O' Moore Street, Tullamore

The houses and families of O’Moore Street, Tullamore, formerly known as Earl Street and Windmill Street, 1720s to 2020s


In the 1700s O’Moore Street, Tullamore was on the edge of the town on the road to Killeigh. It soon became known as Windmill Street because of the two windmills erected by the 1720s on the hill south of today’s O’Moore Street. The hill (probably the Tulach Mhór giving Tullamore its name) is now obscured by the houses from the courthouse to Spollanstown Road erected after the 1790s. Today O’Moore Street still exhibits some of the mixed residential development that was commonplace before the 1900s and the building of class-demarcated suburban housing. Yet O’Moore Street was itself comparatively rural in the early 1800s, but now serves as an artery for traffic to Cloncollig, Clonminch, Killeigh (Mountmellick) and Geashill – with their extensive housing and shopping facilities. In the once undeveloped field opening to Clonminch and Spollanstown the substantial Tullamore Court Hotel was built in 1997. The street has more than a 300-year history in its physical development The lack of decisions on good planning neglected to be taken in the 1750s continue to impact almost 300 years later and contribute the configuration the street has today.