So you want to move to TULLAMORE?Often overlooked as it isn't quite on the road to anywhere, Tullamore town is a busy place, says Michael Parsons.
HAVE you heard of the Tullamore hot air balloon disaster? "The what?" Don't worry; if you've just returned from a week's holiday abroad you haven't missed the biggest news story out of the Midlands in years. It happened over two centuries ago. And while, admittedly, it may not rank among the principal urban catastrophes of history - the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; the Great Fire of London; or the flooding of New Orleans - the calamitous event makes for a sizzling footnote in our national tale.
On May 12th, 1785, the townspeople had assembled for an early summer fair where the chief attraction was a flight by a hot air balloon - a thrilling, new-fangled invention at that time. Unfortunately, the balloon collided with a chimney and caused a major fire resulting in over 100 houses - mainly thatched cabins - being burnt to the ground.
But it's an ill wind and out of the scorched earth rose a new phoenix. Local toff, the Earl of Charleville (one of the "good-guy" landlords), oversaw the rebuilding of the town and planned a "Paris of the Midlands".
His lordship must have had a glass of claret too many. The "City of Light" it ain't but he did create prosperity - aided by the arrival of the Grand Canal at the end of the 18th century which linked the town to Dublin.
Proof of success came in 1833 when an Act of parliament decreed Tullamore as the new county town of the "King's County" replacing Philipstown (today known as Daingean).
Tullamore was once renowned for its distillery and, according to the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society, during the Middle Ages Offaly whiskey was drunk for medicinal purposes.
The Elizabethan chronicler Holinshed, writing in 1577, declared: "It sloweth age, it strengtheneth youth, it helpeth digestion, it cutteth flegme, it relisheth the harte, it lighteneth the mynd, it quickeneth the spirits, it cureth the hydropsie, it repelleth gravel, and trulie it is a sovereigne liquor if it be orderlie taken." And if not, presumably, "it resulteth in an awfulle payne in the hedde" the morning after.
Queen Elizabeth I, apparently, was rather fond of the stuff and received an occasional "caske of usquebaugh". Sadly, the distillery closed in the 1950s but its two most famous brands, Tullamore Dew (a whiskey, and source of the phrase "give every man his dew") and Irish Mist (a liqueur) survive - in new ownership and made elsewhere.
But the heritage is kept alive in the town's principal tourist attraction, the fascinating Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre which is well worth a visit.
Located right at the heart of Ireland, 60 miles from Dublin, the town is sometimes overlooked as it isn't quite on the road to anywhere. But it is just 7 miles south of the Dublin-Galway primary route - gradually being upgraded to a full-length motorway - and also has good rail links to both cities. Council officials say there is a population of some 300,000 people living within a 40-mile radius. Tullamore is a bustling, friendly town with a prosperous air, good wide streets, well-managed (though heavy) traffic and plenty of parking.
O'Connor Square is dominated - most unexpectedly - by a poignantly simple and elegant monument remembering the local men who fell in both world wars.
The town has many fine stone buildings - notably the lovely town council offices at Acres Hall; the façade of the old jail and the recently refurbished Court House.
Tullamore is undergoing another radical overhaul with vast new building projects transforming the town centre and suburbs. As well as a proliferation of housing estates and apartment complexes and a major new hospital, there is a slew of commercial developments underway. There has been a good deal of urban regeneration already on the site of former distillery buildings with the construction of an entirely new street called Main Street (unusually for an Irish town, Tullamore didn't have a "Main Street") and a large new shopping mall, the Bridge Centre, with Dunnes as anchor tenant.
Directly opposite, in an astonishing juxtapositioning of architectural styles, is the new Bridge House Hotel on Distillery Lane.
THE belle époque exterior could have been transplanted from the shores of Lac Léman at Evian but the interior is pure Irish new millennium - the lobby a swirl of faux art nouveau, glittering "chandeliers", and a painted ceiling which could have been done by Michelangelo - on his back after six pints of Guinness and four vodkas-and-Red Bull.
Jimmy Connell of DNG Cowen Auctioneers says "Tullamore's designation as a 'gateway town' in the national development plan has given the place a boost" with an improving infrastructure, connection to the national gas grid, the building of a new Midlands Regional Hospital and the first successfully completed civil service decentralisation [under the McCreevy plan] with the transfer of a unit of the Department of Finance. Dublin commuters are "not yet a big feature of the market" but he believes they will come. For now, most demand is from locals and migrant workers who are beginning to settle.
He said the average price of a three-bed semi-detached house is €290,000. He'd recommend estates such as Ballin Rí (off the Kilbeggan Road) where a three-bed semi costs about €295,000 or Grand Canal Court (on the Daingean Road) where three-bed semi "bungalows" cost around €317,000. One of Tullamore's newest estate agents is also one of Offaly's best-known public figures.
Michael Duignan played senior hurling for the county from 1986 to 2001 and won All-Ireland medals in 1994 and 1998. The former banker, who lived in Naas and Dublin, returned to his native county and opened his own agency, Michael Duignan Properties, in 2005. He describes Tullamore as "a great place to live - well-located in the centre of the country with easy access to Galway and Dublin, good schools and good sports facilities".
Duignan says that because it is difficult to get planning permission to build a new house "the market for good detached houses on up to half-an-acre within three miles of the town is very strong and will get stronger". The average price for such houses has "doubled in three years" and he believes will rise further - to €750,000 to €800,000 - "over the next year".
At the more affordable end of the market, he says the public is getting fussier and people in the market for new houses "are looking for fully turn-key properties which are tiled, floored and fitted-out". One of his biggest developments is Church Hill, an estate on the Portarlington Road with about 225 houses and 80 apartments, which was launched a year ago. About 50 houses and 30 apartments are still available with prices from €209,000 for a one-bed apartment up to €420,000 for a three-storey, detached four-bed house of 145sq m (1,560sq ft).
There is currently a big rentals market in the town, especially to migrant workers from Eastern Europe but "they are now beginning to buy".
Aidan Heffernan of Heffernan Auctioneers believes price increases will be "modest" this year rising by "possibly 5 per cent". He is sceptical about the impact on the property market of civil service decentralisation pointing out that many of those who relocated were "already living in Co Offaly and travelling to Dublin". While there is "a good rail network with quite a few early bird commuters and also many people driving to work", he says the commuter wave is still limited and reckons at the moment only "about 20 per cent of sales are to Dubliners". He also reports increasing sales to non-nationals, especially of ex-council houses in the €200,000 to €220,000 range.
While there is good demand for two and three-bed houses in estates such as Carrig Clúin off the Clara Road, the trend is towards more upmarket detached houses such as Ashley Court off the New Road where a four-bed with a large garden costs about €600,000. Older people seeking single storey houses might be interested in Ander Vale, where a detached bungalow costs about €350,000.
And the "best address" in Tullamore? Charleville Road - where three large houses sold last year for over €1 million.
