The Evacuation of Inishmurray Island.

Since February of this year (2021) I have been working with Sligo County Council & Sligo County Libraries delivering a range of online programmes for communities in Sligo. One of the projects that we did in May and June was a History, Heritage & Folklore of Sligo Project. Here is a short extract from that project where we hear from Loman Conway. Loman was born in Ballivor County Meath and chose a career in teaching. He moved to Sligo in 1973 and continued his career in education.

Loman has a great interest in history, archaeology, sport and theatre. In this piece Loman tells us about the evacuation of Inismurray island in 1948. Inishmurray is off the coast of north Sligo. He talks about distilling poteen which for generations was sold on the mainland in many of the shops in Sligo. It was the main economic activity on Inishmurray. However, during World War 2 sugar rationing made it impossible to produce enough poteen which ultimately led to the evacuation of the Island.