Offaly County Council and Offaly History both hold their archive collection in a professional custom built archive building in the Axis Building Park in Tullamore, providing appropriate storage and visitor access. This service is managed by Offaly History under a service level agreement with Offaly County Council. Information about our collections and a selection of digitized materials can be viewed on www.offalyarchives.com. This website features collections from each repository and also hosts featured collections from Birr Castle Archives, Irish Jesuit Archives and the Digby Estate in Dorset relating to their Offaly Estates. There is a catalogue of the Belmont Mill archives available. In 2014, the De Renzy papers from Tinnycross were conserved and catalogued. This is an important 17th collection of archives relating to lands at Tinnycross. Derenzi Identity Statement by archivist Lisa Shortall.
The main Local Authority collections consist of extant local government archives, private papers, local newspaper from mid-19th century to the present day, many thousands of photographs and other images, maps & plans, local folksongs, early printed books, journals and other media relating to the history and heritage of Offaly.
The County Archive Service can be emailed at archivist@offalyhistory.com or contacted on (057)-9339013. Please note that access the archives is by appointment only.
The development of the Offaly Archives Service was a major objective of the Offaly Heritage Plan 2017-2022 and was supported by the Heritage Council and Creative Ireland.
Birr Castle Archives – The Rosse Papers are the papers of the Parsons family, baronets, Barons and Viscounts Oxmantown and Earls of Rosse of Birr Castle, Birr (alias Parsonstown), County Offaly. They run from c.1540 to 1991. They are held by Lord and Lady Rosse at Birr Castle. They have been professionally catalogued by A. P. W. Malcomson of PRONI and the catalogue is available to view in Offaly Library Service, Birr Castle Archives (by appointment). Research enquiries or requests to view the archive can be made by emailing archives@birrtrust.ie.
The National Library of Ireland has a considerable amount of material relating to county Offaly as does Trinity College Dublin, the National Photographic Archive in Meeting House Square in Temple Bar and the National Archives of Ireland.
These are some of the main sources but there is material relating to Offaly in dozens of libraries and archives of public and private collections. If you have a specific area of interest do contact the local studies section of the Offaly Library Service on libraryhq@offalycoco.ie or the Heritage office on heritage@offalycoco.ie, to see if we can be of assistance.
