The 2021 Green Flag Awards were announced today, Wednesday 17th of November 2021, by An Taisce Environmental Education, acknowledging Ireland’s best public parks and gardens. Among them were two Laois Public Parks
∙ Laois County Council Páirc an Phobail Portlaoise
∙ Laois County Council Peoples Park Portarlington
International accreditation for public park excellence in Ireland has increased again this year, to reach over 100 accredited public green spaces. Ireland was today awarded a total of 103 Green Flag sites, comprised of 84 formal public Green Flag Park sites, along with 19 volunteer run Green Community Sites.
Only awarded for exceeding tough environmental standards in green space management, and excellence of visitor attractions – the Green Flag Award Scheme is the mark of a quality park or green space and is recognised throughout the world. This year over 2,300 public sites in 16 countries around the World have achieved Green Flag or Green Flag Community Award status.
Once again more Green Flag Awards have been secured by Irish Parks and Gardens than by any country, other than the UK where the scheme originated in 1996. See link from Malahide Castle ceremony today.
The Draft Register of Electors 2022/2023 was published on 1st November, 2021 and is available for inspection at the Council Offices by appointment only. Please contact 057 8664105 if you wish to make an appointment. It is also available for inspection at Libraries, Garda Stations and Post Offices. Your details can also be checked on www.checktheregister.ie
Any person may claim to have a correction made to the Draft Register of Electors by completing Form RFA1 here to download. Forms are available at your local County Council Office, Library, Garda Station or Post Office or on request from Corporate Affairs Department at (057) 86 64105, by e-mail to register@laoiscoco.ie or from www.checktheregister.ie The closing date for receipt of claims is 25th November, 2021.
Special voting arrangements apply in the case of Electors who are ordinarily resident in a hospital or nursing home and Electors who have a physical illness or physical disability and who wish to vote from home. Electors who may not be able to attend a Polling Station due to circumstances of their occupation/education can also apply for inclusion on the Postal Voters list.
Application forms for inclusion on the Postal and Special Voters lists are also available from Corporate Affairs and must be completed and returned by 25th November, 2021.
Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan has launched the Built Heritage Investment Scheme and the Historic Structures Fund for 2022, delivered by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in partnership with local authorities.
With €8m in funding across both schemes – an increase of €2 million from 2021 – they represent a continued and significant boost to the preservation of Ireland’s built heritage. It is expected the schemes will support hundreds of projects while also creating over 44,000 days of employment.
All around the country, communities are repurposing historic buildings to create livable, low carbon and resilient town centres. I’m delighted to be able to support this heritage-led regeneration by significantly increasing funding for both the Built Heritage Investment Scheme and the Historic Structures Fund to a total of €8 million in 2022. The increase underlines this Government’s continued commitment to the protection and preservation of our built heritage, benefitting hundreds of historic structures, keeping traditional building skills alive, and creating employment for skilled conservation workers.
Fisherman’s Thatched Inn in Fisherstown was awarded Built Heritage Investment Scheme Funding in 2021 for thatch repair
The Built Heritage Investment Scheme and the Historic Structures Fund support the owners and custodians of protected structures and those in Architectural Conservation Areas to meet their obligations to care for their properties.
Administered in conjunction with Local Authority Architectural Conservation Officers, Heritage Officers, and planning and administrative staff, both schemes will assist hundreds of small-scale, labour-intensive projects as well as larger-scale projects to repair and conserve our historic built environment. The projects will also give significant support to local jobs in conservation, traditional skills, and construction, providing a vital boost to local economies during challenging times. In addition, these schemes can unlock the potential to utilise heritage building stock and return it to residential use – an outcome which will be key to Housing for All, the Government’s far-reaching plan to create a sustainable housing system into the future.
Following on from the successful introduction of two pilot streams for vernacular structures and English and Irish-language historic shopfronts in 2021, both streams have been incorporated into Historic Structures Fund (HSF) 2022. The Built Heritage Investment Scheme (BHIS) maintenance stream from 2020 has also been retained for the scheme this year.
Lea Church in Killenard was awarded Historic Structures Fund funding in 2021 for roof repair
In 2021, over 550 projects were awarded funding under the two schemes, ranging from minor but essential repairs of rainwater goods to large-scale roof repairs.
The funding announced today includes a total of €4 million for the Built Heritage Investment Scheme – an increase of 33% from last year’s scheme – and €4 million for the Historic Structures Fund – which is also an increase of 33% from HSF 2021.
Owners are invited to make an application through Laois County Council, with a closing date of 31st January 2021. Details of the schemes and how to apply are available here.
Laois County Library Service and Laois Heritage Office are delighted to announce that work is commencing on the Ronnie Mathews Archive Collection. The collection, acquired earlier this year by Laois County Council, was compiled by the late Ronnie Mathews, a well-known and highly respected local historian and author from Portarlington. The collection contains records and artefacts relating to the history of Portarlington and environs including maps, photographs, business records and much more. It reflects the original collector’s knowledge and passion for local history, from the earliest times to recent years.
