Qualla: Ballyfin https://qualla.com/ballyfin 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/t/ballyfin-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ballyfin https://qualla.com/ballyfin Ballyfin: Introduction https://qualla.com/ballyfin/ Photo credit NL Buttonfreak at English Wikipedia (Original text: Jan Clevering)), CC BY-SA 3.0. Ballyfin means "town of Fionn," and according to legend the boy hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill - the one who ate the Salmon of Knowledge and grew up to lead the Fianna - was raised in these forests at the foot of the Slieve Blooms. The legend may or may not be true. What is certainly true is that on a 600-acre estate eight kilometers west of Portlaoise, generations of conquerors and improvers built and rebuilt one of Ireland's most extravagant country houses, until the building itself became the most carefully restored piece of Empire-style domesticity in the country.

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Image: NL Buttonfreak at English Wikipedia (Original text: Jan Clevering)) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/t/ballyfin-wp/gc6t-ballyfin-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ballyfin: The Forest and the Plantation https://qualla.com/ballyfin/ Photo credit English School of the 18th Century, Public domain. In the Tudor century, Ballyfin was part of Laoighis Reta, the cantred of the O'More clan. The O'Mores lost their land in the Laois-Offaly plantations, the most comprehensive Tudor settlement of Ireland. When Ballyfin appeared on the Cotton Map around 1550, it was a small clearing...

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Image: English School of the 18th Century | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/t/ballyfin-wp/gc6t-ballyfin-the-forest-and-the-plantation.mp3 0:06 2 full Ballyfin: Wellington's Brother https://qualla.com/ballyfin/ Photo credit John Hoppner, Public domain. When William Pole died in 1781, the estate passed to his cousin William Wellesley - the elder brother of Arthur Wellesley, who would soon become better known as the Duke of Wellington. To inherit, William adopted the Pole surname and became Wellesly-Pole. He spent most of his tim...

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Image: John Hoppner | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/t/ballyfin-wp/gc6t-ballyfin-wellingtons-brother.mp3 0:06 3 full Ballyfin: The Morrisons' Masterpiece https://qualla.com/ballyfin/ Photo credit Sarah777, Public domain. The Cootes started in the 1820s with the architect Dominick Madden. Then they sacked him, hired Richard Morrison and his son William Vitruvius Morrison, demolished the half-built Madden house, and started over on a better site. The Morrisons built a thirteen-bay neo-classical fac...

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Image: Sarah777 | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/t/ballyfin-wp/gc6t-ballyfin-the-morrisons-masterpiece.mp3 0:06 4 full Ballyfin: The Brothers and the Krehbiels https://qualla.com/ballyfin/ Photo credit Niall Kearney, CC BY-SA 4.0. Irish Independence ended the old big-house economy. The Cootes' grandson Ralph sold Ballyfin in the 1920s to the Patrician Brothers, a Roman Catholic teaching order who ran a beloved boarding school there for the next eight decades. In 1928 they added a wing. As vocations decline...

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Image: Niall Kearney | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/t/ballyfin-wp/gc6t-ballyfin-the-brothers-and-the-krehbiels.mp3 0:06 5 full