The Earl Grey Scheme and the Emigration of Girls from the Workhouses of Laois

The Earl Grey Scheme and the Emigration of Girls from the Workhouses of Laois During the Great Famine, dozens of teenage girls left the workhouses of Laois bound for Australia. Their emigration was part of a British government scheme to provide the British colony with wives and domestic servants, and to rid the workhouses of […]

Queen’s County 1919 – 1923: Attacks on Big Houses and Protestant Landowners

Queen’s County 1919 – 1923: Attacks on Big Houses and Protestant Landowners   Terence Dooley, in his book ‘The Decline of the Big House in Ireland’, wrote that between 1919 and 1923 ‘landlords, largely because of their socio-political, economic and religious backgrounds, were to suffer outrage and intimidation on a scale the like of which […]

Laois Heritage Society 2019