A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR TOWN
Portlaoise is the principal town of County Laois in the Irish midlands. The county is the only one - of 32 - with
no English translation of its name. It is also, as every local schoolchild could once rattle off, 'the only county in Ireland
that touches a county that doesn’t touch the sea’. The county name derives from Laoiseach Ceannmore, an ancient historical personage
whose name may be translated as ‘Laoiseach, great leader’ but definitely not, as one linguistic wag
with the cúpla focal had it, ’Laoiseach with the big head’! The Triogue [1]
(say 'Try-ogue' to rhyme with 'rogue', with the emphasis on the second syllable), a tributary of the River Barrow, flows
through our town and, according to figures produced by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1999, this little stream
enjoyed the dubious distinction of being Ireland’s fifth most polluted waterway.
The town grew up around a fort established by English settlers in 1548. This happened half a century before the founding
of Jamestown, Virginia - which marked the beginning of English colonisation of America - so, without any exaggeration, it can be claimed that our town was the
birthplace of the British Empire!
The fort occupied the area where Fitzmaurice Place, the convent and the old Vocational School ('the Tech')
stand today. The only visible remains of the fort are a circular
tower and small portions of the wall. The fort was initially called Fort Protector in honour of the Earl of Somerset,
Lord Protector of England. In 1557 the name was changed to Maryborough in honour of Queen Mary. At the same time, Laois
became known as Queen’s County. In 1570 Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter of incorporation and, throughout the second
half of the 16th century, Maryborough ("That town of evil omen, founded in the blood of the Irish, the triumphant centre
of the first English plantatation."[2]) remained the only town in the county.
During the war of 1641, it was captured by Catholic forces and, nine years later, by Oliver Cromwell’s troops.
In the late 1650’s, with a population of 198 (150 Irish and 48 English), Maryborough was the third largest town
in the county behind Ballinakill (204) and Mountrath (223).
[3]
In the 17th century, the town began to expand westwards from the fort, but the street plan that existed up
the 1960’s was laid out in the early 18th century. Throughout that century, the administrative life of the
town was dominated by the burgomaster who ordained who could or could not be classed a ‘freeman’ (a member
of the Corporation). In mid-century, Warner Westenra (Of Dutch extraction, he lived in Heath House, which
still stands opposite the Heath Golf Club today), Bartholomew Gilbert and William Dawson formed a triple
alliance which controlled the Corporation for sixteen years. The first two gentlemen, incidentally, alternated the
office of burgomaster for more than a decade. There were about 400 electors in the town – one of whom,
as a fascinating document from 1760 makes clear, would vote for whoever “gives his wife most
money”[4] – and, until the Act of Union in 1801, the town
returned two members to the Irish (Grattan’s) Parliament in Dublin.
Around the turn of the century, Maryborough had a thriving woollen industry and most houses had a loom, yet an
1833 report is a fairly damning indictment of how the town was being governed: “False weights and measures are in
general use, by which all classes, and particularly the poor, suffer severely. The town is not lighted and many of the
houses are scarcely above the class of mere thatched cabins”.[5] As is
universally the case, such conditions were not allowed interfere with profit-making by the few. Maryborough (also
spelt Maryboro, incidentally and usually pronounced by locals as ‘Marbra’) had a considerable flour industry, a soap
and candle factory, a tannery and, eight times a year, a fair for “cattle, horses, pigs and pedlery”.
Justice in those days was fairly rough indeed; According to the Assizes Record, in 1803, John Lewes was “burned
in the hand for stealing 5 shillings worth of hay”. He was lucky compared to Michael Kavanagh, sentenced to death
for stealing a watch. It might be said that even he was lucky compared to the poor unfortunate who, in 1827, was
sentenced to be hanged and dissected in the County Infirmary.
In 1847 (‘Black 47’), at the height of the Famine, fever raged in the town, but, thankfully, the population
escaped the worst ravages of the cholera epidemic that struck Ireland in 1849 and 1850. Nevertheless, the
Famine and its aftermath had a devastating effect on the population of Queen’s County: In 1841 it was 159,930;
forty years later it was more than halved to 73,124.
