County Laois Contae Laoise | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
| Nickname: The O'Moore County | |
| Motto: Irish:I bpáirt leis an bpobal "In partnership with the community" | |
 Interactive map of County Laois | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Leinster |
| Region | Eastern and Midland |
| Established | 1556[2] |
| County town | Portlaoise |
| Government | |
| • Local authority | Laois County Council |
| • Dáil constituency | Laois |
| • EP constituency | South |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,720 km2 (660 sq mi) |
| • Rank | 23rd |
| Highest elevation (Arderin) | 527 m (1,729 ft) |
| Population | |
• Total | 91,657 |
| • Rank | 23rd |
| • Density | 53.3/km2 (138/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC±0 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (IST) |
| Eircode routing keys | R32(primarily) |
| Telephone area codes | 057(primarily) |
| ISO 3166 code | IE-LS |
| Vehicle index mark code | LS |
| Website | Official website |
County Laois (/liːʃ/LEESH;Irish:Contae Laoise) is acounty inIreland. It is part of theEastern and Midland Region and in theprovince ofLeinster. It was known asQueen's County from 1556 to 1922.[3] The modern county takes its name fromLoígis, a medieval kingdom. Historically, it has also been known asCounty Leix.
Laois County Council is thelocal authority for the county, and is based inPortlaoise.
At the 2022 census, the population of the county was 91,657,[1] an increase of 56% since the 2002 census.
The first people in Laois were bands of hunters and gatherers who passed through the county about 8,500 years ago[citation needed]. They hunted in the forests that covered Laois and fished in its rivers, gathering nuts and berries to supplement their diets.
Next came Ireland's first farmers. These people of the Neolithic period (4000 to 2500 BC) cleared forests and planted crops. Their burial mounds remain inClonaslee and Cuffsborough.
Starting around 2500 BC, the people of the Bronze Age lived in Laois. They produced weapons, tools, and golden objects. Visitors to the county can see astone circle they left behind at Monamonry, as well as the remains of their hill forts at Clopook and Monelly. Skirk, nearBorris-in-Ossory, has a Bronze Age standing stone and ring fort. The body ofCashel Man indicates that ritual killing took place around 2000 BC.
The next stage is known as the pre-Christian Celtic Iron Age. For the first time, iron appeared in Ireland, showing up in the weapons used by factions who fought bloody battles for control of the land. At Ballydavis, archaeologists have discoveredring barrows that date from this time period.
The county name derives fromLoígis, of which the modern county is only a part. In the 11th century, its dynastic rulers adopted the surname Ua/Ó Mórdha. They claimed descent from a member of theRed Branch Knights.
By the first century AD, the western third of Laois was part of theKingdom of Ossory. The eastern part was roughly divided into seven parts, which were ruled by the SevenSepts ofLoígis:Ua/Ó Mórdha (O'More,O'Moore), O'Lalor, O'Doran, O'Dowling, O'Devoy (O'Deevy), O'Kelly and McEvoy.
When Ireland wasChristianised, holy men and women founded religious communities inLoígis. St.Ciarán of Saighir (called "The Elder" to distinguish him from the younger St.Ciarán of Clonmacnoise) founded his monastic habitation in the westernSlieve Bloom Mountains as the firstbishop of Ossory, reputedly beforeSt. Patrick. His mother Liadán had an early convent nearby at what is now Killyon. Between 550 and 600, St. Canice founded Aghaboe Abbey and St. Mochua founded a religious community at Timahoe. An early Christian community lived at Dun Masc or Masc's fort, on the Rock of Dunamase.
TheSynod of Rathbreasail that established the Irish dioceses was held nearMountrath in 1111, moving the Church away from itsmonastic base. As religious orders with strong ties to Rome replaced older religious communities, the wooden buildings of the early Christian churches in Laois gave way to stone monasteries. TheAugustinians andDominicans established themselves at Aghaboe Abbey, while theCistercians took over an older religious community at Abbeyleix.
TheNorman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71 affected Laois as it was a part of theKingdom of Leinster. In Laois, the fortress on the Rock of Dunamase was part of the dowry of the Irish princess Aoife, who was given in marriage in 1170 to the Norman warrior Strongbow. Advancing Normans surveyed the county from wooden towers built on top of earthen mounds, known asmottes. They also built stone fortresses, such as Lea Castle, just outsidePortarlington. Several of the county's towns were first established as Norman boroughs, including Castletown, Durrow and Timahoe.
