"Sligo Town" a Sligo Travel Page by Catspjm

Sligo is described by many Irish as 'A great shopping town'. This is not the simple factual statement that it seems. Urban shopping in Ireland is a complex, tricky and lengthy business. For a town to have acquired the accolade of being 'A great shopping town' many parts of a jigsaw must first be in place.

The first and obvious piece of the jigsaw is 'shops'. There are plenty and catering for all budgets from designer clothing at sky high prices to second hand nic-nac shops, where you can loose yourself for manys an hour. Being a sizeable modern town in the centre of a rural community leads to many large 'General stores' that cater for everything you will ever need. Here you can buy a new lap top, a kilo of cheese and order spare parts for your tractor. These days limited in number due to the encroachment of multi-national stores, these older family run stores are part of Irish heritage. When the last of them disappear, a sizeable chunk of Irish history and culture will vanish alongside them.

Piece two: Several pubs. Obviously shopping is a family affair. As the family goes shopping, it is traditional for the eldest male to decant himself into one of the many pubs that adorn the town. Here sustenance can be gained to keep body and soul together until lunchtime. A very wide range of pubs there are too. From the genuine traditional Irish pub where the entry of 'women folk' is frowned upon if not actively discouraged, to modern state of the art bars of standards to match any in Europe, back to the 'reproduction' Irish pub created to match the perceptions of the visiting American tourist in hot pursuit of his 'roots'. Try one of each for comparison sake if nothing else.

Piece 3: Car parking. Lord forbid that we Irish use public transport. A shopping trip involves loading up the 4x4, Mercedes or BMW and heading the short journey into town. (You will be amazed at the number of luxury cars in Ireland as a whole) Car parking is plentiful and operates by a parking disc system that can be purchased from the majority of shops. Failure to do so will result in clamp and a subsequent heavy fine. You have been warned!

Piece 4: Food. A 'great shopping town' should be able to entertain you to a hearty breakfast, morning coffee, a sizeable lunch, afternoon tea and finally a decent dinner to justify the ardours of the day. Sligo is spoilt for outlets offering all of the above. I shall document a few for your culinary delight in the restaurant tips section.

I hope this tells you a bit about the town, with a bit of an Irish culture lesson thrown in for good measure.