History of Sligo
The town of Sligo was founded in 1243 AD by the Norman knight Maurice Fitzgerald and Fedlim O'Conchobar the Rí Coiced (Provincial King) of Connacht.
Ancient settlement has centred on the bay of Sligo since the first human presence in the area roughly 8000 BC, as shown by extensive shell middens dating back to the Mesolithic era.
An outlier of the extensive early Neolithic cemetery at Carrowmore is on the south bank of the Garavogue river above a fording point.
[1] The area was densely enough settled to be known to Greek and Roman trading vessels, being marked on Ptolemy's co-ordinate map of the 2nd century AD, where it is entered as the town of Nagnata.
"That there were woods along the Sligo river," which is mentioned in Tírecháns Life of Patrick, wherein the saint prophesied that in later times the sea would force people to move from the early church site of Killaspugbrone near Strandhill to the present location of the town further upriver.
With the Norman invasion of Connacht in 1236 AD by the French speaking Cambro-Norman knights, known as Galls (Gauls) to the Irish came a new type of settlement.
Sligo, accessible by sea, and a sheltered port was ideal for Norman military strategy as they, descendants of Vikings, relied on amphibious operations to supply and reinforce their armies.
[3] After the arrival of the justiciar (representative) of the King of England, Maurice Fitzgerald land was granted to the clergyman Clarus MacMailenn of Lough Cé intended for the construction of a hospital.
Fedlim O'Conchobar, King of Connacht was ordered to build a castle by Maurice Fitzgerald, the Norman baron and warrior.
They also brought their extensive merchant contacts with England, France and Spain which enhanced the wine trade and led to the development of the medieval Sligo port.
Sligo town flourished during the Gaelic revival in the 14th and 15th centuries, trading with Galway and with French, Spanish and English merchants.
[4] At this time, Sligo was a prosperous trading port, exporting fish, wool, cow hide, and timber, while importing wine, salt and iron.
The Leabhar na hUidhre, or Book of the Dun Cow, was kept in Sligo for 170 years after being taken from Tírconaill as ransom for the capture of the members of the clan who had been taken prisoner by Cathal Óg O'Connor.
During the latter half of the 16th century, Sligo was targeted by the Elizabethan administration in Dublin as a strategic location for anyone attempting to control the northwest.
The town now became caught between three different power blocs, the Earls of Clanricard to the west, the O'Donnell confederation Tírconaill to the north, and the Dublin government under the English Crown in the east.
Under pressure from the O'Donnell's to the north, and the Clanricard Burkes to the south, in 1567, under the policy of surrender and regrant Domhnall O' Conchobar signed an agreement with Henry Sidney, agreeing to pay a set rent in exchange for protection.
In 1577 Sir Nicholas Malby, the English President of Connacht, reported that merchants based in Sligo had requested the building of town walls.
[5] In 1588 three ships of the Spanish Armada's Levant squadron were lost off the coast of Streedagh beach in the north of the present county Sligo.
Unhappy with the changed power structure, the local Gaelic nobility rose up during the 1641 rebellion, reestablishing the Irish tuath system.
According to later depositions, a number of Protestant settlers within the town, were committed to the local gaol for their own safety, but were later allegedly massacred by a drunken mob.
The poem book Leabhar Cloinne Aodha Buidhe was written in Sligo in 1680 for Cormac O’ Neill by the poet Rúairí Ó hUigínn.
[6] 18th century politics were dominated by the big landlords, mostly of military background, such as the Wynnes, who bought a 15,000 acre estate which included the town.
Other large landowners were the Coopers of Markree, and the Gore Booths of Lissadell Bliain an Áir (The Year of Destruction) struck in 1740.
In Maynooth Irish MS B 8, Gaelic learning continued with Henry MacCarrick, a merchant and scholar of Sligo town, who lived on High street and copied the Cuimre na nGeneleach.
An example of the type of trade is shown by the shipwreck, on 4 November 1807, of the Portuguese brigantine Harmonia on voyage from Oporto to Sligo with cork, wine and oranges.
On the 9th of August 1847 the vessel Bark Larch arrived at the quarantine station at Grosse Isle, Canada from Sligo with 440 on board, of these, 150 were sick and 108 were dead.
Sligo experienced rapid industrialisation during the 19th century, with many public buildings erected during this era including the town hall, Ulster bank, courthouse.
Indicative of conditions at the time are the reports of a 1901 Local Government Inspector who noted for Corkrans Mall a Slaughter house with large manure heap inside, diapidated, badly drained, and lying below the level of an adjoining cemetery.
In 1911 the ITGWU began organising workers in the town into a unified bloc after the Sligo Trades Council invited Walter Carpenter to speak.
[11] Partition cut the town off from an extensive part of its hinterland in west Fermanagh and south Tyrone and trading contacts with Enniskillen and Belfast.
