Back in 2014 Sligo County Council, in conjunction with The Heritage Council, commissioned Abarta Audio Guides to record some of the history and heritage of Sligo Town. Abarta enlisted the help of local actor and Blue Raincoats stalwart Ciaran McCauley to lend his voice to these recordings which are still available to Download or stream directly from the Abarta Heritage website.
The audio guide runs to just over an hour and is split in 15 separate sections, making it easy to navigate to a specific section. Though it doesn’t exactly match the Tour of Sligo Town as its outlined on this site, its easy to skip to landmarks such as the Town Hall, Yeats Memorial Building or The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, to listen to their individual histories.
The guide is a great resource not just for Sligonians who may not be aware of some of the towns history, ever wondered how Wine Street got its name, but also for visitors to the town, offering them an insight into its rich history. The guide will take you on a journey from the towns early origins, through its associations with Queen Maeve and William Butler Yeats, to its current role as a major economic hub for the North West.
Ciaran was recently busy with Beckett Hazelwood, The Blue Raincoats sellout series of performances at the old factory space on the Hazelwood estate, and will soon be adjudicating a series of one act plays at the Western Drama Festival in Tubbercurry. This years festival takes place on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of November, details can be found on their facebook page. Ciaran will also soon be returning to his role at IT Sligo where he teaches the Physical Theatre module of the B.A. Performing Arts course.
A native of Strandhill, Ciaran was delighted to have the opportunity to add his voice to this unique guide and still holds fond memories of his performance in the recording studios, it being one of the few occasions where he didn’t have any lines to learn!
Thanks to Steve Rogers who took the photo of Ciaran on the shoreline at Mullaghmore as part of the promotion for The Blue Raincoats series of outdoor performance of Yeats’ An Baile’s Strand.