Mountmellick
Encyclopedia
Other than that its a 15th-century settlement on the narrow Owenass river (River of the Falls in Irish) with an encampment on its banks at Irishtown. Overlooking this valley with its trees and wildlife was a small church called Kilmongan (Ivy Chapel) which was closed by the Penal Laws in 1640. Phillip Doolan was also born in this year.
The Religious Society of Friends
(the Quakers) came in 1657 led by William Edmundson. They saw a future for this settlement and built it into a town, which was to grow to eight thousand people, with twenty-seven industries which included breweries, a distillery, woollen mills, cotton, tanneries and glass. It was a boom town in the late 19th century.
One of its earliest Quaker settlers (ca. 1680), was Richard Jackson, who, with his brother Anthony, had been convinced of Quakerism in Eccleston, Lancashire, England by the missionaries George Fox
and Edmundson. Richard's older brother Anthony settled in Oldcastle in County Meath at about the same time that Richard and his wife, Margaret Keete, came to Mountmellick. A possible son of Richard's named Nicholas, who had been born in Lancashire, married an Anne Mann in Mountmellick in about 1702. (Descendants of Nicholas and Anne came to New Garden Township in Chester County Pennsylvania, USA in the 1710s. Nicholas uncle, Anthony's son Isaac, also emigrated late in life to New Garden township in 1725, and settled in an area the family later called Harmony Grove, just outside present day New Garden. The house his grandson built still stands there, and is a Pennsylvania Historical site as it was used as a way station on the Underground Railroad during the civil war by Jackson descendants. Isaac sired a long line of Quaker families down to William Miller Jones (b. Philadelphia, 1852) who converted to Catholicism and hyphenated his middle and last names as Miller-Jones. His heirs continue to the present day with the Miller-Jones surname.
This Jackson family had originated in the village of Eske in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the early 16th century. The family prospered, in part due to fortuitous 16th- and 17th-century marriages into the prominent Todd, Frobisher and Hildyard families in Yorkshire.
One son of the Jackson marriage to Ursula Hildyard was an earlier Anthony, who was in service to both Charles I and Charles II, and who was imprisoned for a time in the Tower of London during the Cromwellian era. He became Sir Anthony when, escaping, he went to the Netherlands to the court-in-exile of Charles II, and was knighted there by the king just prior to the Restoration. His sons included the above-mentioned Richard and Anthony, who had sided with Cromwell. Sir Anthony died in about 1666 and is entombed under the floor of the round tower of the Temple Church in the Inner Temple in London.)
There is still a Quaker population in the town, and a Friends meeting house
. The town has numerous examples of Georgian architecture
and one of the finest examples of a Georgian square in Ireland.
Deciduous woodlands, which once covered Laois, provided a ready source of bark for a tanning industry, which converted animal hides into leather. William Edmundson (1627–1712).
The first Quaker to settle in Mountmellick owned a tannery, and the Goodbodys and Pim families also owned tanneries in the 19th century.
Towards the end of the 18th Century, the textile industry grew significantly. A number of large mills were opened in the 1780s. These produced the necessary raw materials to develop weaving as an important cottage industry, providing many households with a secondary source of income to supplement agricultural incomes. By 1837 it was estimated that 4,000 persons were employed in the cotton and woollen business, in the Mountmellick area.
The three main centres of this industry were established at New Mills in Drinagh, Barkmills, near Ballyfin and Anngrove in Irishtown. Initially these mills were powered by water, but steam engines were gradually introduced during the 19th Century.
In 1801, there were five breweries in Mountmellick and these supplied beer to towns within a 25 mile radius. These breweries declined as larger breweries, elsewhere, developed their distribution on the railways and canals. As abstinence became popular in the second half of the 19th Century, there was a shift from brewing to malting.
The first bank in the town was opened 1824 and the first modern sugar factory in Ireland was opened in Mountmellick in 1852. It was situated behind the present MDA building in Irishtown. Despite its huge aspirations, economic factors dictated its closure in 1862.
