Sligo Town

Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the largest urban centre in the county, with Sligo Borough District constituting 61% (38,581) of the county's population of 63,000.

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 ( ga, An Ghairbhe-og), 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 Cúil Irra 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 NRA for the N4 Sligo Inner Relief Road in 2002 revealed an early Neolithic causewayed enclosure. Built (c. 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 (beside the Carraroe roundabout) 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 AD 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 small settlement in existence at the site of the present town.

Medieval history

The Norman knight Maurice Fitzgerald, the Lord Chief Justice 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'' ('street settlement') which seems to have consisted of the castle and an attached defensive bawn in the vicinity of Quay street. A Dominican Friary (Blackfriars) 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 ( Rosses Point) 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 ( O'Conchobar Sligigh) confederation of Iochtar Connacht (Lower 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 (Irish territory) 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 (Brehon) law and was ruled by the Gaelic system of an elected Rí túath (territory king/lord), 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

Sligo Abbey, 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 (the only one in situ in Ireland) 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 (1689–91) 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.

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 (there are no records and the family lived in both Sligo and Ballyshannon) 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 (formerly the Gaelic tuath of Cairbre Drom Cliabh). 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 of the province of Connacht. It is part of the Border Region, a region of over 500,000 people which also comprises the counties of Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth and Monaghan.

Architecture

The town consists of a medieval core street layout, but with mainly 19th-century buildings, many of which are of architectural merit. The town has a High Street which descends from the south of the town and terminates in a market flare at the Market Cross, a pattern typical of Norman street layouts. Here it meets the east west road leading from the Abbeyquarter on the east side to St. Johns Cathedral to the west. This seems to have been the first street laid out in the town. Burgage plots of Norman origin are also evident in the long narrow property boundaries typical of the centre of the town.

The only surviving medieval building is Sligo Holy Cross Dominican Friary built in 1252. An arched tower and three sided cloister of the Abbey Church still survive. The next oldest extant building is the Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin and St. John the Baptist on John Street. The current building dates from 1730 when it was designed by the German architect Richard Cassels who was visiting to design Hazelwood House. The cathedral contains four memorials to the Pollexfen family, maternal relatives of W. B. Yeats.

In the nineteenth century, Sligo experienced rapid economic growth and therefore architectural change was rapid. This was marked by the erection of many public buildings. These include Sligo Town Hall, designed by William Hague in a Lombardo-Romanesque style. Sligo Courthouse on Teeling street is an asymmetrical Neo-Gothic building designed by Rawson Carroll and built in 1878. The Gilooly Memorial Hall is an austere building on Temple Street built as a memorial to the Temperance campaigner Bishop Gillooly. His statue above the door bears the inscription "Ireland sober, is Ireland free". The Model School, now the Model Arts & Niland Gallery, was built by James Owen of the Board of Works to provide education to all denominations between 1857 and 1863, it was to serve as a model for other schools throughout the country.
Sligo has three buildings in the Art and Crafts architectural style, the Masonic Lodge on the Mall designed by Belfast architect Henry Seaver, the Yeats Memorial Building designed by Vincent Craig, also from Belfast, on Lower Knox Street and Weston House on Union Street.

The former Batchelors factory on Deep Water Quay is an industrial building which was built in 1905 as a maize mill and grain silo, and used an innovative construction method invented by François Hennebique in 1892. It is one of the earliest examples of its type in Ireland.

Climate

Sligo's climate is classified, like all of Ireland, as temperate oceanic. It is characterised by high levels of precipitation and a narrow annual temperature range. The mean yearly temperature is 9.4 degrees Celsius (49 degrees Fahrenheit). The mean January temperature is , while the mean July temperature is . On average, the driest months are April to June while the wettest months are October to January.

Rainfall averages 1131 mm (44.5 in) per year. The high rainfall means Sligo is in the temperate rainforest biome, examples of which exist around Lough Gill. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Ireland was −19.1 °C (−2.4 °F) at Markree Castle, County Sligo, on 16 January 1881.

Demographics

, Sligo had a population of 19,199 made up of 9,238 males and 9,961 females. Irish citizens made up 85.1% of the population with Polish (886 persons or 5.5%) as the next largest minority, followed by people from countries outside the EU (753 persons or 4.1%).

6,299 persons could speak the Irish language and of these 1,639 spoke the language daily but only within the education system. 3,117 persons spoke a language other than Irish or English at home and, of these, 438 could not speak English well or at all. Polish was the most common foreign language spoken at home, with 980 speakers.

Religion

In the 2016 Census, there were 14,428 Roman Catholics in the area. A further 2,102 were adherents of other stated religions; 1,959 persons indicated that they had no religion.

Sligo is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Elphin. The main church of the diocese is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception which is located on Temple Street. Other Catholic churches in the town are St. Anne's Church, Cranmore and St. Joseph's Church, Ballytivnan.

