History of Sligo
The name for County Sligo (Holiday Homes, Sligo, Ireland) comes from the Gaelic word Sligeach, which translates to Shelly River due to the profuseness of shellfish in its waters. Human activity in Sligo dates back to 5,000 BC. Burial sites dating to the Stone Age are found in Corrowmore, County Sligo.
The countys capital, Sligo (Bed and Breakfasts, Sligo, Ireland) town, was started by the Vikings. The later Anglo-Norman conquerors built Sligo Abbey and Sligo Castle in 1253 AD, under the supervision of Maurice Fitzegerald. The castle no longer stands, as it was destroyed by the forces of Sir Frederick Hamilton in 1641.
A number of fortifications were built in Sligo (Holiday Apartments, Sligo, Ireland), as the county had crucial militaristic significance. Sligo was subject to attack from both British forces and the indigenous Gaelic clans. The failed Spanish Armada invasions of England caused many Spanish mariners to be marooned in Ireland. A number of Spaniards landed in Sligo (Hotels, Sligo, Ireland). Sligo played a leading role in the Rebellion of 1798. Combined French and Irish forces fought the British, and a memorial of Bartholemew Teeling is found in the Sligo town of Collooney. 
Connaught in the time of St Patrick comprised the whole country west of the Shannon, together with Leitrim, part of Cavan and, possibly, part of Longford. The eastern part of Co. Cavan was annexed at a later period. What is now the county Clare was conquered at an early period by the Munster men ; and has since, except for a short time during the. sixteenth century, been included in that province. The modern Leitrim and Cavan formed in the twelfth century the sub-kingdom of Brefini, the rough third of Connacht as the annalists call it. Its king, Tiernan ORourke, had made himself master of Meath also, with the curious result that Henry IIs grant of Meath to de Lacy was interpreted as including Breffni. No permanent settlement of this district was made by the invaders, though grants were given and some temporary conquests made. The greater part of the remainder of the province was, after a complicated scries of grants and regrants, given to the DE Burgo or Burke family by King Henry III the king reserving certain territories near the Shannon. These he either left to 
the Irish or divided among lesser grantees. Hence arose two counties- Roscommon, those portions not in the DE Burgo grant, and Connaught, the remainder of the province (excluding Breffni), After the murder of earl William de Burgo in 1333, some of his kinsmen seized on his Connaught possessions, and threw off all dependence on the Crown. The Irish recovered a great portion of the province, including all the districts reserved from the de Burgo grant. When in the sixteenth century English power once more made itself felt beyond the Shannon, the present counties were formed. In their formation existing political divisions were followed. Hence ORourkes lordship of West Breffni became the Co. Leitrim, as OReillys land of East Breffni was turned into Co. Cavan. Sligo was formed of the lands held by OConor Sligo and his dependent chiefs, Mayo from those ruled over by the Lower MacWilliam -one of the Hibernicised de Burgo chiefs.
In dividing the remainder of the province between the counties of Galway and Roscommon, neither the older bounds of the latter county, nor existing political divisions seem to have been strictly followed. The River Suck was taken to be the boundary for a great part of its course, thus assigning some of the lands of the OKellys to Galway, and some to Roscommon. Tlie lands of OConor Roe, OConor Don, MacDermott and their dependents, with a small district belonging to one of the Burkes, made up the
rest of this latter county.
The kingdom of Connaught persisted, in name. at least, until 1384, although greatly weakened by the feuds of the various branches of the royal house of OConor, and overshadowed by the power of the de Burgo earls.
In 1385, a year after the death of Ruaidhri OConor, the claims of two rivals for the crown, Turlough Don, son of Aedh, and Turlough Roc, son of Felim, were met by a division of the territory which was directly subject to the OConors. Hence arose the. two houses of OConor Don of Ballintubber and OConor Roc of Roscommon. It was probably intended to divide between the two competitors the rents and services due from the other Irish clans in Breffni, Sligo, and Ui Maine, and we. find for some years the phrase, Half King of Connaught, used of the rival OConors. But, as a matter of fact, the. OConors were too weak to impose their supremacy on their neighbours ; and at tlie opening of the sixteenth century each of the great clans, OReilly, ORourke, OKelly, and OMadden appears as quite independent ; while, a branch of the OConors seated at Sligo had brought under their rule the clans in what is now the County of Sligo, and were quite free from the parent house. Of the lesser clans along the western seaboard, the OMalleys were de- pendent on the Lower, and the OShaughnessys and OHeynes on the Upper MacWilliam.