With items from the Ronnie Mathews Collection at Bloom HQ Mountrath, from left: Orla Connaughton, Archivist; Catherine Casey, Laois Heritage Officer; Bernie Foran, Laois County Librarian; Tim Mathews, son of Ronnie Mathews; Dom Reddin, LCC Tourism Officer and Sinead Holland, LCC Librarian Local Studies. The project is supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council. Picture: Alf Harvey.
With items from the Ronnie Mathews Collection at Bloom HQ Mountrath, from left: Orla Connaughton, Archivist; Catherine Casey, Laois Heritage Officer; Bernie Foran, Laois County Librarian; Tim Mathews, son of Ronnie Mathews; Dom Reddin, LCC Tourism Officer and Sinead Holland, LCC Librarian Local Studies. The project is supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council.
Picture: Alf Harvey.
This important local collection will now be processed in conjunction with Eneclann, Ireland’s leading history and heritage company. Professional archivist, Orlagh Connaughton, will list, describe and physically reorganise the collection contents to facilitate future access and display. This collaboration between Laois Heritage Office and Laois County Library Service is supported by Creative Ireland Laois, as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council.
Tim Mathews, son of the late Ronnie Mathews said “I think it’s great news that a start is being made on archiving my Dad’s collection. He was born and lived all of his life in Portarlington, and loved the town, and spent over half of his lifetime collecting and researching items relevant to the town and county. He would be very proud and honoured by Laois County Council’s acquisition of his collection. Everything in the collection is original, be it maps, letters, photos, postcards, etc., and many items are well over 100 years old. Archiving these material and preparing them for future display to the public will give people an insight into life in the town over the last few centuries.”
With the Ronnie Mathews Collection at Bloom HQ Mountrath, from left: Tim Mathews, son of Ronnie Mathews; Sinead Holland, LCC Librarian Local Studies; Catherine Casey, Laois Heritage Officer and Dom Reddin, LCC Tourism Officer. The project is supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council. Picture: Alf Harvey.
With the Ronnie Mathews Collection at Bloom HQ Mountrath, from left: Tim Mathews, son of Ronnie Mathews; Sinead Holland, LCC Librarian Local Studies; Catherine Casey, Laois Heritage Officer and Dom Reddin, LCC Tourism Officer. The project is supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council.
Picture: Alf Harvey.
Ronnie Mathews collected documents, maps and artefacts relating to Portarlington over his whole life, with the collection also including some items collected by his father. JT Mathews, established in 1866, was a bakery, confectionary, tea rooms, hardware and general provisions, and was in business for over 130 years. Ledgers and account books from the business shed a fascinating light on many aspects of life in Portarlington in the past and are also part of the collection. Among the interesting artefacts are a series of glass plate negatives showing all aspects of Irish life dating from around 1910; a cannon ball reputed to be from the site of Lea Castle outside Portarlington; and a hand painted chess board with the crest of the Dawson family of Emo Court. Materials also include a map of Patrick Street dated 1889 and a large collection of postcards by Wynne of Portarlington -showing Portlaoise (formerly known as Maryborough), Mountmellick, Monasterevin and more.
Laois County Librarian Bernie Foran said “Acquiring archives is an important first step in preventing loss of memory, but processing of archives is an essential step in ensuring that memory is shared and lives on. By processing the collection to the highest archival standards, Laois County Library Service ensures that this remarkable local collection can be accessed by this generation and preserved for the generations to come.”
With the Ronnie Mathews Collection at Bloom HQ Mountrath, from left: Tim Mathews, son of Ronnie Mathews; Bernie Foran, Laois County Librarian and Orla Connaughton, Archivist. The project is supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council. Picture: Alf Harvey.
With the Ronnie Mathews Collection at Bloom HQ Mountrath, from left: Tim Mathews, son of Ronnie Mathews; Bernie Foran, Laois County Librarian and Orla Connaughton, Archivist. The project is supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council. Picture: Alf Harvey.
Over the coming months the collection will be carefully archived and catalogued, and arrangements made for any necessary conservation, as well as preparing materials to be made available for research and for future display as part of Laois Local Studies.
Laois Local Studies was established to collect, preserve and make available for reference, material relating to the history and heritage of County Laois. It is home to the Laois Collection, a specialist collection on the local, social, political, economic and geographic history of the county. A dedicated member of staff is available to assist and support members of the public with their research and queries. The collection and service are open to all by appointment. Laois Local Studies is part of the Laois County Library Service, funded and governed by Laois County Council. Further information at www. laoislocalstudies.ie and/or 057 8594985.