From 1175 until about 1325, Normans controlled the best land in the county, while Gaelic society retreated to the bogs, forests and the Slieve Bloom Mountains. The early 14th century saw a Gaelic revival, as the chieftains ofLoígis caused the Normans to withdraw. TheDempseys seizedLea Castle, while Dunamase came into the ownership of the O’Mores. Examples oftower houses built by the IrishMac Giolla Phádraig chieftains are found atBallaghmore andCullahill Castle, both decorated withSheela na gigs.
In 1548, the English confiscated the lands of the O’Mores and built "Campa", known as the Fort of Leix, today'sPortlaoise.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1500 | 6,557 | — |
| 1510 | 8,378 | +27.8% |
| 1550 | 11,222 | +33.9% |
| 1580 | 15,301 | +36.3% |
| 1585 | 16,435 | +7.4% |
| 1600 | 6,828 | −58.5% |
| 1610 | 7,990 | +17.0% |
| 1653 | 9,915 | +24.1% |
| 1659 | 11,115 | +12.1% |
| 1672 | 13,589 | +22.3% |
| 1680 | 17,777 | +30.8% |
| 1690 | 21,255 | +19.6% |
| 1700 | 24,713 | +16.3% |
| 1710 | 27,689 | +12.0% |
| 1725 | 32,808 | +18.5% |
| 1735 | 41,577 | +26.7% |
| 1745 | 41,097 | −1.2% |
| 1755 | 40,888 | −0.5% |
| 1765 | 51,286 | +25.4% |
| 1771 | 58,411 | +13.9% |
| 1775 | 67,870 | +16.2% |
| 1788 | 76,903 | +13.3% |
| 1790 | 93,679 | +21.8% |
| 1801 | 95,820 | +2.3% |
| 1811 | 111,227 | +16.1% |
| 1813 | 108,950 | −2.0% |
| 1816 | 122,888 | +12.8% |
| 1821 | 134,275 | +9.3% |
| 1831 | 145,851 | +8.6% |
| 1841 | 153,930 | +5.5% |
| 1851 | 111,664 | −27.5% |
| 1861 | 90,650 | −18.8% |
| 1871 | 79,771 | −12.0% |
| 1881 | 73,124 | −8.3% |
| 1891 | 64,883 | −11.3% |
| 1901 | 57,417 | −11.5% |
| 1911 | 54,629 | −4.9% |
| 1926 | 51,540 | −5.7% |
| 1936 | 50,109 | −2.8% |
| 1946 | 49,697 | −0.8% |
| 1951 | 48,430 | −2.5% |
| 1956 | 47,087 | −2.8% |
| 1961 | 45,069 | −4.3% |
| 1966 | 44,595 | −1.1% |
| 1971 | 45,259 | +1.5% |
| 1979 | 49,936 | +10.3% |
| 1981 | 51,171 | +2.5% |
| 1986 | 53,284 | +4.1% |
| 1991 | 52,314 | −1.8% |
| 1996 | 52,945 | +1.2% |
| 2002 | 58,774 | +11.0% |
| 2006 | 67,059 | +14.1% |
| 2011 | 80,559 | +20.1% |
| 2016 | 84,697 | +5.1% |
| 2022 | 91,657 | +8.2% |
| [1][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] | ||
It wasshired in 1556 byQueen Mary asQueen's County, covering thecountries of Leix (Loígis), Slewmarge, Irry, and that part of Glimnaliry on the southwest side of theRiver Barrow.[11] Laois received its presentIrish language name following theIrish War of Independence. Laois was also sometimes spelt "Leix". Portlaoise (previouslyMaryborough) is the main town of the county.
