Local history
-
Old Fort Quarter Festival
We’re delighted to support the day time events of the Old Fort Quarter Festival again this year with activities for the whole family. Our President and Vice-President are hosting their annual walking tours at 2pm both Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th – link to book is here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/walking-heritage-tours-at-the-old-fort-quarter-festival-2025-tickets-1376207817629 Our Vice-Chair and local historian Regina Dunne will give an early morning historical tour of The Rock of Dunamase with folklorist and storyteller Michelle Quirke, and some medieval music to entertain you all, no booking necessary, just come along at the base of the Rock of Dunamase from 11am. We’re excited to have reenactors, medieval costume specialists, woodcrafters, and more on the…
-
The Gas Men of Maryborough
THE GAS MEN OF MARYBOROUGH John Dunne On the evening of Thursday, January 21, 1858, the town of Maryborough (Portlaoise since 1920), was, for the very first time, lit by gas. But why did this landmark event, this ‘brilliant spectacle’, [1] in the town’s history come as a surprise to the very Company set up to bring gas to the town? Let’s go back to when, so to speak, the first flame was lit… The first piped-gas street lamps appeared in Dublin in 1825. Almost thirty years later, in November 1854, local solicitor Thomas Turpin, ‘who always takes the lead in any matter for the improvement of Maryborough’, [2]…
-
ULYSSES IN LAOIS by John Dunne
ULYSSES IN LAOIS by John Dunne Since it was first published in Paris in 1922, James Joyce’s Ulysses continues to have a curious sort of dual existence. On one hand, it is regularly proclaimed the Greatest Modernist Novel: on the other, it is one of the Most Unfinished Masterpieces of World Literature; year after year, copies are bought with the best of intentions but, often as not, end up languishing in bookcases, unsold in charity shops, yellowing behind the sofa, even – and I have seen this – strategically positioned and forgotten about on expensive shelves and coffee tables. But seldom read from beginning to end. On the simplest level,…
-
John Canon O’Hanlon – the man and his legacy by Teddy Fennelly
John Canon O’Hanlon (1821-1905) was an outstanding man of his generation. His story is a marvellous one of a full life, well lived. He was a man with a mission, in his search for knowledge and his sharing of it, in the spreading of the Christian message, and in his love for the country of his origins and her people. His huge literary output remains his greatest legacy. When one considers that he also led a busy life as a parish priest and was never found wanting in the performance of his duties, his stamina and capacity for work is quite mind-boggling. Dr. Walsh, the last of the three Archbishops…
-
THE GAS MEN OF MARYBOROUGH
THE GAS MEN OF MARYBOROUGH by John Dunne On the evening of Thursday, January 21, 1858, the town of Maryborough, for the very first time, was lit by gas. But why did this landmark event in the town’s history come as a surprise to the very Company set up to bring gas to the town? Let’s go back a few years to when, so to speak, the first flame was lit… The first piped-gas street lamps appeared in Dublin in 1825. Almost thirty years later, in November 1854, solicitor Thomas Turpin proposed the setting up of a joint stock company for the erection of a gasometer. The cost, including pipes…
