Sligo
Sligo is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre and the 24th largest in the Republic of Ireland.
Sligo is a commercial and cultural centre situated on the west coast of Ireland. Its surrounding coast and countryside, as well as its connections to the poet W. B. Yeats, have made it a tourist destination.
History
Etymology
Sligo is the anglicisation of the Irish name Sligeach, meaning "abounding in shells" or "shelly place". It refers to the abundance of shellfish found in the river and its estuary, and from the extensive shell middens in the vicinity. The river now known as the Garavogue, perhaps meaning "little torrent", was originally called the Sligeach. It is listed as one of the seven "royal rivers" of Ireland in the ninth century AD tale The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel. The river Slicech is also referenced in the Annals of Ulster in 1188.The Ordnance Survey letters of 1836 state that "cart loads of shells were found underground in many places within the town where houses now stand". The whole area, from the river estuary at Sligo, around the coast to the river at Ballysadare Bay, is rich in marine resources which were utilised as far back as the Mesolithic period.
Early history
The importance of Sligo's location in prehistory is demonstrated by the abundance of ancient sites close by and even within the town. For example, Sligo town's first roundabout was constructed around a megalithic passage tomb at Abbeyquarter North in Garavogue Villas. This is an outlier of the large group of monuments at Carrowmore on the Coolera Peninsula on the western outskirts of the town. The area around Sligo town has one of the highest densities of prehistoric archaeological sites in Ireland, and is the only place in which all classes of Irish megalithic monuments are to be found together. Knocknarea mountain, capped by the great cairn of Miosgan Maeve, dominates the skyline to the west of the town. Cairns Hill on the southern edge of the town also has two very large stone cairns.Excavations for the National Roads Authority for the N4 Sligo Inner Relief Road in 2002 revealed an early Neolithic causewayed enclosure. Built around 4000 B.C., the Magheraboy causewayed enclosure is located on high ground overlooking the town from the south. This is the oldest causewayed enclosure so far discovered in Britain or Ireland. It consists of a large area enclosed by a segmented ditch and palisade, and was perhaps an area of commerce and ritual. These monuments are associated with the coming of agriculture and hence the first farmers in Ireland. According to archaeologist Edward Danagher, who excavated the site, "Magheraboy indicates a stable and successful population during the final centuries of the fifth millennium and the first centuries of the fourth millennium BC".
Danagher's work also documented a Bronze Age Henge at Tonafortes on the southern outskirts of Sligo town.
Sligo Bay is an ancient natural harbour, being known to Greek, Phoenician and Roman traders as the area is thought by some to be the location marked as the city of Nagnata on Claudius Ptolemy's second century A.D. co-ordinate map of the world. During the early medieval period, the site of Sligo was eclipsed by the importance of the great monastery founded by Columcille 5 miles to the north at Drumcliff. By the 12th century, there was a bridge and a small settlement in existence at the site of the present town.
Medieval history
The Norman knight Maurice Fitzgerald, the Justiciar of Ireland, is generally credited with the establishment of the medieval European-style town and port of Sligo, building Sligo Castle in 1245. The annalists refer to the town as a sraidbhaile which seems to have consisted of the castle and an attached defensive bawn in the vicinity of Quay street. A Dominican Friary was also founded by Maurice Fitzgerald and the King of Connacht, Felim mac Cathal Crobderg Ua Conchobair, in 1253. This was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1414, and was subsequently rebuilt in its present form by Tighernan O’Rourke. Norman hegemony was, however, not destined to last long in Sligo. The Norman advance was halted in Sligo after the battle of Credran Cille in 1257 at Ros Ceite between Godfrey O'Donnell, Lord of Tirconnell, and Maurice Fitzgerald. Both commanders were mortally wounded in single combat. The Norman invasion of Tír Chonaill was abandoned after this. In 1289 a survey indicates there were 180 burgesses in the town. The Normans had laid a foundation that was to last.The town is unique in Ireland in that it is the only Norman-founded Irish town to have been under almost continuous native Irish control throughout the Medieval period. Despite Anglo-Norman attempts to retake it, it became the administrative centre of the O'Conor Sligo confederation of Iochtar Connacht by 1315 AD. Also called Clan Aindrias, the O 'Conors were a branch of the O'Conchobar dynasty of Kings of Connacht. It continued to develop within the túath of Cairbre Drom Cliabh becoming the effective centre of the confederation of túatha. The other Irish túatha subject to here were Tír Fhíacrach Múaidhe, Luighne Connacht, Tir Olliol and Corann. Throughout this time Sligo was under the system of Fénechus law and was ruled by the Gaelic system of an elected Rí túath, and an assembly known as an oireacht.
