Portroe

Portroe is a village in County Tipperary, Ireland. The village is located on the R494 regional road, 3 km from the eastern shore of Lough Derg and 10 km west of the town of Nenagh. Portroe spans the townlands of Garrykennedy, Glencrue and Shesharoe.

Transport
Bus Éireann route 323 serves the village. It travels to and from Limerick and Nenagh. The bus stop is situated either side of 'Portroe cross' at the bottom of the village near Gleeson's Spar.

Community
Organisations and social outlets in Portroe village include Portroe GAA and camogie clubs, an Apostolic Society, a church choir, a Tidy Towns committee, a youth club, and the Arra Historical & Archaeological Society

The village also participate in events like Scor na nÓg and Scor Sinsir. An annual Vintage Day is held locally raising money for various charities

There is a diving club situated on the outskirts of Portroe in an area called Killoran. The club use an old flooded quarry reaching depths of 39m. A drama society also exists in Killoran.

Sport
Portroe GAA is the local Gaelic Athletic Association club. A senior hurling team, representing Portroe, won their first ever North Tipperary Senior Hurling title in 2012 in McDonagh Park in Nenagh. Liam Sheedy, who played his club hurling with Portroe and inter-county hurling with Tipperary, was twice the manager of the Tipperary hurling team.

Built heritage
The local Roman Catholic church is dedicated to St. Mary, and was built in 1872. There is also a primary school, a Gaelic Athletic Association club, and an old handball alley next to the old primary school in Portroe. At the top of the hill is a former Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, built c.1830. There are three housing estates in Portroe, all of which are social housing, and one ghost estate.

The community hall hosts a number of events, is used by local clubs, and rented to facilitators hosting classes. The pre-school lies adjacent to the hall also.

On Loughtea Hill, one of the Arra hills south-west of Portroe, a 20 metre high stainless steel cross was erected in 2002. It was raised to mark the millennium and to replace an earlier cross placed there following the Eucharistic Congress of Dublin (1932).

People
As of the 2016 census, Portroe had a population of 461, up from 411 people as of the 1996 census.

Three people from village have participated in the Rose of Tralee festival, with Portroe natives representing the county in the festival in 2008, 2009 and 2012.