Profile: Peter Fennell
I feel lucky to have witnessed “The Town” during the ‘60s, reborn in the ‘70s, through to an All-Ireland club title in football in 1983 right up to recent years and last year winning the ninth title in a row.
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.
More Club History To Explore
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Profile: Walsh Brothers of Borris Road
Har Walsh and his brother Tom both won under age titles in hurling and football with the town.
The Move
In the Summer of 1998 Portlaoise Senior Hurlers were in the midst of their preparations for a senior Hurling Championship game. Seamus “Cheddar” Plunkett was our manager then and, as the Players togged out in the dressing room, he was pacing the side of the main pitch waiting for a juvenile football match to finish so he could set out his cones and drills.
