St Lucia Barracks, Omagh, is a former military base in

Omagh Omagh (; from , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. Northern Ireland's c ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

History

The

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

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

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

still holds the original lease. The site was acquired as part of the

Cardwell Reforms The Cardwell Reforms were a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874 with the support of Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone paid little attentio ...

, which encouraged the localisation of British military forces. The barracks became the depot for the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot and the 108th (Madras Infantry) Regiment of Foot. Following the

Childers Reforms The Childers Reforms of 1881 reorganised the infantry regiments of the British Army. The reforms were done by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers during 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms. The reorganisation w ...

, the 27th and 108th regiments amalgamated to form the

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was an Ireland, 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 (Ma ...

with its depot in the barracks in 1881. In 1924, the barracks also became the depot of the

Royal Irish Fusiliers The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) was an Irish line infantry (later changed to light 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 ...

. 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 World War II, Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existe ...

camp was established during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and Lisanelly Camp was built on an adjacent site. 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 ...

attack on 24 October 1990, when the main charge of the bomb failed to explode. On 7 December 1992, two sangars received harassing fire from automatic weapons when an IRA unit attacked the base. St Lucia Barracks closed in 2007 as part of the demilitarisation of Northern Ireland according to the terms of the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

. Eventually, an

environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that c ...

PSNI 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