Museum & Archive – Meeting Rooms – Playground
On Wednesday 10th of August 2011, a remarkable find was uncovered on a bog in Co. Laois. A bog body was unearthed during peat milling at Cashel bog between Portlaoise and Abbeyleix by Jason Phelan, a Bord Na Mona worker. After over two years of analysis, it was revealed that the body was in fact Continue Reading
To take sensation and presence as concepts through which to look at Bacon’s art seems appropriate given his recurrent concern with pure feeling in his subjects and with his characteristic rendering or dismembering of the human form. In much of his work we experience the sensation of distorted presence and the presence of violent Continue Reading
John Eustace Vesey the 6th Viscount de Vesci of Abbeyleix was born in 1919, the only son of three children from the marriage of Colonel Hon. Thomas Eustace Vesey and Lady Cecily Kathleen Browne. He inherited the title of Viscount on the death of his uncle Ivo Richard de Vesci in August 1958. J.E Vesey came from a Continue Reading
In much of Bacon’s work, and certainly in the present painting, there seems to be an exemplification of the nineteenth-century French poet, Arthur Rimbaud’s advocacy of the deregulation of the senses in order to achieve free understanding. This does not merely occur formally in Bacon but in his very concept of human existence. In Continue Reading
Today March 11th marks the death of Aengus the Culdee or Aengus Céilí Dé (Aengus the servant of God), who lived, studied and died right here in Co. Laois. Aengus was quiet a remarkable figure within the Early Christian Church in Ireland. He was born sometime in the mid-8th century A.D the son of Oengobhan, Continue Reading
Francis Bacon visited Weimar Berlin in 1927 at the age of 18 accompanied by a certain Harcourt-Smith at the behest of Francis’ father. At the time Germany had entered a retrospectively-termed ‘golden age’ after World War I, subsequent political turmoil and near-economic catastrophe, and was a respite before the crazed fervour and conflict to Continue Reading
Here we have a monument or effigy of Countess Aline Portarlington dedicated to her and unveiled in May 1875 by her dearly beloved husband the 3rd Earl of Portarlington; Henry John Reuben Dawson-Damer. Countess Aline was born on the 29th of July 1823 the 3rd child of Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (who Continue Reading
Undertaking a profane career that encompassed amphetamine-psychotic cat burglary in the ’60s for which she served prison time, Henrietta Moraes was the epitome of willful caprice and bohemianism throughout her adventurous life. Initially emerging in Soho pubs such as the famous Colony Room and Gargoyle Club as a distinctive and magnetic socialite, she met such Continue Reading
We have recently been lucky enough to come into possession of a fantastic document setting out the specification for the complete refurbishment of Donore House, Co Laois. The document dates to 1891 and gives a fascinating insight into how this type of large country house was designed and built. The house went out of use and Continue Reading
This post is a follow on to one I wrote on my own blog about 2 years ago. To be honest it’s very difficult to believe that it’s that long since the goats first arrived in the graveyard. The goats did a great job on their first visit to the graveyard but as soon as Continue Reading