Open House is an acoustic world music phenomenon. Drawing strength from the diversity of its musicians, the group takes full advantage of its varied instrumentation, deftly genre-jumping through an assortment of Celtic, American traditional and eastern European settings. Legendary Irish fiddler Kevin Burke slips easily amongst jigs, reels... more

James or Jim Morrison (3 May 1893 - 1947) was a traditional Irish musician known at "the Professor" who was a notabled fiddle player in the "South Sligo style"." Morrison was born in 1893 near Riverstown, County Sligo at the townland of Drumfin.

John Perry is an Irish Fine Gael politician. He is currently a Teachta Dála for the Sligo-North Leitrim constituency. He was elected for his third term as a TD in the 2007 general election. John Perry was born in Ballymote, County Sligo. He was educated at Ballymote BNS and Corran College, Ballymote. Perry was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1997 and has retained his seat ever since. In 1997 he became Fine Gael spokesperson on Science, Technology, …

Peter Horan (born 1926, Killavil, County Sligo) is an Irish flute and fiddle player who is known for having developed a unique style influenced by the local irish fiddling tradition. For nearly 30 years performed as a duet with the famous fiddler Fred Finn. More recently he has performed with Sliabh Luachra fiddler Gerry Harrington and the pair released a CD called "Fortune Favors the Merry," accompanied by Ollie Ross on the piano.

Eva Selina Laura Gore-Booth was an Irish poet and dramatist, and a committed suffragist, social worker and labour activist. She was born at Lissadell House, County Sligo, the younger sister of Constance Gore-Booth. Both she and her sister, Constance, who later married and became Countess Markiewicz and a prominent Irish revolutionary, reacted against their privileged background and devoted themselves to helping the poor and disadvantaged.

Neil Jordan (born February 25, 1950) is an Academy Award-winning Irish filmmaker and novelist.

Brother Walfrid (May 18, 1840 - April 17 1915) is the religious name of Andrew Kearns, an Irish Marist Brother and founder of Celtic Football Club. Walfrid was born of John Kearns and Elizabeth Flynn in Ballymote, a village in south County Sligo in north west Ireland. He studied teaching and in 1864 joined The Marist Brothers Teaching Order. He moved to Scotland in the 1870's and taught at St.

Carmel Gunning TTCT is an Irish composer and musician, from Sligo, Ireland. Gunning is recognised as being one of Ireland's most accomplished tin whistle players who is also known for her singing and flute playing. Gunning's rich stylised form of whistle playing and tradition steams from her iconic homeland of Geevagh in South County Sligo, a region with such musical luminaries as James Morrison, Michael Coleman, …

Joe McGowan (7 January 1944, Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo, Ireland) is an Irish historian, folklorist, and author specialising in the history of Sligo.

Joe Costello is an Irish Labour Party politician. He is a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin Central and is currently the Labour Party Spokesperson for Defence. Costello was born in Geevagh, County Sligo and was educated at Summerhill College, Sligo, St Patrick's College, Maynooth and University College, Dublin. He worked as a secondary school teacher before becoming a full time public representative. He first became involved in politics in 1985 when he joined the Labour Party.

Tommy Fleming was born in 1971 in Aclare, County Sligo, Ireland. From an early age Tommy's natural singing talent was on show in local talent competitions and concerts. After finishing secondary school in 1990, Tommy played the local scene with a couple of bands but it was his meeting with composer, Phil Coulter in Westport, County Mayo that changed his career. Within a few short months of this meeting, he'd appeared at the Cork Opera House, …

Martin McDonagh (born 26 March 1970) is a contemporary Irish playwright. He was born in Camberwell, London, to Irish parents. His mother (originally from Killeenduff, Easky, County Sligo) and his father (originally from Lettermullen, Connemara, County Galway) later moved back to Galway, leaving Martin and his brother (screenwriter John Michael McDonagh) in London, where Martin began collecting the dole at age 16. During visits to Galway in the summers, …

Thomas McMahon Monaghan Town, County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland) was a member (volunteer) within the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). McMahon was convicted of killing Lord Mountbatten of Burma and three others at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland. McMahon was known to the security forces in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland. In 1972 and 1975, he was acquitted of IRA membership at two court cases in Dublin.

Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC (25 June 1900 - 27 August 1979) was a British admiral and statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was the last Viceroy and first Governor-General of independent India, and First Sea Lord, as was his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg. He was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), …

Volunteer Martin Savage (1898-December 19, 1919) was an Officer in the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army from Ballisodare, County Sligo. On December 19, 1919 he was killed during a gun battle after an ambush at Ashtown, near the border of County Meath and County Dublin, during the early stages of the Irish War of Independence.

