New museum celebrating Laois planned for Portlaoise

Portlaoise looks set to get a new museum showcasing Laois. 

Laois County Council is looking to hire an expert design team to transform Portlaoise’s old Granary Building into a museum. 

The team’s aim will be to create a museum as part of a Cultural Quarter development in the heart of Portlaoise town centre. The old Granary Building is located within the old Fort Protector on Tower Street in Portlaoise.  

As it sits within the historic 16th Century old Fort Protector, the work would have to be carried out very carefully in order to preserve and protect the historically significant site. The team will include experts in archaeology and ecology.    

A budget of between €1.5 and €2 million is being set aside for the team to design and oversee the building of the new museum from start to sign off. The funding is being made available through the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund and Laois County Council.  

“The aim of the project is to appoint an Architecturally led design team to progress through all the required stages (design, tender, supervise, certify, handover) of the refurbishment and repurposing of the Granary Market House, to enhance both its use by the community and Laois County Council and its setting at the core of Cultural Quarter of Portlaoise,” a tender notice issued by the council states. 

“The intention of the refurbishment and renovation is to deliver a sustainable building that will document and celebrate the history of Laois and recognise those from the county who have made significant contributions to their respective professions and wider society,” the brief says.  

The design team will be required to develop a plan to convert the existing building for use as a museum/audio visual space telling the story of aspects of Laois including:  the History of the Fort Protector,  the Seven Septs of Laois, the History of Aviation in the County (Aldritt Portlaoise Plane & Col. James Fitzmaurice), Laois’s industrial heritage (Odlums), place in development of modern agriculture, contribution to medicine (Bartholomew Mosse) and the story of the early pioneers of energy production.

The council intends to “conserve, refurbish and repurpose the old Granary Building to a useful space for the public that will interact positively with the surrounding public space and be the stimulus for the regeneration of the Area enhancing its contribution to the Cultural Quarter of the town of Portlaoise.”

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The creation of Cultural Quarter for Portlaoise arose from the Portlaoise 2040- A Vision For Portlaoise- A Strategy for a Better Town Centre- report commissioned by the council. It involved extensive consultation with the stakeholders in the town between 2016 and 2017. 

“When the final strategy was published, it identified a shared vision for Portlaoise Town Centre. The vision identified is the creation of a Cultural Quarter around the original historic settlement core of Maryborough (now Portlaoise) at the Fort Protector along with a number of related core objectives, including the refurbishment of the old Granary Building,” the latest tender document explains.