The Laois Heritage Seminar 2023 which will take place on 2nd December in the Midlands Park Hotel from 10:00 – 12:30. This free event is open to members of the public, but booking is essential as places are limited.Read More

This month’s meeting of the Genealogy Club takes place on Wednesday 15th November at 7pm in the Community Room in Portlaoise Library. The Genealogy Club is a friendly group of people who share an interest in family research. We meet on the third Wednesday of the month to exchange information and learn from one another....Read More

On Friday November 9 1973 in the murky darkness of a winter morning stretched out along the road from Dublin to Portlaoise prison was a military operation the likes of which had not been seen since the civil war 50 years before.Read More

Mountmellick Library will host a talk on Laois Loyalist Applications to the Second Irish Grants Committee on 21 November 2023 at 7pm. The talk is by Laois native Dr Cormac Moore, Dublin City Library Historian-in-ResidenceRead More

If you have an interest in Laois history, or would like to learn more about the county, then come along and meet like-minded adults of all ages to listen and share local stories of the past, ancient and recent. Our next Local Studies Coffee Morning this Saturday, 4th November at 11.30am in Portlaoise Library.Read More

The Laois Heritage Society talk for October takes place in Portlaoise Library on Wednesday 25th October, 8pm. Laois Local Studies: a Resource for Research, Reminiscence and Recreation by Sinéad Holland, Laois County Library.Read More

This month's meeting of the Genealogy Club takes place on Wednesday 18th October at 7pm in the Community Room in Portlaoise Library. The information session this month will introduce the topic of genetic genealogy.Read More

Explore 300 years of history through local, regional and national newspapers from the British Newspaper Archive. The subscription website is now available, free of charge, in the Laois Local Studies reading room located on the first floor of the new Portlaoise Library. Offering online access to millions of pages of British and Irish newspapers from...Read More

On Sunday the 5th of October 1873 Maryborough (now Portlaoise) hosted a rally spoken at by controversy provoking Thomas Mooney. Mooney wrote in the U.S.-based Irish World newspaper. It was then the largest selling publication catering to an Irish-American audience and would become known for its support for the ‘skirmishing’ wing of the Fenian movement.Read More

Portlaoise Library is hosting a Local Studies coffee morning next Saturday 23rd September at 11.30 am. The intention is to bring together like-minded adults of all ages to listen and share local stories of the past, ancient and recent.Read More