Mortgage deeds from 1863 could be answer to Town Hall ownership

Plans for major refurbishment of historic building

THE names on the mortgage deeds for Tuam's Town Hall date all the way back to 1863 and may help determine who owns the building.

Galway County Council paused plans in May for a multi-million-euro redevelopment of the building in the centre of Tuam when it emerged that the local authority were not the registered owners of the property.

Andrew Egan’s name is the first name on the mortgage deeds of conveyance for the Town Hall, a document that is dated April 9 of 1863. He was a stonemason and master builder who constructed many buildings in Tuam and its hinterland in the 19th century.

Deirdre Goggin, the great-great granddaughter of Andrew Egan, contacted The Tuam Herald after reading the article on the Town Hall ownership story in the May 21 edition of the newspaper regarding the mortgage deeds. The deeds document has remained in remarkably good condition given that it is more than 160 years since it was signed.

“It’s a fabulous document. It’s probably made from vellum I think, and that’s probably why it lasted this long. It’s a lovely piece of Tuam history,” offered Deirdre, daughter of Ruby Quinn from Tuam.

“There’s not a blob or a spelling mistake on it. It’s dated April 9 and Andrew Egan died in October of that year. There are two sides to it, done in pen and ink or quill and ink. “It’s a mortgage he took out to give to the Tuam Town Commissioners and three nuns (Jane MacTucker, Eliza Griffin and Ellen Talbot) to help pay for the Town Hall.

“It might be of interest to know if he still has a stake in the building.”

The names of George Hargrove, Thomas Bodkin and Jane MacTucker also appear on the mortgage deeds on the same page as Andrew Egan.

Hargrove, along with John Handcock, provided land for the Town Hall building in Market Square to the Tuam Town Commissioners, while Bodkin was Chairman of the Town Commissioners.

The foundation stone of the Town Hall was laid in September of 1857 by Handcock and James J. Boylan was the architect for the building.

The Town Commissioners were in debt to Egan to the tune of roughly £1,000 at the time from a loan he gave to them. The only tender for the Town Hall construction works was sent in by Egan, for a quote of £880.

“Bridie Heneghan from the Athenry Road was a family friend of the Quinns. She was big into the Old Tuam Society with Dr. Tony Claffey,” offered Deirdre, who lives in Galway city and wrote an article on the life and times of Andrew Egan for the Journal of the Old Tuam Society (JOTS) over 20 years ago

“She worked for Glynns' Solicitors in Tuam and when they were closing down, she took a handful of the papers that they were getting rid of that pertained to our family.

“The mortgage deeds for the Town Hall was one of the papers she found.”

Egan married Margaret Lyons from Tuam in October of 1839 and was the main builder and contractor for work in the town over the next two decades.

The building of the Town Hall was a busy period for him. He was hired to build an extension to St. Jarlath’s College that was completed in 1859. He built the railway station in Tuam in 1860 and the Christian Brother’s School (St. Pat’s) in 1861.

Egan’s reach extended outside Tuam. He had built the Glenamaddy Workhouse in 1852, for example.

“Andrew Egan also built the old police station in Tuam on Bishop Street. He built the buildings that joined onto the Town Hall,” said Deirdre Goggin, whose grandmother Ida Quinn supplied the land where Tuam Golf Club was built.

“He is buried in the graveyard in Tubberjarlath in a big tomb. It’s a big slab in the centre part of the graveyard.

“His wife went to live with their two daughters after he died. She is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.”

Following Andrew Egan’s passing in 1863, at the age of 53, the business was left to his nephew, Thomas Egan.

Thomas Egan continued to work as a builder, stonemason and monumental sculptor into the 20th century. He carried out the renovations on the Town Hall in the 1880s after a fire damaged it in 1884. The renovation works included the building of the clock tower and the addition of an archway. Thomas Egan’s mason mark is visible on the Town Hall on the keystone of the arch.

The building was then damaged by another in 1920 during the War of Independence and was rebuilt.

Future for Town Hall

GALWAY County Council has been allocated €3.6million in funding for the regeneration of Tuam’s Town Hall.

The was built in 1857, extended in 1884 but was destroyed by fire in 1920 during the War of Independence. The Town Hall was rebuilt in 1926.

It has had various uses over the years, including being the location of the town’s first library, a theatre space upstairs and a meeting place for the former Tuam Town Commissioners.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s some improvement works were carried out on the building for the holding of meetings of Tuam Town Council. The upstairs section was also used for a time as a temporary location for the sittings of Tuam District Court.

However, for many years now the building has been underutilised and has lacked a specific purpose.

Plans for the regeneration project were put forward by the County Council in 2022 and the substantial funding of €3.6million was announced in 2024 through the Rural Regeneration Fund.

The planned project involves an extensive renovation and refurbishment of the historic building for use as a multi-functional space to include a creative and enterprise hub and co-working space, offices, meeting rooms and supporting spaces.

There will be substantial works carried out externally also, such as the repointing of the front and back of the building with lime-based mortar and the specialised cleaning of the stonework, roof and clock.

The Town Hall is within Tuam’s architectural conservation area and once the works are completed, the County Council believe it will bring the building back into community use and preserve it for future generations.