Loígis was the subject of two organisedplantations or colonisations by theKingdom of England in 1556 and 1607. During the first plantation,Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex attempted to dispossess the ruling O'Moore clan, who had been engaging in costly raids onThe Pale, and settle the area with English colonists. However, this led to a long drawn-out guerrilla war in the county and left only a small colonist community clustered around garrisons. This initial attempt at plantation is widely regarded as a failure by historians, as occupying the territory was far more costly than the money yielded from it, and the scheme attracted fewer settlers than anticipated.[12][better source needed]
The second, more successful plantation of the county took place in the aftermath of theNine Years' War, and expanded the existing English settlements with more landowners and tenants. In 1659, a group ofQuakers led by William Edmundson, settled in Mountmellick, while a group ofHuguenots were given refuge in Portarlington in 1696 after their service toWilliam of Orange in theWilliamite War in Ireland.
What followed was a period of relative calm. Anglo-Irish landowners enclosed the land and built fine houses, includingDurrow Castle, Heywood House andEmo Court. In 1836, a branch of the Grand Canal stretched toMountmellick, further stimulating industry in that town.
TheGreat Famine of 1845–49 devastated the county. The county's workhouses could not cope with the number of destitute people seeking shelter. By the time the workhouse opened atDonaghmore in 1853, many of the poorest had emigrated or died.
The English language was already dominant in much of Leinster by the time of the famine, but theIrish language was still spoken in Laois as late as the 1870s.[13]
The county was known as Queen's County (Irish:Contae na Banríona) from 1556 until its name was informally changed on the establishment of theIrish Free State in 1922. The county's name was formerly spelt asLaoighis andLeix. In theLocal Government Act 2001, it is named in the list of counties asLaois, although no legislation was enacted explicitly changing the name from Queen's County, the name formally established under theLocal Government (Ireland) Act 1898 which continued to have legal effect. When land is sold in the county the relevanttitle deeds are still updated as being inQueen's County.
Laois is the 23rd in both in area and population of Ireland's 32 counties.[14] It is the seventh-largest of Leinster's 12 counties in size and tenth largest in population. The county is landlocked and, uniquely, isdoubly landlocked, not bordering any other county which touches the coast.
The county was formerly divided into ninebaronies:
For climatological information see: durrow.ie[15] for averages and extremes.
The weather station at east Durrow was set up in May 2008. The equipment used is a Davis Vantage Pro II that measures temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall and barometric pressure. This data is transmitted every 2 seconds to awebsiteArchived 26 June 2010 at theWayback Machine where the data can be freely accessed. The station also reports to the Irish Weather Network which displays live weather data from similar stations all around Ireland.
In addition, a Met Éireann climatological station (Number: 472) was installed in September 2010 and the data collected is sent to headquarters in Glasnevin, Dublin on a monthly basis. The climatological station measures rainfall in a manual gauge, soil temperatures at 5 cm, 10 cm and 20 cm depths, air temperature including wet-bulb, and daily maximum and daily minimum temperatures. The climatological station is a project that is envisaged to last thirty years and collect a climate profile for Durrow and Laois in general.
Laois County Council is thelocal authority governing County Laois. It has 19 councillors, and is divided into threelocal electoral areas, each of which is also a municipal district:Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick (6), Graiguecullen-Portarlington (6), andPortlaoise (7).[16]
The council has two representatives on theEastern and Midland Regional Assembly where it is part of theMidland strategic planning area.[17]
It was formerly divided into therural districts of Abbeyleix, Athy No. 2, Mountmellick, Roscrea No. 3, and Slievemargy.[18] The rural districts were abolished in 1925.[19]Mountmellick andPortlaoise, within the former rural district of Mountmellick, hadtown commissioners. These becametown councils in 2002.[20] All town councils in Ireland were abolished in 2014.[21]
Most of County Laois is part of theDáil constituency ofLaois–Offaly (5 seats), with theelectoral divisions of Ballybrittas, Jamestown, Kilmullen, Portarlington South, in the former rural district of Mountmellick, in theKildare South constituency.[22] The constituency of Laois–Offaly existed from 1921 to 2016, and again since 2020. In 2016 to 2020 period, there was a separate constituency ofLaois (3 seats).[23][24][needs update]
It is part of theEuropean Parliament constituency ofSouth (5 seats).[25]
County Laois also has a mixture of castles, mansions, forts and old structures that are now in ruins but are still worth visiting.[26]
The population of County Laois is expanding, given its easy commute to the employment centres of Kildare and Dublin. Laois's population growth during the period 2002–2006 (14%) was stronger than the national average (8.2%),[27] as follows:[28]
As of the 2016 census, ethnically Laois was 84% white Irish, 8% other white, 2% black, 1% Asian, 1% 'other', with 3% not stated.[4]
As of the2022 census, County Laois had a usual resident population of 91,284. Of these, 79.0% identified as White Irish, 0.9% as White Irish Travellers, and 9.2% as Other White ethnicities. 2.1% identified as Black or Black Irish, 2.2% as Asian or Asian Irish, and 1.7% as Other ethnicities. 5.0% of the population did not state their ethnicity.[29]
Industrial parks are located in Portlaoise, Portarlington and Mountmellick. The county receives EU funding as it is part of the cluster of threeregions (Border,Midland andWest), colloquially known as "BMW", that qualifies for special funding aid.[needs update]
Agricultural activities occupy approximately 70% of the land area of the county (1,200 km2 or 460 sq mi). However agriculture's share of income in the "BMW" region has declined sharply in the past decade, and represented only approximately 3.9% of annual income (GVA) in 2005 Central Statistics Office.[30] The remaining area includes considerable stretches of raised bog and the Slieve Bloom mountains, which are partially covered by coniferous forest.