Dermot Healy is an Irish novelist, playwright, and poet. He has won the Hennessy Award (1974 and 1976), the Tom Gallon Award (1983), and the Encore Award (1995). Healy is a member of Aosdána, and lives in County Sligo, Ireland.

Saint Attracta (also called Araght, and "Naomh Adhracht" in Irish) is the patron saint of the parish of Tourlestrane, Co. Sligo, Ireland. Her legend states that she fled from home and took her vows as a nun under Saint Patrick at Coolavin. She then moved to Lough Gara, where she founded a hostel for travellers at a place now called Killaraght in her honor. The hostl survived until 1539.

Pauline Flanagan (June 29, 1925 - June 28, 2003) was a County Sligo, Irish Free State-born actress who had a long career on stage. Her family was deeply political and supported the Republican (anti-Treaty) side during the Irish Civil War. Both of her parents served as Lords Mayor of Sligo. Pauline Flanagan had brothers who supported the IRA during the Irish Civil War. She was good friends with fellow actresses Joan O'Hara, …

Thomas Connellan, Irish composer, born c. 1640, died 1698. Connellan was born about 1640/1645 at Cloonmahon, County Sligo. Both he and his brother, William Connellan became harpers. Thomas is famous for the words and music of "Molly MacAlpin", which is better known today as "Carolan's Dream". Turlough O'Carolan, Ireland's pre-eminent composer of the 17th and 18th centuries, …

Francis Goodwin was an English architect, best known for his many provincial churches in the Gothic revival style, civic buildings such as the first Manchester Town Hall (1819–1834) and Macclesfield town hall (1823), plus country houses such as Lissadell House, County Sligo (1833). Goodwin was born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, and became a pupil of J. Coxedge of Kensington. He exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1806 an "Internal View of St. Nicholas' Chapel, Lynn".

Fred Conlon (1943-2005) was an Irish sculptor. Born in Killeenduff, Easky, County Sligo, where he was schooled, Conlon won a five year scholarship to the National College of Art and Design in 1960. Domhnail O'Murchadha, assistant Professor of Sculpture, encouraged him to complete a Sculpture Diploma. He then spent a year obtaining an Art Teachers Certificate and became a scupluture Associate of the College, …

William Higgins (1763-1825), an Irish chemist, was one of the early proponents of atomic theory, on whose works John Dalton is said to have based much of "his" work. Higgins was born in Collooney, County Sligo, Ireland, and came from a well-known medical family, his uncle Bryan Higgins was also an eminent chemist.

Andrew Graham, born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, was an Irish astronomer/computer. He discovered the asteroid 9 Metis in 1848 whilst employed at Markree Observatory in County Sligo, Ireland. He later worked on the Markree Catalogue, which consists of observations of about 60,000 stars along the ecliptic taken between August 8 1848 and 27 March 1856 and was published in four Volumes over the years 1851, 1853, 1854, 1856 respectively.

Dermot Mannion is the Chief executive officer of Aer Lingus, Ireland's national airline. Mannion was born in 1958 in Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland, one of eight children (four brothers and three sisters). He attended school at St. John's Boys School and Summerhill College, in Sligo. He went on to Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied Accountancy. When he left college, he first worked with Ulster Investment Bank for a few years, before moving to Emirates Airlines in 1987.

Bryan Higgins (1737? - 1820?) was born in Collooney, County Sligo, Ireland. Confusingly, his father (d. 1777) was also called Dr. Bryan Higgins. Higgins entered the University of Leiden on 5 October, 1765, from whence he qualified as a doctor of physics. He subsequently ran a School of Practical Chemistry at 13 Greek Street, Soho, London during the 1770s, which was patronised by the then Duke of Northumberland amongst others.

Susan Mary Yeats, known as Lily, was born in County Sligo, Ireland. She was the daughter of John Butler Yeats and the sister of W. B., Jack and Elizabeth Yeats. She taught art in London and became involved in the Arts and Crafts movement, working as assistant to May Morris. Returning to Dublin in 1900, she joined her sister and Evelyn Gleeson in the Dun Emer Guild.

