Strabane
Strabane is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
Strabane had a population of 13,507 at the 2021 census. It lies on the east bank of the River Foyle. It is roughly midway from Omagh, Derry and Letterkenny. The River Foyle marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. On the other side of the river is the smaller town of Lifford, which is the county town of Donegal. The River Mourne flows through the centre of the town and meets the Finn to form the Foyle River. A large hill named Knockavoe, which marks the beginning of the Sperrin Mountains, forms the backdrop to the town.
History
Early history
The locale was home to a group of northern Celts known as the Orighella as far back as the fourth century when the territories of Owen and Connail were established, and Orighella were assimilated into the Cenél Conaill. With the arrival of Saint Patrick, a mission established a church in the area near Castlefin, and having visited the Grianán Aileach for the conversion of Owen, returned along the Foyle river, establishing a further church at Leckpatrick. A later church was established at Lifford/Clonleigh by a mission headed by St. Colmcille. In AD 586 St. Colgan established a monastery at Camus . Other monasteries and religious sites were established at this time at Urney, Ballycolman, Donagheady, and Artigarvan.Middle Ages
arrived at Lifford in AD 832 and maintained a presence on the Foyle until AD 863 when they were expelled by Áed Findliath. The regional seat of power was to be the Grianán Aileach until 1101, when it was destroyed by the O'Briens of Thomond, and was then moved to Urney, three miles outside Strabane. In 1243, the seat of power for all Tyrone and the O'Neill dynasty was moved to Cookstown. It was during this epoch, in AD 1231, that Franciscan friars established a religious foundation on what is now the old graveyard at St. Patrick's Street, Strabane.Seventeenth century
The town was settled by Scottish families in the 1600s, an action that preceded the Plantation of Ulster. In 1608, during O'Doherty's Rebellion, most of the inhabitants fled to the safety of the fort of Lifford following Sir Cahir O'Doherty's Burning of Derry and Burning of Strabane.Twentieth century
In 1921, Strabane became a border town following the partition of Ireland. Sitting directly astride the border, Strabane suffered extensive damage during the Troubles from the early 1970s: Strabane Town Hall was destroyed in a bomb attack in 1972. The damage continued throughout much of the 1990s, with bombings and shootings commonplace; Irish Republican paramilitary groups, mainly the Provisional Irish Republican Army, regularly attacked the town's British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary bases. Strabane was once the most bombed town in Europe in proportion to its size, and was the most bombed town in Northern Ireland.Many civilians and members of the security forces were killed or injured in the area over the course of the Troubles. Many British Army regiments from England, Scotland and Wales served in Strabane at various times during the Troubles in the barracks at the locally named "Camel's hump" beside Lifford Bridge. As a result of the Good Friday Agreement, there is no longer any British Army presence in the town. Strabane became involved in the Ulster Project International, sending Catholic and Protestant teenagers to the United States for prejudice-reduction work.
At the height of The Troubles, Strabane garnered the dubious distinction of the highest unemployment rate in the industrial world. It is one of the most economically deprived towns in the United Kingdom. Huge economic damage occurred when much of the town centre flooded in 1987.
In August 2005, a Channel 4 television programme presented by property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer named Strabane the eighth-worst place to live in the UK, largely owing to unemployment. Strabane had been moved out of the top 20 in the 2007 edition.
As a result, the Strabane Community Unemployed Group was founded to find solutions to long-term unemployment and combat the causes of unemployment. Sister Mary Carmel Fanning, a retired Catholic girls school principal who had been awarded the MBE for her services to education in 1997, became a director of the group later that year.
Transport
Railways
The Irish gauge Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway reached Strabane in 1847, Omagh in 1852 and Enniskillen in 1854. The Great Northern Railway took over the L&ER in 1883.The Finn Valley Railway opened from Strabane to Stranorlar in 1863. The FV was originally Irish gauge but in 1892 it merged with the narrow gauge West Donegal Railway to form the Donegal Railway and was reduced to the same narrow gauge for through running. The Donegal Railway opened its own line to Derry in 1900. In 1906 the GNR and Northern Counties Committee jointly took over the Donegal Railway, making it the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee. The gauge Strabane and Letterkenny Railway opened in 1909 and was worked by the Joint Committee.
