County Hall, Omagh

County Hall, Omagh
County Hall, Omagh
County Hall, Omagh Location within Northern Ireland
General information
Architectural style	Modern style
Town or city	Omagh, County Tyrone
Country	Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54°36′08″N7°18′04″W / 54.6023°N 7.3010°W / 54.6023; -7.3010 Coordinates: 54°36′08″N7°18′04″W / 54.6023°N 7.3010°W / 54.6023; -7.3010
Completed	1962
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Ostick and Williams

County Hall is a municipal facility in Drumragh Avenue, Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It served as the headquarters of Tyrone County Council from 1962 to 1973.

History

During the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, meetings of Tyrone County Council were held at the Omagh Courthouse. ^[1] In the 1960s, county leaders decided that the courthouse was too cramped to accommodate the county council in the context of the county council's increasing administrative responsibilities, especially while the courthouse was still acting as a facility for dispensing justice, and therefore chose to acquire some open land which had previously formed part of the Millbank estate. ^[2]

The new building, which was designed by Ostick and Williams in the modern style, was completed in 1962. ^[3] The design for the three-storey building involved an asymmetrical main frontage onto Drumragh Avenue; the left section featured a glass entrance on the ground floor with an entablature above bearing the inscription "Tyrone County Hall" and supporting a wall of concrete panelling displaying the county coat of arms with three small windows above; the right section featured continuous bands of glazing with black panels above and below. A war memorial to soldiers of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War, which had been designed by the sculptor, Sydney March, was relocated from Courthouse Hill to a site within the grounds of the county hall in 1964. ^{[4] [5]} Following the bomb attack by the dissident Irish republican paramilitary group, the Real Irish Republican Army, of 15 August 1998, which killed 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) and injured some 220 others, ^{[6] [7]} a memorial to the victims of the attack was also established within the grounds of the county hall on 15 August 2008. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

After the county council was abolished in 1973, the building became the regional office of several government departments. ^{[11] [12] [13]} Approximately 113 civil servants, including those employed by the Western Divisional Headquarters of the Department for Infrastructure, ^[14] were still employed by the Northern Ireland Assembly in the building as at 1 January 2014. ^[15]

References

1. "No. 1436". The Belfast Gazette . 31 December 1948. p. 326.
2. Ordnance Survey Map Historical Fourth Edition (1905-1957). Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
3. Rowan, Alistair (1979). North West Ulster: The Counties of London Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone. Yale University Press. p. 448. ISBN   978-0300096675.
4. "Cast in Bronze". Ulster Herald. 10 October 2013. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
5. "Omagh Boer War Memorial". War Memorials Online. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
6. "Omagh coroner rules on unborn twins". BBC News. 28 September 2000. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
7. "Main Events surrounding the bomb in Omagh". Conflict Archive on the Internet. Retrieved 18 February 2009.
8. Free to Do Travel Guide UK and Ireland. 2008. p. 387. ISBN   978-0955360008.
9. Stevenson, Rachel (15 August 2008). "Omagh marks 10th anniversary of deadly bombing". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 February 2009.
10. McIlroy, Brian (2007). Genre and Cinema: Ireland and Transnationalism. Routledge. p. 266. ISBN   978-0415770897.
11. "DfI Roads - Western Division". Northern Ireland Direct. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
12. "Omagh Local Area Planning Office". Northern Ireland Direct. 13 October 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
13. "Enniskillen Conservation Area" (PDF). Northern Ireland Direct. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
14. "DfI Roads Western Division - Divisional Manager". Department for Infrastructure. 30 June 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
15. "Written Answers" (PDF). Northern Ireland Assembly. 11 April 2014. p. 182. Retrieved 2 November 2018.