101 Things I love about Offaly

niki1

All the red haired kids, sooo cute, im from dublin and they say that the red head is a dying breed!!!! Not in Offaly.

The Scawgeen

Midlands Radio 3 Gently proding at the hornet's nest of the day, making megastars out of mediocre Country'n'Irish singers and boosting the royalty cheques of long since forgotten 80's bands. That's it in a nutshell but I'd be lost without it.

puppetmaster

Having the Two longest rivers in Ireland, The Shannon and the Barrow,
Actually having the Balls to Cut a Hole in the bog fill it with sand and water in portarlington and "proudly" go out n sunbath in it (Costa Del Sod).

and Feighery's in kilcormac.

Missent

The free carpark in Birr - best in any midlands town for stopping and one of the reasons why I'll stop there when travelling.

Shinrone - very interesting village and steeped in history.

magentas

my favourite thing about offaly is just the lovely genuine hospitality!
honestly, I love popping into a local shop where you're treated like a friend by someone you've never met when you're just buying a credit or fags!


have we reached 101 yet Quazzie???:D

Quazzie

Just reached it, and in honour I've put yours top of the table. Shows how good a county it is

Here is the list in full. (credit owed to Medoc for the list previously)

1. The genuine hospitality.
2. The bog.
3. Good healthy parochial rivalry.
4. The way were called BIFFO'S and that other counties stil think it insults us
5. The Heritage
6. The Colours
7. The Traffic (or lack of !)
8. OFFALY TIME
9. The way when your talking about a stupid thing someone did you add 'the eegit' after a sentence.
10. Clonmacnoise
11. Texas store
12. The Harriers sat night
13. Inland waterways
14. Ed and Nelly.
15. The Fleadh!
16. The Slieve Bloom Mountains
17. Cadamstown annual BBQ
18. Dan and Mollies in Ballyboy
19. The Pyramid in Kinnitty
20. Walking from Cadamstown to Kinnitty over the mountain, past May Scullys cottage
21. The pure randomness and madness that other counties don't seem to comprehend
22. The Irish Parachute Club
23. Lough Boora Parklands.
24. The Mountain Road (R440)
25. Offaly Ol' Fellas
26. The pride!
27. Tullamore Show
28. Birr game fair
29. Glenisk Yogurts
30. Tullamore
31. The Pubs of Offaly
32. Keeping the Faith
33. Its far away from Dublin!
34. Johnny houghs pup in banagher
35. banagher horse fair
36. birr vintage week
37. Shannon marina
38. pure mule
39. ballycumber may fair
40. The hospital in Tullamore
41. The Pieta in Kilcormac
42. Birr castle and garden
43. The tallest structure in the republic (RTE Radio Mast)
44. Shane Lowery
45. Bishop Michael Cox Priest and piper, great character
46. The Portarlington Road ????????
47. The green fields round Ferbane
48. The Grand Canal
49. The River Brosna
50. Bog cotton
51. Johnny McEvoy
52. Old Croghan Man
53. Tullamore Dew
54. Offaly hurling
55. Kinnity Castle
56. Dooly's Hotel in Birr
57. The River Shannon
58. Wild gorse in bloom on the bog
59. The road from Blue Ball to Cloghan
60. Tullamore sausages
61. The survivors list (death notices) each morning on the radio - if your name isn't mentioned your ok
62. The 'champagne glass' in Ferbane (at least thats what I thought it was when I was 8)
63. Offaly's GAA tradition
64. First team in the country that have won allstars in every position in both hurling and football
65. The stations
66. Durron Demense
67. The shrine of St, Manchan
68. The smell of turf smoke when you get off the train from dublin
69. The Uibh Failii Chant
70. The Thatch in Rahan
71. Hennessy Pub
72. Killeens Pub Shannonbridge
73. Hiding in the hay bails and running around the fields when we were young
74. Riding home from the bog on the top of a load of turf.
75. The Thatch in Crinkle
76. Mundy
77. Brian Cowen
78. Neil Delamare
79. Barrack Obama
80. Matt Connor
81. Seamus Darby and 1982
82. Brian Whelehan
83. The Italian chipper in Banagher
84. The fact that even if you don't know what you're doing, everybody else does.
85. Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice In Wonderland, grandfather is buried in the old protestant graveyard in Daingean
86. Fr. Mullins grave in the old Killaderry graveyard
87. Roesy
88. Charleville Castle (oldest oak tree in Ireland!)
89. Castle Palooza music fest in Charleville castle
90. "Next door neighbours" who are actually a mile down the road!
91. The flaa axcint!
92. The Cloneygowen Gooseberry Fair
93. Offaly winning the right to wear the national colours
94. We have the Irish links to Barrack Obama
95. Red haired kids
96. Midlands Radio 3
97. Having the Two longest rivers in Ireland, The Shannon and the Barrow,
98. Costa Del Sod.
99. Feighery's in kilcormac.
100. The free carpark in Birr
101. Shinrone