Two malting enterprises in Irishtown were developed by the Codd family in the early 20th century and malt production still takes place in Mountmellick today.
Up to this time, Mountmellick had been an extensive manufacturing town, but as the famine took grip, employment plummeted and money became very scarce. Food prices increased by 300%. People caught in a poverty trap became hungry and destitute. Diseases, such as typhus and cholera took grip and more people in Mountmellick died from a fever epidemic at the time than from the famine itself.
Aid relief was sent from various parts of the world to help the starving Irish. The Quakers were among the most active in famine relief initiatives and they opened soup kitchens throughout the country.
The Poor Law Union built a workhouse in Mountmellick in 1839. The workhouse was situated, on the site where St. Vincent's Hospital now stands.
It was built to feed and accommodate 800 paupers, but at the height of famine in 1847, ("Black '47"), there were 1,500 people there. To deter people, the workhouses were as unattractive as possible. Husbands, wives and children were separated on entry and, often, they never saw each other again.
Mass burial sites were dug to bury the victims. A cart of famine victims was brought daily from the workhouse to pit graves in the townsland of Derryguile, one mile outside Mountmellick. A field, now known as "Reilig" (Gaelic for grave) in the townsland of Graigue is also known to have been a famine burial site.
At the time of the Famine Mountmellick had 8,000 people. Famous families who left at this time, or earlier, during the late 17th century, include the Newlins
(who went to Chester County, Pennsylvania), Pims, Bewleys, and Dennys. Many of the earlier Quakers emigrated from Mountmellick to Pennsylvania.
. This became one of the most popular forms of needlework during the 19th century. The first known sale of the product was to the Earl of Dunraven
(Lord Adare) of Limerick in 1847.
Although Joanna Carter is credited with its introduction little is known about her. It has been traditionally assumed that she had been a Quaker. However an educational report of 1824, describes her as a Protestant, which may have meant that she belonged to the Church of Ireland
. She ran a small school in a thatched house and had fifteen girls, eight of whom were members of the Church of Ireland and seven Catholics. Her annual income was £9 per year. Although the precise location of her home is not known, we know from the 'Primary Valuation of Tenements' that a John Carter lived in a house in Pond Street, Mountmellick in 1850. This is the only recorded Carter for the town at this period. In the report on the Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853, she was referred to as, 'Carter, J Mountmellick, Queen's County, Designer and Manufacturer, embroidered quilt, toilet cover and doileys.' The report also stated that Mrs Carter was responsible for the design and execution of a richly embroidered quilt exhibited by the Countess of Eglinton. It is not clear that she was a native of Mountmellick. Another woman associated with its early development was Margaret Beale (1809–1877), an accomplished lacemaker, originally from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. She was married to Joseph Beale, a prominent manufacturer in the town.
Mountmellick was a significant industrial town before the Famine of the mid-19th century, when it was known as 'little Manchester'. This was partly thanks to the Grand Canal
, the Mountmellick branch of which is now filled in. Mountmellick embroidery
, also known as Mountmellick Lace, became one of the most popular forms of needlework during the 19th century, and early examples fetch high prices on the international market. The local museum displays original pieces of this craftwork.
Mountmellick work had been particularly popular in the decoration of the following products: toilet covers, night-dresses, sachets, dressing table mats, comb and brush bags, quilt and pillow shams and pin cushions.
The history of needlework in Mountmellick before the 19th century is unclear. However, when the Society of Friends opened their school in Mountmellick in 1786, the girls were instructed in needlework to earn money for their textbooks. There appear to have been strong links between Mountmellick embroidery and the Quaker Leinster Provincial School in the town. They fostered the tradition of embroidery by both teaching it and adapting their own designs. A government school report of 1858 recorded that plain and fancy needlework was being taught at the School. The same report also noted that plain and fancy needlework was taught to girls at the Church of Ireland School Mountmellick. The Presentation order was heavily involved in the promotion of the craft. In 1920 when the Quaker school closed, the Presentation Sisters moved into the school and continued its embroidery tradition.