After the War of Independence (1919-21), the county was renamed Leix - a variant of Laois - and, following a proposal by a Sinn Féin member
of Maryborough Town Commission, the town adopted the name variously spelt as Portlaoighise, Port Laoighise, or Port Laoise
(all variants of the
Gaelic for 'The fort of Laois'). A local historian, incidentally, attributed the change of name to "a fit of
pseudo-patriotism".[6] It took some years for the new name to come into everyday use and,
in the late 1940's, the Superior of the local Christian Brothers School 'modernised' the spelling to Portlaoise.
During the 1940's, 50’s and 60’s, Kelly’s Foundry, the Irish Worsted Mills (whose annual workers' pantomime, by the way,
was for many years the highlight of seasonal entertainment in the town), the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) and
Portlaoise Prison were some of Portlaoise's biggest employers. Today, the Kelly's site is occupied by the Heritage Hotel.
Officially opened for business in February 2003, this establishment continues to divide local opinion: for some, it is
a grand symbol of the Celtic Tiger (the name given to Ireland’s spectacular economic success since the mid-1990's)
and a great addition to the town’s architecture and economy; for others it is an incongruous behemoth, its columned façade
a gross example of the triumph of money over good taste. Since 1974, the Worsted Mills building (opened in 1937) houses a
telecom company; the ESB shop has been bought by the Bank of Scotland, and Portlaoise Prison still stands in all its
formidable grey glory. It is the prison, in fact, which defines the town of Portlaoise for many people.
According to the annual report of the Irish Prison Service, the cost of keeping an offender in
what is the country's most secure jail is almost €270,000 per year.[7]
The 1970’s saw considerable industrial development with the arrival of, inter alia, Etschied, German manufacturers
of stainless steel equipment, and a tennis-ball factory run by the Swedish company, Tretorn. But it was the following
decades that saw most change in the town. With the development of Lyster Square in the Eighties and the opening of Laois
Shopping Centre in 1991, many natives felt that the heart had been ripped out of the ‘old town’, that the Main Street,
bereft of family businesses and residences would soon become a ‘ghost town’. Families and residences have disappeared alright,
but there is little fear of the area becoming a ghost town as certain pubs seem to enjoy carte blanche when it comes to
setting up street furniture for their noisy and sometimes obstreperous revellers. But then again, why should I expect
Saturday Night in Portlaoise to be any different from Saturday Night anywhere else...
In August 2004, a report by the Irish Businesses Against Litter League (IBAL)organisation condemned the town as being
“down-at-heel” with Lyster Square being classed as the dirtiest area. Following the introduction of the ban on smoking
in pubs in March, 2004, cigarette butts became the most common form of litter. In all, nine areas of the town were
inspected but only the exterior and interior of the Railway Station achieved an A Grade. In apparent contradiction to all this,
in the same year’s Tidy Towns Competition, Portlaoise’s mark showed a slight increase. As our transatlantic friends might say:
Go figure. In the 2006 competition (where our points tally went up from 235 to 246), the judges remarked that "It was a great
pleasure to visit Portlaoise and spend some time exploring its various attractions". Results were even better in the 2007
competition when our "tidy and busy town" scored 254 points.[8] In 2008, 55 cities
and towns were surveyed by IBAL and our town was placed in fourth place.[9]
Throughout the last quarter of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, Portlaoise has undergone tremendous
change and ostensibly, great prosperity. We have had a huge influx of commuters attracted by the affordability of
housing compared to the astronomical prices in Dublin (a Sunday Times survey published in August 2006, found that,
after Dundalk, Drogheda, Newbridge and Athy, Portlaoise was the fifth most popular town for commuters to Dublin);
large numbers of immigrants, especially from the Baltic States and Eastern Europe; houses and apartments springing up
like the proverbial mushrooms. At the 2002 Census, the population of the town was 12,127 (an increase of 28% on 1996 figures);
in 2006, this figure had risen to 14,613. It is estimated that by the year 2020 our town and environs will be home to 30,000
souls.
But in the midst of all this boom (According to a Bank of Ireland survey published in July 2006, Ireland is the
second richest country in the world after Japan) we have our share of gloom. Serious doubts have been expressed about
the capacity of the sewerage and drainage schemes to cope with the town’s rapid expansion; traffic congestion at peak times
is as rife as anti-social behaviour outside certain establishments late at night. We also have a considerable drug problem
(in March 2002, at Portlaoise District Court, Judge Mary Martin warned of drug "anarchy" in the town if support services were
not put in place), overcrowded primary schools, and gangs of boy racers who seem to be able to jeopardise our streets with
impunity.
