‘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 December 1921
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
‘Handmade with Care’
***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
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
Mary O’Shea
Mary was born on 16 August 1893 in Dublin City to Robert and Sarah McDonald. Her father was a ‘Shop meter collector’ and her mother was a nurse. When Mary was only 1 year old the family moved to Abbeyleix where her mother became the first District Nurse in the area. At this time the District Nurse Continue Reading
Laois to Siberia in Almost One Piece
On Friday 6th February we were lucky enough to have Gary, Ned, Jim and Kevin come in and tell us the stories, tall and short’ of their trip across Siberia following the route of the BAM or Baikal-Amur Mainline, a 4,324 km long route through the swamps and primordial forest. The railway was completed in Continue Reading