Buiríos Mór Osraí · Co. Laois
The old pass to Munster, where the Fitzpatricks put a castle to hold the road. The M7 took the through-traffic in 2010, and the village got its quiet back.
Borris-in-Ossory is a small village in the west of Laois, hard against the Tipperary border, 629 people at the last count. The Irish name, Buiríos Mór Osraí, means the great borough of Ossory, which tells you the place once mattered more than its size now suggests. It sat on the great pass to Munster - the river Nore on one side, bog on the others, the road threading through the middle - and whoever held the road held the village.
The Fitzpatricks held it. Lords of Upper Ossory, they built a castle here to guard the pass, and Sir Barnaby Fitzpatrick was in possession in 1582. For centuries everything heading west into Munster came through Borris-in-Ossory, which is why the place grew a borough, a courthouse, churches, and later a row of pubs and tea-rooms for the coach trade. It was a refreshment stop on the long haul south long before anyone called it that.
Then in 2010 the M7 motorway opened its bypass and the through-traffic vanished overnight. What is left is an honest single-street village on the old R445: St Mark's Church of Ireland with its unusual round-tower bell tower from around 1870, St Canice's Catholic church on the main street, a pub, a school, a GAA club. The real heritage sits just west - Ballaghmore Castle, a restored 15th-century Fitzpatrick tower house with a sheela-na-gig built into its outer wall.
Do not come here for a weekend. Come for an hour: the church, the tower house, a pint, and the slightly melancholy pleasure of a village that was built around a road that no longer needs it. Then drive on to Roscrea or Mountrath, both of which have more to detain you.