Category: County Laois

Posted in County Laois

County Laois: Portarlington

Posted on by fitzjameshorse

1st June 2017. Short journey by train from Portlaoise. About 18 kilometres.

Portarlington (population about 9.500). Shocked to discover a long walk of maybe 3 kilometres from the station to the town.

The post office is pretty unique, somewhat different from corporate design and logo.

The 1798 Memorial, in the design of a Celtic Cross is in the Market Square, where several local rebels were hanged for their part in the Rebellion.

A long walk in the blazing sun back to the train station and the train to Dublin.

Posted in County Laois

County Laois: Portlaoise

Posted on by fitzjameshorse

1st June 2017.

My first trip actually using the free travel pass.

Portlaoise (population 25,000) is the main town in County Laois. It is about 85 kilometres from Dublin. I travelled on a train from Heuston Station at 10am and arrived in Portlaoise about 10.45am.

It is maybe on the outer limit of the Dublin commuter belt. And is probably most famous for a very large prison.

Although the Rock of Dunamase is a prominent Anglo-Norman castle ruin, County Laois is not really a tourist destination.

Portlaoise is only so called since Irish independence, having previously been called Maryborough and Laois was previously known as Queens County. Both honour Mary Tudor, 16th century English monarch who planted (colonised) the area with English settlers and expelled the native chieftains.

Portlaoise is a functional town. A railway junction where trains continue west to Galway or south to Cork and Limerick.

James Fintan Lawlor.

The monument to James Fintan Lalor, a journalist and Young Ireland leader of the 1848 Rebellion who died in 1949.

I took a train from Portlaoise at about 12.30pm to Portarlington which is a distance of about 18 kilometres.