Museum & Archive – Meeting Rooms – Playground
A fascinating theme running through the study of history seems to be the domino effect of seemingly unrelated events on one another. For example how did a volcanic eruption in 1815 lead to a change in the way women dressed in the 1900s, and how was all of this facilitated by the advent of the Continue Reading
Heritage House are pleased to present an upcoming series of documentary screenings by acclaimed film maker Sé Merry Doyle. We will be showing a sample from “The Loopline Collection” which covers an extraordinary range of films of social and cultural significance. For the next four Saturday nights at 7pm we will be screening on film Continue Reading
‘Handmade with Care’ The idea for our pop-up exhibition ‘Handmade with care’ came from our research of some of the women who made an impact on the heritage town of Abbeyleix. Women like Lady Selina Elizabeth Vesey, the wife of the first viscount of Abbeyleix, established a lace manufactory on the Abbeyleix estate to employ Continue Reading
On this day 6th of December 1921 the Anglo-Irish treaty was signed by a group of plenipotentiaries who believed that the treaty they were signing was the best option they would receive from the English Crown and their group of hard core politicians, promising total and bloody war if the treaty was not agreed upon. Continue Reading
Sitting in the National Library of Ireland in the Manuscripts section is an account book of the Abbeyleix Baby Linen Society, started in 1845, by Lady Emma Vesey, Viscountess de Vesci, the wife of Thomas Vesey, the 3rd Viscount of Abbeyleix. The legacy of Lady Emma is notable, permanent features of the town such as Continue Reading
***Pop-up Exhibition*** This coming Spring we will be launching a pop-up exhibition entitled ‘Handmade with Care’. We are looking for people to submit a work of handmade craft, either made by themselves or that has been held in their family as an heirloom. If you, or anyone you know would like to have their work Continue Reading
Culture Night 2018 at Heritage House Abbeyleix presents: Stories from the Past Children from primary and secondary schools in Laois will read stories collected during the schools collection initiative in the 1930s and add new stories of their own to this collection. There are 1,128 volumes, numbered and bound, in the Collection. A title page Continue Reading
Perhaps in this decade of centenaries, the National Museum of Ireland is an institution whose collections and role in contemporary society are both more contested and more ambiguous than at any other point in its history. This is evidenced by the extent to which its programming since 2013 has attempted to cater to the conflicting Continue Reading
Flicking through children’s school books, reading the latest historical bestseller or checking out the history documentaries television has to offer, you would be forgiven for thinking that when it comes to the historical record, only men matter. Of course, this is inaccurate, but it is an untruth we’ve become accustomed to – one where the presence of Continue Reading
What the Maps Can Tell us? At Heritage House we have a collection of Original First Edition Ordinance Survey Maps from 1839/41, which show us the entire county of Laois at a scale of 6 inches to one mile. The Ordinance Survey was established in 1824, under the direction of Colonel Thomas Colby, assisted by Continue Reading