Four possible sources of influence on the origins on Mountmellick embroidery have been suggested. The most likely influence was crewel embroidery, because of the similarity of the stitches. (Crewel is fine worsted yarn used for embroidery and tapestry.) She may have found inspiration for her many varied designs from the abundance of flora nestled in the hedgerows and riverbanks of the Owenass river. A less likely source was that the craft originated in France and was taken to Ireland by the Huguenots. Some Huguenots did in fact settle in the nearby town of Portarlington. The third theory is that Joanna Carter may have been connected with or influenced by a Sister Carter from Fulneck, England, who started teaching embroidery at a Moravian settlement in Co Antrim in 1793. It is unlikely that the two were related. Finally the presence of the cotton industry in the town must have been an influence on its development.
About 1880, a Mrs Milner started an industrial association in Mountmellick to provide a livelihood 'for distressed Irish gentlewomen'. By 1890, it is known to have had fifty women employed in producing the embroidery. This seems to have led to an upsurge in interest in it. It was taken up by women throughout the country; as a consequence, it ceased to be just a local craft. A Mrs Florance Patterson, an architect from Craigivad, Co Down, was an expert in needlework, including Mountmellick embroidery
. At this time it seems that Mountmellick embroidery
was gaining international recognition. For example, in 1885, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, visited Ireland and the industrial association presented her with a dressing-table cover in Mountmellick embroidery
. Between 1890 and 1898, Weldon, a London publisher, produced four volumes called 'Weldon's Practical Mountmellick embroidery'. Altogether, Weldon published eight volumes on the subject and helped to make the embroidery extremely popular. Barour's Prize Needle-Work series, published in Boston, in the United States, in the 1890s included a section on Mountmellick embroidery
. One consequence of its increased popularity was that the emphasis changed from its being a source of income for the poor to being a middle-class social pastime.
The production of Mountmellick embroidery
and other forms of needlework began to decline during the 19th century. By 1907, the number of people employed in the production of the embroidery had fallen from fifty to eight. Despite this, it maintained an international reputation for quality, style and durability. In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy
was presented with a white Mountmellick embroidery
quilt by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland.
The tradition of Mountmellick embroidery
lives on today due to the work of Sr Teresa Margaret, who taught herself the traditional techniques, and until recently held weekly classes in at the Mountmellick Development Association building.
the national television broadcaster
Mountmellick has had a Christmas tree located in O'Connell Square since 1956.
An indication of the size of the first Christmas tree can be judged by the fact that it was transported by ass and cart into O'Connell Square. In the ensuing years larger trees were erected until 1961, when it was necessary to put a manhole in the square to take these larger trees.
In 1969 a pole structure was used instead of the original live tree.
In 1983 a permanent steel structure was put in place with a skeleton framework, which enabled the wiring to be standardized, and it is this structure that is in use to the present day. It is necessary every year to dress the tree with branches to give an authentic look.
A switching arrangement was later introduced for the lights, which became more intricate over the years. In 1963 the switching arrangements were finialised and are the same today, other than changed designs introduced in 1968.
in the town square, serving secondary
-age students. Until its recent closure the nearby secondary school, Patrician College Ballyfin, had a substantial portion of its students travel from Mountmellick by bus each day.
, light manufacturing and brewing
. It serves as a dormitory town for nearby Portlaoise and for Dublin, with easy access to the M7 motorway
and Dublin-Cork railway line. This has led to the population of Mountmellick expanding rapidly in recent years and also to an unprecedented increase in new houses and several new housing estates.
is the town's club for Gaelic football
and hurling
, while other nearby Gaelic games
clubs are The Rock GAA
and Kilcavan
.
The Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(the Quakers) came in 1657 led by William Edmundson. They saw a future for this settlement and built it into a town, which was to grow to eight thousand people, with twenty-seven industries which included breweries, a distillery, woollen mills, cotton, tanneries and glass. It was a boom town in the late 19th century.
