The week after news broke that JenaValve medical devices company is set to pull out of Sligo, Sligo County Council was given a presentation by IDA Border Region manager John Nugent.

In his presentation, Mr Nugent pointed out to council members what they could do to help make Sligo more appealing for FDI (Foreign Direct Investment).
“It is the main focus of the IDA to attract and sustain FDI to Sligo. Employment in these companies in Ireland are at an all time high and in direct wages it is worth some €8.5 billion annually. In Sligo there are 20 companies employing 2,000-plus people,” he said.

The direct boost to the local economy for Sligo from these companies is something which John Nugent highlighted as a very important reason to focus on for the Council.

“If a company in Sligo employs 100 people at an average wage of roughly €40,000 per year then that is worth €4 million to the local economy. It is the equivalent to having the Fleadh for years and years, every year,” he commented.

One of the cornerstones of making Sligo appealing to companies from overseas is the infrastructure.

Currently, the IDA are developing a new site at Oakfield due to Finisklin nearly reaching its capacity, but what companies are looking for goes beyond this, according to John Nugent.

“Roads and infrastructure is something which is key to stakeholders. Sligo is one of three urban centres in the border region. Companies are seeing scale and that is population, skilled workers and infrastructure,” he said.

Under a new strategy put forward by the IDA nationally, the hope is to expand stakeholders throughout Ireland.

In the Border region, which Sligo comes under, it is John Nugent’s hope to increase Sligo from the 47 it has currently to 61 in the coming years.

Of paramount importance to this coming to fruition is the development of the new site in Oakfield.

“There is a €150 million development in Oakfield and planning permission for a new facility in Finisklin which will bring it close to capacity. It is critical for us to develop new facilities,” John Nugent commented.

CEO of Sligo County Council, Ciarán Hayes gave assurances that the development of the new Oakfield site would be an important focus for the Council.

“The Oakfield site is very positive and we [the Council] will have a detailed look. It is a serious investment and we will advance that as soon as we can,” he said.

A Sligo native and her husband celebrated their wedding day earlier this month by visiting Celtic Park.

Tracy Melly from Sligo town and Aidan Gallagher from Keadue in Co. Donegal tied the knot at St. Mary’s Church in Glasgow on Friday, May 1.

Their first port of call following the wedding ceremony was the home of their beloved Celtic F.C., which is also known as ‘Paradise’.

The couple previously lived in the Scottish city for four years before moving to Perth, Australia where they currently reside.

Aidan works in the IT sector while Tracy is the manager of a beauty salon.

Celtic’s history with Sligo stretches back to the very foundations the club was built on by Brother Walfrid, who founded the club in 1888.

Keeping in the spirit of these obvious connections, Tracy’s father visited the remains of the Marist Brothers home in Ballymote and brought a piece of stone to St. Mary’s which is to be incorporated into the cross at the church.

As if the special occasion could not get any better, the perfect day was well and truly complete when news filtered through during the afternoon that Celtic were officially confirmed as Scottish Premier League champions for the fourth year in a row.

Sligo Field Club presented €600 to help preserve a piece of Sligo history over 600 years old.

The Book of Ballymote is the major surviving manuscript, nationally speaking, of the late 14th century. It was compiled for Tomaltach MacDonagh about 1391 at Ballymote Castle, the largest surviving medieval castle in north Connacht.

It was sold for 140 milch cows in 1522 to Aed ”g O’Donnell of Donegal. After many wanderings, and a stay in TCD from 1686 and with Charles O’Conor of Belanagare, Co. Roscommon, it reached the Royal Irish Academy in 1785.

Recently the Academy held an international two-day conference with many members of Sligo Field Club and of Ballymote Heritage Group attending and they added a Sligo taste to the proceedings.

A plea for donations towards conservation of the book prompted Sligo Field Club members attending, Aidan Mannion, Leo Leydon, Larry Mullin and Martin A. Timoney, to agree that the Sligo Field Club would provide €600 for the conservation work and a protection box.

This donation was warmly welcomed by the Conference Chairman and attendees at the end of the Conference. Similar sponsorship by other counties for work on manuscripts from those counties was encouraged.

The decision by medical devices company, JenaValve, to pull out of Sligo has been described as “a commercial one and is in no way a reflection on the Irish location”.

In a statement this week, IDA Ireland “notes with regret” the confirmation by JenaValve Technology Inc. that it is to “discontinue its Sligo operation”.

It said a consultation process underway at present with its employees is expected to wind up in the coming days. It is understood the company is moving the operation planned for Sligo to the UK.

The company had recruited 18 staff here who were undergoing a training course at St Angela’s College. The course was specifically designed to take unemployed people off the Live Register for training.

With bases in California and Germany develops, JenaValve manufactures and markets heart valve systems to treat patients suffering from aortic valve disease and the Sligo operation was to manufacture the next generation of heart valves from the firm.

