As we all know, encouraging your friends to do something a bit mad can lead to hilarious results. However, things went too far on fair day on May 10th 1785, when two Tullamore natives and ‘an English adventurer’ got together and decided it would be just a splendid idea to launch a large paper balloon in the confines of a yard in the built up town centre.
Despite it being fair day and town being full of people, there are no recorded accounts from eyewitnesses and only a few contemporary accounts from national newspapers as to exactly what happened on that fateful day in 1785. However, all accounts are in agreement that a balloon crashed-landed on top of houses on Barrack Street (now Patrick Street) Tullamore and set a large portion of the street alight.
Both Faulkner’s Dublin Journal and Finn’s Leinster Journal reporting at the time had widely exaggerated with inaccurate accounts of the accident. For a more accurate account, we turn to a Tullamore native correspondent writing in the Hibernian Magazine on May 12th 1785 who firstly put the number of houses destroyed at 100 and not the exaggerated 130 + claimed by the afore-mentioned journals.
The Hibernian Magazine account is as follows: “A most dreadful fire took place on the fair day (May 10th 1785), by which near an hundred houses and offices were totally consumed. The melancholy accident was occasioned by the liberation of a fire-balloon, or Montgolfier, which two gentlemen of that quarter encouraged an English adventurer to prepare for the amusement of their friends.”
Seemingly, after the Montgolfier (balloon) was launched from Dr. Bleakley’s yard it was drifting towards the barracks at the end of the street, but a change in wind direction caused it to hit a chimney, causing a fire that spread to Mr Christopher Beck’s house. Despite the efforts of a human water-bucket chain formed by those attending the fair, “every house front and rear in Barrack Street (except one thatched and four slated houses) was entirely destroyed” and only five houses remained.
From contemporary accounts, it appears that the Tullamore balloon was constructed with a paper envelope and a large basket in the centre, which was heated by burning straw rather than using hydrogen gas. The basket was fastened by ropes to stakes in the ground until sufficient heat was produced to lift the balloon. Once this occurred, the ropes were released, and the balloon flew upwards until it cooled down again.
There is no indication that the balloon in Tullamore had any passengers and it’s highly likely that it did not, as otherwise, Tullamore may have claimed the world’s first air crash victim.
Both the poor and the wealthy suffered the loss of their homes and businesses, including Mr. Norris whose residence, office and malthouse – which held a substantial amount of grain, were devastated.
As the Tullamore correspondent states in the Hibernian Magazine: “This dreadful calamity rendered more poignant, perhaps from the absurd and dangerous practice from which it proceeded, has overwhelmed this ill-fated town with inconceivable distress and inconvenience.
So, who were the three men who engaged in “the absurd and dangerous practice” that destroyed so much of Tullamore? It seems likely that as it was the town’s fair day that spirts were high and the two Tullamore natives had egged on an ‘English adventurer’ to inflate a paper balloon in a built-up area – with disastrous results!
Following the fire, it appears that Barrack Street (now known as Patrick Street) was reconstructed and expanded on its southern side. Seemingly the fire did not result in any harm to Bridge Street, High Street or O’Connor Square. It’s highly likely that one of the five houses that withstood the fire on Patrick Street was the present day De Brún’s public house.
Writing in 1800, Charles Coote regarded Tullamore as a thriving new town that had emerged from the ashes like a phoenix. “…about fourteen years ago it (Tullamore) was but a very mean village, with scarce any better than thatched cabins, which were almost all destroyed by accidental fire, occasioned by the launching a balloon, and since has risen, Phoenix like, from its ashes, to its present pre-eminence : it is certainly the best town in the county, and bids fair to be little inferior to any town in Ireland”.
Tullamore’s young landlord, Charles William Bury visited the town on May 22nd 1785 and distributed £550 to relieve distress and assist with the rebuild.
Today, the town of Tullamore takes its crest from the mythical Phoenix rising from the ashes of the town. For a number of years the town held a Phoenix festival with hot air balloon races.
Information sources:
Early History of Tullamore – Very Rev Dr Moran PP VF
Irish Newspaper Archives
Offaly County Council
Offaly History Centre
Tullamore Library
