200 year anniversary of the rebirth of the town of Omagh 1824

LOCAL historian, Kenneth Collins, charts a path through the history of Omagh town over the last 200 years and examines its growth as a county town and a place where its many developments over that time shaped the place as we know it today.

A recent glimpse into the past revealed that exactly 200 years ago Omagh was a thriving market town with a population of just under 2,000 in 1824.

This state of affairs was largely down to two factors in the earlier history of the town combined with the initiative and forward thinking of the townsfolk which contributed to the prosperity of Omagh at that time.

The first event was a disastrous fire in May 1742 when a young girl dumped some hot ashes too close to a pile of hay at the rear of her house causing the outbreak of a fire which destroyed the entire town of housing mainly with thatched roofs.

Only two houses with slated roofs survived along with the Presbyterian Meeting House on the outskirts of the town at the Dublin Road. It is not known if any or how many people perished in the fire but the records show that a charitable Relief Fund was set up for the homeless and one of the major contributors was the Rev John Copping, Dean of Clogher who gave the princely sum of £50 to the fund.

Undaunted by this major setback the local citizens set about rebuilding the town again with a compact development plan consisting of one principal street running from the top of the hill with several avenues branching off and finishing at the near bank of the Drumragh River at Campsie.

Over the next 25 years the plan proceeded with the erection of superior buildings improving the image of the town to the extent that in 1878 the second major event occurred when their efforts were rewarded and Omagh became the county town of Tyrone, an honour previously held by Dungannon.

After this elevation of status the town continued apace for the next 45 years with the erection of higher quality housing, shops, and prestige buildings which are described in detail as follows in a report prepared two hundred years ago in 1824.

'Pride of place at the top of the hill stood the Courthouse with its elegant dressed stonework in Grecian style and surmounted clock all the construction work completed just two years previously in 1822.

On the opposite side of the street lower down the hill stood the imposing four-storey White Hart Hotel with its 31 bedrooms and public rooms providing a meeting place for town organisations and visitors alike.

Omagh had two other hotels the Abercorn Arms with its fine interiors located where SuperValu is now and the third hotel was the Kings Arms which was eventually to become the well known Royal Arms Hotel.

County Gaol

The County Gaol with attached Lunatic Asylum and castellated front which had been erected some 30 years before was deemed to be too small and work was in progress erecting a large extension which was expected to be completed in 1825 when it could incarcerate up to several hundred lawbreakers from around Tyrone.

The medical needs of the population were well served with a large Infirmary located where the Danske Bank is today and a team of surgeons and nurses under Mr Thomas Maxwell tended to the patients.

Around 600 respectful houses with mostly slated roofs had been built on both sides of the Main Street, many with shops on the ground floor as it was customary for the owners to live above their shops, a tradition which continued up until the 1970s.

The town had just two river crossings Bells and Campsie bridge (in later years renamed King James bridge) The local Police Barracks was located just on the other side of Bells bridge with a detachment of the County Constabulary in residence and just 12 years later this force was to be renamed the Royal Irish Constabulary. In addition to the police barracks there was a small neat barracks in the Derry Road area with a garrison of two companies of foot infantry with their officers.

The Church of Ireland with its lofty tower and spire in the Grecian style erected by the Mervyn family in 1777 had just been enlarged two years previously adding a north aisle and galleries.

The Catholic St Peter and St Paul's Church was well established in Brook Street with its previous now vacant Church building still in existence outside the town on the Derry Road.

Two traditional Presbyterian Meeting Houses with their congregations were well established one on the Dublin Road and the other at James Street while a Methodist Wesleyan Chapel was on the present site on Church Street.

It is of interest that in 1824 most town burials took place in the interdenominational Old Drumragh Graveyard with some memorial stones today showing: John Donely died 8th February 1824 aged 88 years, John Greer of Kevlin died 22nd August 1824 aged 72 years, John McGinn died 4th January 1824 aged 39 years, Anne Perry died 13th December 1824 aged 4 years, Mary Perry died 21st December 1824 aged 9 years both sisters buried inside the old church walls, Margery Smyth wife of William died 23rd December 1824 aged 70 years.

Ruins

The old Drumragh Church ruins within the graveyard had only four walls standing in 1824 and are still there in the undergrowth and ivy covered in 2024 dating from pre-Reformation times which is perhaps the oldest historical site in town and yet remains without any formal identification sign or preservation.

The graveyard in 1985 was surveyed in detail by the highly respected local historian the late William McGrew and assisted by his brothers they cleared the undergrowth and cleaned up many of the headstones carefully recording the inscriptions in the book Tombstones of the Omey published by Omagh Family History Society.

In 1824 the town Post office in Main Street was under the management of Mr H Wallace and very busy each day dealing with the horse drawn coach mail coming and going from Dublin, Derry, the North West and a Bye-Mail from Fintona.

The local free school was located in isolation at Lisnamallard and had its main financial support from private subscriptions. The town development more or less stopped at Bells bridge but a very important building was in full production a little further out in the form of a very successful brewery run by the Falls Hughes & Co supplying quality ales and beers to the local population and beyond.

