Remote Work in Sligo – an overview

In Sligo, with mountain trails and coastal walks literally on our doorstep, a lunchtime ramble or even a surf before breakfast is a regular part of life here. And for the increasing numbers of people who now call Sligo their home, that quality of life is matched by the flexibility offered by working remotely in the county.

Sligo has nine Remote Work office hubs located throughout the county, and that number continues to grow, offering office space and hot desks, meeting rooms and conferencing facilities, for established businesses and startups alike.

People move to Sligo for many reasons – the returning emigrant, the tourist who decides to stay, the young family who need more space and whose sense of adventure brings them to the north west of Ireland. It’s true that Sligo has traditionally been one of the less explored counties on the Wild Atlantic Way, but word is getting out.

Affordable housing, quality schools, welcoming communities, all provide for a great place to raise a family. And now, high speed broadband at all of our hubs as well as the latest digital technology means that whether you work full time or need an office for a few days a week, our Remote Work hubs offer a flexible and affordable solution.

Here we recount the experiences of four people who work remotely in Sligo. We discover what motivated them to come here in the first place and how their business as well as their social lives benefit from living here. Reading what they have to say, it doesn’t sound like any of them plan on moving on elsewhere any time soon!

#remoteworksligo

This video showcases nine of the Remote Work office hubs located throughout County Sligo. They offer office space, hot desks, meeting rooms and conferencing facilities for established businesses and start-ups alike.

The Remote Work Sligo campaign is funded by The Department of Rural and Community Development under Project Ireland 2040 and Sligo County Council, and supported by the Sligo: Live Invest Visit campaign and ConnectedHubs.ie.
Visit Sligo.ie/remotework for details.

Testimonials

Strand Campus

From New York to Sligo – a Coney Island Tale

Moving back to Ireland with a young family in tow is rarely straightforward. Apart from housing and schools, a new office is also a requirement. So, when Adrian Kelly and his wife Maria decided to move back from New York to their native Dromahair, the search for a suitable workspace was high on the list of priorities.

Read Adrian Kelly’s story

Adrian was working in the Big Apple for ECD NY, a construction company that specialises in building skyscraper foundations. The company was keen to keep him, and therefore offered to let him work his own regular hours here in Sligo, while linking in with the New York office on a daily basis.

The Strand Campus in Strandhill, County Sligo, provided Adrian with the flexible office solution he and the company needed. It gives him and his staff 24 hour access to a large and comfortable office, as well as to meeting rooms and teleconferencing solutions, along with high speed broadband.

“It’s actually perfect. It worked out great for us. We were looking for an office space to get set up and get started. A local vendor told us to reach out to our local Enterprise Centre and we called the Strand Campus. You’re on a month-to-month rental agreement, the rents are very affordable and there are other businesses there, so you get to meet people and socialise with them.”

Just a 25 minute drive along the shores of scenic Lough Gill brings him on a pleasant daily commute to Strandhill. Here, the staff create 3D models of the skyscraper substructure, which is then sent to the engineers and planners in New York before being built and installed on site there. The current design team are graduates from Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in Sligo, and having access to work-ready designers rooted in the region is also a big plus.

“This is a brand new team here,” he says of his team of three that are all graduates from ATU. “The team here is doing a great job. A lot of the reasons that we came to Strand Campus is to have access to the graduates and students in ATU Sligo. They run an engineering programme and these students come out and they’re ready for this kind of work.”

“The work that they are doing right now is that they are 3D modellers, they’re going to build a model of the structure that we are going to build in the field. Once they have that finished, we send the files to New York, where they fabricate the rebar that goes into the field, that creates the foundation for the skyscraper that is going to be built on top of it.”

Explaining what must be a complex engineering process in such simple terms doesn’t deflect from the fact that this highly skilled work can be done remotely. Whether you send the completed plans from an office on downtown New York to the fabricators, or whether it’s done from an office in the West of Ireland, the process remains the same. The big plus for Adrian is that he can do this in one of Sligo’s most scenic villages, a long way from the hustle and bustle of New York.

“The commute to Strandhill and to Strand Campus every day is a lot easier than sitting in traffic daily in New York, the kids love it, we love it, it’s great. Strandhill is a lovely village, it’s got beautiful beaches, beautiful mountains, beautiful views and it’s just breath-taking when the sun is out.”

Uprooting your family can be difficult and challenging, but in this case it was done with several reasons in mind, not least of which was access to family supports and to an educational system that would cater for varying needs of Adrian’s children.

“Schooling is going great. Where in new York we were struggling, I have a son who has special needs, and he was in a separate school from his younger brother. Moving back to Ireland we had the opportunity for the two of them to go to school together, in a smaller school where he could come along a lot more. That was one of the biggest plusses for moving home. He started school in September with his brother and he’s thriving.”

