Offaly ‘The faithful county’ By Callum Hayes

Where is Offaly? Offaly is in the Midland region and also in the province of Leinster. It has a population of 78,000 as per 2016 Census. The main towns are Tullamore, Birr, Edenderry and Clara.

Offaly’s Sporting Heroes 4 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Titles (1981, 85, 94 & 98). Brian Whelehan was named Left Half Back on the GAA’s Hurling Team of the Millenium. 3 All-Ireland Senior Football Titles (1971, 72 & 82). The 1982 team had three Lowry’s…three Connors’…and two Darby’s. Shane Lowry has won 3 European Tour events (including the 2009 Irish Open – while still an amateur) and 1 US Tour event. He has won €13 million playing golf! Interesting Fact – Shane’s Dad Brendan and uncles Sean and Mick played in the 1982 All Ireland winning football team.

Tourist attractions Tourist attractions included in my presentation are: Birr Castle Lough Boora Discovery Park Charleville Castle (which hosts the annual Castlepalooza Music Festival) Clonmacnoise Tullamore Dew Other tourist attractions in Offaly include: Clara Bog Broadwalk St. Colmcille’s Church The Slieve Bloom Mountains Leap Castle (the most haunted building in Ireland)

Birr Castle

Birr Castle The award-winning gardens of Birr Castle contain very interesting features in science and engineering as well as rare trees and flowers, wonderful wildlife, and scenic walks. The great telescope was created by the third Earl of Rosse in the 1840’s. His son Charles was inventing the steam turbine at the time which later led to the invention of the jet turbine. The Science Centre has loads of interesting electrical and engineering equipment and historical artefacts from that time. The Treehouse Adventure Area at Birr Castle Gardens features Ireland’s largest treehouse along with bouncy pillow, sand pits, climbing frames, slides and much more.  Birr Castle is a great place for a school tour…..hint, hint Ms Lyttle!!

Lough Boora Discovery Park

Lough Boora Discovery Park Lough Boora is a wildlife sanctuary with lakes, wetlands, 50 kms of cycling and walking trails with modern and ancient sculptures. For centuries Lough Boora has given humans shelter, warmth and unique contact with nature. It even has a fleet of seven paper boats!!

Castlepalooza Annual Music Festival

Castlepalooza Music festival Castlepalooza is an annual music festival hosted by Charleville Castle. The festival was nominated for the ‘Best Small Festival’ in the European festival awards for 2009, 2010 and 2011. 5,000 people attend the festival every year!

Clonmacnoise Clonmacnoise was founded in 544AD by St. Ciaran, a young man from Rathcroghan, Roscommon. Due to its location, it became a centre for religion, learning, craftsmanship and trade by the 9th century. Many of the Kings of Tara and Connacht were buried there.

Tullamore Dew’s new Distillery cost a whopping €35 million and opened in 2014

Thanks for listening