Trade unionism has a long history in Laois and Offaly. Local craft workers – like bakersi and smiths – were no doubt members of their respective trade unions but quick searches of general histories of labour rarely find either county – or any of its county towns – in their indices.ii More fruitful would be searches of the histories of teachers – particularly National Teachers – and postal workers where it is known that there were active branches in the counties, although small in number. The Irish Post Office Engineering Union (IPOEU), later Communications Union of Ireland, for example, had …

  Stephen is a solicitor from Australia with a keen interest in convict transportation to Australia and the legal processes in which these were carried out from Ireland up to 1853 when transportation’s ceased. He has recently published this article in the Tasmanian Historical Research Association and has kindly allowed us to publish it here. Some of the cases examined are related to Laois. Click on the PDF link below “Trials in Ireland” to view the article. Trials in Ireland   He has also completed some research on the effects of trauma on convicts, the following link contains some details: http://www.atraumaticbirth.com …

On Wednesday 10th of August 2011, a remarkable find was uncovered on a bog in Co. Laois. A bog body was unearthed during peat milling at Cashel bog between Portlaoise and Abbeyleix by Jason Phelan, a Bord Na Mona worker. After over two years of analysis, it was revealed that the body was in fact over 4000 years old dating to the Early Bronze Age Period in Ireland. The news made national and international headlines, as it was clear that the find on this Laois Bog was the oldest fleshed bog body ever found in Europe. Over 100 such bodies …