Sligo

Sligo, town, Ireland

Sligo, town (1991 pop. 17,964), county seat of Sligo, N Republic of Ireland, at the mouth of the Garavogue River on Sligo Bay. It is a seaport and fishing center, with a woolen trade and other industries. Sligo also imports coal, iron, and timber; it exports cattle. There are remains of a Dominican monastery (Sligo Abbey), built in the 13th cent. under Maurice Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare. The abbey burned in 1414, was rebuilt, and again burned in 1641 when the town was sacked by the parliamentarians. Other interesting features are the Church of St. John and the Roman Catholic cathedral, college, and bishop's palace.

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Sligo, county, Ireland

Sligo (slī`gō), county (1991 pop. 54,756), 694 sq mi (1,797 sq km), N Republic of Ireland. The county seat is Sligo. The irregular coast line is deeply indented by Killala Bay and Sligo Bay. The interior is mountainous, with the Slieve Gamph, or Ox Mts., in the west and the Dartry range, rising to c.2,000 ft (610 m) in the northeast. Cattle raising (beef and dairy) is the chief occupation. Tourism is economically important. The population is less than one third of what it was before the potato famine of the mid-19th cent. A round tower at Drumcliffe is all that remains of a monastery founded by St. Columba in 575.

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Sligo

1. a county of NW Republic of Ireland, on the Atlantic: has a deeply indented low-lying coast; livestock and dairy farming. County town: Sligo. Pop.: 58 200 (2002). Area: 1795 sq. km (693 sq. miles)

2. a port in NW Republic of Ireland, county town of Co. Sligo on Sligo Bay. Pop.: 19 735 (2002)