almost thirty years later, in November 1854, local solicitor Thomas Turpin, ‘who always takes the lead in any matter for the improvement of Maryborough’, [2]…
-
Anti-tithe meeting at the “Great Heath” 1838. By Jackie Hyland
Anti-tithe meeting at the “Great Heath” 1838. By Jackie Hyland The tithes were a church tax or levy on agricultural produce and livestock. From the middle ages, the church had received this levy, notionally one-tenth of earnings, for the support of the clergy. This tax sometimes collected in kind from agricultural produce had been converted into a cash payment calculated on the price of farm produce in different areas by the 19th century. The tithe applotment books, as they are called, exist for the civil parishes dating to the 1820s and 1830s. In fact, these books are a valuable genealogical research source. Following the Reformation in the 16th century, the…
