THE CORRAN HERALD • 2020/2021
At the Market Cross:
Reflections on a Home Place By Michael J Meehan
The Market Cross, Sligo, that’s the home place. Though known for centuries as the O’Crean Cross, the area is at the bottom of Market St., where it connects into Grattan St. and Castle St. In the centre of this place today is the Lady Erin monument, behind which there is a plaque in the paving that proclaims the spot as the centre of Sligo, a radius of one and quarter miles from the Borough boundaries. Sligo was a medieval market town, founded by the Normans in 1243, when Maurice Fitzgerald built a Castle near the river in 1245. Later, in 1252, he established the Dominican Abbey nearby. Such towns had a hinterland of small rural villages and were established near to a fortified place such as a castle, a monastery and other areas of strategic importance such as the fording of a river. (A painting of a siege of the Castle of Sligo and some historic facts are located on the side of Foley’s pub at the corner of Castle St./ Teeling St.). The town of Sligo prospered; by the 16th century, there were busy markets and an increasing population. Andrew O’Crean, a member of a wealthy local merchant family, was Prior at the Abbey. Around 1560 he was appointed the Bishop of Elphin. Shortly after, at his own expense, Bishop O’Crean erected a Market Cross at the bottom of Market St. for the benefit of the street traders. Bishop O’Crean retired in 1584, not wishing to take the Oath of Supremacy and went to live at the Dominican Abbey until his death in 1594. The O’Rorke History of Sligo, Vol.1 (1889 ) says “that portion of the town is called, to this day, Market Cross, though people using the place knew nothing of its origin”. Dictionary meaning for a Market Cross is “an
arcaded building in a marketplace”. These structures were often elaborate, with plenty of space to give shelter to traders and buyers. The cross, a symbol of religion, was to remind the people trading, the virtues of honesty and integrity in their dealings. The right to hold markets was controlled by the ruling authority. In 1604 King James 1 of England granted a licence to hold markets at the O’Crean Cross and another market licence grant was made by Charles 1 in 1627. The beneficiaries were loyal subjects of the crown who had already received large grants of land. We have no illustrations of the O’Crean Cross from that time, unlike the Kilkenny Market Cross for which there is a detailed drawing in the National Library. The Wood-Martin History of Sligo (1889) has a sketch of the Cross and states that the townstocks (for public punishment) were in the market area and a drinking fountain or well was also nearby. In 1883, a well was discovered when it erupted in the roadway at this place. A visitor to Sligo in 1739, Rev. W. Henry, left an account of the visit “in the town is an old market cross, supported by four small pillars of black marble polished and fluted. It is a square to which there is an ascent of four steps on each side, on the top an inscription “ (ref. J McTernan/Nat. Arch.). A recent study, “The Streets of Sligo”, Fiona Gallagher (2008), has an excellent depiction by J. Young of what the O’Crean Cross may have looked like. Many Medieval Crosses survive in market squares across Europe, England and Scotland (known as a Mercat Cross) and in a few market towns in Ireland. Many photos and locations of these crosses can be viewed online. At Athenry in Co. 80
Galway, a medieval town with a ruined Dominican Abbey, there is a Gothic Cross (1475) in the centre of a small market square, the only one in Ireland still standing where it was originally erected. Market Crosses were the popular places in the Middle Ages for the public performance of Mystery Plays and Morality Plays of that era, though in Ireland there was little or no tradition for the plays. The history of the Kilkenny Cross has mention of “young men performed a Mystery play on the feast of Corpus Christie for public entertainment”. One can speculate that similar public performances must have taken place at the O’Crean Cross - the Mummers Plays, Wren boys, ballad singers, pamphleteers, itinerant preachers and at the Christmas Markets, the Christmas Rhymers. The atmosphere of a market day in Sligo is recorded in O’Rorke’s History of Sligo “streams of people rolled down Gallows Hill north and Gallows Hill south, the two principle approaches into the town. There being no footpaths or sidewalks, people moved through the high road in the same line with the horses and asses and like them often carried loads of commodities to be disposed of in the market” then adds “ most of the market people returned home in due time, but some few turned into the whiskey houses, of which the town was full, every second house being a shebeen”. The Market Cross disappeared in the late 18th century, after over 200 years at the centre of Sligo. Nothing remains of it, even in folk memory. O’Rorke claims it was removed to the rear of Pat O’Brien’s house in High Street. Could the fate of the Kilkenny Cross (1335-1722) have some similarity
