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Sligo ( ; , 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 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 29.5% of the county's population) 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.
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.
Excavations for the National Roads Authority (NRA) 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 (beside the Carraroe roundabout) on the southern outskirts of Sligo town.
Sligo Bay is an ancient natural harbour, being known to Ancient Greece, and Roman Empire 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.
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.
During the Williamite War (1689–91) the town was fought over between the Jacobitism 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.
The Great Famine between 1847 and 1851 caused over 30,000 people to emigrate through the port of Sligo.
A plaque in the background tells one family's sad story:
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.
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 túath 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 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 County Cavan, County Donegal, County Leitrim, County Louth and County Monaghan.
The only surviving medieval building is Sligo Abbey 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.
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.
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.
From the 2022 population, 9,969 were males and 10,639 females. Irish citizens made up 79.6% of the population with Polish (542 persons or 2.6%), British (311, 1.5%) and Indian (255, 1.2%) as the next largest declared citizenships. People from other EU countries (674, 3.3%) and those from elsewhere outside the EU (978, 4.7%) were also noted.
6,522 persons could speak the Irish language. 3,410 persons spoke a language other than Irish or English at home and, of these, Polish was the most common foreign language spoken at home, with 744 speakers.
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 on Church Street and Sligo Methodist Church is located on Wine Street. There is also a small Baptist church at Cartron Village, Rosses Point Road.
The Sligo-Leitrim Islamic Cultural Centre (SLICC) is located on Mail Coach Road. The Indian Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church meets at the St. Johns Hospital Chapel, Benbullen Rehabilitation Unit, Ballytivan.
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 Ireland) 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.
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.
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 Connellan 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.
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.
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.
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 Calvary, in which a priest continues to serve his parishioners despite their increased hostility towards him and the Catholic Church.
Together with Dublin, County Sligo is one of the two main settings for Sally Rooney's 2018 novel, Normal People. A 2020 adaptation made by BBC Three and Hulu was partially filmed in Sligo.
There are also a number of junior association football (soccer) clubs who play in the Sligo/Leitrim & District league from the town. These include Calry Bohemians, Cartron United, City United & St. John's FC who play in the Super League and Glenview Stars, MCR FC, Merville United & Swagman Wanderers who play in the Premier League.
There are two nearby golf courses, County Sligo (Rosses Point) Golf Club and Strandhill Golf Club. Also just north of the borough boundary at Lisnalurg, there is Pitch and Putt called Bertie's. Rosses Point hosted the West of Ireland Championship in which future golfing star Rory McIlroy won in consecutive years (2005 and 2006).
Two basketball clubs are based in the town. These are Sligo All-Stars (located at the Mercy College Gymnasium) and Sligo Giant Warriors (whose venue is the Sligo Grammar Gymnasium).
Sligo Racecourse at Cleveragh hosts race days at least 8 times per year.
Sligo town then became an incorporated municipal borough with a Royal charter issued by the British King James I between 1613 and 1614. Sligo has had a mayor since incorporation in 1613. It had the right to elect 12 burgesses to the corporation. It was one of ten boroughs retained under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, the area became an urban district, while retaining the style of a borough corporation.
Sligo Borough Corporation became a borough council in 2002. On 1 June 2014, the borough council was dissolved and administration of the town was amalgamated with the Sligo County Council. It retains the right to be described as a borough. The chair of the borough district uses the title of mayor, rather than Cathaoirleach.
As of the 2019 Sligo County Council election, the borough district of Sligo contains the local electoral area of Sligo–Strandhill, electing 10 seats to the council.
The modern Sligo Courthouse was built in 1878. It hosts regular District and Circuit Court sittings throughout the year, and occasionally the High Court.
After 1922 the establishment of Garda Síochána.
Sligo-Leitrim divisional headquarters of the Garda Síochána is on Pearse Road in the town on the site of the old RIC barracks.
There are five secondary schools in Sligo. These are two all-girls schools (Mercy College and Ursuline College), one all-boys (Summerhill College) and two mixed (Sligo Grammar School and Ballinode Community College).
