Do you know anyone who is starting college, attending third-level education or wanting to brush up on their writing, referencing and research skills? Portlaoise Library will be running a one-hour talk outlining the SECRETS FOR SUCCESSFUL ESSAY WRITING AND RESEARCH SKILLS.Read More

A joint German-Irish flight into aviation history is an article by Teddy Fennelly on Colonel James Fitzmaurice, an aviation pioneer, who grew up in Portlaoise. The article was first published in the Laois Heritage Society Journal. Vol. 4 in 2008Read More

This article is about three ballads current locally in the opening decades of the twentieth century, all of which speak to that time as a period of profound social change.Read More

If one were to ask a Laois person to name somebody famous who hailed from within the county, one name unlikely to feature among the responses would be that of John Kinder Labatt, who was the founder of the world-famous Canadian Labatt Brewing Company in the mid-nineteenth century.Read More

With National Heritage Week 2022 just a week away its time to check out what’s happening here in Laois. This year Heritage Week will run from 13th – 21st August, with a huge range of events taking place across the county, including lots of talks and events in library branches.Read More

The final dissolution of the six southern Irish infantry regiments of the British Army took place on the 31st of July 1922. They were the Royal Irish Regiment, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers, the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Leinster Regiment. The flag associated with the Leinster Regiment, the...Read More

At the time of the Truce in 1921 Denis Dwyer was a Volunteer in the D (Luggacurran) company of the 4th Battalion, Laois Brigade, Irish Republican Army and James Kealy a Volunteer in the E (Ballickmoyler) company of the same battalion. A year later Kealy was killed in the Civil War fighting on the Pro-Treaty...Read More

An exhibition on Laois Cumann na mBan will be launched in Mountmellick Library on Tuesday 5th July at 7.30 pm. The exhibition was curated by Mountmellick native Bernadette Dunne with the support of Laois County Library as part of its Decade of Centenaries programme.Read More

The rumour went like this: on Saturday the 9th of June 1832 the Virgin Mary appeared on the church altar in Charleville, in north county Cork, and left ashes which were the only protection against cholera. The ashes were to be taken to neighbouring houses and placed under the rafters, then the inhabitants of those...Read More

Revolutionary War is the final in our three-part series of online talks on Laois and Ireland in revolution. Join Terry Dunne, Laois Historian-in-Residence, in conversation with local historian Michael Rafter about the course of the Civil War in LaoisRead More