Ballycuddy was the first primary school in the area provided under the board of education Act of 1831. As such it would have replaced the Hedge School of Thomas Maloney at nearby Killeaney, who was succeeded as headmaster by his nephew John Keegan the poet.
Ballycuddy school was destroyed by fire in 1929. The house now owned by Mr’s Josephine De Few was used as temporary accommodation until the new school was opened in 1932. It served the area until 1968 when pupils and teachers transferred to Clough.
Teachers who taught in those schools include: Miss McDermott (Roscommon, Miss Falvey (Kerry), Miss Wall (Errill), Mr’s Walsh (Springfield), Miss Dooley (Rathdowney), Mrs. Rafter (Boherard), Miss Doyle (Doyle), Mrs. Anne Saunders (Ballycuddy), Mr. Felix McCoy (Abbeyleix).
Tom’s Bar is a pub located on the Main Street in Mountrath.
The Gallery Pub is a pub located at 11 Patrick Street in Stradbally.
Eamon A Chnoic is a pub located in Raheen, Abbeyleix.
It was an old style bar with a lounge. The pub offers live and traditional Irish music and set dancing classes.
Grellan Delaney and Sons is a 10,000 square foot pub located in the centre of Portlaoise, opposite the Laois Arts Centre and Court. It was fully rebuilt in 1997 and spans two floors and four bars. There is a function room available for private parties.
The pub has a golfing society, football team and cricket team. The pub also has an attached off licence and a restaurant.
Foxrock Inn located in Clough, Ballacolla is quaint pub with original stone walls, turf fire, flagged floors with regular live traditional music.
The Sally Gardens Pub located on the Main street in Portlaoise, which was previously known as “The Double B” and is currently owned by John Holmes.
There is a heated beer garden at front and rear and has regular live music and multiple TV sets for watching sporting events.
There is an ancient graveyard in one of Mick Brodericks field in Kyletelogue near to his house. The field is rectangular in shape and contains about 4 acres of land. The graveyard occupied one of the corners of the field, and the flat table stones or tomb stones can be seen there to this day, but there are no inscriptions visible on any of them.
A story is told about a certain man who went to plough where the graveyard was. He had only two sods turned over when nightfall came on. Where he went out next morning to plough again he found that the two sods were turned back into their original places again.
The castle of Gortnaclea stands on the edge of the Guelly River which seperates the edge of Ossory from Laois. It is a massive building 31ft square externally with an eastern wing now destoryed. The walls are 8 and 9ft thick. The earliest mentioned occupant was Donal Fitzpatrick who received a pardon 30 June 1556. He was brother of Florence Lord Baron of Upper Ossory.
The most noticeable event in the history of Gortnaclea Castle is the imprisonment there of the Black Earl of Ormond. Taken prisoner at Corrondogh near Ballyragget, 10th April 1600 by Owney O’Moore as there was no castle in Owneys region strong enough for such an important capture, he was conveyed to Gortnaclea. The castle of the Fitzpatrick’s, Owneys confederate at the time. Owney thinking this was a risky place to have such an important prisoner, had him conveyed to the woods and fastnessiss of Laois. He had him moved later again to Dempsey’s Castle at Ballybrittas until the 12th June 1600 when the terms of his release was agreed upon. The ransom we learn for his release was £5,000.
Killermogh Church is situated about one and a half miles from the village of Ballacolla in the county of Laois. It was erected in 1796 by the aid of a gift of £500 from the Board of First Fruits. The actual cost of the building , according to Canon J.B. Leslie’s “Ossory Clergy and Parishes” was £461. The consecration by Bishop Robert Fowler of the building took place on April 30th, 1915 during the incumbency of the Rev. Edward Price.
In 1731 the old Church of Killermogh was in ruins and in 1795 there was still no church. 1799 saw no church and Divine Service was held in the Glebe House. The Act of Consecration 1815 gives still further details when it states – there had not been a church for the celebration of Divine Service in the parish for 30 years and upwards and that site of Old Church being in one extreme end of the parish and so inconveniently situated that the parishioners could not without great inconvenience resort to the place of Divine Worship if a Church were to be built on the old site. A request was made that the new Church be built on the lands of Rathmakelly which was convenient to all members of the parish.