St Lucia Barracks, Omagh

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St Lucia Barracks
Omagh
A helicopter landing at the base in the 1960s
Site information
TypeBarracks
OwnerMinistry of Defence
Operator British Army
Location
St Lucia Barracks is located in Northern Ireland
St Lucia Barracks
St Lucia Barracks
Location within Northern Ireland
Coordinates54°36′14″N 07°18′25″W / 54.60389°N 7.30694°W / 54.60389; -7.30694
Site history
Built1875-1881
Built forWar Office
In use1881-2007

St Lucia Barracks, Omagh, is a former military base in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

History

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 Ministry of Defence still holds the original lease.[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 during the Second World War, and Lisanelly Camp was built on an adjacent site.[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 terms of 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]

References

  1. ^ "St Lucia Site, Omagh". Northern Ireland Assembly. 27 November 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  2. ^ "Echoes of the past in these Army cuts". 8 July 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  3. ^ "Training Depots". Regiments.org. Archived from the original on 10 February 2006. Retrieved 16 October 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ^ a b "Future of St Lucia and Lisanelly Barracks". 25 October 2007. Archived from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  5. ^ "The Inter-War Years". Ministry of Defence. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  6. ^ Bryson, Anna (2007). The Insider: The Belfast Prison Diaries of Eamonn Boyce, 1956-1962. Social Science Research Network. pp. 14–18. SSRN 2813106.
  7. ^ English, p. 126
  8. ^ "War News". The Irish People. 19 December 1992. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  9. ^ "'Naive' terrorist jailed for 12 years". Belfast News-Letter. 3 February 1994. p. 10.
  10. ^ "Omagh gets green police station". Ulster TV. 14 September 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2014.

Sources

  • English, Richard (2005). Armed struggle: the history of the IRA. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517753-3.