WGW Sligo County, Ireland
HISTORY
This Connaught county contains the towns of Sligo, Ballymote, Collooney,
Ballysodare, and Enniscrone.
Sligo was the ancestral territory of a branch of the O'Connors, called O'Connor Sligo. Other Gaelic families associated with the county include O'Dowd, O'Hara, O'Hart, McDonagh, Mac Firbis, and O'Colman. The site of the town of Sligo has been of strategic importance since ancient times as all traffic on the coastal route between South and North had to ford the river here. A fortress which guarded this ford was plundered by Norse pirates as early as A.D. 807.
After the Norman invasion of Connacht in 1235, Sligo was granted to Maurice Fitzgerald who effectively founded Sligo town by building a castle there in 1245 and making it his residence. The Taaffe family was among the Norman families who settled in the county. Further settlers were brought into the county at various periods, including weavers from the north of Ireland brought in by Lord Shelbourne in 1749.
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As the native Irish and Norman population were predominantly Catholic, the Scottish usually Presbyterian, and the English of the Protestant faith, the proportions of these religions among the population can, in very general terms, be used to estimate the origins of the inhabitants of the county. When religious affiliation was first determined in the census of 1861, the respective proportions of Catholic, Presbyterian, and Protestant in Sligo were 90, 8, and 1 percent.
Apart from the weaving industry and some mining operations, Sligo is basically an agricultural county.
The town of Sligo was an important port in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly as the River Erne and its lake systems facilitated inland trading and transport. It was also an important port of emigration.
The peak of population was reached in 1841 at 181,000. The Great Famine of 1845-47 badly affected the county and the population had dropped by 52,000 in ten years, including some 20,000 deaths. By 1901 the population had fallen to 84,000 and is currently 56,000.
The workhouses were part of the Poor Law Union system and, in 1838, Sligo
was set up with three such Unions: Sligo; Dromore West and Tubbercurry.
Later, the Eastern and south-Eastern areas were joined to the Boyle Poor
Union.
The Sligo workhouse was completed in 1841. Dromore West and Tubbercurry
were built about 1851-51.
Minute Books for the governing bodies of each
section were kept, with only Sligo now having most of its records. About 12
books exist for Tubbercurry and one for Dromore West. These "books" are in
the Nat. Lib. of Ireland under...Cat. 926-930.
picture contributed by: Ann Chernow
chernow2@mindspring.com
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Sligo County Ireland website © Sheila Helser
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