The Old Fort located within the centre of Portlaoise, from which the modern town has developed was built by a new wave of English Tudor Settlers in 1547/48.
Its most iconic remaining feature, the round bastion tower is located across the road from the former St. Mary’s CBS School at Fitzmaurice’s Place.
It was one of two purpose-built forts constructed in the Midlands, the other located in O’Connor Country at Daingean, built during the Plantations of Laois and Offaly. These forts were designed to hold a considerable garrison of troops of up to 500 men, who could be called upon in times of disturbance and rebellion throughout the two counties. At the time many of the native chiefs of these lands were constantly harassing new English plantation settlers who had been granted their lands by the crown.
Laois was seen as an important asset to pacify as it was the land link between the Pale and the consolidated Ormonde Kingdom under the Butlers, linking it further south into Desmond Munster. The English wished to incorporate both counties into the Pale and ensure safe passage and economic harmony between the English administration in Dublin and as far away south as Cork.
Contemporary accounts from the time tell us that Laois had abundant resources including great ancient forests, which were an important source of high-quality hardwood timber, “wools, hides, tallow, honey, corn and cattle which were rich and plentiful”. We even hear stories of highly prized birds of prey such as Goshawks, being gifted to the English Court from the Laois woodlands.
Ever since the support lent by the O’Mores and other Chieftains of Laois and Offaly to the Silken Thomas rebellion in the 1530’s, the English grew suspicious to the activities of the natives in these lands. The stage was set to plant the county, pacify the natives, and open its resource potential to Tudor adventurers and settlers who had journeyed to Ireland.
The choice of Portlaoise as the site for the construction of the Fort may be explained as follows. Geographically, it was located within the centre of a Gaelic territory which was dominated by the O’More clan and its allies.
A defensive network of castles, such as at Dysart, Shaen, Clonreher and Stradbally, located within the landscape of the new Fort could be readily supplied by the new garrison at Portlaoise in times of trouble. MORE BELOW PICTURE.
The presence of the near-by esker ridge known today as “the downs” and the Triogue River would have provided natural features on which trade and troop movements could be controlled within the landscape. The river provided a water source on which a settlement could establish itself. Water-powered mills were constructed during the period which allowed for flour and oats to be processed, a requisite to feed the garrison and subsequent town population.
Records show that a license for a tannery and indeed a brewery, the first documented public house in Laois, were applied for to the Crown by John Moorton in 1549, all of which required a fresh local water source.
The original name of the settlement mentioned on early maps and documents was Fort Protectour. The name being attributed to the uncle of the young King Edward VI, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset known as the “Protector of the Realm”.
At the time of its construction the King was only nine years of age, and the English were fighting a war with the O’Mores who were trying to regain their lands lost during the Silken Thomas revolt. St. Leger, the then Viceroy, assisted by a force of over 1,000 troops who landed under the command of Sir Edward Bellingham & Sir Francis Bryan at Waterford laid waste to much of the remaining Gaelic lands in the area. Bellingham & Bryan are widely considered to be the men responsible for the building of Fort Protectour, under sponsorship of the Crown.
They were notable war leaders, courtiers, and diplomats, both had fought in France, and Bellingham had even soldiered as far away as Hungary in the years before he replaced St. Leger as Viceroy of Ireland in 1548. The first Governor of the Fort was William St. Loe, who eventually went on to become Captain of Queen Elizabeth Guard or Yeomanry.
Orders were given to cut passes in these districts and “keep repair of roads and fords”, in an effort to tame the wilds and crush the rebels within County. By 1550 the O’More’s and other Chiefs had submitted to the Lord Justices at Dublin, with many of their fighting men including clan leaders being compelled to join the King’s army in England as part of the surrender conditions. MORE BELOW PICTURE.
A Lord Chancellor report on Ireland in May 1552 indicated that Laois and Offaly were considered part of the Pale, with Fort Protectour acting as the administrative, economic, and military centre of Leix. Reports also emerged that the plantation in the county was costing 7,000 pounds per annum and much of the land had not been leased.
By 1555 a new Lord Deputy or Viceroy emerged on the scene, The Earl of Sussex. His policy of aggression on the natives and the shiring or creation of an official County known as Queens County (in honour of the recently crowned Queen Mary) in the following year was an attempt to underpin the influence of the plantation.
Fort Protectour was to become known as Maryborough. In 1567 it was granted a market and achieved borough status in 1570, complete with its own church at Old S. Peter’s which has recently undergone conservation works.
A battle was fought at the Fort in 1597, during the Nine Years War, which saw much of the town being burnt.
However, the walls remained intact, with the fort itself only being relieved some months later by a force led across the Barrow which brought victuals to its starving occupants who had been reduced to eating horsemeat. The town again flourished in the early 1600’s but was the scene of another debacle during the Cromwellian Conquest, when the Papal Nuncio Cardinal Rinuccini took refuge within its walls along with members of the Catholic Confederacy who managed to avoid capture by the brutal Parliamentary Forces.
A conservation plan of the Old Fort spearheaded by the Laois Heritage Society and supported by Laois County Council and the Department of Heritage has ensured that the Fort, the origins of the modern town of Portlaoise, will remain an important historic and cultural area within the town moving forward.
The annual Old Fort Festival, which has emerged as a cultural event from the plan will be returning to the streets of Portlaoise from June 22nd – 25th.
It includes lots of heritage, educational and family fun activities coming your way over those coming days, as a celebration of the history of the Fort and the struggle which the natives endured under Tudor Planation and beyond.