Sligo has a campus of Atlantic Technological University (ATU) located in Ash Lane. The university was formed in 2022 through the merger of: the Institute of Technology, Sligo (ITS); Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) and Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT). It offers courses in the disciplines of business, engineering, humanities and science.
St. Angela's College (outside the town proper) is a campus of the Atlantic Technological University, and offers courses in nursing and health studies, home economics and education.
O'Connell Street – the main street in the town – was pedestrianised on 15 August 2006. Plans for the proposed redevelopment and paving of this street were publicly unveiled on 23 July 2008 in The Sligo Champion. The newspaper later revealed that people were not in favour of the pedestrianisation of the street. The street was reopened to traffic in December 2009.
Sligo has a certain amount of cycleways in proximity to the town and various road traffic calming measures have been installed helping to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. The Urban Cycle Sligo initiative, for example, created six cycle routes.
Irish Rail, the Republic of Ireland's state railway operator, runs inter-city rail services on the Dublin-Sligo railway line. There are currently up to eight trains daily each way between Sligo and Dublin Connolly, with a frequency of every two hours.
The Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Search & Rescue has been based at Sligo Airport since 2004, callsign Rescue 118. CHC Helicopter provide 24 hour search and rescue using a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter.
The helicopter is operated by a crew of four, maintained and supported year round. The most northerly base in Ireland, it deals with the stern challenges posed by the Atlantic Ocean and the clifftop environment along the north-west coast. Irish Coast Guard – Search & Rescue
Bus Feda operates a route from Gweedore, County Donegal, via Sligo to Galway.
The Harbour Commissioners of Sligo administered the port from 1877 until Sligo County Council took over responsibility for the Harbour from Sligo Harbour Commissioners in June 2006.
Records show the development of Sligo's port, exporting agricultural goods to Britain and Europe, in the 13th century with the arrival of the Normans. In 1420 port dues were levied for the first time. Later, as a port under Gaelic lords the harbour continued to flourish. Control of the taxes or "cocket" of Sligo port became a sought after prize of local dynasties. Native merchant families, like the O'Creans wine importers being the most well known. Sligo traded with France, Spain and Portugal throughout the Middle Ages.
After incorporation into the British Empire from 1607 onward Sligo was an important port.Sligo County Council, 2008 During the 17th and 18th centuries, the port was used for the transit of significant quantities of cattle, hides, butter, barley, oats, and oatmeal being exported and with the city's linen exports well established. Imports included wood, iron, maize and coal. The town prospered due to the trade with wealthy merchants setting up homes along the then fashionable Castle Street and Radcliffe Street (later renamed Grattan Street).
During the time of the Great Famine 1847–1850, it is estimated that more than 30,000 people emigrated through Sligo Port, mainly to Canada and the United States.
The most notable ship companies to operate out of Sligo included Sligo Steam Navigation Company who introduced the first steamer in 1857, Messrs Middleton & Pollexfen, Harper Cambell Ltd and the former Sligo Harbour Commissioners who owned a number of dredgers used for maintenance of the Channel (McTernan, 1992).
Linen was a major export also through Sligo port, with Pernmill road memorialising the linen textile mills.
The Sligo docks played an important role in the history of the labour movement in Ireland. The 1913 Sligo Dock strike lasted for 56 days and was a precursor to the Dublin Lockout that occurred 6 months later. Unlike the Dublin Lockout, the Sligo Dock strike resulted in victory to the workers.
The port of Sligo declined during the 20th century with the decline of sail and steamships and the increasing size of cargo vessels. In modern times, the port handles cargoes of coal, timber, fish meal and scrap metal and around 25 ships per year dock in the harbour. In 2012 a feasibility study was undertaken into the dredging of the shipping channel.
The town has two local/regional radio stations: Ocean FM, which broadcasts throughout County Sligo and parts of some bordering counties; and West youth radio station i102-104FM, which merged with its sister station i105-107FM in 2011 to create iRadio.
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