Daingean (; or ), formerly Philipstown, named after King

Philip II of Spain Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...

(then

King of Ireland Monarchical systems of government have existed in Ireland from ancient times. This continued in all of Ireland until 1949, when the Republic of Ireland Act removed most of Ireland's residual ties to the British monarch. Northern Ireland, as p ...

by ), is a small town in east

County Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland, ancient Kingdom of Uí ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is situated midway between the towns of

Tullamore Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal (Ireland), Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the Midland Region, Ireland, Midlands Reg ...

and Edenderry on the R402 regional road. The town of Daingean had a population, as of the 2022 census, of 1,223. It is the principal town of the Daingean

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

.www.catholicireland.net
The other main poles of this parish are Ballycommon, Kilclonfert and Cappincur.

History

Daingean was originally named Philipstown in 1556 when it was established as the

county town In Great Britain and Ireland, a county town is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where public representatives are elected to parliament. Following the establishment of county councils in ...

of the newly shired King's County that was planted by

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...

. The town and the county were so named after her husband and co-monarch Philip who was the titular King of Ireland. From his wife's death in 1558 he no longer held royal status in England or Ireland, and was soon afterwards crowned as

. The Philipstown parliamentary borough sent two MPs to the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

until its abolition in 1801. The town was once the seat of the O'Connor clan, who were chieftains of the surrounding area of Offaly. Its current name of Daingean, from , means fortress of the Uí Fáilghe clan, a name that it derived from the medieval island fortress of O'Connor Faly. In 1883,

replaced Daingean as the focal point of the county, being on a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line. As a result, Philipstown was demoted from county town to village and as a result lost most of its political status. With the foundation of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

in 1922, the village was renamed Daingean, at the same time as County Offaly replaced the old style of King's County. In the 1850s, Philipstown Gaol was used to detain people who were convicted and sentenced to transportation to Australia while they waited for a ship to transport them. Many of them died in the jail after spending several years waiting to be transported. Daingean Reformatory Ireland

Public buildings in Daingean include the courthouse, whose design is locally attributed to James Gandon, and a children's reformatory, known as St Conleth's Reformatory. The remnants of a military barracks (known as the footbarrack) gives its name to the bridge leading out of the town towards Tullamore - the footbarrack bridge. There are the remnants of a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

(Anglican) church and a functioning

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church. A number of these buildings are no longer used for their original function. The courthouse, for example, has functioned as a town hall, dance hall and bingo hall, having been renovated in the 1980s. A bog body, given the name Old Croghan Man, was found near Daingean in 2004 and featured on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

'' Timewatch'' programme in January 2006. A book called ''From the Quiet Annals of Daingean'' was written and published by John Kearney of Daingean in December 2006. While there is a local farming economy, many of the people from Daingean work in Tullamore or commute further afield. Daingean is surrounded by the

Bog of Allen The Bog of Allen () is a large raised bog in the centre of Republic of Ireland, Ireland between the rivers River Liffey, Liffey and River Shannon, Shannon. The bog's 958 square kilometres (370 square miles) stretch into counties County Offaly, ...

and Bord Na Mona (BnM) remains a local employer, however the number employed is much reduced from the heyday when local people made a living working at the briquette factory and on the bog. The ESB power station at nearby Rhode was also a significant employer before its closure. Even in the period of high unemployment in the 1980s, the ESB and BnM trained local men in their apprenticeship programmes. Publican Matt Farrell was murdered in the town on 1 April 2009. A €10,000 reward was offered for information when the crime had not been solved several months later.

Tourism

The Grand Canal, which links

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and the

River Shannon The River Shannon ( or archaic ') is the major river on the island of Ireland, and at in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of , – approximately one fifth of the area of I ...

, passes through the village. The village has an 18-hole

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

course, Castle Barna Golf Club. Daingean is also home to Grand Canal Adventures who provide

kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...

, water zorbing, bicycle hire and other water sports and leisure activities on the canal.

Cultural events

The ''Daingean Homecoming Festival'' is a week-long event hosted at the beginning of each August. The

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

includes a

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...

race on the Grand Canal, a parade, traditional threshing, a karaoke competition and a children's day. During the Daingean Homecoming Festival, a "festival queen" is selected by a panel of judges. On the Friday night of the festival, the Tullamore Harriers Athletic Club organise a 5 km road race which makes four loops of the town. The race has previously seen over 100 runners taking part.

Transport

The regional R402 road forms the principal street of Daingean known as Main Street. This road links Enfield, Edenderry, Daingean, Ballinagar and (through the R420) Tullamore. Daingean is served by a

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of C ...

commuter bus service through route 120. The nearest railway station is Tullamore railway station, approximately or 15 to 20 minutes away.

People

*Mrs. Eckleston of Philipstown was stated to be 143 when she died (1548–1691). * Patrick Dunne (1818–1900), a Roman Catholic priest who ministered in Australia, was born in Philipstown. *

Lord Charles Beresford Admiral (Royal Navy), Admiral Charles William de la Poer Beresford, 1st Baron Beresford, (10 February 1846 – 6 September 1919), styled Lord Charles Beresford between 1859 and 1916, was a British admiral and Member of Parliament. Beresford w ...

(1846–1919), British admiral and politician; born in Philipstown. * Joe Connor (1877–1934), an Irish international footballer who played for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

among others, was born in Philipstown. * Kevin Kilmurray, former Offaly footballer and manager * Geraldine O'Neill is an author, originally from Scotland, living in Daingean since 1991. Her mother was originally from Daingean. O'Neill primarily writes historical fiction novels, many of which are set in County Offaly.

References