Arthur French, 1st Baron de Freyne (1786 - 29 September 1856), was an Anglo-Irish peer and Member of Parliament. De Freyne was the eldest son of Arthur French, of French Park. The French family had been major landowners in County Sligo and County Roscommon for many years. He was elected to Parliament for Roscommon in 1821, a seat he held until 1832. In 1839 he was raised to the peerage as Baron de Freyne, of Artagh in the County of Roscommon, …

John Keogh was a leading Irish campaigner who struggled to get Irish Roman Catholics the right to vote and the repeal of the Penal Laws. He was of an obscure family and made his considerable fortune in land speculation, brewing, and silk trading. He owned land in Dublin, County Sligo, County Roscommon, and County Leitrim, and by the 1790's he had an income of around £6,000 per year. He became involved in the political struggle for Roman Catholic rights in the 1780s, …

Michael Toolan is the current chairman of the Irish football (soccer) team Sligo Rovers FC. He is native of Gurteen, County Sligo. He was elected Chairman of Sligo Rovers FC in 2004. He previously held the title of vice Chairman before he was elected Chairman.

Joan O'Hara (born in the Irish Free State) is an Irish movie and television actress. She is the mother of three, including acclaimed playwright Sebastian Barry, who wrote "The Steward of Christendom". Joan O'Hara attended the same Ursuline convent school in County Sligo as fellow Irish actress, the late Pauline Flanagan.

William Connellan, born in Cloonmahon, County Sligo. fl. mid-1600s. Connellan was a harper, who may or may not have composed the tune "Caoineach Luimnigh" (the lament for Limerick). He was well-known in Scotland, where he travelled extensively. There his version of "Luimnigh" became "Lochabar No More." He is also credited with "Love's A Tormenting Pain", and probably "Killiecrankie". His brother was the composer Thomas Connellan.

Luke Joseph Duffy was an Irish trades unionist and Labour Party politician, who served for five years as a Senator. Born in Gurteen, County Sligo in 1890, Duffy's first job was as a draper's apprentice in Moon's of Galway. By 1910, he was an active member of the local branch of the Irish Drapers' Assistants Association (IDAA), and he was elected branch secretary in 1911. In the following years, he was vice-president and trustee of the Trades Council, …

Irish politician John Joseph Clancy was Sinn Féin member (Teachta Dála) of the First Dáil for County Sligo North, 1919-1921. In the general election of December 1918, he was elected as part of the Sinn Féin landslide, defeating the Nationalist Thomas Scanlan who had sat for the Sligo North seat since 1909, by 9,030 to 4,242. Like the other Sinn Féin members, J. J. Clancy did not take his seat at Westminster but took part in the revolutionary First Dáil.

Marietta Farrell (born 26 October 1951) is an Irish politician. Born in County Sligo, Farrell studied in London and Northern Ireland before becoming a teacher and joining the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). A former member of BBC Northern Ireland Education Committee and the Northern Ireland Youth Council, she stood unsuccessfully for the Westminster seat of North Down at the 1997 and 2001 UK general elections.

Denis Maurice O'Conor (1840-26 July 1883) was an Irish politician, Member of Parliament in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The second son of The O'Conor Don, O'Conor was educated at Downside School and the University of London, gaining an MA in 1861 and LLD in 1866. A barrister, he was called to the bar at Middle Temple, 1866. He was a member of the Reform Club. O'Conor served as a Liberal (pro-Home Rule) MP for County Sligo from December 1868 until his death

Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, CI (May 29, 1896 - August 27, 1979) was an anglo-Irish aristocrat, socialite and victim of the Provisional IRA.

William Richard Ormsby-Gore, 2nd Baron Harlech (3 March 1819 - 26 June 1904), was an Anglo-Irish peer and Member of Parliament. Ormsby-Gore was the younger son of William Ormsby-Gore and Mary Jane Ormsby. He was educated at Eton College and later enlisted in the British Army, becoming a Major in the 13th Light Dragoons. In the 1841 election Ormsby-Gore was elected unopposed as a Conservative Party MP for County Sligo.

Dearmid O'Cuana, also spelled Dairmid O'Cuana was a priest of the Diocese of Elphin in what is now County Sligo. He is referred to by two sources as the "great priest of Elphin." From the Annála Connacht (Annals of Loc Ce) of 1248 (Author: [unknown]): :"1248.2 Diarmait O Cuanna, the great priest of Elphin, died and was buried at Kilmore."

John Blake Powell KC PC (Ire) (1870-13 September 1923) was an Irish solicitor, barrister and judge. Originally qualifying as a solicitor, he was called to the Bar in 1894. From 1904 to 1914 he was Senior Crown Prosecutor for County Leitrim and from 1914 to 1918 held the same position in County Sligo. He took silk in 1905 and was elected a bencher in 1909. In 1918 he briefly served as Solicitor-General for Ireland.