Moving back to Ireland after 20 years abroad must have been a decision that required plenty of difficult discussions. But weighing it all up, Adrian and his family are happy that this decision has worked out well. Currently building a house, and with the children well settled, already the pressures of big city life are receding into the distance and the advantages of living here are clear to see.

“Quality of life is the biggest one,” he says. “Quality of life for our kids, and space for the kids to play, and having access to their cousins and their family, and create new friends that they’ll have for the rest of their lives.”

And with so much to see and do, they use that Great Outdoor space to create new family experiences. Coney Island in New York Harbour was the first stop for generations of emigrants arriving from Ireland into the United States. Local historians in Sligo will tell you that it took its name from an island of the same name located just minutes from where Adrian’s new office is located in Strand Campus. They look forward to visiting there, as well as taking in the many tracks and trails that form part of their new West of Ireland lifestyle.

“It’s enjoyable when you get home every evening, you know. The kids love it, especially when they are outside and the sun is out. And then we have our weekends and we try to get out and do as many of the mountains or the hikes and the trails that are in the area. It’s great.”

Aclare Digital Hub

Sustainably Building a Future For Rural Sligo

Bringing life back into rural communities is key to the success of remote working. It’s all well and good to welcome people to the West of Ireland, where affordable housing and quality of life are high on the agenda.

Read Fintan Kennedy’s story

Bringing life back into rural communities is key to the success of remote working. It’s all well and good to welcome people to the West of Ireland, where affordable housing and quality of life are high on the agenda. But for someone to decide to relocate from a city or to return home from abroad, they also need assurances on the availability of high quality, affordable office space and high speed broadband. And this is where we come to Aclare Digital Hub, located in a small village in the south of County Sligo, where the community has been busy putting these exact steps in place for business people and families looking to relocate here.

At the coalface of the community group is Aclare native Fintan Kennedy, himself a small business owner located at the Aclare Digital Hub. Like many locals who grew up here, went to school and played for the local gaelic football team, eventually the place became a bit small for him and he decided to travel and see more of the world. But eventually the call from home became stronger and back he came to live and work here.

“I always had that pang to come back to Aclare, that was brought on by my father and mother, who always brought up that love of place in us all. I moved back in 2008, I still worked in Sligo and I drove in to Sligo every day. In 2021 I set up my own company (ATS Solutions) and having a place like this has given me the opportunity to continue to work from home while also dealing with people both in Ireland, the UK and some in America.”

The building had been built in 2006 and had housed a number of businesses but was in need of an upgrade. So the Aclare Community Development Council – a local voluntary group – took it over at the end of 2023 and used a grant from Sligo County Council to reinsulate and modernise the building.

“We used a Town & Village Enhancement Grant to bring it back to life. We’ve used it to repurpose the building as a digital hub and bring it back to being a centre of the community.”

This involved heavily retrofitting and modernising the building, including making it more energy efficient and sustainable. By installing an air to water heating system and solar panels, this makes the building warm in Winter and self sustaining in terms of energy bills, and these savings are passed on to the tenants in the form of reduced bills for light and heat.

“It’s a huge advantage to the tenants because it’s always warm. We have tenants during the day and we also have it available for community groups and for people working during the night, so, every time people come into the building, it is something people comment on, how cosy it is.”

Working in a building that has a sustainable and cost effective heating system is only one side of the story. And, of course, tenants need more assurances before deciding on relocating to Aclare. But a variety of meeting rooms, offices that are open plan and flexible, and digital platforms including high speed broadband and teleconferencing facilities all mean that business can easily connect with clients located elsewhere.

“Here we are in the West of Ireland in a small village at the foothills of the Ox Mountains. But the technology that we have available here to our companies allows them to have a much broader reach, where they are able to deal with customers both here in the island of Ireland and much further afield.”

While the Aclare Digital Hub provides a work solution for entrepreneurs and to SMEs – there are several other businesses in the building, where childcare facilities are also on offer, Fintan is keen to emphasise that the area’s wonderful sense of community spirit will ensure that people moving to the area for the first time and with no previous connections here – will also be welcomed with open arms.

“For new communities moving to the area, housing is much more affordable, there are fantastic schools from National to Secondary and a great sense of belonging that you get engrained into a community that is very welcoming to all.”

And then there’s the local area’s great natural beauty. As mentioned, Aclare is located at the foothills of the Ox Mountain which forms a necklace of hills and mountains linking Sligo and Mayo and which are full of walks and trails. Fintan himself takes the bike to work, a short commute from his home in the village. And he’ll often take the ‘long way home’ afterwards, heading out towards nearby Lough Talt, which is the starting point for the famed Sligo Way, a cross country walking route that stretches to 80km all the way from south Sligo to County Leitrim.