In later years this site was taken over and developed by Scotts Mills. The weekly market on Saturday's was held in the Market Yard areas of Omagh with all kinds of provisions and brown linen traded. The larger fairs each month would possibly have been held in the town in the early years and later on in the Gallows Hill Fair Green just off the Kevlin Road.

The prosperity of the town in 1824 can be judged by the numbers employed in the various occupations at that time, Surgeons 6, Doctors 2, Attorneys 3, Grocers 18, General Merchants 2, Tailors 2, Milliners 5, Woolendrapers 10, Haberdashers 1 Publicans 29 (yes 29), Bakers 4, Boot and Shoemakers 3, Hardware and Ironmongery 2, Saddlemakers and Harness Makers 3, Blacksmiths 3, Watch and Clockmakers 3, Tallow Chandlers 2, Printers and Booksellers 2

Surprisingly all this business was active and conducted without a bank in the town. The final part of the report recorded that there were scattered ruins of an old castle supposed to have been built about the year 1400 and these were still visible at the lower end of town, but there was not a vestige remaining of the Abbey of the Third Order of Franciscans built around the same time or indeed of the other castle at the top of the town both remembered only by street names today.

Driving force

The driving force behind the progress of a town is reliant on its citizens and some of the prominent Omagh family names in 1824 give an indication of those who guided the past and future development at that time.

The Earl of Blessington was in residence at Rash, Daniel Eccles Auchinleck Great-uncle of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck had just about settled into his grand new Crevenagh House and another 40 odd years would elapse before neighbouring Edenfel House built by Captain Lewis Mansergh Buchanan would be erected.

Other prominent resident names recorded are, Galbraith, Orr, Scott, Stack, Spillar, McAleer. Hamilton, Greer, Wilson, Cunningham, Holmes, Love, Alcorn, McGinn, and many others.

Quite a lot had been achieved in the 82 years since the Great Fire but the following 82 years or so could be classified as the golden era for the erection of the historical buildings most of which we are lucky to have in town today.

The top architects of the day were engaged for the design and erection of the prestige buildings included in the following Landmark list: Provincial Bank 1834 (first Bank in town), Campsie Bridge 1836, Union Workhouse 1841, Union Fever Hospital 1848, Scotts Mill 1850, Gas Works 1850, Gas Street Lighting 1851, Londonderry, Omagh, Enniskillen Railway and wooden station 1852, Tyrone and Fermanagh Asylum 1853, Trinity Presbyterian Church 1856, Methodist Church 1857, Model School 1859, Dublin Road Primitive Methodist Church1859, Omagh Loreto Convent 1860, Paved Streets 1861, Portadown, Dungannon, Omagh Railway 1861, Omagh stone built Railway Station 1863, Orange Hall 1869, St Columba's Church 1870, Knocknamoe Castle 1875, St Lucia Barracks 1881, Bank of Ireland 1894, First Omagh Presbyterian Church 1897, Sacred Heart Church 1899, County Hospital 1899, General Post Office (Nationwide today) 1900, Abbey Bridge 1900, Dublin Road Cemetery Church & Gate Lodge 1902, Tyrone County Club 1907, Ulster Bank 1909, Town Hall 1915, Munster & Leinster Bank 1920.

Over past years the rich legacy of these heritage buildings has been gradually eroded with the demolition of: Omagh Model School, Omagh Union Workhouse, Omagh Union Fever/General Hospital, Omagh Gas Works, Knocknamoe Castle, Great Northern Railway Station and its buildings, White Hart Hotel, Tyrone County Hospital, Primitive Methodist Church, Town Hall, all of these buildings played a prominent part in the development and fabric of Omagh since 1824 and are deserving of a Heritage Plaque to identify their sites and describe their origins.

On the two hundredth anniversary of the last Directory report on the early days of the re-birth of Omagh it could be deemed appropriate to take stock of the valuable legacy assets in the form of heritage buildings still standing with a view to their preservation for future generations and it is worth remembering that a building closed or boarded up can slowly degrade from the inside whilst the exterior still presents a sound appearance.

The recently formed Omagh Heritage Forum is presently active in endeavouring to draw attention to the importance of preserving a number of remaining prestige buildings in town which have been closed up: Provincial Bank, Scotts Mill, Dublin Road Cemetery Church and Gate Lodge, Munster and Leinster (First Trust Bank), St Lucia Barracks, Parts of Tyrone and Fermanagh Asylum.

On a positive note the Omagh Heritage Forum was delighted to learn that the old Omagh Gaol Governors House which for some time was closed up and at serious deterioration risk has had a change of ownership and is now in private hands with plans presently in place for the repair and restoration of this unique octagonal historical gem.

The Forum is also very grateful to the Tyrone Constitution Newspaper for its extensive coverage on the history, location and activities of the old Union Workhouse and Burial Ground and welcome their recent progress report update on the site identification and preservation project.