County Offaly, Ireland Genealogy

County Offaly was formerly known as King’s County. It is located in the Irish Midlands in the province of Leinster and consists of 771 square miles with its greatest length being 52 miles from the River Ollatrim near Moneygall to the bondary near Edenderry.

Anciently, it was part of the Kingdom of Ui Failghe from which it gets its present name. The British began occupation in the thirteen century, but did not gain control until the sixteen century when it was named King’s County in 1547 in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Its name was changed to Offaly in 1920 and it became part of the Republic of Ireland in 1921.

In 1821, the population was 131,088. It increased to 146,857 in 1841, but then began to decrease to 52,592 in 1926. In 2006, the population was 70,868. In 1871, 88.8% of the population were Roman Catholic with 9.9% of the Church of Ireland, 0.4% Presbyterians and 0.5% Methodists. In 1926, 92.6% were Roman Catholic with 6.5% Church of Ireland.

General County Research Information
Further information about County Offaly is available at the GenUKI site.