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Did you make a resolution to make time for creative work this year? Here are some tips from some very successful writers… Some time ago, (in pre-Covid days) I asked …

Note: The article contains a few interspersed hyperlinks to newspaper articles, just click on the blue text to read these. It’s incredible to think that the beautiful summer of 1995 …

It’s a good time for Irish historical fiction. Christine Dwyer Hickey recently won the eleventh Walter Scott Prize for her novel The Narrow Land, which explores the marriage of artists Edward and …

Dracula by Bram Stoker chosen by Denise Kinsella from Mountrath Library   As a young teenager, maybe 12 or 13, I read Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” for the first time. I …

For those of you who have been following this blog series, the chosen subject as this week’s destination may strike you as slightly underwhelming. On first impression it may seem …

Every school day for over two years I have driven past the new school that is under construction on the Borris Road in Portlaoise. The primary schools and secondary schools …

‘Tis the season to be read to with the abundance of Christmas Books for children available! Let us help you navigate the many, many titles available in your library or …

It is certainly not an original observation to make about New York that walking its streets is like being on the set of a movie. The city and its landmarks …

Considering I have worked in the Laois County Library Service for the best part of two decades, you could be forgiven for thinking that I could very well have seen …

When the lockdown of Laois, Offaly and Kildare was announced, it scuppered my plans for a break away to Galway.  Confined to my own county again, with a couple of …

As anyone who has undertaken research into their family history will testify, the significance which official state records play (birth, death, marriage, census) is pivotal to the process of navigating …

As exciting as it undoubtedly is to visit somewhere new, there is a definite reassurance in returning to a place that we are already familiar with and, perhaps more importantly, …

Today we have three very different books that have come out in the last few years. These suggestions were made by Julie from Stradbally library and she has some amazing …

Author: Aga Wypychowska Bardzo Ładnie Foundation “A portrait of a town where some people work, others roam around in search of Lord knows what… A town which is full of …

If the capital city of Sweden is going to be the subject destination of this week’s Following The Foos, then I feel I must hold my hands up right from …

These past few months have brought restrictions on our movements that most of us have never encountered before. As I write, we’re limited to 5 k from our homes. Walking …

Paris is one of those cities in the world which conjures up a preconceived familiarity in a person’s mind such is its revered status and its obsequious representation in both …

Since a very young age I’ve always been fascinated with meteorology.  As a child I messed around with thermometers, rain gauges and weather vanes, breaking some of the former and …

This is the second in our ‘rewarding reads’ series! Sit back and enjoy some beautiful language and musical poetry thanks to the library staff of Laois Libraries. Both of these …

There was a lot riding on this particular trip to Prague in August 2012 when I went to see the band play in the city. You see, when I made …