The partition of Ireland in 1922 turned the boundary with County Donegal into an international frontier. This changed trade patterns to the railways' detriment and placed border posts on the Joint Committee's FV and S&L lines and on the GNR line to Derry. Stops for customs inspections greatly delayed trains and disrupted timekeeping. Over the next few years customs agreements between the two states enabled GNR trains between Strabane and Derry to pass through the Free State without inspection unless they were scheduled to serve local stations on the west bank of the Foyle, and for goods on all railways to be carried between different parts of the Free State to pass through Northern Ireland under customs bond. The Joint Committee's Strabane-Derry line was closed in 1954, followed by the remainder of the narrow gauge system in 1960. In 1958 the Ulster Transport Authority took over the remaining GNR lines on the Northern Ireland side of the border. In accordance with The Benson Report submitted to the Northern Ireland Government in 1963, the UTA closed the former GNR line through Strabane to Derry in 1965.
Little trace remains of Strabane's railways except for one old railway building that survives in the town. The nearest railway is operated by Northern Ireland Railways and runs from Derry~Londonderry railway station via Coleraine to Belfast Lanyon Place railway station and Belfast Grand Central station. The Belfast-Derry railway line has been upgraded to facilitate more frequent trains.
Demographics
2021 census
On census day 2021, there were 13,507 people living in Strabane. Of these:- 20.93% were aged under 16, 62.89% were aged between 16 and 65, and 16.18% were aged 66 and over;
- 51.83% of the usually resident population were female and 48.17% were male;
- 91.96% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic faith, 5.46% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian ' denominations, 0.65% belong to other religions and 1.92% had no religious background.
- 6.77% only identified as 'British', 63.98% only identified as 'Irish', 21.60% only identified as 'Northern Irish', 0.4% identity as 'both Irish and British', 0.64% identified as 'both British and Northern Irish', 2.39% identified as 'both Irish and Northern Irish', 0.38% identified as 'Irish, British and Northern Irish', and 3.83% identified as 'Other';
- 19.57% had some knowledge of Irish, and 2.65% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots;
2011 census
- 23.00% were aged under 16 years and 13.19% were aged 65 and over;
- 52.32% of the usually resident population were female and 47.68% were male;
- 91.57% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic Christian faith and 7.22% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian ' denominations;
- 56.03% had an Irish national identity, 33.54% had a Northern Irish national identity and 12.03% had a British national identity ;
- 36 years was the average age of the population;
- 17.43% had some knowledge of Irish and 3.49% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots.
Politics
Following the 2023 Derry City & Strabane District Council elections, Strabane which is part of Sperrin DEA currently has 3 SF Councillors, 1 DUP, 3 Independents.
In Derg DEA, Sinn Fein currently have 3 Councillors, UUP and DUP 1 councillor each.
The next council elections will take place in May 2027.
Since 1997 Strabane has been part of the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of West Tyrone, held since 2001 by Sinn Féin. From 1983 to 1997 it was part of the Foyle constituency, held during that time by the then-SDLP leader John Hume.
Strabane has also since 1997, been part of the West Tyrone constituency of the Northern Ireland Assembly with the current composition of West Tyrone MLA's being:
SF 3 seats
DUP 1 seat
SDLP 1 seat
The next Assembly election is scheduled to take place in May 2027.
Culture
Sport
The local Gaelic football team is Strabane Sigersons.Strabane Cricket Club and Fox Lodge Cricket Club are members of the North West Senior League.
Strabane Athletic F.C. play in the Northern Ireland Intermediate League.
The town has three golf courses prominent among which is the 18-hole Strabane Golf Course.
Angling has historically been popular in the Strabane area. The town and immediate countryside is served by several rivers, with lough fishing at Moorlough and Lough Ash. Strabane is situated at the confluence of the rivers Mourne and Finn where they meet to form the Foyle. Strabane Glen, a steep wooded gorge adjacent to the town, is a designated ASSI.