magentas

yay! great thread Quazzie and kudos to you for all your work:)

offaly1

fair play Quazzie!

puppetmaster

magentas wrote: »

yay! great thread Quazzie and kudos to you for all your work:)

+1

The Finest !!!

*Edit
I nearly forgot about Rudd's White pudding. Best in the country. If you havent tried it you havent lived

The Scawgeen

puppetmaster wrote: »

+1

The Finest !!!

*Edit
I nearly forgot about Rudd's White pudding. Best in the country. If you havent tried it you havent lived

I'd have agreed with you before I tasted 'Finola's' white pudding. If you're fond of white pudding you have to taste 'Finola's' It's made in Roscommon. I buy it in a little shop about a mile past Ganly's on the Roscommon road when I'm passing that way. I've asked about it in a couple of shops in Tullamore and nobody's heard of it. I'd be so bold as to say it's nicer than Rudds :eek:









Sneaks out head down in shame.........;)

medoc

Well done Quazzie. Fair play to ya it took a while but we got there. I'm sure there are more things to add to the list. We just had Rudds and i'd like to add Carrols ham. I missed those sandwiches when i was away working.

Quazzie

medoc wrote: »

I'm sure there are more things to add to the list.

I agree. 1001 should be our next target

cheapskate

As an exciled Biffo, 'up from the country ta get a job' living amongst our so called cultured dublin cousins, and those kildare lads that are wanna be dubs! Its great to read that list and be proud of being from Offaly.

On another note, I have been sick to death of all the abuse Brian Cowen has been getting from the general public up here in the big smoke, Im tired defending him at every conversation when No matter who was in that position would have done a similar job.

Anyway Im not a fan of Cowen or Fianna fail, I have voted for him in the past but not the last time, BUT I think we should stick it to all them media and nay sayers around the country by voting for Brian at the next election, not because we agree with what he did but because we want to show our pride in our county our colours and our Biffo-ness!

LETS SHOW THAT SHOWER THAT YOU CAN BROW BEAT US BUT THE OFFALY SPIRIT CANT BE BROKEN! CUMANN OFFALY!!!

CS

PS No blueshirts were harmed in this rant, at least not the lovely Ollwyn

Dusty87

Cowan, is that you??

magentas

I admire your sentiments cheapskate but FF need to go! I think Irelands economy and overall future is more important than a few biffos "sticking it to the media" by electing cowen again!

TBH I can think of better ways to show our pride in our county:)

EDIT: maybe this is how george bush got re-elected in the states...a bunch of crazy Texans decided to stick it to the media yeehaw!
dem dang media, yay dubyah!

cheapskate

No, I assure you I'm not a Cowan fan at all or Fianna fail for that matter, I didn't vote for him or fianna fail last time around I actually voted for the lovely Ollwyn and Parlon - I know!!
I'm just sick of the constant knocking of Biffo this, biffo that, F-ing Biffo and I don't blame Cowan, I don't think he's blameless, every budget he brought in the opposition complained that he didn't do enough, give enough so I believe whoever was in power would have done the same.