Through competition between Gaelic dynasties for the lucrative port duties of Sligo, the town was burned, sacked or besieged approximately 49 times during the medieval period, according to the annals of Ireland. These raids seem to have had little effect on the development of the town, as by the mid-15th century the town and port had grown in importance. It traded with Galway, Bristol, France and Spain. Amongst the earliest preserved specimens of written English in Connacht is a receipt for 20 marks, dated August 1430, paid by Saunder Lynche and Davy Botyller, to Henry Blake and Walter Blake, customers of "ye King and John Rede, controller of ye porte of Galvy and of Slego".
Sligo continued under Gaelic control until the late 16th century when, during the Elizabethan conquest, it was selected as the county town for the newly shired County of Sligo. An order was sent by the Elizabethan Government to Sir Nicholas Malby, Knight, wanting him to establish "apt and safe" places for the keeping of the Assizes & Sessions, with walls of lime & stone, in each county of Connacht, "judging that the aptest place be in Sligo, for the County of Sligo…" The walls were never built.
17th and 18th centuries
, actually a Dominican Friary, although a ruin, is the only medieval building left standing in the town. Much of the structure, including the choir, carved altar and cloisters, remains. When Sir Frederick Hamilton's Parliamentarian soldiers partially sacked Sligo in 1642, the Friary was burned and many friars killed.During the Williamite War the town was fought over between the Jacobite Irish Army loyal to James II and Williamite forces. Patrick Sarsfield was able to capture the town and repulsed a Williamite attack to retake it; however, Sligo was later surrendered to forces under the command of Arthur Forbes, 1st Earl of Granard.
In 1798, a mixed force of the Limerick Militia, Essex Fencibles and local yeomanry under a Colonel Vereker were defeated at the battle of Carricknagat at Collooney by the combined Irish and French forces under General Humbert. A street in the town is named after the hero of this battle Bartholomew Teeling. The Lady Erin monument at Market Cross was erected in 1899 to mark the centenary of the 1798 Rebellion.
19th century
The town suffered badly from a cholera outbreak in 1832. Scholars speculate that Bram Stoker, whose mother Charlotte Blake Thornley was probably born in Sligo in 1818 and experienced the epidemic first hand, was influenced by her stories when he wrote his famous novel, Dracula. The family lived on Correction Street in the town. After fleeing to Ballyshannon, Charlotte wrote:The Great Famine between 1847 and 1851 caused over 30,000 people to emigrate through the port of Sligo. On the Quays, overlooking the Garavogue River, is a cast bronze memorial to the emigrants. This is one of a suite of three sculptures commissioned by the Sligo Famine Commemoration Committee to honour the victims of the Great Famine.
A plaque in the background tells one family's sad story:
20th century
The early years of the century saw much industrial unrest as workers in the Port of Sligo fought for better pay and conditions. This resulted in two major strikes, in 1912 and, in 1913 the prolonged Sligo dock strike. Both ended in victory for the workers.Sligo Town was heavily garrisoned by the British Army during the War of Independence. For this reason IRA activity was limited to actions such as harassment, sabotage and jailbreaks. At various times during the war, prominent Republicans were held at the Sligo Gaol. The commander of IRA forces in Sligo was Liam Pilkington.
Arthur Griffith spoke in April 1922 on the corner of O'Connell Street and Grattan Street. To this day it is known as Griffith's Corner.
During the Civil War, Sligo railway station was blown up by Anti-Treaty forces on 10 January 1923.
In 1961, St. John the Baptist's Church became a cathedral of the Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh after St. Mary's Cathedral in Elphin was abandoned, being destroyed by a storm four years previously.
Geography
Situated on a coastal plain facing the Atlantic Ocean, Sligo is located on low gravel hills on the banks of the Garavogue River between Lough Gill and the estuary of the Garavogue river leading to Sligo Bay. The town is surrounded on three sides by an arc of mountains, with the Ox Mountain ridges of Slieve Daeane and Killery Mountain to the southeast bordering Lough Gill. The flat topped limestone plateaux of Cope's, Keelogyboy and Castlegal Mountains to the north and northeast and the singular hill of Knocknarea with its Neolithic cairn to the west and the distinctive high plateau of Benbulben to the north.Sligo is an important bridging point on the main north–south route between Ulster and Connacht. It is the county town of County Sligo and is in the Barony of Carbury. Sligo is the diocesan seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Elphin. It is in the Church of Ireland Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh.
County Sligo is one of the counties that make up the province of Connacht. The county is part of the Border Region due to the fact that part of North Sligo is relatively close to 'the Border'. The Border Region in the Republic of Ireland has a population of over 500,000 people and consists of the counties of Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth and Monaghan.