Creevykeel preserves the area's Neolithic past, while Michael O'Flanagan's brief curacy connects Cliffony with land agitation during the First World War.
Illustration, entrance chamber at Creevykeel Court Tomb, near Cliffoney
⊕Recorded locationCliffony54.42712° N · 8.45904° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
Cliafuine· Irish · main form · validated name
Cliffony· English · main form
Cliffoney· English · main form · local name
Place & story
Creevykeel beyond the village
Creevykeel Court Tomb stands about two kilometres north-east of Cliffony. The Office of Public Works dates it to the Neolithic period, between 4000 and 2500 BC. A passage leads into an oval court, roughly fifteen metres long and nine metres wide, with a divided burial chamber beyond. The monument belongs to a landscape of several megalithic sites, rather than an isolated burial place. Early Christian activity also left traces beside the prehistoric structure.[2]
What the excavation revealed
Hugh O'Neill Hencken directed the excavation of Creevykeel in 1935. Excavators dismantled the cairn and replaced its stones afterwards, so the present monument also reflects that archaeological intervention. Finds included a polished stone axe, pottery, quartz and worked flint. Cobbling had covered the tomb floor. The local grey sandstone used for its construction tied the monument materially to its surroundings.[2]
People & connections
A curate and the turf dispute
Michael O'Flanagan came to the parish of Cliffoney and Grange in August 1914. Born near Castlerea, he had previously taught Irish at Summerhill College in Sligo. During his time here he argued for land redistribution and increased food production, and opposed food exports during the war. He also led a protest that secured local parishioners' rights to cut turf. His parish work thus brought questions of fuel, farming and political power into the same public arena.[3]
Transfer and local opposition
O'Flanagan's transfer to Crossna in County Roscommon in October 1915 met with protests in Cliffoney. His subsequent career extended well beyond the parish: he became a Sinn Féin vice-president in 1917 and chaplain to the first Dáil in 1919. Those later offices help explain why a short period of service here remains a significant local association, although Cliffony was neither his birthplace nor his final clerical appointment.[3]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Cliffoney — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Cliffoney, Sligo — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Cliffoney, Sligo — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Cliffoney, Sligo — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Cliffoney, Sligo
Published census settlement populations
492people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
Entrance chamber at Creevykeel Court Tomb, near Cliffoney illustration: based on a Creevykeel Court Tomb by N Chadwick. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
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