| St Lucia Barracks | |
|---|---|
| Omagh | |
 A helicopter landing at the base in the 1960s | |
  St Lucia Barracks Location within Northern Ireland | |
| Coordinates | 54°36′14″N07°18′25″W / 54.60389°N 7.30694°W |
| Type | Barracks |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Ministry of Defence |
| Operator |  British Army |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1875-1881 |
| Built for | War Office |
| In use | 1881-2007 |
St Lucia Barracks, Omagh is a former military base in Omagh, Northern Ireland.
The War Office leased the 5-acre (20,000 m2) site from the Archdale family on 10 April 1875 for sixty pounds per annum. The lease was made for 999 years or until the War Office ceased to use it for military purposes or sublet, assigned the premises for use other than military. The original lease is still held by the Ministry of Defence. [1] The site was acquired as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the localisation of British military forces. [2] The barracks became the depot for the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot and the 108th (Madras Infantry) Regiment of Foot. [3] Following the Childers Reforms, the 27th and 108th regiments amalgamated to form the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers with its depot in the barracks in 1881. [4]
In 1924 the barracks also became the depot of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. [5] An Auxiliary Territorial Service camp was established on the site during the Second World War and Lisanelly Camp was built on an adjacent site around this time. [4]
In October 1954, an attempted IRA raid on the barracks to capture weapons failed, with five soldiers and two IRA men injured. Eight men were arrested, and convicted, with sentences of 10–12 years imprisonment. [6]
The base was the subject of a botched proxy bomb attack on 24 October 1990, when the main charge of the bomb failed to explode. [7] On 7 December 1992, two sangars received harassing fire from automatic weapons when an IRA unit attacked the base. [8] [9] St Lucia barracks closed in 2007 as part of the demilitarisation of Northern Ireland according to the Good Friday Agreement. Eventually, an environmentally friendly PSNI station was built on the grounds next to the existing St Lucia barracks site in 2010. [10]
Omagh is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast, is 68 miles (109.5 km) to the east of Omagh, and Derry is 34 miles (55 km) to the north.
The 36th (Ulster) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of Lord Kitchener's New Army, formed in September 1914. Originally called the Ulster Division, it was made up of mainly members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, who formed thirteen additional battalions for three existing regiments: the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The division served from October 1915 on Western Front as a formation of the British Army during the Great War.
Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War.
The Royal Irish Regiment is an infantry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was founded in 1992 through the amalgamation of the Royal Irish Rangers and the Ulster Defence Regiment. Their oldest predecessor, the 27th Regiment of Foot, was first raised in June 1689 to fight in the Williamite War in Ireland. Other notable regiments in their lineage include the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Irish Fusiliers.
The Royal Irish Rangers was a regular infantry regiment of the British Army with a relatively short existence, formed in 1968 and later merged with the Ulster Defence Regiment in 1992 to form the Royal Irish Regiment.
The Royal Irish Rifles was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army, first created in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 83rd Regiment of Foot and the 86th Regiment of Foot. The regiment saw service in the Second Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War.
The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1968. The regiment was formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot and the 108th Regiment of Foot.
Enniskillen Castle is situated in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It was originally built in the 16th century and now contains the Fermanagh County Museum and a museum for the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards and Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
HQ Northern Ireland was the formation responsible for the British Army in and around Northern Ireland. It was established in 1922 and disbanded, replaced by a brigade-level Army Reserve formation, 38 (Irish) Brigade, in 2009.
The 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot was an Irish infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1689. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 108th Regiment of Foot to form the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1881.
The North Irish Brigade was a Brigade of the British Army which existed between 1948 and 1968; it consisted of the three regiments from Northern Ireland. After the Second World War there were 14 infantry depots in the United Kingdom, each bearing a letter. The depots were territorially aligned, and Infantry Depot M at Omagh was aligned with the regiments from Northern Ireland.
The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army, formed by the amalgamation of the 87th (Prince of Wales's Irish) Regiment of Foot and the 89th (Princess Victoria's) Regiment of Foot in 1881. The regiment's first title in 1881 was Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers), changed in 1920 to the Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's). Between the time of its formation and Irish independence, it was one of eight Irish regiments.
The 108th Regiment of Foot (Madras Infantry) was an infantry regiment of the British Army. However, it was raised initially as part of the Madras Army, by the East India Company (EIC) in 1766.
The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot and the 109th Regiment of Foot (Bombay Infantry). The 100th Foot was first raised in 1858 and the 109th was first raised in 1853. Between the time of its formation and Irish independence, it was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, with its Birr Barracks home depot in Birr. It was disbanded with the Partition of Ireland following establishment of the independent Irish Free State in 1922 when the five regiments that had their traditional recruiting grounds in the counties of the new state were disbanded.
The regimental depot of a regiment is its home base for recruiting and training. It is also where soldiers and officers awaiting discharge or postings are based and where injured soldiers return to full fitness after discharge from hospital before returning to full duty. Normally, a variety of regimental stores will also be kept at the depot. The regimental depot is not the same as the regimental headquarters, though in practice the two will often be co-located in the same place.
The Teebane bombing took place on 17 January 1992 at a rural crossroads between Omagh and Cookstown in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. A roadside bomb destroyed a van carrying 14 construction workers who had been repairing a British Army base in Omagh. Eight of the men were killed and the rest were wounded. Most were civilians, while one of those killed and two of the wounded were off-duty British soldiers. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) claimed responsibility, saying the workers were targeted because they were collaborating with the "forces of occupation".
Abercorn Barracks, sometimes referred to as Ballykinlar Barracks or Ballykinler Barracks, is a former military base in Ballykinler in County Down, Northern Ireland. The surrounding training area is retained by the Ministry of Defence.
Gough Barracks was a military installation in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
The County Fermanagh War Memorial stands in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It was originally constructed to commemorate the men of the town killed during the First World War, particularly those serving with the local regiments, the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. It was later altered to also commemorate those killed in the Second World War.
The Royal Tyrone Militia, later the Royal Tyrone Fusiliers, was an Irish militia regiment raised in 1793 for home defence and internal security during the French Revolutionary War, seeing action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was later embodied during all of the UK's major wars. In 1881 it became a battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and during World War I, as part of the Special Reserve, it trained thousands of reinforcements for battalions of that regiment serving overseas. Postwar it retained a shadowy existence until it was formally disbanded in 1953.
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