County Sligo, Connacht Province,
Republic of Ireland.
CULTURAL PREHISTORY
OF SLIGO
Note: For an introduction to Celtic
culture and the ancient artifacts of
the Celts, see: Celtic
Art. For facts
about the two earliest styles, which
influenced so many Irish artists
during the golden age of the early
Christian era in Ireland, see:
Hallstatt
(c.800-450 BCE) and
La
Tene (c.450-50 BCE).
MONUMENTS OF IRISH CULTURE
For a list of national sites of
cultural, historical, architectural
or artistic significance, see:
Architectural Monuments
Ireland and
Archeological Monuments
Ireland.
County Sligo: Arts
North of Mayo and south of Donegal on the north-west coast of Ireland, County Sligo (Sligeach) is a county in the province of Connacht with a population of 58,200. The name Sligeach means "area filled with shells". The capital is Sligo town.
Early Visual Arts
Sligo is home to two examples of medieval Irish art history. These are the Celtic High Cross sculptures at Drumcliffe, the church in whose graveyard the Nobel-Prize Winning poet WB Yeats is buried. (Critics consider that Yeats connected nineteenth century to twentieth-century poetry in the same way as Picasso connected them for painting.) The High Crosses, together with with the ruin of a round tower are the only remaining signs of the Drumcliffe monastery, founded by St Colmcille in the sixth Century. One cross is decorated with biblical scenes including: Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, and what looks like the only sculpture of the Virgin Mary and Child on a Celtic High Cross. The other cross is headless and plain. Although most of these Irish crosses are greatly weathered, and retain only a proportion of their embellishments and engravings, in the medieval period they constituted a fabulous contribution to Western free-standing public sculpture. In addition, Co Sligo was the site of the discovery of the Moylough Belt Shrine, one of the finest examples of early Christian metalwork.
