Harsh Justice: Nineteenth Century Criminal Cases in Tullow

What to Expect

Tullow Library puts original nineteenth century criminal records relating to local Carlow people on view for one afternoon during Heritage Week. The library’s description is blunt about what is in them: fascinating and poignant details of desperate crimes and the harsh punishments handed down to ordinary people during the Famine.

These are primary documents rather than a display of reproductions, which is the reason to go rather than read about it afterwards. For anyone tracing Carlow ancestors, records of this period are among the few places where labouring families appear in writing at all, so the session doubles as a genealogy opportunity. It runs for an hour on the Wednesday afternoon of Heritage Week, alongside the county library service’s wider programme of talks and children’s workshops that week, and it is free to attend.

Good to Know

• Wednesday 19 August 2026, 2:00pm to 3:00pm.
• Venue: Tullow Library, New Road, Tullowphelim, Tullow, Co. Carlow.
• Free admission.
• Organised by Carlow Library Service. Phone 059 912 9705 or email jshortall@carlowcoco.ie with queries.
• Part of National Heritage Week 2026; further detail on heritageweek.ie.
• The Tullow Heritage Photo Orienteering trail is collected from the same library across the same week, so the two combine into an afternoon.
• Contact the library in advance if you want to ask about specific family names before the session.

Getting There

Tullow Library is on New Road just off Tullow town centre, around 15km east of Carlow Town on the N81. There is street parking and a town car park within a short walk. Bus Eireann route 132 between Dublin, Baltinglass, Tullow and Carlow stops in the town, making the library reachable without a car from either direction. Tullow is also the nearest town to Altamont Gardens, about 5km away on the R724, if you want to make a longer afternoon of it.