James Fintan Lalor was born in Tinnakill House (Fintan Lalor always referred to his birthplace as Tenakill), Raheen, County Laois (known at the time as Queen's County) on 10 March 1807.
James was, according to Tomás Ó Néill one of his biographers, a fine healthy baby when born, but as the result of an accident as an infant, was left semi-crippled.