The Draft Register of Electors 2022/2023 was published on 1st November, 2021 and is available for inspection at the Council Offices by appointment only. Please contact 057 8664105 if you wish to make an appointment. It is also available for inspection at Libraries, Garda Stations and Post Offices. Your details can also be checked on www.checktheregister.ie
Any person may claim to have a correction made to the Draft Register of Electors by completing Form RFA1 here to download. Forms are available at your local County Council Office, Library, Garda Station or Post Office or on request from Corporate Affairs Department at (057) 86 64105, by e-mail to register@laoiscoco.ie or from www.checktheregister.ie The closing date for receipt of claims is 25th November, 2021.
Special voting arrangements apply in the case of Electors who are ordinarily resident in a hospital or nursing home and Electors who have a physical illness or physical disability and who wish to vote from home. Electors who may not be able to attend a Polling Station due to circumstances of their occupation/education can also apply for inclusion on the Postal Voters list.
Application forms for inclusion on the Postal and Special Voters lists are also available from Corporate Affairs and must be completed and returned by 25th November, 2021.
Stephen Mandal of the Irish Heritage School led a group of Laois heritage enthusiasts on a walk of discovery at the Rock of Dunamase on Sunday, as part of the Know your Locality Laois course.
The free online course was offered to Laois people by Laois Heritage Office thanks to funding from Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme 2017 – 2022.
Stephen Mandal, Irish Heritage School and Catherine Casey, Laois Heritage Officer leading a field trip at the Rock of Dunamase looking at the geology, landscape, archaeology and history as part of Know Your Locality. Supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council. Picture: Alf Harvey.
Delivered online due to Covid 19, the the Irish Heritage School course took participants step-by-step through available heritage sources, allowing them to paint a picture of the geological, archaeological, and historical events that happened close to where they live.
Catherine Casey, Heritage Officer with Laois County Council said “it was wonderful to meet up in person outdoors for a guided tour of the Rock of Dunamase, and it really added a special dimension to the course which had been delivered online up to this point. While the course looked at examples from throughout Ireland, it focused on the geology, archaeology and history of Laois. As such the course was aimed towards local people who are enthusiasts of natural and cultural heritage. We were delighted with how the course went and thrilled to announce that thanks to the generous support of Creative Ireland Laois, we will be able to offer the course again early next year.”
Picture: Alf Harvey.
Stephen Mandal of Irish Heritage School, based in Birr, said “The Know your Locality course has been very popular online and we’ve been delighted to meet all the Laois people who had such a strong interest in their local heritage. Our course began by looking at the very bedrock under your feet, examining the geological processes and glacial events that shaped the landscape and formed the soils. The course then focused on the impacts of humans on that landscape over time, from pre-history to the last century. We look forward to delivering the course for Laois again in the New year”.
For more information on the Know Your Locality Course, and to register your interest in future courses, visit: https://laois.ie/know-your-locality/
Sunday 24th October at 8pm – Leave a Light On will be lighting up the darkness of the autumn evenings, by exhibiting a gallery of unique window displays across Portlaoise town centre. Many local businesses are offering the use of their windows to illuminate an artwork.
Artists and local secondary school art students have created joyful works of art that will shine bright through the evening dusk. Scan the Leave a Light On QR code outside the Dunamaise Arts Centre for the guided map of window art, take a walk and enjoy a night gallery of creativity.
The effigy of Robert Hartpole, Constable of Carlow Castle was returned to Carlow Town on Wednesday October 13th, 2021 after a sojourn of approximately two hundred years in Portarlington, Co. Laois. For the last thirty years or so the effigy was on display in the People’s Park, Portarlington, Co. Laois. Over the past couple of years Carlow County Museum, operated by Carlow County Council, have coordinated the conservation of the 16th century effigy and its relocation back to Carlow Town and Hartpole now resides in Carlow County Museum.
Robert Hartpole, Constable of Carlow Castle, High Sheriff of Carlow, and Laois in the 16th century died in 1594. As was his wish, he was laid to rest in the Church of the Blessed Lady the Virgin Mary in Carlow. This was the church associated with St Mary’s Abbey, which is placed by a number of sources somewhere between the present-day St Mary’s Church of Ireland church and the Castle Hill Centre. The remains of Carlow Town’s oldest graveyard are still to be found in this area.
The effigy (a carved likeness of a person) is cut from a single block of Co. Carlow limestone, depicting a knight in full armour. The knight’s head, now missing, was resting on a helmet, his hands are folded over his chest. A dog lies at the knight’s feet, whose head is also missing. A Latin inscription carved along the side of the effigy once read “Hic jacet Robartus Hartpoole, Conestabulrius de Catherlagh, Septuagenario maoir, interiit iii die Octobris 1594”, (translated to say: ‘Here lies Robert Hartpole, Constable of Carlow, he died on the 3rd day of October 1594, being more than a septuagenarian’. Some of the inscription still remains including the date 1594. This effigy was placed on top of his tomb.