In October 2007, Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) announced that two Portlaoise railway bridges (over the Mountrath and
Mountmellick roads) are by far the two most struck bridges in the entire country. The former unfortunate edifice took a total
of 17 hits in the first nine months of 2007 while the latter - under which I walk a few times each day - was battered 13
times. Clearly, Portlaoise is not the place to be if you're a bridge. On a serious note, it seems that, despite all the signs
and warnings, some drivers, in charge of forty-tonne battering rams (I have seen them being forced under the bridge and
nonchalantly driven off), are either illiterate or totally heedless of the safety of others. More power to Iarnród Éireann,
therefore, for calling a spade a spade when they described truckers passing through Portlaoise as "the dumbest in Ireland."
[10]
Real history was made on Thursday, June 28, 2007 when the annual meeting of Portlaoise Town Council elected the very
first black mayor in Ireland. Since his arrival in Portlaoise as an asylum-seeker from Nigeria in 2000, Rotimi Adebari
has been involved in various community and cultural organisations. He was elected Town Councillor in 2004 and has won many
awards for his work in the area of multi-culturalism. In May, 2007, Rotimi named Person of the Year by Exclusive magazine
in Dublin. We are very proud of his achievement and wish him nothing but good for the future.
In November and December, our town hit the national headlines again when it emerged that nine local women had been given the
wrong cancer diagnosis at Portlaoise Hospital. They were initially given the all-clear, then told that they were, in fact,
suffering from breast cancer. The subsequent reaction and behaviour of the Minister for Health, the Health Service Executive
and the hospital itself was nothing less than disgraceful. Not alone were these women never offered counselling but,
unbelievably, they never even received a proper apology. Official investigations[11]
of the entire sorry affair concluded that it was due to "system failure". System failure. No-one accepted any
responsibility. No-one was deemed to be accountable. No-one was named or blamed. Aren't we living in a great little country?
Wherever you are in the world, please pause for a moment and think of these nine brave women and the trauma they are suffering.
So what’s it like living in Portlaoise today 2007? Of course we share the universal complaints from the older generation
that the youngsters of today are ‘gone to the dogs’. And despite the plethora of recreational activities, many young people
still whinge that there’s ‘nothing to do in this dump’. As someone whose connections with the town go back generations, I have
a sentimental, but not, I hope, uncritical attachment to the place: We have a Post Office that seems to have forgotten that
its primary function is to look after post. Sure, you can pay bills, top up your phone, invest money, buy all sorts of
greeting cards. But you’ll also wait in line for ages - today it took almost twenty minutes - to buy a stamp. Is the
Postmaster – or whoever is in charge of staffing – blind to the plight of elderly people waiting patiently as only two or
three of the six counters are normally in use?
I am furious with our local hospital for causing such unnecessary suffering to innocent women who trusted it; I am angered
by the increased prevalence of drunkeness and loutish behaviour, mystified by the lack of a more visible Garda presence on
the streets; amazed by how few faces I recognise on my daily wanderings around the town (at home I'm a tourist!); astounded
by the amount of construction; appalled by the ubiquitous flouting of traffic regulations (I regularly see modified cars
roaring past the Garda Station and, despite legislation banning hand-held mobile phone use in cars (September 1st, 2006),
drivers yakking away while controlling (?) their vehicles with one hand.); and I wonder what's going to happen when our
so-called good times shudder to a halt and the Celtic Tiger lies whimpering at our feet.
December 2007. Listen. What’s that… in the distance… but definitely approaching. House prices falling… building workers
being let go. Whimpering. Getting louder by the day. Brace yourself for 2008!
On Thursday, September 25th 2008, the Central Statistics Office finally confirmed what the dogs in the street
have known for ages.... Ireland is now officially in recession.
February 2009: Between January 2008 and 2009, house prices in Portlaoise fell by up to 17% compared to about
10% nationally. In the same period, the numbers seeking unemployment benefit in the town
increased by a staggering 120%. [12] No great
surprise: the long queues outside the local dole office tell their own sorry tale. Welcome to the meltdown.
