Started in 1815 by the Italian immigrant Charles Bianconi the system of horse-drawn "Bians" grew from one initial route in Munster to daily travel of over 3,000 miles of road in Leinster, Munster and Connacht. Tulsk was one stop on a route from Ballina to Longford and vice versa. Leaving Ballina each morning at 10 a.m. (circa 1842) a mail coach with passengers would arrive in Tulsk at approx. 6 p.m, taking on average a further hour to reach Strokestown, and reaching Longford at 9 p.m. In the opposite direction a Bianconi car passed through Tulsk at approx. 8.50 each morning. It would then be due to arrive in Ballinagare one hour later. What travelers may have seen is open to question, but this was at a time when Tulsk was particularly ravaged by poverty, and suffered death and emigration on a large scale in subsequent years. For instance, as recorded by Maynooth University Population Change Atlas, what we now know as Tulsk parish had a population of 11,101 in 1841. Ten years later that figure dropped to 6,955. In 1861 Tulsk's population had more than halved from that of the eve of the Famine, with 5,539 persons.