Year in Review May: Growth in Laois but history not forgotten

Laois County Council was told it was 125 years since Portlaoise Commission changed the town's name back from Maryborough, but the English Tudor Queen's name lives on in Google Maps, and a local councillor wants to put an end to it.

Cllr Tommy Mulligan tabled a motion at the Council’s May meeting, asking for Tailte Éireann/Ordnance Survey Ireland to make the change on the official Irish maps.

He made an impassioned case, giving a brief history of the town. “Queen Mary 1 of England landed on our shores in 1553 - 1558 and ruled for five years.

“Lands were violently seized and confiscated from the native Irish clans. They were given to English settlers loyal to the crown where the natives were dispossessed, forcefully displaced and driven from their lands. Many Laois people who resisted were killed. Queen Mary's plan was to suppress our Gaelic culture, identity and language. The English called it the plantation but it was more akin to ethnic cleansing. Maryborough is representative of centuries of immense suffering and cruelty for Laois people,” he said.

He also asked for housing estates not to be called after past English leaders and cruel landlords, with examples given like Craydon Court, Maryborough Village and Bellingham.

However Council Director of Services Donal Brennan stated that while the town name was changed, the townland is still officially Maryborough, along with east and west Maryborough Baronies.

On the suggestion of the CEO Michael Rainey, Cllr Mulligan agreed that the issue needs to be referred to the Laois placenames committee for discussion.

“Never in my career have I come across renaming a townland, we need to look at the legislation,” the CEO said.
As Portlaoise continues to grow, plans progressed for a ‘critical’ multimillion euro Waste Water Treatment Plant upgrade.

The upgrade is being planned in order to deal with increasing demand in the town and surrounding areas. Irish Water/Uisce Éireann announced its intention to apply for planning permission to carry out work at the site of the existing waste water plant on the Ridge Road in Portlaoise.

“Uisce Éireann is pleased to confirm that it will be submitting a planning application for a multimillion-euro upgrade of Portlaoise Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), which will deliver a number of benefits to the local community,” Irish Water confirmed.

“The current treatment plant serves a population equivalent to 39,000, and the remaining capacity of the WWTP is diminishing due to the growth of the surrounding area. This proposed critical upgrade will increase the capacity of the plant to an equivalent of 45,480 across Co Laois, which will facilitate the economic growth of Portlaoise”, Irish Water stated at the time.
Meanwhile, a lack of capacity was causing headaches for Laois Judge Andrew Cody.

After being unable to place two Laois teenagers in detention, Judge Cody said the Government is failing to protect people from 'feral' gangs of criminal juveniles.

Judge Cody said District Court Judges can do little but “huff and puff” at “feral” youths engaging in “an epidemic” of crime who “wreak havoc” on society.

He made the remarks when two Laois teenagers, aged 17 and 15, who the court heard were in a stolen car that was stopped by a stinger device on the M7 Motorway, were refused access to Oberstown Detention Centre.

“Young male teenagers, such as the two accused in these cases are terrorising not just parts of Dublin but also the towns like Portlaoise, Portarlington, Kildare and Newbridge,” Judge Cody said.