The 16th century effigy of Robert Harpole, a national monument, receiving a steam cleaning in the People’s Park, Portarlington, Co. Laois, in advance of his move to Carlow County Museum. Photograph: Carlow County Museum.
The effigy was rediscovered in 1809 and was moved from Castle Hill to Oak Park, Carlow, to protect it. Sometime later in the 19th century it was moved by descendants from Carlow to Kilnacourt House, Portarlington, Co. Laois. This move was possibly undertaken by a canal boat as the River Barrow was a thriving business thoroughfare. In the mid-20th century, the effigy ended up in the possession of Laois County Council. They, with the assistance of local people displayed the effigy in the People’s Park under a roofed steel construction. Unfortunately, despite this public display, the effigy has suffered damage from anti-social behaviour, damage from its frequent relocations, its exposure to the weather, and the splitting and localised polishing of the stone. The effigy is also a recorded National Monument, LA005-032, and therefore comes under the protection of the National Monuments Acts 1930 – 2014.
Carlow County Museum, Members of Laois County Council, the Laois Heritage Office, the National Monuments Service, and the National Museum of Ireland, began to discuss what should be done to conserve the effigy and its long-term care. After commissioning a conservation report, and the agreement of all the agencies involved, it was decided that the effigy should be conserved and relocated to Carlow County Museum, a designated museum for the display and collecting of archaeological finds associated with Co. Carlow. The Museum is also located in the same town in which Robert was buried in 1594. Both the National Monuments Service and the National Museum of Ireland issued licences to allow the works to take place.
Earlier this year the Museum applied to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under their Community Monuments Fund 2021 grant scheme and was successful in receiving a grant to cover the conservation and relocation of the effigy. Gebel and Helling Stone Conservation, Cork, and Tipperary, were the appointed contractors and works took place in both Portarlington and Carlow County Museum from Tuesday 12th to Friday 15th of October. It was appropriate that they works took place in October as he died in October 1594. In Portarlington the effigy was treated and given a series of steam cleans to remove paint, graffiti, dirt, and organic growths. Then he was delicately separated from his concrete plinth and as he is now in two large sections, weighing up to 200kgs, he was mechanically lifted onto a large trailer for transport to Carlow. In Carlow County Museum a new plinth has been constructed to accommodate him and the stonemasons worked carefully to locate him onto his new plinth. Over the next while the display area around him will be enhanced to details his history and his conservation.
Ms Julia Gebel, Gebel and Helling Stone Conservation, injecting conservation resin into some fissures in the Robert Harpole Effigy. Photograph: Carlow County Museum.
Dermot Mulligan, Museum Curator, Carlow County Museum, and project coordinator said “we are delighted to welcome back to Carlow Town, after nearly two hundred years, the effigy of Robert Hartpole. While he is a controversial character, he was the Constable of Carlow Castle, from hence he shaped and influenced our town and county during the 16th century. The effigy is a piece of our town’s heritage and a fantastic specimen of our local limestone and probably local craftsmanship. Its conservation and relocation has been a cooperative multi-agency approach with the care and conservation of the effigy remaining the priority throughout the process”.
Catherine Casey, Laois Heritage Officer, said “We were delighted to work with our colleagues in Carlow County Council, the National Museum and the National Monuments Service to restore this enormously valuable piece of Carlow heritage to its rightful home. The decision to display the effigy in the town park in Portarlington was taken many years ago and while it certainly saved the effigy from being lost forever, it was not an appropriate place to display such a sensitive monument. Hartpole had no connection to Portarlington, and a grave monument – especially that of a 16th century Knight – should be protected and presented to the public in a sensitive and responsible manner. This project has been a testament to the strong ties of co-operation that exist between Laois and Carlow and we look forward to continuing co-operation on a range of heritage issues. We are grateful to the National Monuments Service of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for their funding support for the conservation and relocation project, through the Community Monuments Fund.”
John Kelly, Editor of Carloviana, who has researched Hartpole and was anxious that the effigy be conserved said “the Robert Hartpole that emerges from history is rightly viewed as a rapacious land grabber, a ruthless soldier of severe temperament and having of a single-minded ambition to climb to the top of the social ladder. However, Hartpole also had a more enigmatic side. In common with other figures of the period he had ambiguous loyalties; he retained his Catholic faith, he married a Gaelic Irish woman, an O’Byrne from Tullow, and in at least one account is said to be a ‘maintainer of rebels’.”
The effigy of Robert Hartpole can be viewed on permanent display in Carlow County Museum where admission is free.
Robert Hartpole, Constable of Carlow Castle, High Sheriff of Carlow and Laois, now on permanent display in Carlow County Museum following his relocation and conservation through a multi-agency project. Photograph: Carlow County Museum.
