SNIPPET: The workhouse of Donaghmore is a range of two-storey buildings of grey limestone, built in 1853 to feed and house 400 paupers. It closed its doors in 1886, but the buildings survived and in 1993 they were opened officially as the Donaghmore Workhouse Museum. Refurbishment and adding to the collections is in progress all the time. Part of the complex now houses a fine display of horse-drawn farm implements and a wide selection of local household goods, many of them bringing back happy childhood memories to those in their 60s and older. The other part is the Workhouse itself. Its inhabitants had few material goods to leave, but the layout of the buildings and the surviving furnishings give a grim imprssion of how the destitute lived. Morality of the 19th century demanded that males and females be segregated, so family life came to an abrupt end once within the gates. The dormitories, though spacious, had few comforts, but there was a slightly elevated floor on which the inmates slept. In their waking hours, the able-bodied men, women and children engaged in working for their keep. It was better than the starvation offered by the outside world - but not much. Northwards is the village of Borris-in-Ossory, on the main road from Limerick to Dublin. It is noted that there is now a new Heritage Trail with delightful signposted tours of 13 places in Co. Laois of particular interest. From Borris-in-Ossory the trail goes south-west through green pastures with well-tended hedges to the ruins of the monastery of Aghaboe, a foundation of the great Saint Canice in the 6th century . History did not treat the foundation with any particular deference; it was plundered and burned with dismal regularity every 50 years or so by a variety of individuals, though it was bravely rebuilt each time until its final demise in the 16th century. The next stop on the trail is Durrow, a delightful village with generous green surrounded by neat houses. Then the trail follows a narrow, winding road to the angling museum and the tiny village of Attanagh. It is a rarity in that it is actually being built by the collector himself, Walter WHELAN, and visitors can see a swarm of fishing flies, an array of rods and reels, some tools of the trades of fly-tiers, gunsmiths and poachers. -- Excerpts, Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine.