Here we are in the lovely town of Sligo on the west coast of Ireland. It’s a reasonable sized town with a population of just over 20 thousand but to give you some idea of how that measures up in Irish terms, It’s the 24th largest urban centre in the country… but, the largest in the County.
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The river is called the Garavogue River. That is, it is these days! In fact it was called the river Sligeach for centuries before and so it was the river that gave its name to the town, which when anglicised became Sligo. In fact in means ‘abounding in shells’ and relates to the abundance of shellfish found in the estuary.
We walk up to the Abbey gates before turning and coming back down into the town, as we've visited it in another film. It’s a fantastic Norman building dating from 1252, you can check that out by watching Naked Ireland’s Sligo Abbey video:
• MUST-SEE SLIGO ABBEY!!...
We visit Teeling street next and the impressive Sligo Courthouse, built in 1878 and designed by James Rawson Carroll in the French Gothic style.
However, as we turn to go back down Teeling Street you can see that there are a lot of buildings around here that are in need of serious renovation.
That aside, Sligo has much to commend it. It’s perhaps not as beautiful as Galway or Westport here in the west, but it has a lot to offer and some lovely areas as we’ll see. It also plays host to several festivals each year, among them, for music lovers, the Sligo Jazz Project in July and the Sligo baroque festival (or should I say Bar - oak) for the Americans watching. That one takes place last weekend in September. Sligo is popular during the tourist season. I’m visiting in October so we’re out of season and its consequently a lot quieter, but if you come here in July and Aug, expect it to be hiving with people. There’ll be a great vibe here in the town, and if the weather’s good you have the beaches of Strandhill (now a surfing resort) and Rosses Point not far away.
Market Street is a nice broad junction marked with a very striking memorial. This statue commemorates the 1798 rising in Ireland a rising led by Wolf Tone and the United Irishmen.
Walking through the town it is perhaps difficult to imagine some of the history connected to this town. For example, during the medieval period the town was burned, sacked or besieged around 49 times. More war and strife followed in the 17th and 18th Centuries, so it all makes you wonder how there’s anything still here at all! These are thankfully quieter times on the west coast of Ireland.
Aside from the wars and conflict already mentioned, Sligo had a Cholera outbreak in 1832 wiping out a large proportion of the population and then during the great famine between 1847 and 1851 the port of Sligo was used as an exit point for 30,000 irish people who were emigrating. There’s no doubt that this town has had more than it’s fair share of misery. Those days are behind it now though. Now it has some beautiful shop fronts and in this video we can see the real beauty of this place. There are many buildings in Sligo with architectural merit.
We pass the attractive Sligo Post Office and arrive at the junction of Wine Street. Why wine street, that’s a good question, if you know the answer to that please let me know in the comments. Did they really import wine here do you think. I mean the Irish drink plenty of wine nowadays, but historically we’re not known for imbibing such a refined beverage.
We cross the bridge which will take us across the Garavogue river again with the Sligo Art Gallery on our right. The strange glass building on our left, it’s called the Glasshouse Hotel. I seem to remember back in the day it was the site of the old Silver Swan hotel. The Silver Swan was the jewel in the crown of Sligo, a great place to hear music and one of the venues of the Irish showband scene. Nice location for a hotel. I always used to think so.
Straight ahead of us now is the W.B Yeats statue. W.B. Yeats is one of Ireland’s great writers - I say one of them we have a great many, including 3 Nobel Laurates for literature. Yeats described Sligo as the “domain and landscape of his poetic imagination”. A good deal of his poetry makes reference to the place and he made Sligo his final resting place. You can visit his grave in beautiful Drumcliff church, not far from here. Or if that’s not possible for you, visit through the magic of Naked Ireland, as I have a film on Drumcliff and Yeat’s Grave.
• Nobel Prize winning po...
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