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The Swan, County Laois

Village in County Laois, Ireland

Summary

Village in County Laois, Ireland

Field	Value
name	The Swan
native_name	An Eala
native_name_lang	ga
settlement_type	Village
image_skyline	TheSwanPub.JPG
image_caption	The Swan Inn, from which the village takes its name
pushpin_map	Ireland
pushpin_label_position	right
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Ireland
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Ireland
subdivision_type1	Province
subdivision_name1	Leinster
subdivision_type3	County
subdivision_name3	County Laois
unit_pref	Metric
population_density_km2	auto
timezone1	WET
utc_offset1	+0
timezone1_DST	IST (WEST)
utc_offset1_DST	-1
coordinates
blank_name	Irish Grid Reference
blank_info

Swan or The Swan () is a small village in County Laois, Ireland. Around 20 km south-east of Portlaoise, it lies near the County Kilkenny border where the R430 regional road crosses the R426. The village lies within the townland of Slatt (Lower), in the civil parish of Rathaspick.

History

The Swan is a relatively "new" village in County Laois, and is named after a local public house, The Swan Inn. A fire clay factory was opened in the area in 1935 to take advantage of local fire clay deposits.

Amenities

The village is largely linear, developed along the R430 regional road. There are no shops in the village, and it is served primarily by the pub, and a community centre in the centre of the village. Other community amenities include an outdoor playground and playing pitches. The local national (primary) school is Swan National School.

Economy

Fleming's Fireclays was started by PJ Fleming in 1935. It generated employment for the village and the surrounding areas and provided housing for many of its workers. These houses constituted nearly all the dwellings in the village until 2003, when two new housing projects began and the number of houses has almost doubled as a result. The factory utilises fireclay, which is an abundant local resource, to make bricks and chimney flues. The factory was rebranded as Lagan Brick when Flemings Fireclay was absorbed into the Lagan Group.

Sport

St Joseph's is the local Gaelic Athletic Association club and takes its players from Luggacurren, Wolfhill and Ballyadams. Some players of note from the Swan have included Tom Kelly and Joe Higgins, both of whom received GAA All Stars Awards in 2003. Joe Higgins also won several boxing titles, including nine Leinster and two All-Ireland boxing titles.

The local soccer team, Wolfhill Athletic, play in the Premier Division of the Carlow League. In the 2004/2005 season, the club won the Carlow Challenge cup. There is also an Over 35's team which has won their league in 2006/2007, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010.

Former jockey turned trainer, Kevin O'Brien, has established a stable in the area.

References

"An Eala/Swan".
"The Swan - Draft Village Plan, December 2007". Laois County Council.
"Archived copy". Laois Nationalist.
"League Honours". Carlow & Dist. Football League..

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

towns-and-villages-in-county-laois

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