Billy Bohane was one of the greatest hurlers ever produced by Laois and was midfield on the Laois Millennium team. He won numerous senior hurling titles with Clonad and also a senior football title with Ballyroan. He won a Leinster medal with Laois hurlers in 1949 and figured in the All-Ireland final of that year at midfield with that other legendary hurler resident in the town, Joe Styles. On marrying Sadie McEvoy (Mountrath Road) they set up home in Portlaoise and he threw in his lot with the Town. He was very much involved with the juveniles throughout the 1970s and was a key figure in the emergence of the Town as a major hurling force in the 1980s. His sons Billy, John, Michael and later Brian all won numerous senior hurling successes while other sons, Dermot, Maurice and Eugene, were also talented performers with club teams. Billy and John were stars on the Laois county teams for many years and were also accomplished footballers, both winning Leinster and All-Ireland club medals.
An edited version of a poem attributed to “Little Sport”, which was contributed along with other items by a lifetime Portlaoise supporter living in Dublin, Joe Scully, formerly from Borris Road, who hails from a family steeped in the “Town” GAA tradition.
Teddy Fennelly Snr remembers the first Leinster win for Portlaoise on the 50th anniversary of the great win agains Athlone.
Har Walsh and his brother Tom both won under age titles in hurling and football with the town.
