Sligo Port
A Marriage Proposal at the Fairy Bridges
In 1862, John Butler Yeats came to Sligo to visit his friend from boarding school George Pollexfen. He met George's sister Susan Mary and within a few days, he proposed…
Lower Quay Street
Storm surge floods Sligo 1884
The morning of the 26th January 1884 started fine and sunny, and the streets of the town were thronged with shoppers as it was a Saturday and Market day. By…
Market Street/Market Cross in Sligo town before the Lady Erin statue was erected.
The Great Liberator’s visit to Sligo
On the 24th January 1837, Daniel O'Connell, visited Sligo with much fanfare. The road from Ballina to Sligo was crowded with thousands of people who had travelled for miles to…
The Glen
A visit to the Glen in the nineteenth century
The Glen I first heard of Asenath Nicholson's travel account during my college course in Heritage and Folklore. I was writing an assignment on visitors observations of Ireland. Nicholson's travels took…
18th century highway robbery
18th century contract killers
From the archives of 1728 comes the dark tale of Captain Parks of Sligo, who is described as a Gentleman of considerable Estate in the neighbourhood, who was condemned to…
Shipwreck off a rocky coast by Abraham Hulk Senior (1846)
Melancholy Shipwreck
The Tory vessel on its return to Sligo from Liverpool in January 1856, struck rocks and sank with the loss of five lives. The owners of the vessel, both inhabitants…
Source credit: Jim McSharry via Sligo Photos and Postcards
Whiskey in the jar – A brief history of the original Sligo Distillery
Hazelwood House, an eighteenth-century Palladian house situated a few kilometres outside Sligo town, overlooks the shores of Lough Gill. The house was designed by the famous German architect Richard Cassells,…
The night a world-famous Irish tenor performed at the Gaiety Sligo
On the 15th January 1936, the world-famous Irish tenor Count John McCormack visited Sligo.McCormack was born in Athlone, Westmeath in 1884. His parents Hannah and Andrew McCormack were both born…
Knox Street Sligo late nineteenth-century
Merchants of Sligo – Higgins & Keighron
Higgins & Keighron flagon - Source - B. Higgins Irish Antique Bottle Collectors Club Facebook group A whiskey flagon from Higgins & Keighron Ltd, Wholesale Merchants, Sligo. Higgins & Keighron…
Hill of bodies
In April 1964, two young men from Cork were working on the building of a new church in the seaside resort of Enniscrone, Sligo. On their day off, they went…