The county's largest theatre is the Dunamaise Theatre inPortlaoise which opened in 1999.There are many festivals held in Laois each year including:
Iarnród Éireann train services along theDublin-Cork line connects the county betweenHeuston station andCork,Limerick, travel through the county, with railway stations atPortarlington,Portlaoise andBallybrophy. FromPortarlington trains run on theDublin-Galway/Westport/Ballina line toAthlone as well asGalway,Westport andBallina. FromBallybrophy trains run on theBallybrophy line toNenagh andLimerick direct.
Past Railways
There used to be railway stations at Mountmellick and Abbeyleix which now the station houses have become residences.
Both stations stopped in the 60s.
The line was from Kilkenny city to Abbeyleix to Portlaoise and then on to Mountmellick.It was originally planned that the line would go on to connect Mountmellick to Geashill and with possibility for another line from Geashill to Mullingar but these were never built leaving Mountmellick as a dead end.Mountmellick being a dead end lead to its closure the Portlaoise to Abbeyleix to Kilkenny city line closed as it was not as popular as the Carlow to Kilkenny line.
TheM7 road runs through County Laois. This is one of the busiest roadways inIreland connectingDublin andLimerick and acts as part of the route for theM8 which connectsCork toDublin. The M8 joins the M7 to the south of Portlaoise. Road infrastructure has improved greatly in the county over the past decade. Most major interurban routes through Laois have now been upgraded to motorway standards. All major traffic bottlenecks in Laois such asAbbeyleix andMountrath have been bypassed following the opening of the M7/M8 tolled motorway project in May 2010. Both towns were major intercity bottlenecks for motorists, especiallyAbbeyleix where delays of up to 30 minutes or more were common.
Bus Éireann provides regular intercity bus services in the county. TheDublin toLimerick service runs every hour through towns and villages on the old N7 road (nowR445) while theDublin toCork intercity bus service runs every two hours through towns in the county.
Laois has a strong tradition of Gaelic games, with success at bothGaelic football andhurling.Laois are one of few counties to contest an All-Ireland final in both Gaelic football and hurling. In the 21st century, Laois have been more successful footballers than hurlers. Laois minors have had several successes over the past two decades,[when?] and the Laois senior footballers reached the Leinster final in 2003 (victorious), 2004, and 2005. As of 2022, Laois hurlers compete in theLiam MacCarthy Cup, a competition reserved for the premiere hurling counties while the footballers compete in theSam Maguire Cup. Laois play home games atO'Moore Park, the county's largest sporting venue, which is often used for hurling championship games.[citation needed]
In rugby,Portlaoise RFC andPortarlington RFC compete in Division 2A of theLeinster League.
County Laois is a participant in theTwin Towns program and has a relationship with the following municipalities:
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Coulounieix-Chamiers, France (1996)Franklin, Tennessee, United States (2008)[31]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
Places adjacent to County Laois | |
|---|---|
The counties are listed perprovince | ||
 Connacht |  | |
 Leinster | ||
 Munster | ||
 Ulster | ||
| ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
