HISTORY TRAIL LAUNCH
A whole new quirky side of Sligo town is about to be revealed to locals and tourists alike with the launch this Thursday of a new Historical Trail.
Spearheaded by Jim Lawlor, Chairman of Sligo Tidy Towns Heritage Project Team, Phase 1 of the project will see seven of twenty plaques unveiled at seven locations commemorating Sligo’s people and places of note.
‘ Dracula’ author Bram Stoker’s mother used to live in the building now occupied by Louis Doherty’s furniture shop on Teeling Street - it used to be a RIC police barracks at the height of the Cholera outbreak in 1832.
Charlotte Matilda Blake Thornley’s father was an RIC Sub- Inspector stationed there during the cholera epidemic.
Stoker’s famous vampire novel was said to have been inspired by his mother Charlotte’s bedtime stories of the Cholera in Sligo.
Other people to be honoured include Col. William Gregory Wood Martin with two plaques at Doorly Park Gate Lodge and Sligo Racecourse Gate Lodge - the last remaining buildings of his estate.
William Pollexfen will be commemorated with a plaque at Solicitor Gerry McCanny’s premises on Wine Street. Martin Moffatt, who was awarded a Victoria Cross in World War I will be commemorated with a plaque at 21 Emmett Place and former Sligo Mayor Bernard Colleary will have a plaque erected outside Hargadons on O’Connell Street.
Other buildings to receive plaques as part of the Historical Trail include the Town Hall, Sligo Courthouse, Sligo Gaol, Sligo Abbey, the Cathedral ( RC) and St John’s CoI Cathedral, Yeats Memorial Building, Gillooley Hall, Hyde Bridge, the Linen Hall, the Model School, the Green Fort, Abbeyquarter Passage Tomb and the Masonic Lodge on the Mall.
Local historians, Sligo Field Club, Fáilte Ireland, Sligo BID, Sligo Tourism and Sligo County Council were all involved.
The launch takes place at 4pm in the Yeats Memorial Building this Thursday 1st June.