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Cumann Oidhreachta Laoise

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James Fintan Lawlor School is back 18th November Midlands Park Hotel

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Sean MurrayNovember 2, 2017

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Portarlington and Leinster Rugby. Port Arlington, The Name. By Máirtín D’Alton

Posted on September 18, 2017 by AdminSeptember 21, 2017

The Leinster Branch of the IRFU was founded on the 31st of October 1879, in 63 Grafton Street. The constituent clubs represented were Wanderers, Lansdowne, Dundalk, Phoenix F.C., Stephen’s ( Steeven’s Hospital), Dublin University, and Arlington School. R.M. Wall, secretary of Dublin University Rugby,  had drawn up the rules for the club in 1868 in Botany Bay. His father, K.H. Wall, (F.H. Wall?) had been headmaster of Arlington School, which was described as ‘an early rugby nursery’. (West, Trevor, The Bold Collegians, The History of Dublin University Rugby Club). Thus, rugby in Portarlington has a distinguished provenance. Arlington School closed …

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Ulysses in Laois. By John Dunne

Posted on September 16, 2017 by AdminSeptember 18, 2017

Since it was first published in Paris in 1922, James Joyce’s  Ulysses continues to have a curious sort of dual existence. On one hand, it is regularly proclaimed the Greatest Modernist Novel: on the other, it is one of the Most Unfinished Masterpieces of World Literature; year after year, copies are bought with the best of intentions but, often as not, end up languishing in bookcases, unsold in charity shops, yellowing behind the sofa, even – and I have seen this – strategically positioned and forgotten about on expensive shelves and coffee tables. But seldom read from beginning to end. …

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The Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union in Laois and Offaly, 1918-1930. By Francis Devine

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Sean MurrayApril 1, 2017

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 …

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LETITIA’S LETTERS: A Snap-shot of life in Portlaoise 1849-53. By: Arlene Cary Long

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Sean MurrayFebruary 2, 2017

    *I would wish the Sea was not between us Letitia Cary October 14 1858   I would wish one hundred and fifty years were not between us Arlene Cary Long February 25 2016   Letitia Cary had a tendency to speak her mind. She also demonstrated a no-nonsense approach to life, strength of character and fierce dedication to her family. Born about 1793 or 94, she was one of ten children of Arthur Cary and Letitia (Ormsby) Cary of Portarlington. In 1818 she married Arthur Dering Cary. Two of her brothers, Arthur and George Marcus served in the …

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Trials in Ireland of Female convicts transported to Van Diemen’s Land. By Stephen Lucas

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Sean MurrayJanuary 27, 2017

  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 …

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“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend”: Barnaby FitzPatrick and Gaelic Collaboration with the Tudor crown c.1535-1581: By Diarmuid Wheeler

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Sean MurrayAugust 17, 2016

By the dawn of the sixteenth century, and the 1530s in particular, several Gaelic clans within the territories of Leix and Offaly faced a difficult dilemma. With the collapse of Silken Thomas FitzGerald’s rebellion in the year 1535 and the imminent prospect of an English born governor intervening in the affairs of the midlands’ territories for the very first time, Gaelic chieftains were forced to make a difficult choice; collaborate with this new administration or resist it. For certain chieftaincies, such as the FitzPatrick clan of Upper Ossory, the answer was relatively quite simple and straightforward. Essentially a no man’s …

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Iomadh, ’emulation, contention,’ Ime, ‘a dam? Which? The Origins of Emo Co. Laois by Chris Booth

Posted on September 10, 2015 by AdminSeptember 10, 2015

In Notes on the Placenames of County Laoighis, Helen M. Roe, the first county librarian in Laois, suggests Emo or Iomadh means ‘emulation’ or ‘contention’. This observation, I suspect is based on the work of John O’Donovan (1806 – 1861), the Gaelic scholar and antiquarian. In 1824 the Ordnance Survey was established to survey or map the island of Ireland for the purposes of taxation. As part of the work, local place names were corrected and authenticated. In 1830, John O’Donovan was employed as a field-worker, while other field workers worked under his direction. Together, they compiled the Ordnance Survey …

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Cashel Man. A recent discovery of a Bog Body in Co. Laois. By Sean Murray

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Sean MurrayAugust 2, 2017

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 …

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The Battle Of Portarlington. By John S. Powell

Posted on April 29, 2015 by AdminMay 29, 2015

It was William Patrick Ryan (1)  who described the events of Portarlington in 1906 as a battle in chapter 8 of The Pope’s Green Island published six years later. There was no battle of Portarlington in the usual sense of physical combat; rather it was a struggle of authority and outrage following words spoken, or claimed to have been spoken publicly, by Portarlington’s Catholic priest Father Edward O’ Leary(2) , and defended by his curate, Father Martin Brophy (3) to the local Gaelic League. The cause was the Gaelic League’s holding of mixed classes for men and women in the town. A branch had been established in Portarlington in 1904, and …

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