The number of people on the dole queue in County Sligo has dropped by 16%, or just over 800, in the past five years.
The Live Register figures for December, just published last week, shows a total of 4,599 people in the county claiming various forms of unemployment assistance.
That compares to a figure of 5,404 in December, 2010, the year in which unemployment figures were at their highest.
In July of that year there were just 65 people short of 6,000 signing on in Sligo.
But since 2010 there has been a steady decline in the numbers each year.
In 2011, the December figure was down to 5,239, the following year it had dropped to 5,108 and last year it was 4,942, which means a further decrease of 343 in the month just gone.
Each month last year showed a drop in numbers on the same month in 2013.
A full breakdown of the figures can be found in this week’s Sligo Weekender- out now.
Having established an extremely high standard with the first three concerts in the current Sligo Music series, Con Brio hope to start 2015 in a thoroughly positive frame of mind with the Fidelio Trio this month.
She might be famous for her award-winning Sean Nos dancing, but Leitrim Rose Edwina Guckian will show she knows how to swing as part of a new series of adult dance classes starting next Tuesday.
For the explorer in us, you need solid equipment to take on the waters and the wild of our natural backdrop.
CRAFT: Ashleigh Smith at work making the products of her Atlantic Equipment Project.
A Sligo designer, Ashleigh Smith has launched a company with that very goal in mind- to create bags which are robust, fashionable and practical for use in the harsh and beautiful terrain of the Atlantic coast.
Ashleigh spoke to The Sligo Weekender this week of how she came up with the idea for her product.
“I came up with the idea after studying in Limerick. I did a degree in product design. Then from there I went to the Netherlands where I studied industrial design for two years. My thesis for the course was brand development for a company so I finished that in 2013 and I came home then and there were a few of the pieces of the puzzle in place.
“I had a lot of the hard work done by then so it was a case of founding the company and designing the initial collection and launching it in April 2014,” Asleigh said.
Since then the company, The Atlantic Equipment Project, has had a winter collection and now Ashleigh has her sights fixed on a spring collection for the coming season.
For Ashleigh, the mantra of her brand is simple.
“The emphasis on the brand is really good quality carrying equipment for the adventures on the Atlantic coast,” she said.
“I am fortunate to be one of those people and a lot of my friends are too. I grew up Sligo on one side of Benbulben so in that regard I was engrossed in the environment since I was very young. The company when you look at it is a progression of that,” Ashleigh commented.
The full interview with Ashleigh, and how to order Atlantic Equipment Project gear can be found in this week’s Sligo Weekender- out now.
PUPPY LOVE: The first seal pup was rescued in Strandhill, which has been named Nautilus, he is pictured here being nursed back to health by Neil Walton of VOYA Seaweed Baths.
Nautilus was spotted on New Year’s Eve and brought to Neil’s house, where he rung in the new year with the Walton family, being hand fed before being transferred to a seal sanctuary in Wexford.
Full details of Nautilus and his new year can be found in this week’s Sligo Weekender.
Independent TD Lucinda Creighton, who announced the formation of a new political party on Friday, has said that since then councillors and business people from Sligo have been in touch with her.
In May 2003, the West-On-Track campaign was established with the aim of re-opening the Western Rail Corridor, which formerly connected Sligo to Limerick.
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, but not when it comes to music. A six-piece traditional music ensemble will kick things off with the first trad night of the new year in the Hawk’s
