Brendan Ryan's latest book, ‘Belmont: The Story of a West Offaly Townland’ is being launched on Friday, December 2.

Historian's new book on Offaly townland to be launched next week

A new book which takes an in-depth look at the history of the townland of Belmont in West Offaly is being launched in High Street Hall next week.

Brendan Ryan, the local historian, author, and former school principal, spent the last two years working on Belmont: The Story of a West Offaly Townland, which will be launched on Friday next, December 2, at 8.30pm.

This follows on from Brendan's previous book, On Gallen Green: The Story of a West Offaly Townland which was the subject of an online launch during a more acute stage of the pandemic in December 2020.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, the author outlined how the new book examines the history of important sites in Belmont over the centuries, such as the local Mill and Belmont House.

Brendan also writes about the general store in the area, which was taken over by Robert Dupleix in the 1860s and subsequently came into the ownership of the Williams family of Tullamore.

The 230-page hardback book also tells the story of how the name of the area changed from Liosdearg, or Lisderg, to Belmont. In addition, it takes a tour of the various roads through the townland, such as the Cloghan Road and the High Street Road.

A resident of Ballyclare, Ferbane, Brendan has written a number of previous books on aspects of life in Offaly, including: The Dear Old Town: A History of Ferbane Town (2002); Policing in West Offaly 1814-1922 (2009); poetry book The Call of The Lonesome Bog (2016) and Shannonbridge (co-authored with Laura Price) (2019).

Light refreshments will be served at the book launch on Friday next, and all are welcome to attend.

The author can also be contacted at: brendanaryan@yahoo.com