Located within the IT Sligo Innovation Centre to begin with the company was expected to move in due course to a bespoke facility in Finisklin as employee numbers increased.

The announcement of JenaValve coming to Sligo was made by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton while in the United States last October.

At the time he described the announcement as “a great boost for Sligo and the North West”.

While no figure was put on the expected number of jobs it was expected at the time to be “significant”.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the IDA said that JenaValve was “keen to stress that local support has been excellent and their consideration of the option to possibly
relocate operations is a commercial one and is in no way a reflection on the Irish location”.

“Sligo continues to be a highly successful FDI (foreign direct investment) location and IDA will continue its efforts to attract further investment to the region”, the statement said.

In a separate statement, JenaValve said that it “has engaged an alternate commercial opportunity to accelerate its manufacturing strategy”, which would result in its Irish operations “being discontinued”.

The statement goes on: “JenaValve recognises the accomplishments achieved in Sligo County and Ireland; particularly the partnerships with our employees and local networks.

“JenaValve is confident in its choice to establish its valve operations in Sligo and is proud to have pioneered and opened new doors for the Irish medical device sector within structural heart disease.”

It is understood that Prince Charles will be in Sligo on Wednesday, May 20, which will be the third day of his four-day visit to Ireland on the week after next.

And the royal visitor has apparently expressed an interest in attending the Sligo Races, which is on that evening.

The Sligo Weekender has learned that after arriving in Dublin on Monday, May 18, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles will travel to Galway the next day, Tuesday, May 19.

They will then come up to Sligo on Wednesday, May 20.

For more on this story, pick up a copy of today’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in stores now.

Sligo County Council has been allocated €3.25 million to build 21 new houses.

The money, which is €3.1m to fund a 20 house scheme in Strandhill, and €150,000 for a single house at Culleens, has been described as part of the first phase of the Government’s Social Housing Strategy.

Last month it was announced that the government was prepared to invest over €20m in providing new social housing in the county and Sligo County Council was set a target of providing over 300 homes in a combination of building, buying and leasing schemes.

The aim is to accommodate 39% of the 1,070 people currently on the housing list in Sligo between now and 2017.

Fine Gael Deputy Tony McLoughlin said this “is the first major investment in local authority housing for many years”.

He said this is “just one of the ways that we will be delivering social housing units”.

Labour Senator Susan O’Keeffe described it as “welcome news” and that it represented a good start to the Government’s six-year strategy to deliver 35,000 new social housing units throughout Ireland by 2020.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will face a protest against water charges when he comes to Ballymote on Saturday to unveil a monument to Irishmen who died in the American civil war.

The US Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin F. O Malley will also be present for the ceremony, which is due to get underway at 2.45pm at the local town park.

For more on this story, pick up a copy of this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now.

Moves are being made to have a memorial in Sligo town to a man who is regarded by many as the greatest orator of the 19th century.

William Bourke Cockran, who was born in County Sligo, was acknowledged by Winston Churchill as his first political mentor and chief role model for his own success as an orator.

The famous British politician said of him: “He was my model. I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall.”

And Bourke Cockran’s rags to riches rise to wealth and fame in America has been suggested as providing some of the inspiration for the famous F Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby.

Born in 1854 at Claragh, Ballinacarrow,where his father had a small estate, his family moved to Wine Street in Sligo town, following the death of his father. He attended the Marist Brothers school at Quay Street, and later Summerhill College, Athlone and the Marist College in Lille in France.

A change in the family’s fortunes saw him having to emigrate to the US in 1871 at the age of 17.

His first job was as a porter, but he quickly went to become a teacher and then a highly respected and sought after lawyer. His fame as an orator grew and he become involved in politics with the Democratic Party.

He became a famous figure in America, going on to be elected to Congress on five occasions.

Bourke Cockran, who died in 1923, was a self-made millionaire and owned a 300 acres estate on Long Island in New York.

In 1903 he invested some of his fortune in the then struggling sawmills in Sligo, in the hope of creating further employment. The sawmill, which made the pews for Sligo cathedral and other churches in the county, stood until 1914 on the site of what is now the CIE bus garage.

And it is there that Keville Burns, one of a group of people working to have Bourke Cockran recognised in his home county, hopes that a lasting memorial to him can be established in Sligo.

He said: “He is arguably the greatest Sligo man ever.”

It has previously been suggested that the bus garage, which has been on the site since 1945, should now be moved to another location and that the site should be used to provide much needed coach parking close to the centre of town.

If that were to happen, Keville Burns said that his group would like to see a memorial wall with an audio visual display telling the story of William Bourke Cockran and his achievements.

Keville Burns said that Bourke Cockran was a fervant advocate of Home Rule for Ireland and one of the greatest ever Irishmen but he was now largely forgotten in his home country.

“This man is a famous figure in America and we are trying to get him acknowledged in Sligo,” he said.