One of its earliest Quaker settlers (ca. 1680), was Richard Jackson, who, with his brother Anthony, had been convinced of Quakerism in Eccleston, Lancashire, England by the missionaries George Fox
George Fox
George Fox was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.The son of a Leicestershire weaver, Fox lived in a time of great social upheaval and war...
and Edmundson. Richard's older brother Anthony settled in Oldcastle in County Meath at about the same time that Richard and his wife, Margaret Keete, came to Mountmellick. A possible son of Richard's named Nicholas, who had been born in Lancashire, married an Anne Mann in Mountmellick in about 1702. (Descendants of Nicholas and Anne came to New Garden Township in Chester County Pennsylvania, USA in the 1710s. Nicholas uncle, Anthony's son Isaac, also emigrated late in life to New Garden township in 1725, and settled in an area the family later called Harmony Grove, just outside present day New Garden. The house his grandson built still stands there, and is a Pennsylvania Historical site as it was used as a way station on the Underground Railroad during the civil war by Jackson descendants. Isaac sired a long line of Quaker families down to William Miller Jones (b. Philadelphia, 1852) who converted to Catholicism and hyphenated his middle and last names as Miller-Jones. His heirs continue to the present day with the Miller-Jones surname.
This Jackson family had originated in the village of Eske in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the early 16th century. The family prospered, in part due to fortuitous 16th- and 17th-century marriages into the prominent Todd, Frobisher and Hildyard families in Yorkshire.
One son of the Jackson marriage to Ursula Hildyard was an earlier Anthony, who was in service to both Charles I and Charles II, and who was imprisoned for a time in the Tower of London during the Cromwellian era. He became Sir Anthony when, escaping, he went to the Netherlands to the court-in-exile of Charles II, and was knighted there by the king just prior to the Restoration. His sons included the above-mentioned Richard and Anthony, who had sided with Cromwell. Sir Anthony died in about 1666 and is entombed under the floor of the round tower of the Temple Church in the Inner Temple in London.)
There is still a Quaker population in the town, and a Friends meeting house
Friends meeting house
A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends , where meeting for worship may be held.-History:Quakers do not believe that meeting for worship should take place in any special place. They believe that "where two or three meet together in my name, I am there among...
. The town has numerous examples of Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
and one of the finest examples of a Georgian square in Ireland.
Manchester of Ireland
Such was the level of industrial activity in Mountmellick, in the late 18th Century, that Mountmellick became known as "The Manchester of Ireland". Its role as a leading textile producer during the industrial revolution of the mid 1700’s brought favourable comparisons to Manchester, the industrial centre of England at the time.Deciduous woodlands, which once covered Laois, provided a ready source of bark for a tanning industry, which converted animal hides into leather. William Edmundson (1627–1712).
The first Quaker to settle in Mountmellick owned a tannery, and the Goodbodys and Pim families also owned tanneries in the 19th century.
Towards the end of the 18th Century, the textile industry grew significantly. A number of large mills were opened in the 1780s. These produced the necessary raw materials to develop weaving as an important cottage industry, providing many households with a secondary source of income to supplement agricultural incomes. By 1837 it was estimated that 4,000 persons were employed in the cotton and woollen business, in the Mountmellick area.
The three main centres of this industry were established at New Mills in Drinagh, Barkmills, near Ballyfin and Anngrove in Irishtown. Initially these mills were powered by water, but steam engines were gradually introduced during the 19th Century.
In 1801, there were five breweries in Mountmellick and these supplied beer to towns within a 25 mile radius. These breweries declined as larger breweries, elsewhere, developed their distribution on the railways and canals. As abstinence became popular in the second half of the 19th Century, there was a shift from brewing to malting.
The first bank in the town was opened 1824 and the first modern sugar factory in Ireland was opened in Mountmellick in 1852. It was situated behind the present MDA building in Irishtown. Despite its huge aspirations, economic factors dictated its closure in 1862.
