Qualla: Abbeyleix https://qualla.com/abbeyleix en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/v/abbeyleix-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Abbeyleix https://qualla.com/abbeyleix Abbeyleix: Introduction https://qualla.com/abbeyleix/ Photo credit A.-K. D., CC0. In 1790, John Vesey, 2nd Viscount de Vesci, looked at his tenants' town on the flood-prone bank of the River Nore, decided it was unhealthy, and ordered it demolished. He drew up plans for a new town on higher ground. He moved the residents up. He levelled the old place. The result is Abbeyleix - one of the oldest planned estate towns in Ireland, a grid of stone houses and lime-lined streets that has changed remarkably little in the two and a half centuries since the Viscount drew them. There is a memorial in the town center to John Vesey, paid for by public subscription. It features a water trough for horses.

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Image: A.-K. D. | CC0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/v/abbeyleix-wp/gc6v-abbeyleix-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Abbeyleix: The Abbey of Leix https://qualla.com/abbeyleix/ Photo credit dougf, CC BY-SA 2.0. The name combines abbey and Leix - the older spelling of Laois, the territory of the O'More clan. Around AD 600, tradition says, a Cistercian foundation was begun here, known later as Clonkyne Leix or De Lege Dei. The historical record is thin until 1183, when Conor O'More refoun...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/v/abbeyleix-wp/gc6v-abbeyleix-the-abbey-of-leix.mp3 0:06 2 full Abbeyleix: The Carpets on the Titanic https://qualla.com/abbeyleix/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1904, Yvo de Vesci, the 5th Viscount, established a carpet factory in Abbeyleix. It was part of an attempt to bring industry to the local economy - the kind of well-intentioned Anglo-Irish patronage that produced creameries, lace schools, and woollen mills across late-Victoria...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/v/abbeyleix-wp/gc6v-abbeyleix-the-carpets-on-the-titanic.mp3 0:06 3 full Abbeyleix: Famous People Who Passed Through https://qualla.com/abbeyleix/ Photo credit A.-K. D., CC0. Francis Bacon, the painter who would become one of the twentieth century's most disturbing portraitists, was born in Abbeyleix in 1909. His father was a horse trainer at the de Vesci estate. The Bacon family lived in the town only briefly before moving on, but Abbeyleix gave him ...

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Image: A.-K. D. | CC0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/v/abbeyleix-wp/gc6v-abbeyleix-famous-people-who-passed-through.mp3 0:06 4 full Abbeyleix: The Bog and the Walk https://qualla.com/abbeyleix/ Photo credit A.-K. D., CC BY-SA 4.0. Outside town, the Abbeyleix Bog Project manages Killamuck Bog - a raised bog of national ecological importance. Wooden boardwalks loop through wet sphagnum moss, past stands of cotton grass and bog asphodel. Bog cotton waves white in summer. In autumn the heather flowers purple. ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/v/abbeyleix-wp/gc6v-abbeyleix-the-bog-and-the-walk.mp3 0:06 5 full