Develop Tullow Association was founded in November 1979 following a public meeting held in Tullow Community School.

There had been a development group in existence in Tullow earlier, probably in the late 60s early 70s and was known as “Tullow Development Association”. This group was solely a trader’s organisation and would appear to have become defunked in the early 70s. Meanwhile the centre of the town was becoming derelict with a number of premises in the Square, Church St. and Bridge St. now vacant e.g. Miss Whitty’s, Pattersons, Duffy’s Coal Yard and others.

These dis-improvements in the town were now becoming a concern to people in the area in particular Pat O’Farrell, Brian Flynn, P.J. Griffin and Paddy Byrne who put their heads together in an informal manner and came up with the idea that a town car park would be a good start at getting the town back on track and would be of major benefit to the community at large. They had a look around town to see if there was any suitable sites available and luckily enough, a few sites were identified.

The group decided that in order to push a project of this magnitude forward in would require a full and well organised committee. With this in mind they decided to call a public meeting to get public feelings for the project and if possible, form a committee to take on the project. This meeting was called for the Community School in November 1979

The meeting was very well attended and the following committee was formed.

Chairman: Brian Flynn

Secretary: John Moran

Treasurer: Alex Paton

Committee: Pat O’Farrell, Pat O’Toole, P.J. Griffin, Tom Orbinski, Nell Canavan, Kay McDermott, Paddy Byrne,  Basil Bird & Paul Joyce

It was decided to call the new organisation Develop Tullow Association (DTA) so as not to confuse the new group with the earlier Tullow Development Association and that the new group would be community orientated and not just business.  DTA was incorporated into a limited company in 1999 and subsequently became Develop Tullow Association C.L.G.

The Board of Directors

The following were elected to serve as members of the board of directors of Develop Tullow Association CLG for the coming year (2025) at the Annual General Meeting held on Tuesday 5th November 2024 :

Denis Ryan, Eddie Corcoran, Kathy Walsh, William Paton, Laz Murphy, Eileen Doyle, Mary Walsh

The 2025 Executive Committee is as follows: 

Chairperson: Eddie Corcoran, Vice-Chairperson: Geraldine Bowes

Hon. Secretary: Kathy Walsh, Asst. Secretary: Nicola Brennan

Treasurer: William Paton, Asst. Treasurer: William Roche

PRO: Nicola Timmons Asst: PRO: Peg Fleming 

Committee Members: Eileen Doyle, Mary Doyle

Early years of DTA:

Following the setting up of the first DTA committee, the purchase of Duffy’s Coal Yard, Tim Donoghue’s shop in Bridge St. and Duffy’s Creamery in Tullowbeg occurred. The Creamery was subsequently sold on to Joe O’Neill and the Bridge street site to Carlow Co. Council who subsequently constructed a new car park, which in turn led to the development of the inner relief road.

Other early activities included:

• Supporting Sr. Mercedes, Mary O’Grady and others in the setting up of a laundry service for the elderly which in turn led to the establishment of Tullow Day Care Centre,
• Setting up a FÁS scheme under the supervision of Jim Gorman . The scheme provided much needed local employment in a time of high unemployment. The group constructed many granite walls around town and cleaned up many eyesores, and
• The setting up of a Christmas promotion scheme designed to attract business into the town over the Christmas period.

Over the years DTA have been involved in many activities and projects. In order to be more efficient in the running of these activities the following sub-committees were established:

• Traders: Organise, set up and maintain Christmas lights and activities.
• Tidy Towns: Grass cutting and maintenance of open spaces, tree planting, preparation and maintenance of flower beds and baskets and      many other associated projects.
• St Patrick’s Day: Organise and run the St. Patrick’s Day Parade & activities

Other past activities of DTA and its sub-committees have been:

• The provision of riverside walks on both sides of the Slaney Bridge, beside the Museum and at the side of the Bridge House,
• Wolseley Car Centenary and Festival weekend in 1995,
• 1798 Bicentenary Celebrations in 1998,
• Preparation of Tullow Town Plan,
• Special Olympics’ Host Town for Bolivian Athletes in 2003,
• FBD Milk Ras stage end in Tullow in 2004,
• Outright Winner of the National Pride of Place 2005,
• Preparation of a Development Strategy Report for Tullow,
• Business Watch,
• Liaising with An Garda Siochana, Carlow Co. Council, Tullow Community Employment Initiative, the TUS Scheme and the Rural Social Scheme,
• Organising the 1916 Centenary Celebrations in 2016,
• Organising and facilitating Public Meetings on subjects of interest to the general public, e.g. Community First Responder Scheme, Rates re-valuation, Tullow Footbridges Scheme and Traffic Management Plan for Ploughing,
• Organising the Local Pride of Place competition,
• Organising the Tullow Tidy Towns Awards Night,
• Organising and running the annual fundraising auction,
• Organising the very successful Christmas Market in 2018,
• Organising the Big Hello day in the Parish Centre,
• Involvement in the Town and Village Renewal Scheme,
• Lobbing Carlow Co Council and others in relation to projects and improvements required throughout the town.

Major Projects completed in Co-operation with Carlow Co. Council:

• Pairc Oghma, Shillelagh Rd.,
• Thomas Traynor Park, Castledermot Rd.,
• Wildlife Area, Pairc Mhuire,
• River Slaney Amenity Area, Inner Relief Rd.,
• Town Park and Playground, Rear of Tesco,
• The Grass Roots Project on the Wall at The Entrance to the Town Park at the rear of Tesco.

DTA and its sub-committees continue to work for the community of Tullow and its environs and are currently completing the delivery of a very effective CCTV system in the Town.

Recent projects:

• A Tourist Inter Active Map project has been completed and is now available in many locations around town,
• Tourist Information Plaques have been put in place at various key locations throughout the town,
• Preparation of a new website for Tullow,
• As there are more than 300 bed spaces available in the Tullow area, funding is currently been sought for the promotion of Tullow as a Tourist Accommodation Hub,
• The Commercial Premises Paint Scheme.