Celebrating More Than 50 Years of Drama in Sligo

January 12th, Brendan Corish, the acting Minister for Industry and Commerce, sets the maximum price for gas supplied by the Sligo Lighting and Electric Power Company at 69d per therm.

October 27th, three men are rescued by helicopter after spending several days marooned on the Black Rock Lighthouse in Sligo Bay

Alec Guinness and Odile Versois appear in "To Paris With Love" in the Gaiety Cinema and Walt Disney's "The Lady and the Tramp" plays at the Savoy

July, Cecil Kettyle's band perform at the Tuesday Night Dance in the Yeats Country Hotel in Rosses Point. Admission is 5/- including transport

May, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reid, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr star in "From Here to Eternity" in the Gaiety Cinema and Margaret Barry, known as the "Singing Tinker Lady", appears live in the Savoy. Admission 3/6, 2/6, 1/6

September 22nd, "Clara", the last steam train to leave Sligo on a scheduled passenger run on the Sligo - Dublin line, pulls out of the station at 7.20pm

June, Mr. Moody, the last Governor of Sligo Jail, is instructed to lock up the jail for the last time due to the falling crime rate

The office premises of Messrs. D. M. Hanley and Company Ltd., timber merchants, at Sligo Quays were entirely gutted by fire

For a week or more, many people throughout North Sligo had been suffering from flu and in many cases whole families were confined indoors while many were under medical care. Attendances at schools was also affected as many children were among the victims

James Mc Goldrick, aged 11 years, from Quay Street, son of James Mc Goldrick town councillor, was presented with a bronze medal and certificate by the mayor, Cllr. E. Tolan, for his courageous rescue of a two year old boy who had fallen into 12 feet of water at Fish Quay

Summerhill College were defeated in the Connacht Colleges Senior Football Championship Final by St. Jarlaths of Tuam on a scoreline of 2-8 to 2-4

June 1956,  a goods train travelling from Dublin to Sligo crashed through the buffers at Kilfree Junction Railway Station between Boyle and Ballymote. The goods wagons contained a variety of goods including whiskey, stout, rolls of wire, sweets, haircream and a small amount of gelignite. The wagons and the engine ended piled up on the main railway track, yet, miraculously, no-one was killed, despite the fact that the cab somersaulted through the air three times before landing on its roof.

Ireland beat the Netherlands 4-1 in an away friendly soccer match

June 1st, Ronnie Delaney becomes the first Irish athlete to break the four minute mile in a time of 3:59:0

December 1st, Ronnie Delaney wins the first gold medal for Ireland in 24 years in the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia

Seán T. O' Kelly was the second president of Ireland (1945-1959)

August 12th, the GAA postpones the All-Ireland hurling and football finals due to an outbreak of polio

November 21st, Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children opens in Crumlin, Dublin

November 30th, It is announced that petrol rationing is to be introduced from January 1st due to the Suez Crisis

Grace Kelly, the Irish-American star of "High Noon", "Fear Window", "To Catch a Thief" and "High Society", becomes a princess when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco on April 19th 1956

Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr star in the movie "The King and I"

The winter Olympic Games are held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

On February 22nd, Elvis Presley enters the US Music Charts for the first time with "Heartbreak Hotel"

The stage musical "My Fair Lady" opens on Broadway, New York on March 15th and runs for 2717 performances, a Broadway record at the time

The summer Olympic Games are held in Melbourne, Australia from November 22nd to December 8th

On November 6th, Dwight D. Eisenhower is re-elected as the 34th president of the United States of America

Marilyn Munroe, star of "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952), "Niagara" (1953), "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953), and "The Seven Year Itch" (1955), marries the playwright Arthur Miller, author of "All My Sons" (1947), the Pulitzer Prize winning "Death of a Salesman" (1949) and "The Crucible" (1953)

This is the year of the Suez Crisis after Egypt nationalises the Suez Canal, a canal linking Europe and Asia

The winners at the Oscars ceremony were "Around the World in 80 Days" (Best Picture), Yul Brynner (Best Actor - "The King and I") and Ingrid Bergman (Best Actress - Anastasia)

"Diamonds Are Forever", the fourth James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming, is published

"Peyton Place", the controversial novel by Grace Metalious, is published and sells 60,000 copies in the first ten days of release, making it publishing's first "blockbuster"

"Look Back in Anger", the stage play written by John Osborne about a love triangle involving a jazz trumpet player, his wife and her best friend, opens in the Royal Theatre, London. The play proves to be an enormous commercial success and later transfers to the West End and Broadway and is later made into a film with Richard Burton in the leading role

Pulitzer Prize for drama is won by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich for their stage adaptation of "The Diary of Ann Frank"

May 3rd, Granada Television begins broadcasting

Opportunity Knocks, the TV talent show hosted by Hughie Greene, is first broadcast on ITV

May 24th, first Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Lugano, Swizerland with seven nations taking part. It is won by Switzerland

November 5th, the first Nat King Cole Show is broadcast on television

Bing Crosby releases an album entitled "Shillelaghs and Shamrocks"

Elvis Presley reaches the top of the US Billboard Charts with "Heartbreak Hotel", "Don't be Cruel/Hound Dog" and "Love Me Tender"

April 27th, Rocky Marciano retires as the only undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the world with a perfect record (49-0)

Manchester United win the 1955/56 First Division Title

The FA Cup is won by Manchester City who beat Birmingham City 3-1

January 3rd Mel Gibson, star of

January 7th, David Caruso, actor, star of NYPD Blue and CSI: Miami

January 17th Paul Young, English Musician

January 21st, Geena Davis

February 29th, Randy Jackson, US musician

April 12th, Andy Garcia, US actor

April 19th, Sue Barker, UK tennis player and TV presenter

May 17th, Sugar Ray Leonard, US boxer

June 6th, Bjorn Borg, Swedish tennis player

June 9th, Patricia Cornwell, popular crime novelist of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series

July 9th ,Tom Hanks, US actor

August 10th, Joan Allen, US actress

October 10th, Amanda Burton, Irish actress

October 18th, Martina Navratilova, Czech-born US tennis player

October 23rd, Dwight Yoakam, US musician

November 26th, John Mc Carthy, journalist and kidnap victim

December 28th, Nigel Kennedy, violinist

Frankie Gavin, Irish musician

January 31st, A. A. Milne, English author

June 22nd, Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer and novelist

August 14th, Bertold Brecht, German playwright

October 16th, Jules Rimet, French founding father of the Football World Cup