Portarlington, Laois

Portarlington
Town
Portarlington train station
Portarlington Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 53°09′36″N 7°11′24″W / 53.160°N 7.190°W / 53.160; -7.190Coordinates: 53°09′36″N 7°11′24″W / 53.160°N 7.190°W / 53.160; -7.190
Country	Ireland
Province	Leinster
County	County Laois & County Offaly
Elevation	66 m (217 ft)
Population (2011)
• Urban	7,788
Irish Grid Reference	N540125

Portarlington, historically called Cooletoodera (from Irish: Cúil an tSúdaire, meaning "nook of the tanner"), is a town on the border of County Laois and County Offaly, Ireland. The River Barrow forms the border. The town was recorded in the 2011 census as having a population of 7,788.

Portarlington was founded in 1666, by Sir Henry Bennet, who had been Home Secretary to Charles II and to whom that King, on his restoration, had made a grant of the extensive estates of Ó Díomasaigh, Viscount Clanmalier, confiscated after the Irish Rebellion of 1641. After some difficulties, the grant passed to Sir Henry Bennet of all the Ó Díomasaigh lands in the King's and Queen's Counties, and on 14 April 1664 he was created Baron Arlington of Harlington in the County of Middlesex. So great was the anxiety of these new settlers to efface all ancient recollections in Ireland, that the Parliament of Orrery and Ormond enacted that the governor and council should be able to give new English names instead of the Irish names of places; and that after a time such new names should be the only ones known or allowed in the country. In accordance with this enactment the borough created in Cooletoodera (Cúil an tSúdaire), received the name of Port-Arlington, or Arlington's Fort.

Following the failure of Henry Bennet's English colony, Port Arlington was re-established with the settlement of Huguenot refugees following the Treaty of Limerick:

Unique among the French Protestant colonies established or augmented in Ireland following the Treaty of Limerick (1691), the Portarlington settlement was planted on the ashes of an abortive English colony.