Call for Spanish Armada cannons to be brought back to Sligo when new museum is completed

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

An update was provided to members of Sligo County Council in relation to the development of a landmark museum, incorporating a heritage and visitor centre by Director of Services Emer Concannon who said a masterplan for the “flagship tourism project” will be completed by July.

Ms Concannon was speaking following a motion proposed by Cllr Marie Casserly who said she hoped the Spanish Armada story will be included in the Visitor Centre saying, “It is of huge national and international significance,” adding that the facility in Grange is not large enough to store all the artifacts.”

The Spanish Armada of 1588 saw three ships destroyed at Streedagh during a storm resulting in the loss of over 1,100 men. The boats were lost under the sand at Streedagh until they were discovered in 1985. Three bronze cannons were discovered around this time while severe storms some 30 years later resulted in nine further cannons being uncovered.

Cllr Thomas Walsh gave his approval to the project saying, “This is a great project, the money is in place.”

Cllr Fergal Nealon also welcomed the update saying, “It is great to see it is progressing. The cannons are on loan from the people of Sligo until we have an appropriate facility. There are a lot of historical artifacts that people have in their homes and it is important these are not lost.”

Welcoming the update Cllr Edel McSharry asked, “When can one expect construction to start?”

In reply Ms Concannnon said, “The masterplan will be completed in the middle of this year and a separate project commences then for the individual projects.” She added, “It is a continuous project.”

Cllr Michael Clarke praised the ongoing work saying, “I’d like to pay tribute to the Chief Executive. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes. If we get those guns back to Sligo it will be the number one tourist attraction in the north west.”

Cllr Donal Gilroy dampened expectations slightly when he said, “The guns don’t belong to us.” He pointed out that the artifacts discovered from the stricken ships are owned by the Irish State under national monuments legislation.

The debate was concluded with Cllr Marie Casserly welcoming the update, saying, “We don’t even realise how significant this project is.”

Article Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.