The Bective

I lived in Bridge Street for many years, and always felt that the road was missing a proper name. Every other main street in Sligo was either named after saints or famous nationalists from history. Yet my residence was on a street named after a convenience, and would have probably been named after a pub if only one had been built there. My limited historical research tells me that the land on the northern side belonged to a farrier blacksmith by the name of McDonald until someone built a hotel and a pub guarding the entrance to the bridge.

The hotel in Bridge Street had several owners and was called the 'Bridge House Hotel' but also went by the owners name: 1912-31 Ramsay's Hotel 1950 Frizells Hotel 1970 Kelly’s Hotel 1978 Bective Hotel - (Gilsenan’s) It was demolished and built over with the Waterfront House in 1999.

Bective hotel 1979 (before sign and official name change)

My family bought Kelly’s Hotel in 1978 from John and Rosie Kelly. As was often the case for complex transfers of family businesses, our families ran the hotel together for three months, and Nuala Kelly stayed on for another three. Many years later, she eventually repurchased the hotel from my father. Rosie Kelly was an amazing gregarious character who was also a colourful local politician. She provided my family with a Sligo baptism of fire and introduced us to the Sligo way of getting things done. For a couple of years, we kept the same clientele, and ran the hotel in pretty much the same manner as Rosie, until my mother Margaret began to add her own seal to the place.

She was a very warm hearted and friendly character and added a familiar and friendly character to the busy hotel which still portrayed an air of craziness which came in a package deal from it’s patrons and regulars. My sister Bernadette was cut from the same cloth, and later took over management of the hotel along with her husband Jimmy O'Rorke.

My father, Paddy added something quite different to the mix. He was a poet and had been a successful printer from Co. Meath, but he was no publican. He had no time for fools, and once ejected the town’s fire officer as well as a hotel inspector from Bord Failte for disturbing his peace. Both those impulsive actions cost us dear.

He was like the yan to my mother’s yin, and his infamous antics and sayings were often anecdotally retold in Sligo fashion, elaborating the truth substantially. I remember once when he was offered Holy Communion at the hospital , the priest had literally thrust the wafer in front of his face saying, ‘Body of Christ’. My father replied, “No thanks, I am a vegetarian,” and declined. My mother just shook her head in despair.

In much the same way that the Bective hotel had a character all of its own, so did the bridge it guarded. I had two fights on that bridge in the course of my duties escorting out an undesirable element. I won one, and the other was a draw.

Markeveitz Bridge and Waterfront House built on the site of the Bective Hotel

Present day, Waterfront House built on the site of the Bective Hotel & Markeveitz bridge

Markievicz Bridge is the oldest bridge in Sligo, and it is probably early Victorian. It is also the site of the first bridge across the River Garavogue. We don’t know the name of that original bridge, only that it was mentioned in a Cromwellian text in which someone important stated in text how he was able to cut a straight path from Stephen street to Thomas Street. The path he would have taken would follow the present line of Bridge Street. It didn’t have a name back then, and nor did the bridge; that was just referred to as the bridge at the end of Thomas Street.