St Lucia Barracks, Omagh is a former military base in

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') 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 m ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

History

The

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

leased the 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. The site was acquired as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the localisation of British military forces. The barracks became the

depot Depot ( or ) may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Island, Kemp Land, Antarctica * Depot Island, Victoria Land, Antarctica * Depot Island Formation, Greenland Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in ...

for the

27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot 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 (Madras Infantry) Regiment of Foot to form the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in 188 ...

and the

108th (Madras Infantry) Regiment of Foot 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. In the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion (1857), the B ...

. Following the Childers Reforms, the 27th and 108th regiments amalgamated to form the

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 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 o ...

with its depot in the barracks in 1881. In 1924 the barracks also became the depot of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. An

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...

camp was established on the site during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and Lisanelly Camp was built on an adjacent site around this time. 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. The base was the subject of a botched

proxy bomb The proxy bomb, also known as a human bomb, is a tactic that was used mainly by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland during the conflict known as "the Troubles". It involved forcing people (including off-duty members o ...

attack on 24 October 1990, when the main charge of the bomb failed to explode. The barracks closed in 2007 as part of the demilitarisation of Northern Ireland according to the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

. Eventually, an environmentally friendly

PSNI The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ga, Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ') is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it was reform ...

station was built on the grounds next to the existing St Lucia barracks site in 2010.

References

Sources

*{{cite book, last=English, first= Richard , year=2005, title=Armed struggle: the history of the IRA, publisher= Oxford University Press, isbn=0-19-517753-3 Omagh Barracks in Northern Ireland Military history of County Tyrone Police Service of Northern Ireland