Sligo Libraries Opening Hours

All Sligo Library Branches will be closed from 5pm on Friday 31st May over the Bank Holiday weekend until their usual opening times on Tuesday 4th June 2013. These are as follows;

Central & Local Studies Library, Stephen Street: opens 9.30am
Tubbercurry Community Library, Humbert Street, Tubbercurry: opens 12 noon
Ballymote Communuty Library, Teeling Street, Ballymote: opens 9.30am
Enniscrone Branch Library, Pier Road, Enniscrone: opens 3pm

You can also renew your items online (with your User ID and Pin NO) at www.sligolibrary.ie or by clicking on the appropriate link on the top right hand side of this page.

We wish all our customers a very happy bank holiday weekend.

CBI Book of the Year Awards 2013

The CBI Book of the Year Awards (formerly the Bisto Awards) are the leading annual children’s book awards in Ireland. Now in their 24th year, the awards are made annually by Children’s Books Ireland to authors and illustrators born or resident in Ireland and are open to books written in Irish or English. The shortlist for the awards is announced annually in March and the winners are announced in May.

Belfast author Sheena Wilkinson has won the 23rd CBI Book of the Year Award and is the second author ever to win both the Book of The Year Award and the Children’s Choice Award for her novel Grounded. Set in a beak, contemporary Belfast, the novel follows a talented show-jumper from the wrong side of the tracks and his struggle to cope with his responsibilities as a boyfriend, son, employee and friend. The judges said ‘this powerful first person narrative is an unsentimental account of a teenager trying to cope with a series of unexpected responsibilities, and explores the effects of caring too much and of caring too little.’ Grounded is the sequel to Sheena’s previous novel Taking Flight, which won both the CBI Honour Award for Fiction and the Children’s Choice Award in 2011.

Children from Ballymote Community Library (pictured) formed one of the Junior Juries at this event which voted for the Children's Choice Award.

For more information on the winners and shortlist please click on the following link http://www.childrensbooksireland.ie/the-cbi-awards/shortlist-and-winners-2011/

Paths to Commemoration Series

Title: Commemoration and the 1981 Hunger Strike
Time: Tuesday 18th June @ 7.30pm
Venue: Sligo Central Library
The 1981 Hunger Strike was a pivotal event of the troubles, galvanising Republican support and attracting worldwide media attention. The strike was a powerful symbol of the Republican Struggle and the event and reaction by the British Government resulted in increased tension between the two main communities. By early 1981, Bobby Sands was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. By the end of August, ten men had died on Hunger Strike.

Over thirty years later, it remains hugely significant, poignant and symbolic for the republican community, and simultaneously uncomfortable, contentious and difficult for many within the Unionist community.

Laurence McKeown will be speaking of his personal experience of the Hunger Strike. he will look back at how it is commemorated and how it has changed over the years.

Laurence will also talk about the arts works he has produced in relation to the hunger strike; the play "Laughter of our Children", the feature film "H3" and the short biography of Bobby Sands "I arose this morning".

Upcoming Events during May 2013 - Sligo Central Library

Paths to Commemoration Series - Who are the Apprentice Boys Anyway?
Time: Tuesday 14th May, 7.30pm

Beginning with the Siege of Derry, Mr David Hall will give an account of the key events and personae that are central to Apprentice Boys' commemorations. David will then look at the history and development of the Apprentice Boys up to the present day and at how the Association will carry its commemorations into the future.

Mr David Hall hails from County Antrim and is a member of the Apprentice Boys Club of Research, which is the Association's historical society.


Lockout 1913 Austerity 2013 - Book Launch by Mícheál Mac Donncha

Time: Thursday 16th May, 7.30pm

2013 marks the Centenary of the biggest industrial struggle in Irish history - the Great Lockout of 1913. This was culmination of similar strikes and lockouts in Dublin and across Ireland - including in Sligo - as the ITGWU and other unions sought to vindicate workers' rights. The long and bitter dispute saw the communities of Dublin's tenement slums pitted against the might of the employers, the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the British Army. After months of desperate hardship the lockout ended, seemingly in defeat for the workers. But the Irish trade union movement survived and thrived, workers won better conditions, the Irish Citizen Army was founded and the Lockout proved to be a key event leading to the 1916 Rising.


Book Launch & Readings
Time: Tuesday 21st May, 6.30pm

Alan McMonagle is a poet, playwright and short fiction writer living in Galway. He has received awards for his work from the Professional Artists’ Retreat in Yaddo (New York), the Fundación Valparaiso (Spain), the Banff Centre for Creativity (Canada) and the Arts Council of Ireland.

He has contributed stories to many journals in Ireland and North America including The Adirondack Review, The Valparaiso Fiction Review, Natural Bridge, Grain, Prairie Fire, Southword and The Stinging Fly.

Liar Liar, his first collection of stories appeared in 2008 (Wordsonthestreet) and was longlisted for the 2009 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. The title story from his second collection, Psychotic Episodes, (Arlen House, April 2013) was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize.

Aideen Henry writes short fiction, drama and poetry. Her short stories, Saibh and Idling, were shortlisted for the Francis McManus Award in 2011 & 2012. Idling was published in The Dublin Review in 2012. She has contributed short stories to three published collections of the Atlantis Collective. Her three one-act plays were staged at NUI, Galway and the Galway Theatre Festival. Her debut poetry collection, Hands Moving at the Speed of Falling Snow, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2010 and that year she was shortlisted for the Emerging Poetry Section of the Hennessy XO Literary Awards. Hugging Thistles is her debut collection of short stories.