Par. Hall

Town of Portarlington was previously known as the town of Cooletodderie as mentioned in 1571 Elizabethan land grant to Owen mac Hugh O'Dempsie and described as containing 80 acres, which lieth southwest from the River of the Barough, and abutteth upon the town and lands called Bracklone East' (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, p. 51) The town is named after its founder Sir Henry Bennet, lord Arlington (Bradley 1986, p. 42). In 1666 Charles II granted large tracts of O'Dempseys land which formed the manor of Portarlington and created the borough with a corporation, weekly market and two yearly fairs (Cal. State Papers, 1666-9, pp. 220-2). This new town may have been superimposed on an earlier settlement at Cooltedery mentioned in 1571. The town grew rapidly and formed its basic layout by 1678 when it is shown in a map now in the Nat. Library of Ireland (Feehan 1983, p. 393). The town was laid out by George Rawdon and was fortified with a moat that enclosed the town and was surrounded on all sides by water. There is a market square in the centre of the town out of which the four main roads radiated out from the market square. Market House stood in the centre of the market square. The River Barrow enclosed three sides of the town from W through N to E and by a moat on the south side. The plan of the town shows triangular shaped bastions on the NE and NW angles of the town suggesting that the town was enclosed by a earthen fort with angle bastions similar to a star-shaped fort. The four streets radiating out from the market square were called King Street running westwards towards the bridge over the Barrow River, Bennet street ran North from the square, James Stree ran out Eastwards and Queene Street that ran out southwards. Around 1696 two churches were established at Portarlington , St. Michael's and St. Paul's for the English and French settlers respectively and also two schools (Bradley 1986, p. 42). The English church or St. Michael's now acts as a badminton hall and is located on Church lane at the NE angle of the square. The present building was constructed in 1832 on the site of the earlier seventeenth century church built for English settlers (Bradley 1986, p. 42). There is no attached graveyard as the parishioners used the graveyard at the old church at Lea just outside the town.