Local historian says figure on WWI Sligo dead keeps rising
HISTORIAN Simone Hickey says the figure of Sligo’s Great War dead may continue to rise as more names and research comes to light.
Simone, who was one of the driving forces along with the Blue Raincoat Theatre Company behind Sunday’s memorial procession to the war cenotaph on Pearse Road, said her own research ended in August and many more names of Sligomen who were killed will inevitably come to light.
“Yesterday during the walk I saw a man holding a military picture and I went over and asked him about it and my figure has now gone up to 606,” she says.
Simone described the walk from Quay Street to Pearse Road as poignant and dignified and a fitting tribute to the Sligo lives lost in The Great War.
“It brought their spirit and memory home and they can Rest in Peace now,” she says.
She stressed that in every corner of the county, men had gone to war never to return. So many people don’t realise this. Five men from Easkey for instance were killed.” The procession set off at 11 minutes after 11 on Sunday to mark the 100 th anniversary of Armistice Day.
The bells of every very church in Sligo were rung at that time a reverential silence came over the participants in the walk before they set off, each dressed in period costume and each representing a fallen soldier from the county.
Earlier, Cathaoirleach Martin Baker turned a sod of the proposed Great War memorial garden at Cleveragh Reginonal Park. The council will landscape the site according to an agreed design while the Lest Sligo Forgets committee will source and erect eight sculpted granite pieces which will list the names of those who died. Simone says it is hoped the garden will be ready for opening next July and various funding sources are being explored at present.