In the summer of 2000 I set-off on the road-trip of a lifetime ... to go
where no other individual had ever gone ... to drive to all of the American Sligos
... by the time the trip was complete I had driven a mind-boggling 8,800 miles —consider
these facts: the entire contiguous USA measures 3,000 miles at its widest, and also
the fact that I never “doubled-back” on myself ! It’s one of those rare times when
you can sit back and say “I have done something that no one else on planet Earth
has ever done” ... with earned contempt !
I am from a town in Ireland called Sligo. The town itself serves as the
county-seat for the county of the same name. The urban area (official radius of 1.5
statute miles) is home to 17,892 whilst the rural setting has an additional 43,002
yielding a total county population base of 60,894 (2006 C.S.O. figures)
All of the American Sligos are named after pioneers from either the hometown
(or county) who went to the U.S.A. and made their claim in the new glorious promised-land
through its latent years. In some cases a “Sligonian” dug a hole in the Earth, staked
it and called it Sligo as was the case of the Texan-Sligo. Ironically today, people
(what’s left of them) from Sligo, TX are proud to call themselves Sligoites !!!
Over the past eight years I have made great friends from the different
US-Sligos having visitied some of them multiple times. Now I’m revisiting all of
them so be sure to check back from time to time to see the 250+ year rich history
that our Sligo ascendants carved out in their new found-home in God’s country.
God rest their souls.
* * * * * IMPORTANT UPDATE * * * * *
* I have since discovered a twelfth Sligo !!!
* And have now acquired five additional newspaper front covers. I’ll post
these to the site in the coming weeks.
