History
Until the mid-sixteenth century, Laois remained under its traditional chiefs, the O'Mores, FitzPatricks, O'Dempseys and O'Dunnes, and posed an increasing threat to the British in the Pale. In 1556, a new county was carved out of these tribal lands, settled - or "planted", in the terminology of the time - and named Queen's County (to Offaly's King's County). A new town, Maryborough , named after Mary Tudor, was established at what is now Portlaoise. None of this passified the O'Mores, but eventually transplantation succeeded where mere plantation had failed. The troublesome clans of Laois were exiled to County Kerry and Laois was left free for the colonizers. Because Laois came under British control so early, there are none of the huge estates that were later dished out by Cromwell and Charles II to loyal followers in the far west. Rather, there are smaller landholdings and planned towns, interspersed with some settlements of dissenting religious groups - such as the Quakers and French Huguenots. These groups, unlike the Catholic population, which was being persecuted at the time, were able to find the freedom of worship they desired here. All this makes for an intimate - if unspectacular - landscape, epitomizing a history of colonialism as real as anywhere else in the former British Empire.
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