Sligo (Sligeach, "Shelly River"), county town of Sligo county, lies in the northwest of Ireland, on a well-wooded plain encircled by hills. Most of the town is on the south side of the broad River Garavogue, which flows from Lough Gill, to the east, into Sligo Bay. Sligo is the most considerable town in northwestern Ireland, the see of both a
Catholic and a Protestant diocese and an important road junction, at the meeting place of the N14, N15 and N16. It is also the terminus of a railroad line from Dublin, with the Republic's most northerly railroad station.
The poet W.B. Yeats lived for some time in Sligo. Courses for foreign students are run in the Yeats English Language School in July and August every year.
Sligo appears in the records for the first time in 537. In 807 it was plundered by Norse pirates. It became the residence of Maurice Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, in 1245. Later rival clans vied for possession of the castle. The town was destroyed by Cromwell's troops in 1641 and again in 1645.
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