#1Famous people · Portlaoise, Co. Laois
Athletes stand out among the 46 famous people born in Portlaoise
Articles in 34 languages make the Irish actor Robert Sheehan the best known. The next two names are Seán Fleming and John Whelan. Most were born since 1970: 32 of them. The oldest name on the list belongs to Bartholomew Mosse, born in 1712, the newest to Seán Masterson, born in 1998.
Born here
46
confirmed by Wikipedia
Best known
Robert Sheehan
34 Wikipedia and sister-site articles
First
1712
Bartholomew Mosse
Youngest
1998
Seán Masterson
Most common field
Sports
28 people
What stands out about Portlaoise’s famous people
★ What stands out · Through the years
When Portlaoise’s famous people were born
The 1980s alone account for 19 of the births charted here.
SportsNotablePolitics & LawScience & MedicineWriting & ArtsFilm, TV & StageFaith
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
Known for
What Portlaoise is known for
Set against the usual town, athletes come out 1.9 times as common.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed in Irish towns. Tap a field to see its people.
The best known
Born in Portlaoise
The three are covered in 34, 7 and 6 languages: Robert Sheehan, Seán Fleming and John Whelan.
#1
#2Politics & Law
Seán Fleming
born 1958Irish Fianna Fáil politician
7 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
JW#3
Everyone
Everyone else born in Portlaoise
The rest number 43, with 28 athletes among them.
No one matches both filters.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
Nearby, Mountmellick has the most on record, with 10.
Questions about famous people from Portlaoise
Who is the most famous person from Portlaoise?
Robert Sheehan (Irish actor) is the best known by our measure: Wikipedia has an article about them in 34 languages. Next come Seán Fleming and John Whelan.
How many famous people were born in Portlaoise?
46 people born in Portlaoise have an English Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace. Wikidata places 52 people here; the rest aren’t listed because their article names somewhere else, or no town.
What is Portlaoise known for?
Among its famous people, athletes: 28 of the 46. That is 61% of the town’s list, against 32% across Irish towns.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Portlaoise?
Bartholomew Mosse, born in 1712. The youngest on the list was born in 1998.
Who counts as from Portlaoise?
People Wikidata records as born in a place inside Portlaoise’s urban area (the CSO’s 2022 urban area), a hospital or district within it included, whose English Wikipedia article agrees. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Why is someone missing?
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a county or just “Ireland”, a townland or village we don’t list, another town, or missing, or their article may give no birthplace. We only list people both sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations, how many Wikipedia and sister-site articles cover each person) and English Wikipedia (each person’s article confirms the birthplace; linked, not quoted). A birthplace is placed in a town by its own Wikidata item, its Logainm place name, or a point inside its CSO 2022 outline; a birth recorded only as one of the five cities stays on the city’s page. Ranked by the number of articles. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across Irish towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (9)
- Robert Sheehan: Luigi Novi, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Seán Fleming: Houses of the Oireachtas, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Arthur Jacob: GeneralBelly, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Kieran Joyce: Seaninryan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Bartholomew Mosse: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Eoghan Masterson: Jack86mkII, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Pat Boran: Baldoyler, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Flanagan: Department of Children and Youth Affairs, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Willoughby James Hamilton: Robinson (Photographer), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).