WOOD-MARTIN, W.G. Sligo and the Enniskilleners from 1688-1691. With folding map of the Town and Fortifications of Sligo, 1689.

Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co., 104 Grafton Street, 1880. First edition. pp. ix, [1], 188. Green cloth over bevelled boards, titled in gilt. Bookplate of the Library of Governor General’s Horse Guards Officers Mess on front endpaper. Previous owner’s signature. Tape removed from corner of upper cover. All edges red. A near fine copy. Scarce.
Colonel William Gregory Wood-Martin was born at Woodville, Sligo in 1847 and after a distinguished military career he took a keen interest in the history and antiquities of his native country. Following his Lake Dwellings of Ireland, Pagan Ireland, Traces of the Elder Faiths and Sligo and the Enniskilleners, he embarked on a massive undertaking and compiled his scholarly History of Sligo, County and Town, a work “of National as well as local importance.” In his introduction he wrote: “The author ... to the best of his ability, has earnestly endeavoured to present a thoroughly faithful and vivid picture of the whole life of the community of Sligo from its cradle upwards ... The labour has been considerable of arranging in consecutive order the various events bearing on the history of Sligo and of gathering together and putting into shape all the materials available for that purpose ... .” His history arranged in chronological order spans the countless troubled centuries from pre-historic times to 1891.

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