Sligo 150 Years Ago

Market Cross

W.B. Yeats was born on 13^th June, 1865 in Dublin. He was an internationally renowned poet, author, playwright, senator and was the first Irish person to win a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. 

Sligo had a major influence on the Yeats family which was reflected in W.B.'s literary works and also in his brother Jack’s paintings.

The Yeats Library is currently hosting an exhibition of photographs of Sligo from the latter half of the 19^th century when the Yeats family would have visited the area regularly. The photographs were taken by William Lawrence and Robert French and are part of the National Library of Ireland Digital Collections.

The photographs are on display in the Social Zone (lower ground floor) of the Library. 

So why not step back in time and see the people, the streets and popular landmarks of the town as it was 150 years ago.