CS

Dinge

That Shannon Harbour has no speed limit

madred006

I don't blame Cowan, I don't think he's blameless, every budget he brought in the opposition complained that he didn't do enough, give enough so I believe whoever was in power would have done the same.

Dont know where you have been for the last while especially 3-4 weeks but he was never leader material ,more suited to local politics getting potholes fixed and the likes he was minister for finance for almost 4 years.Of course its his fault and that with treating Irish people with pure and total ignorance by hiding and telling lies instead of standing up and doing as a leader should do LEAD,good ridance wont see him outside any shops checking his change to see if he can get a loaf .

cheapskate

Hi,

Yea i know, i started it with my off topic remark which wasn't really thought out before posting and I apologise for going off topic on this thread!
However If you find it easier to blame other people for the trouble we collectively find ourselves in then go ahead! I agree that mistakes were made by our government and I know they should have done better but just suppose Brian had said 'y'know maybe we're over stretching ourselves and we're losing the run of ourselves', he would have been put in his place by Bertie (like Mcreevy before him) and every Banker, investor and person on the street (you and me) would have vilified him for talking down the economy.
Thats not to say I agree with what he done, I don't but Richard Bruton or whoever would have done the same.
Greed had gripped the nation, ordinary decent people became speculators and unless they were naive should have known that they were making money off the next persons misfortune, Somebody would eventually have to pay for their profit - GREED!!

CS

aine-maire

Being able to watch Ear to the Ground and Vets on Call. And doing a bit of bailing


Those kids were great.

madred006

cheapskate wrote: »

Hi,

Yea i know, i started it with my off topic remark which wasn't really thought out before posting and I apologise for going off topic on this thread!
However If you find it easier to blame other people for the trouble we collectively find ourselves in then go ahead! I agree that mistakes were made by our government and I know they should have done better but just suppose Brian had said 'y'know maybe we're over stretching ourselves and we're losing the run of ourselves', he would have been put in his place by Bertie (like Mcreevy before him) and every Banker, investor and person on the street (you and me) would have vilified him for talking down the economy.
Thats not to say I agree with what he done, I don't but Richard Bruton or whoever would have done the same.
Greed had gripped the nation, ordinary decent people became speculators and unless they were naive should have known that they were making money off the next persons misfortune, Somebody would eventually have to pay for their profit - GREED!!

CS

Yes agree same as that for going off thread just irks me really these people politicians tell us to tighten our belts and they are on 100k plus wages etc etc just maddening sorry for rant

magentas

aine-maire wrote: »

Being able to watch Ear to the Ground and Vets on Call. And doing a bit of bailing


Those kids were great.

ah seamus! and what do you want to do when you grow up?
ah I wanh ta bae a farmer and ta bae on ear ta da ground

such a cute kid, so grounded and genuine compared to the snotty little kid from dublin that was on after.

I can see seamus on christmas morning opening a little toy tractor and being delighted and appreciate it whereas the dublin kid will probably get the latest edition PS (or other cool techie stuff that I don't know much about!:o) with tons of extras that cost a fortune and still whinge about it!

Basically, biffo kids rock!

efb

Christ but that list is a damning enditement of our county!

Quazzie

Apologies for bumping an old thread but I just seen this circulating on facebook and though it appropriate to share here.

Yes, the finest attractions, events, places and people (yours truly included) of the Faithful County are here to show you why Offaly is the greatest place on this planet.

Sure, we may not have the romance or the public toilets of the Breifne County, but when you can claim a President of the United States, a world-famous whiskey, a rock the boat world record and an extinct volcano, it doesn't really matter now, does it?

So if you're planning on visiting Ireland any time soon, here are 15 reasons why you should hop in your car and head inland for a truly unique Irish experience:

LINK