Longford is the county town of Longford County

The town's old courthouse was built in 1791 to replace an older one which stood in the market square. From the cells below the courthouse a tunnel runs to the gaol which was built in 1730. Life for a prisoner was hard in the 18th century, male prisoners had to work a treadmill to grind corn, the female prisoners had to tease oakum into fibres to make sacks for the grain.

When the prison was built no provision was made for a gallows, if a prisoner was sentenced to death they were hanged from the branch of a elm tree which stood outside the prison.