"Laois? Laois."

Now that I've become more worldly and travelled (yes, I go to college in Limerick), I have noticed that very few people are aware of where Laois is, or if it is a county at all. I have decided to reply to some of the most commonly asked questions.

1. "Is Laois a county?"
Ah yes, many people outside of the Midlands do not know or acknowledge that Laois is an actual county, not just a stop-off on the way to Dublin.

2. "Is Laois in Portlaoise?"
Another popular question I've been asked. To clarify, Portlaoise is the county town of Laois, whereas Laois is the actual county. Portlaoise is just 'Da Town'. 

3. "Laois and Leitrim - I always get those two mixed up"
No, you can't just stick us in with Leitrim because we both major in farming industries, or have a passion of going to the bog and enjoy using the words Yoke, Savage and describing a person as "Yer Wan". 







4. "Why do people from Laois have a flat accent?"
If you know anyone from Laois, you have probably realised that t's and d's are dropped from words like there's no tomorrow and the 'th' may as well be forgotten about. For example, the popular brand of snack, Tayto, is pronounced as Tay-ho. The same applies for pronouncing the river Thames as the river 'Tames' and 'this, that, these and those' as 'dis, dat, dese and dose'. 

5. "Is that the place with the Prison?"
Other towns and cities across Ireland may have cathedrals, castles and historical monuments- Laois has Portlaoise Prison. People from Laois can boast that it is Ireland's only high security prison and this remains a highlight for Laois' tourism industry. Claim to fame: John Gilligan rang Joe Duffy's Liveline from inside the prison which made many Dublin listeners aware that there is such a place as Laois.