The day we visited Aclare Community Hub, a group from Overstock, a company based in Sligo Town, had come to the hub for an offsite seminar, which was followed by a hike around a new 8km lakeside trail. And at just 30 minutes from Sligo Town, and within an easy drive of other urban centres like Tubbercurry and Swinford, there are plenty of options for companies looking for that away-day experience.

For many years, people left Aclare to work elsewhere, and the village was empty during the day as a stream of traffic left for Sligo, Castlebar and Galway. But research carried out by the Aclare Community Development Council suggests that there are ways to reverse this trend.

“In advance of taking on this project, we conducted a feasibility study. One of the big findings from that was the huge number of people that travel out of this area of south Sligo and east Mayo to the likes of Ballina, Castlebar, Sligo, even Galway, in their cars. By facilitating their employees to work from hubs like this, companies can have an impact on their own carbon footprint 5 days a week.”

The Business Innovation Centre at ATU Sligo

The Sea and Me – an entrepreneur’s story

Czech native Michaela Esperjesiova laughs when she recalls her first visit to Ireland. Following in the footsteps of many who came before her, she came to the north west to surf. “There’s not a lot of surfing in the Czech Republic,” she says of her landlocked country, “but when a friend told me about Bundoran and the surfing there, I came for a holiday and then decided not to go home!”

Since then, Michaela has settled in the north west, and, having signed up for the New Frontiers programme at ATU Sligo, she now has a growing business called The Ocean Apothecary, where she creates natural creams and oils, aimed primarily at the outdoor sports market.

Read Michaela Esperjesiova’s story

Czech native Michaela Esperjesiova laughs when she recalls her first visit to Ireland. Following in the footsteps of many who came before her, she came to the north west to surf. “There’s not a lot of surfing in the Czech Republic,” she says of her landlocked country, “but when a friend told me about Bundoran and the surfing there, I came for a holiday and then decided not to go home!”

Since then, Michaela has settled in the north west, and, having signed up for the New Frontiers programme at ATU Sligo, she now has a growing business called The Ocean Apothecary, where she creates natural creams and oils, aimed primarily at the outdoor sports market.

“More and more people are surfing or swimming in the sea all year round, and I wanted to create lotions and creams that would help their skin recover after being in the ocean. Sea swimming is fantastic, but the salt and other minerals can unbalance the skin, so by applying natural remedies afterwards, this can help your skin to recover its natural balance.

Michaela has created her creams based on a recipe handed down to her by her grandfather ____, who was an important figure in her life. “He always believed in the healing power of nature and the natural remedies we find in our woods and countryside,” she says. “This was really important for me too, when I decided to start my own business. Everything has to be natural, to create products that can be absorbed by our skin, and to help recovery, to me it’s so important that these are in sync with our natural environment.”

The New Frontiers programme was set up at ATU Sligo to help entrepreneurs get on the first step of the ladder in terms of establishing a business and to progress from there. The programme provides both mentoring and office space, and to Michaela, this has been crucial in helping the progression of her business.

“I work remotely both from my home in Bundoran, and also from the hot desk I have at ATU. It’s really important, in the first place, to have a space that I can work, doing all of the administration that is part of the structure of any business. But by receiving mentoring support, this also helps keep me focussed and creates a timeline for growth that is realistic and attainable. It’s also a great advantage that there are a number of people on the programme too. We work in different areas but share many of the same challenges, so it’s good to meet and bounce ideas off each other, learn from each other’s experiences.”

The Business Innovation Centre at ATU Sligo, where Michaela is based, provides incubation space for businesses like The Ocean Apothecary, enabling them to develop, with the aim being to establish a foothold in the market and grow from there. As well as providing training and mentoring, the New Frontiers programme also enables participants to test their products through the provision of specialist equipment that otherwise would be outside of the financial reach of most startups.

“The programme has been really helpful in so many ways,” says Michaela. “First, the products have to be created, tested and improved. That consistency comes after months of product testing, and only then can you get it ready for market. Without programmes like New Frontiers, it would be very difficult for young entrepreneurs to get their products ready.”

Michaela mainly sells her products online, although she also delivers to some local retail outlets, including to Made in Sligo, a retail outlet on Wine Street in Sligo, where the emphasis is very much on supporting micro-businesses in the region. The day we filmed with Michaela, she began by mixing and then packaging her creams before delivering them herself to Made in Sligo. Apart from that, she has invoicing and other paperwork to deal with, not to mention the matter of promotion, so for her, like for many entrepreneurs, multi-tasking comes with the territory.