The town is also part of the Church of Ireland United Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh. The primary church in the diocese is the St John the Baptist Cathedral, Sligo which is located on John Street.

Sligo Presbyterian Church is located at Church Street and Sligo Methodist Church is located at Wine Street. The Sligo-Leitrim Islamic Cultural Centre (SLICC) is located on Mail Coach Road.

Economy

Sligo is in the BMW (Border, Midlands and West) region, an area classified as an underdeveloped "region in transition" by the EU Commission. This is an area where GDP is from 75% to 90% of the EU average. It is entitled to funding from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Operational Programmes, which are administered by the Northern & Western Regional Assembly. Sligo is also part of the Border region, a historically disadvantaged area within Ireland, created after the 1922 partition of Ireland. A study by the European Committee of the Regions found that Ireland's border counties were the most exposed in Europe to the economic effects of Brexit.

Sligo is a major services and shopping centre within this region. As of 2016 the service sector is the primary employment sector in the county, employing 18,760 (71.7%) of workforce. Industry and construction makes up 17% (4,427) of employment, and agriculture, forestry and fishing 7.2% (1,868). The total number employed is 26,002. 3,843 people are employed in agency assisted (IDA) companies. Sligo borough labour catchment as of 2016 is 21,824. 92% of enterprises in Sligo are micro-enterprises of 10 or fewer employees.

Sligo has traditionally been a centre for the tool-making industry.

The pharmaceutical industry is significant with several companies producing goods for this sector, including Abbott (Ireland) Ltd, which is among the largest employers in Sligo.

Development has occurred along the River Garavogue with the regeneration of J.F.K. Parade (2000), Rockwood Parade (1993–1997), and The Riverside (1997–2006), as well as two new footbridges over the river, one on Rockwood Parade (1996) and one on The Riverside (1999). Sligo has a variety of independent shops and shopping malls. There is a retail park in Carraroe, on the outskirts of Sligo.

Culture

The culture of County Sligo, especially of North Sligo, was an inspiration on both poet and Nobel laureate W. B. Yeats and his brother, the artist and illustrator Jack Butler Yeats. A collection of Jack B. Yeats's art is held in The Niland Gallery on The Mall in Sligo. The Yeats Summer School takes place every year in the town.

Sligo town has connections with '' Goon Show'' star and writer Spike Milligan, whose father was from Sligo, and a plaque was unveiled at the former Milligan family home on Sligo's Holborn Street.

Traditional Irish music

Traditional Irish music sessions are held in several venues in the town.

In the early 13th century, the poet and crusader Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh kept a school of poetry at Lissadell north of Sligo town. He was ''Ollamh Fileadh'' (High Poet) to the Ó Domhnaill kings of Tír Chonaill. The school appears to have been dissolved after the Norman invasion. In the 16th century, the poet Tadhg Dall Ó hÚigínn wrote many praise poems in strict ''Dán Díreach'' metre for local chiefs and patrons such as the O'Conor Sligo. He was killed for a satire he wrote on the O'Haras. The annals record the death in 1561 of Naisse mac Cithruadh, the "most eminent musician that was in Éireann", by drowning on Lough Gill.

In the 17th century, two brothers from County Sligo, Thomas and William Connellan from Cloonamahon, were among the last of the great Irish bards and harpists. Thomas is the author of the tune ''Molly MacAlpin'', now known as ''Carolan's Dream'', and William may have written ''Love is a Tormenting Pain'' and ''Killiecrankie''.

Traditional musicians from Sligo active in the early 20th century include Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran.

Festivals

Sligo hosts several festivals throughout the year, including Sligo Live, occurring every October; the Sligo Summer Festival, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Sligo town; and the Fleadh Cheoil, which the town hosted in three consecutive years (1989, 1990 and 1991) and again in 2014 and 2015. Approximately 400,000 people attended the 2014 and 2015 festivals. During the festival, much of the music was played by musicians on the streets of Sligo.

The Sligo Jazz Project is held every July. Another annual festival, the Sligo Festival of Baroque Music, was started in 1995 and takes place on the last weekend of September.

Theatre

Sligo also has a tradition of theatre, both professional and amateur. Sligo has had a theatre at least as far back as 1750, according to Wood-Martins’ History of Sligo, and often "her Majesty's servants from the Theatre Royal, Crow Street …. visited Sligo, even during the Dublin season, showing that in those days the townsfolk appreciated the Drama, for in some instances the company remained during several months".

There are now two full-time theatres in the town, including the Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, was founded in 1990 and based in Quay street. Sligo is also home to Hawk's Well Theatre, a 340-seat theatre founded in 1982.

In media

Sligo is the setting for author Declan Burke's series of hard boiled detective novels, featuring detective Harry Rigby.

Sebastian Barry's novels '' The Secret Scripture'' and ''The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty'' are also set in Sligo town.

Sligo is the setting for John Michael McDonagh's 2014 darkly comedic drama film ''Cal