Two malting enterprises in Irishtown were developed by the Codd family in the early 20th century and malt production still takes place in Mountmellick today.
The Great Famine
The population of the town declined by 35% from 4,800 to 3,120 between 1845 and 1850. A further 3000 people lived in close proximity to the town in 1841. Many of these were also affected.Up to this time, Mountmellick had been an extensive manufacturing town, but as the famine took grip, employment plummeted and money became very scarce. Food prices increased by 300%. People caught in a poverty trap became hungry and destitute. Diseases, such as typhus and cholera took grip and more people in Mountmellick died from a fever epidemic at the time than from the famine itself.
Aid relief was sent from various parts of the world to help the starving Irish. The Quakers were among the most active in famine relief initiatives and they opened soup kitchens throughout the country.
The Poor Law Union built a workhouse in Mountmellick in 1839. The workhouse was situated, on the site where St. Vincent's Hospital now stands.
It was built to feed and accommodate 800 paupers, but at the height of famine in 1847, ("Black '47"), there were 1,500 people there. To deter people, the workhouses were as unattractive as possible. Husbands, wives and children were separated on entry and, often, they never saw each other again.
Mass burial sites were dug to bury the victims. A cart of famine victims was brought daily from the workhouse to pit graves in the townsland of Derryguile, one mile outside Mountmellick. A field, now known as "Reilig" (Gaelic for grave) in the townsland of Graigue is also known to have been a famine burial site.
At the time of the Famine Mountmellick had 8,000 people. Famous families who left at this time, or earlier, during the late 17th century, include the Newlins
Newlin Mill Complex
The Newlin Mill Complex, a water powered gristmill on the west branch of Chester Creek near Concordville, Pennsylvania, USA, was built in 1704 by Nathaniel and Mary Newlin and operated commercially until 1941. During its three centuries of operation, the mill has been known as the Lower Mill, the...
(who went to Chester County, Pennsylvania), Pims, Bewleys, and Dennys. Many of the earlier Quakers emigrated from Mountmellick to Pennsylvania.
Mountmellick Lace
According to tradition, in 1825, a Quaker named Joanna Carter introduced what later became known as Mountmellick embroideryMountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
. This became one of the most popular forms of needlework during the 19th century. The first known sale of the product was to the Earl of Dunraven
Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl
Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 5 February 1822 for Valentine Quin, 1st Viscount Mount-Earl. Quin was created a Baronet, of Adare in County Limerick, in the Baronetage of Ireland, in 1781, Baron Adare in 1800 and Viscount Mount-Earl in 1816...
(Lord Adare) of Limerick in 1847.
Although Joanna Carter is credited with its introduction little is known about her. It has been traditionally assumed that she had been a Quaker. However an educational report of 1824, describes her as a Protestant, which may have meant that she belonged to the Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
. She ran a small school in a thatched house and had fifteen girls, eight of whom were members of the Church of Ireland and seven Catholics. Her annual income was £9 per year. Although the precise location of her home is not known, we know from the 'Primary Valuation of Tenements' that a John Carter lived in a house in Pond Street, Mountmellick in 1850. This is the only recorded Carter for the town at this period. In the report on the Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853, she was referred to as, 'Carter, J Mountmellick, Queen's County, Designer and Manufacturer, embroidered quilt, toilet cover and doileys.' The report also stated that Mrs Carter was responsible for the design and execution of a richly embroidered quilt exhibited by the Countess of Eglinton. It is not clear that she was a native of Mountmellick. Another woman associated with its early development was Margaret Beale (1809–1877), an accomplished lacemaker, originally from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. She was married to Joseph Beale, a prominent manufacturer in the town.
Mountmellick was a significant industrial town before the Famine of the mid-19th century, when it was known as 'little Manchester'. This was partly thanks to the Grand Canal
Grand Canal of Ireland
The Grand Canal is the southernmost of a pair of canals that connect Dublin, in the east of Ireland, with the River Shannon in the west,via Tullamore and a number of other villages and towns, the two canals nearly encircling Dublin's inner city. Its sister canal on the Northside of Dublin is the...
