Qualla: Sligo Town Hall

Sligo Town Hall: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geofreund1, CC BY-SA 4.0. On a September morning in 1948, an Irish naval corvette named Macha arrived at Galway harbour carrying the body of W. B. Yeats, which had been kept in the south of France since his death nine years before. From Galway, the cortège drove north to Sligo - there was no deep harbour in Sligo for the vessel to dock. A guard of honour was posted on the steps of Sligo Town Hall on Quay Street as the cortège passed. The Lombard Romanesque tower rose behind the soldiers, its clock - paid for by the Harbour Commissioners so they could keep an eye on shipping - already over seventy years old. The poet was on his way north to Drumcliff churchyard, beneath the shadow of Benbulbin, where he had asked to be buried. The town hall has been waiting for occasions like that since 1872.

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Image: Geofreund1 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Sligo Town Hall: Built On Older Ground

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Darrin Antrobus, CC BY-SA 2.0. Sligo Corporation first resolved to build a town hall in 1825, but the money fell through and for thirty-five more years the council rented offices for its meetings. In 1860 the corporation asked the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle, to apply to HM ...

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Image: Darrin Antrobus | CC BY-SA 2.0

Sligo Town Hall: Hague's Lombard Vision

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. The foundation stone was laid by Mayor William Abbott Woods on 12 October 1865. William Hague designed the building in the Lombard Romanesque style - round-headed arches, alternating sandstone and limestone voussoirs, a modillioned cornice running the length of a seven-bay fronta...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

Sligo Town Hall: The Voices in the Hall

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Niallio77, CC BY-SA 3.0. The assembly hall upstairs - 75.5 feet long and 33 wide - became the venue for Sligo's political voice. Father Michael O'Flanagan, the Catholic priest and Irish nationalist, taught Irish language classes here and served as founding secretary of the Sligo Feis - the annual cultura...

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Image: Niallio77 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sligo Town Hall: Yeats Passes By

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Niallio77, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 18 September 1948 the body of W. B. Yeats came home. The poet had died at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in France in January 1939, asked to be buried temporarily there and moved to Drumcliff "when a year or so has passed," and then the war intervened. It took nine years and a state-ar...

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Image: Niallio77 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sligo Town Hall: After 2014

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Clarke at English Wikipedia, Public domain. An extension to the rear in 2000 added five bays and modernised the building's working spaces. The assembly room continued to serve as council chamber of Sligo Borough Council until 2014, when the council was dissolved and its functions absorbed by Sligo County Council. The Town ...

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Image: Peter Clarke at English Wikipedia | Public domain