New Year's Day, 2010: Given the dire economic situation, the shocking revelations of clerical child abuse,
the greed of so many bankers, the flooding that caused such heartbreak, the current - by our standards - 'Big Freeze', most Irish people seem glad to see the back of 2009.
Optimists do claim to see 'green shoots' of recovery; others are not so sure....[13]
In the midst of all this doom and gloom, there have been some very positive developments in the town. The new Leisure Centre on the Ridge Road
has been a great success since it opened in December 2006 and, on the educational front, we now have two new schools: Portlaoise College (September 2006)
on the Mountrath Road, and the huge campus on the Borris Road shared by Portlaoise C.B.S. Secondary School and Scoil Chríost Rí, the Presentation Convent Secondary
School. This state-of-the-art campus, which opened in September 2010, was then the most modern educational facility in the country. Also opened in September, and
located in the old 'Tech' building in Railway Street, Educate Together is the town's first non-denominational national school.
In a country where more than 90 per cent of primary schools are controlled by the Catholic Church [14],
this is an historic and most welcome development.
October 2010: Two years after the official declaration of recession, you'd need a microscope to find any 'green shoots'. In fact,
given the scale of national debt, high unemployment figures, and general antipathy towards an inept government and bankers who appear
to be getting away with the proverbial murder, we are in a worse state than ever. For all the evidence you need, you only have to walk
around our town: empty business premises, huge queues outside the dole office, streets deserted on weekday nights (one local publican remarked
that even the tumbleweed wasn't out) and so-called 'ghost estates', of which there are currently 2,800 across the
country; in even starker terms, that is 23,000 new houses completed but unoccupied and 20,000 left unfinished.[15]
To put the general situation in colloquial terms: recovery me arse!
December 2010: The year began with icy cold, and now it is ending with some of the heaviest snow and lowest temperatures in living memory.
For weeks, the town and surrounding countryside looked beautiful but dangerous for drivers and pedestrians alike. We felt particularly sorry for
emigrants whose journeys home for Christmas were thrown into protracted chaos.
We were all dreaming of a green Christmas when temperatures rose suddenly, ice thawed and throughout the town frozen pipes began to burst.
Most of us were without running water for days (the sight of townspeople queuing at water tankers conjured up Third World images we thought we'd never witness) and,
in the month's extremely difficult weather, many saw the perfect symbol for the state our country now finds itself in. After years of incompetence and stubborness,
deference to bankers and developers, and apparent indifference to the rest of us, on Wednesday, December 15th, our hopeless Taoiseach and his craven colleagues
were force to accept an 85 billion euro bailout (in effect, new capital to shore up our reckless, greedy banks) from the European Union and International
Monetary Fund. A deal that we, through cutbacks and tax increases, will be paying for for many years to come. In conclusion, it is a great relief to
say good riddance to an annus horribilis that The Irish Times described as "one of the lowest points in our
92-year-old democracy".[16]
[1] Despite my consultations with accepted authorities (inter alia, the
Placenames Branch in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, and the late
Flann O'Riain, the origin of this name remains obscure. If you have suggestions, I would love to hear from you.
[2]
Green, A.S. The Making of Ireland and Its Undoing 1200-1600. p. 288. Maunsell & Co. 1919
[3]
Pender, Seamus (Editor). A Census of Ireland Circa 1659. Clearfield Company Inc., Baltimore. 1999.
[4]
A Handlist of the Voters of Maryborough 1760. National Library of Ireland., MS 1726
[5]
Report by the Municipal Enquiry Commission. See Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, vol. ii, p. 738
[6]
Laois Association Yearbook, 1991. p. 15
[7]
Report in the The Irish Times newspaper. December 21st 2008.
[8]
Report in The Leinster Express newspaper. September 26, 2007.
[9]
Leinster Express Weekender. June 20, 2008.
[10]
Report in The Irish Times newspaper. October 2, 2007.
[11]
Published on March 5th, 2008.
[12]
Report in The Irish Times newspaper. February 7, 2009.
[13]
"It looks as if 2010 will be only a little less challenging than 2009." The Irish Times Business Review. December 31, 2009.
[14]
The Irish Times. November 17, 2010.
[15]
The Irish Times. October 24, 2010.
[16]
Monday, December 27, 2010.
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