Spike Milligan

The Sligo Connection

Spike Milligan was voted the ‘Funniest Man of the Milliennium’ in a BBC poll in 2001, ahead of John Cleese and Billy Connolly. He became famous for his work on television and radio, particularly the 'Goon Show’ with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. Mr. Milligan, an Irish citizen and a frequent visitor to Ireland, was also an accomplished author, musician, composer, actor, painter and conservationist.

Spike had strong links with Ireland through his father, Leo, who was born on Holborn St. in Sligo. His grandfather William Milligan was an army sergeant based in Sligo and was well-known locally as an entertainer. The family moved to London in the late 1890s when Leo Milligan was eight or nine. Spike’s daughter, Jane, visited the Milligan house in October 2004 during the making of a television documentary about her father’s life and Sligo Borough Council erected a plaque on the house where Leo Milligan was born in 1890.

Spike became an Irish citizen after being refused an automatic renewal of his British passport in the early 60s. He made numerous visits to Ireland over the years especially with his third wife Shelagh, who was also Irish. On one visit, not long before he died, he was presented with a historical booklet on the Holborn Street area by Sligo businessman Raymond McCullough, who owns the house associated with the Milligans.

At Spike’s funeral in East Sussex in March 2002, his coffin was draped in the Tricolour. The Celtic cross over the grave has an inscription in Irish, ‘Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite’ (‘I told you I was ill’).

You can learn more on Spike's substantial career at Wikipedia.