, the Mountmellick branch of which is now filled in. Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
, also known as Mountmellick Lace, became one of the most popular forms of needlework during the 19th century, and early examples fetch high prices on the international market. The local museum displays original pieces of this craftwork.
Mountmellick work had been particularly popular in the decoration of the following products: toilet covers, night-dresses, sachets, dressing table mats, comb and brush bags, quilt and pillow shams and pin cushions.
The history of needlework in Mountmellick before the 19th century is unclear. However, when the Society of Friends opened their school in Mountmellick in 1786, the girls were instructed in needlework to earn money for their textbooks. There appear to have been strong links between Mountmellick embroidery and the Quaker Leinster Provincial School in the town. They fostered the tradition of embroidery by both teaching it and adapting their own designs. A government school report of 1858 recorded that plain and fancy needlework was being taught at the School. The same report also noted that plain and fancy needlework was taught to girls at the Church of Ireland School Mountmellick. The Presentation order was heavily involved in the promotion of the craft. In 1920 when the Quaker school closed, the Presentation Sisters moved into the school and continued its embroidery tradition.
Four possible sources of influence on the origins on Mountmellick embroidery have been suggested. The most likely influence was crewel embroidery, because of the similarity of the stitches. (Crewel is fine worsted yarn used for embroidery and tapestry.) She may have found inspiration for her many varied designs from the abundance of flora nestled in the hedgerows and riverbanks of the Owenass river. A less likely source was that the craft originated in France and was taken to Ireland by the Huguenots. Some Huguenots did in fact settle in the nearby town of Portarlington. The third theory is that Joanna Carter may have been connected with or influenced by a Sister Carter from Fulneck, England, who started teaching embroidery at a Moravian settlement in Co Antrim in 1793. It is unlikely that the two were related. Finally the presence of the cotton industry in the town must have been an influence on its development.
About 1880, a Mrs Milner started an industrial association in Mountmellick to provide a livelihood 'for distressed Irish gentlewomen'. By 1890, it is known to have had fifty women employed in producing the embroidery. This seems to have led to an upsurge in interest in it. It was taken up by women throughout the country; as a consequence, it ceased to be just a local craft. A Mrs Florance Patterson, an architect from Craigivad, Co Down, was an expert in needlework, including Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
. At this time it seems that Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
was gaining international recognition. For example, in 1885, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, visited Ireland and the industrial association presented her with a dressing-table cover in Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
. Between 1890 and 1898, Weldon, a London publisher, produced four volumes called 'Weldon's Practical Mountmellick embroidery'. Altogether, Weldon published eight volumes on the subject and helped to make the embroidery extremely popular. Barour's Prize Needle-Work series, published in Boston, in the United States, in the 1890s included a section on Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
. One consequence of its increased popularity was that the emphasis changed from its being a source of income for the poor to being a middle-class social pastime.
The production of Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
and other forms of needlework began to decline during the 19th century. By 1907, the number of people employed in the production of the embroidery had fallen from fifty to eight. Despite this, it maintained an international reputation for quality, style and durability. In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
was presented with a white Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
quilt by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland.
The tradition of Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery
Mountmellick embroidery or Mountmellick work is a floral whitework embroidery originating from the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland in the early nineteenth century.-History:...
lives on today due to the work of Sr Teresa Margaret, who taught herself the traditional techniques, and until recently held weekly classes in at the Mountmellick Development Association building.
The Tree
The town is known for its artificial Christmas tree, locally claimed to be the biggest year-round Christmas tree in Europe and the second biggest in the world – although it is, in fact, a metal structure and not a real tree. The lighting of the tree has in the past garnered extensive coverage from RTÉRTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
the national television broadcaster
Mountmellick has had a Christmas tree located in O'Connell Square since 1956.