“My background is in graphic design,” she says, “and so, creating the brand, designing the logo and packaging were all things I was comfortable with. But there are so many other aspects to running your own business, and I am grateful that this support is available to me here in Sligo. The people at ATU are great, they help you as much as possible and by taking part in the second phase of New Frontiers, this will bring my business on to another level.”

The Ocean Apothecary is a business that is competing in a congested market, where a small team can often find it very challenging to compete with major international brands that create beauty products with huge advertising budgets behind them. But for Michaela, the ambition of developing her own brand is something she strongly believes in.

“One of the great strengths of the north west of Ireland is its natural beauty. The surf breaks we have here are second to none. People are getting into the sea in greater numbers than ever before. So it makes sense that products made locally, using raw materials that are sourced, harvested and blended here, will appeal to people who are interested in their natural environment. The ocean revives the soul, my products do the same for our skin.”

An Chroí Digital Hub – The Heart of the Community

Bringing life back to our rural towns and villages is a central aim of the #RemoteWorkSligo campaign. And nowhere is this more in evidence than at the An Chroí Digital Hub in Tubbercurry, where a range of businesses are based, enjoying high quality tech solutions and multifunctional office spaces.

Among these businesses is the Sligo Leader Partnership, an organisation that delivers a range of programmes for communities and individuals throughout the county. Sligo Leader has its main office in Sligo Town. But the range of organisations and people they deal with on a countywide basis every day meant that, when it came to sourcing a second office, An Chroí was the natural solution for them.

Read Susan Dunbar’s story

Bringing life back to our rural towns and villages is a central aim of the #RemoteWorkSligo campaign. And nowhere is this more in evidence than at the An Chroí Digital Hub in Tubbercurry, where a range of businesses are based, enjoying high quality tech solutions and multifunctional office spaces.

Among these businesses is the Sligo Leader Partnership, an organisation that delivers a range of programmes for communities and individuals throughout the county. Sligo Leader has its main office in Sligo Town. But the range of organisations and people they deal with on a countywide basis every day meant that, when it came to sourcing a second office, An Chroí was the natural solution for them.

“It has everything we need,” says Susan Dunbar, who has worked with Sligo Leader for the last 2 years. “There’s great office space and the high speed broadband means we can work equally effectively in both locations.”

Susan’s work involves meeting people who are long-term unemployed and providing them with the skills and training needed to help them back into the workplace. This is a process that often takes time, while she and the client work together with potential employers to get the client back into the workforce.

“I meet clients here at An Chroí. We can use one of the huddle rooms, which have everything we need from a tech perspective, but that also provide privacy for the client. This is important when working with clients that might have been out of work for one reason or another for some time, so the facilities here are perfect for that.”

Some of the clients may prefer to liaise with Susan from home, and so, she can also use one of a number of privacy booths at An Chroí, using Teams or Zoom to discuss the options with the client at home. She can also use the centre’s videoconferencing capabilities and high speed broadband to remotely help the client to prepare for interview, as well as writing or improving their CV.

While Sligo is a relatively compact county, with nowhere more than 45 minutes from Sligo Town itself, Susan says that for people in the south Sligo area, it’s important to have a local hub where people can come to. “Many of my clients don’t have a car and for some, it can be challenging leaving home, so having a digital hub nearby is important. People can walk or cycle here, there’s also a good Local Link transport system, and the facilities here are second to none.”

Significant investment into An Chroí means that the building received a major revamp recently and it is home to a vibrant business community. It provides a high-tech digital boardroom and the entire building is powered by 500 mb of fibre broadband. A large event space is available upstairs and the various co-working and flexible office spaces means that it has much broader reach into the local area.

Local community groups can also use the event space. On the day we visited, the space was being used to provide First Aid training to a local business team, just one of the many groups that avail of temporary or fulltime use of the facilities here.

“It’s really enjoyable travelling down here as part of my job,” says Susan of her commute from the Sligo Town office to Tubbercurry. “The hub is just 20 minutes away from the main office, but has everything we need. Although you aren’t physically in the same building as some of your colleagues, we can network with each other every day and it’s really convenient in that way too.”

Located just 17km from Ireland West Airport, An Chroí also offers business solutions to international clients, where access to the UK or elsewhere is important. Less than an hour to Galway, the hub is really at the heart of the west of Ireland, within a short commute to many other towns in the region. It also acts as a hub for the creative sector, its content creation studio incorporating 4k video solutions as well as audio technology that will enable the user to record interviews, podcasts and radio programmes, with facilities for up to four participants and a sound engineer.

An Chroí Digital Hub is breathing new life into Tubbercurry and the surrounding area. It works on so many levels, as a permanent office space or temporary hot desk location, with integrated digital technology of the highest standard, all within easy walking distance to the centre of the town. And the key is flexibility – one environment, multiple uses, a dynamic, collaborative and progressive space that provides real options for the remote worker.