How to get there, more or less
The house below is the place you're looking for, only it looks quite different today, as you probably saw on the previous page, and will again further down.
Don't go rushing off to find your way to Tenakill House by way of google maps. There are a few problems. First, there are multiple Raheens in Ireland, so if you're searching you need to specify which one you need. A search for "raheen laois ireland", or the alternatives of leix, Éire, Eire, or eire, should do it. Except it won't.
As Lex is partly of Irish background we won't make any of the more obvious Irish jokes, apart from the fact we believe most of these are reflections of English prejudice, as various very unfunny ethnically prejudiced jokes mostly all are. Mind you, these examples of English prejudice have made several very good Irish comedians some good money. We remember with great pleasure the wonderful comedian Dave Allen.
Anyway, back to google maps and trying to find where the heck Tenakill House is, and your search for Raheen. Searches like "raheen laois ireland", or the alternatives of leix, Éire, Eire, or eire, bring up a map of a region quite some distance from the Raheen you'll be looking for. The trick is to search in Google Maps for the "Raheen National School", which is located in the right Raheen.
In the same context, if you search for Tenakill or Tenahill, google maps will tell you it can't find it. But if you search for Tinakill (with one "n" and an "i"), you'll be led astray once again, being shown a region far away from the place you're looking for - the region of Tinnakill. Oddly, if you find the locations of the correct Raheen and Tenakill, and move the map in fairly close, the word "Tinnakill" appears over the location of Tenakill. What gives, Google?
Still, if you follow the directions given below, you should find your way. And this is where the last problem arises. The last road to the old house is a private farm road, and a gate is located across it. Accordingly, if you want to gain access and see the house you must first ask for permission. For goodness sakes don't just go blundering in. After all, you wouldn't want someone wandering into your backyard, past your undies on the clothes line, to check out the old shed down the back, presuming you live on such a property.
At the time of writing, we understand the farmer is quite a pleasant chap. Indeed, we think he's still a Lalor. But don't presume on his pleasantness, especially if hordes of ignorant prats wearing Wallaby t-shirts, full of Guinness, and shouting "oy, oy, oy", start strutting arrogantly around his farm, and trying to whack him if he utters anything that could be interpreted as a complaint.
Oh, damn, now we've insulted you. We're sorry, because we know that description doesn't come close to fitting you. Because the above whackos are like all Lex's students who talked constantly in his English classes, and thus don't have the ability to read anything of more than one letter. So they won't have entered this website. Good.
As Lex is partly of Irish background we won't make any of the more obvious Irish jokes, apart from the fact we believe most of these are reflections of English prejudice, as various very unfunny ethnically prejudiced jokes mostly all are. Mind you, these examples of English prejudice have made several very good Irish comedians some good money. We remember with great pleasure the wonderful comedian Dave Allen.
Anyway, back to google maps and trying to find where the heck Tenakill House is, and your search for Raheen. Searches like "raheen laois ireland", or the alternatives of leix, Éire, Eire, or eire, bring up a map of a region quite some distance from the Raheen you'll be looking for. The trick is to search in Google Maps for the "Raheen National School", which is located in the right Raheen.
In the same context, if you search for Tenakill or Tenahill, google maps will tell you it can't find it. But if you search for Tinakill (with one "n" and an "i"), you'll be led astray once again, being shown a region far away from the place you're looking for - the region of Tinnakill. Oddly, if you find the locations of the correct Raheen and Tenakill, and move the map in fairly close, the word "Tinnakill" appears over the location of Tenakill. What gives, Google?
Still, if you follow the directions given below, you should find your way. And this is where the last problem arises. The last road to the old house is a private farm road, and a gate is located across it. Accordingly, if you want to gain access and see the house you must first ask for permission. For goodness sakes don't just go blundering in. After all, you wouldn't want someone wandering into your backyard, past your undies on the clothes line, to check out the old shed down the back, presuming you live on such a property.
At the time of writing, we understand the farmer is quite a pleasant chap. Indeed, we think he's still a Lalor. But don't presume on his pleasantness, especially if hordes of ignorant prats wearing Wallaby t-shirts, full of Guinness, and shouting "oy, oy, oy", start strutting arrogantly around his farm, and trying to whack him if he utters anything that could be interpreted as a complaint.
Oh, damn, now we've insulted you. We're sorry, because we know that description doesn't come close to fitting you. Because the above whackos are like all Lex's students who talked constantly in his English classes, and thus don't have the ability to read anything of more than one letter. So they won't have entered this website. Good.
St Fintan's catholic church. The name explains James and Peter's middle names. It's opposite the cemetery. There are two (at least) St Fintans, Saint Fintán of Taghmon (who isn't our bloke) and Saint Fintan (usually without the other bloke's a with the thing on top, á) of Clonenagh (who is). Our bloke was born in Leinster, an eastern province of Eire, around 524 (although some think he came from Clonkeen in County Laois), and carked it at Clonenagh in 603. Despite being a nutter about forcing monks to exist on bugger all, he has a feast day on February 17. Anyway, his monks complained about their diet, and we can't blame them, they didn't even have a cow for butter or milk. Fintan finally agreed to ease up a little, but kept to his starvation diet himself. It's surprising he lived as long as he did. His other rules were notoriously restrictive in all other ways as well. We reckon there was something seriously wrong with blokes who enjoyed this stuff. Fintan's monastery was a major educational centre and was called the Gallic school, from the unbelievably large number of foreign students (especially considering Fintan's fearsome rules), especially from Gaul (which largely became France). In something called St. Fintan’s well there are pebbles which it is claimed protect from shipwreck or accidental death. Goodness only knows how or why. We hope you didn't have to eat them, or shove them up one's bottom.
The road from Raheen to Tenakill. The road leading off the "main" road is private, and is gated. We're unsure just where the old house is located (we're afraid this is one of the places we've not actually been able to get to yet), it seems to be towards the end of the road. If you want to see it, you will have to ask for permission.
If you find yourself in either of the following places, you're very much in the wrong place.