About the town » Sligo, Sligo, Connacht, Ireland

Sligo is the county town and the most populous urban area in County Sligo, Ireland. With a population of 19,452 in 2011, it is the second-largest urban centre in the province of Connacht, after Galway. Sligo is a major economic, educational, administrative and cultural centre of Ireland's Border Region, a region of over 500,000 people which comprises the counties of Sligo, Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth. Sligo is a major commercial port on the west coast of Ireland and the country's most northerly on the Atlantic Ocean. In recent years, Sligo and its surrounding suburbs have experienced significant economic and population growth; over the last decade, Sligo was the fastest-growing settlement in the Border Region. The town is also one of Ireland's most important tourist destinations, owing mainly to the renowned natural beauty of the surrounding countryside and its literary and cultural associations, which include significant ties to poet and Nobel laureate W. B. Yeats and writer Spike Milligan.