46 Facts About Sligo

Sligo is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht.

Sligo is a commercial and cultural centre situated on the west coast of Ireland.

Sligo is the anglicisation of the Irish name Sligeach, meaning "abounding in shells" or "shelly place".

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.

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.

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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.

Sligo Town was heavily garrisoned by the British Army during the War of Independence.

Sligo is an important bridging point on the main north–south route between Ulster and Connacht.

Sligo is the diocesan seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Elphin.

County Sligo is one of the counties of the province of Connacht.

Sligo Courthouse on Teeling street is an asymmetrical Neo-Gothic building designed by Rawson Carroll and built in 1878.

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, from Belfast, on Lower Knox Street and Weston House on Union Street.

Sligo's climate is classified, like all of Ireland, as temperate oceanic.

The high rainfall means Sligo is in the temperate rainforest biome, examples of which exist around Lough Gill.

Sligo is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Elphin.

Sligo is in the BMW region, an area classified as an underdeveloped "region in transition" by the EU Commission.

Sligo is part of the Border region, a historically disadvantaged area within Ireland, created after the 1922 partition of Ireland.

Sligo is a major services and shopping centre within this region.

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

Sligo has a variety of independent shops and shopping malls.

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.

Sligo was Ollamh Fileadh to the O Domhnaill kings of Tir Chonaill.

Sligo has a tradition of theatre, both professional and amateur.

Sligo is home to Hawk's Well Theatre, a 340-seat theatre founded in 1982.

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

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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.

Sligo is a location for surfing, and there are several surf schools in the area.

Sligo was administered by its own local oireachtas and the kings of Cairbre Drom Cliab until the English conquest in the early 17th century.

Sligo is part of an expanded municipal borough district extending from Collooney to the border with County Leitrim at Tullaghan and containing a population of around 40,000.

From its foundation in the 13th century, Sligo was administered under local Fenechus until the establishment of English Common law in the early 17th century after the battle of Kinsale.

Sligo then came under English martial law and eventually the common law as administered from Dublin and from which descends the present system.

Sligo provides hospital services to much of the North Western region.

Sligo has a campus of Atlantic Technological University located in Ash Lane.

Main roads to Sligo are the N4 to Dublin, the N17 to Galway, the N15 to Lifford, County Donegal; and the N16 to Blacklion, County Cavan.

The section of the N4 road between Sligo and Collooney is a dual carriageway.

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.

Sligo acquired a rail link to Dublin on 3 December 1862, with the opening of Sligo railway station.

Sligo is one of just two operating ports on Ireland's northwest coast between Galway and Derry, the other being Killybegs.

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.

Control of the taxes or "cocket" of Sligo port became a sought after prize of local dynasties.

Sligo traded with France, Spain and Portugal throughout the Middle Ages.

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.

Port of Sligo declined during the 20th century with the decline of sail and steamships and the increasing size of cargo vessels.

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Sligo Now is a monthly entertainment guide for the town – this is out on the first Friday of each month, whilst Sligo Sport is the towns sports specific monthly newspaper.