An indication of the size of the first Christmas tree can be judged by the fact that it was transported by ass and cart into O'Connell Square. In the ensuing years larger trees were erected until 1961, when it was necessary to put a manhole in the square to take these larger trees.
In 1969 a pole structure was used instead of the original live tree.
In 1983 a permanent steel structure was put in place with a skeleton framework, which enabled the wiring to be standardized, and it is this structure that is in use to the present day. It is necessary every year to dress the tree with branches to give an authentic look.
A switching arrangement was later introduced for the lights, which became more intricate over the years. In 1963 the switching arrangements were finialised and are the same today, other than changed designs introduced in 1968.
Education
Mountmellick has four primary schools: St Joseph's Girls' National School and St Patrick's Boys' National School, built in 1973, which share a building; St Paul's National School on the Portlaoise Road, and The Rock National School, St Patricks Boys School one mile out on the Dublin road. There is also a Community SchoolCommunity school
The term "community school" refers to types of publicly funded school in England, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to a school that serves as both an educational institution and a centre of community life. A community school is both a place and a...
in the town square, serving secondary
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
-age students. Until its recent closure the nearby secondary school, Patrician College Ballyfin, had a substantial portion of its students travel from Mountmellick by bus each day.
Economic activity
The town's main industries are agricultureAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, light manufacturing and brewing
Brewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
. It serves as a dormitory town for nearby Portlaoise and for Dublin, with easy access to the M7 motorway
M7 motorway (Republic of Ireland)
The M7 motorway is a motorway in Ireland. The motorway runs continuously from the outskirts of Naas in County Kildare to Rossbrien on the outskirts of Limerick City. The M7 forms part of the Dublin to Limerick N7 national primary road. The section of the motorway bypassing Naas, an 8 km...
and Dublin-Cork railway line. This has led to the population of Mountmellick expanding rapidly in recent years and also to an unprecedented increase in new houses and several new housing estates.
Sport
Mountmellick is a town rich in sporting activity. Mountmellick GAAMountmellick GAA
Mountmellick GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association gaelic football and hurling club in the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland.In 2006, Mountmellick bridged a 38 year gap to win the Laois Intermediate Football Championship for just the second time ever, beating Annanough in the...
is the town's club for Gaelic football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
and hurling
Hurling
Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and...
, while other nearby Gaelic games
Gaelic games
Gaelic games are sports played in Ireland under the auspices of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The two main games are Gaelic football and hurling...
clubs are The Rock GAA
The Rock GAA
The Rock GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association gaelic football club based just outside the town of Mountmellick in County Laois, Ireland.The club was founded in 1970 and colours are red and black....
and Kilcavan
Kilcavan
Kilcavan GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association gaelic football club in County Laois, Ireland.Founded in 1946, the club colours are maroon and white...
.
Transport
- Mountmellick railway station opened on 2 March 1885, closed for passenger traffic on 27 January 1947, and closed altogether on 1 January 1963.
- Mountmellick is on Bus EireannBus ÉireannBus Éireann provides bus services in Ireland with the exception of those operated entirely within the Dublin Region, which are provided by Dublin Bus. Bus Éireann, established as a separate company in 1987, is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. The logo of Bus Éireann incorporates a red Irish...
Athlone to WaterfordWaterfordWaterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...
bus route, with three daily services in each direction. - Mountmellick is on the Townlink bus route, with daily connections to Portlaoise and TullamoreTullamoreTullamore is a town in County Offaly, in the midlands of Ireland. It is Offaly's county town and the centre of the district.Tullamore is an important commercial and industrial centre in the region. Major international employers in the town include 'Tyco Healthcare' and 'Boston Scientific'. In...
.
Notable people
- James Jeffrey RocheJames Jeffrey RocheJames Jeffrey Roche was an Irish-American poet, journalist and diplomat. Roche was taken to the United States as a young child, and grew up in Prince Edward Island...
- 19th century Irish-American poet and diplomat, born in Mountmellick
See also
- List of towns and villages in Ireland