Fintona


Fintona, is a village and townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland lying within the civil parish of Donacavey. Its population was calculated in the 2011 Census as 1,164.

History

The local area has been known to have had human activity for around 4000 years; there are many burial places, standing stones, stone circles and graves in the area around Fintona. The current village is developed from an Uí Néill fortress built in 1431 and is one of Tyrone's oldest settlements. Some time after the Plantation of Ulster, by 1668 the dominant landowners in the area was the Eccles Family and their Manor House, which was located in what is nowadays Fintona Golf Club and Ecclesville Park on the Ecclesville Demense, was built in 1703.
As in many other parts of Ireland during the 19th Century, the expansion of the railway network saw the village connected with the rest of the country. There were two stations, Fintona and Fintona Junction. Connecting the two stations was a horse-drawn tram which took passengers from the village to Fintona Junction railway station which was a stop on the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway which itself was part of the Great Northern Railway. Both stations closed on 1 October 1957.

Horse tram

Possibly the most well known bit of history associated with Fintona was the horse-drawn tram that took passengers from Fintona railway station to Fintona Junction station one mile away. The name of the horse was always "Dick" regardless of gender. First class and second class passengers travelled inside while third class travellers sat exposed to the elements on the top. The tram made its last trip on 30 September 1957 when the Omagh to Enniskillen line closed, and with it, Fintona's rail links to the rest of Ireland. When retired, it was the second last existing example of a horse-drawn tram in public service in the British and Irish Isles, the only remaining one now being on Douglas promenade, Isle of Man. The "van" now lies at the Ulster Transport Museum.
The legacy of the horse tram's service and identity to Fintona can be seen with the unique road signs welcoming you into the village, which includes an image or silhouette of the horsetram with "Dick" pulling the tram along with the driver, conductor and a third person on board on the top of the tram.

Population

In 1841 the population of Fintona was 1327 with another 7980 people living in the surrounding hinterland of the civil parish of Donacavey. However the effects of the Irish Famine of the 1840s meant that by 1851, the population in the village rose to 1504 with the population in the rest of Donacavey falling to 5972. Nevertheless, this was to mark the start of a continual fall in population, in common with much of rural Ireland; by 1891 the population in the village fell to 1271 with 3551 in the remainder of Donacavey, a rate that continued to slowly fall until the middle of the 20th century. By 1971 the population of Fintona was recorded in that year's census as 1190, rising to 1353 in 1981 but then falling slightly to 1324 in 1991. With a change in the defined population area starting in 2001, a population of 1344 was recorded. The 2011 census recorded a population of 1164 people.

Geography

Fintona village lies across several gentle hills, including Main Street whose summit lies at its centre with both ends at their foot. There are small pockets of flat ground, mostly in the Ecclesville Demesne. The county town of Tyrone, Omagh, lies by road 8 miles north. Enniskillen is 19 miles south-west, Belfast 66 miles east and Dublin 108 miles south-east.
Towards the south-east about 4 miles away, about half-way between Fintona and the village of Fivemiletown, the land rises to the summit of Murley Mountain, better known locally as "Fivemiletown Mountain", which has a peak of above sea level. At this peak and the surrounding land are two close by wind farms, Lendrums Bridge and Hunters Hill.
A small river named the "Quiggery Water", whose source is located on the northern slopes of Murley Mountain, flows through Fintona with bridges crossing it at Kiln Street and Mill Street. This river then joins with the Ballynahatty Water to form the Drumragh River, which in turn joins the Camowen River at Omagh to form the River Strule.

Agriculture

Farming plays a key role in the economy of Fintona. Much of this is cattle based involved meat and milk production, with some sheep rearing particularly on higher ground. There are also some pig and chicken farms in the area. The land and climate does not lend itself to arable farming, but in the past some maize was grown, being produced to boost the protein of cattle feed. On higher ground near the summit of Murley Mountain, there are also peat bogs.

Transport

Fintona today is linked to Omagh though the B122 that connects to the A5 Omagh to Ballygawley road about 2 miles outside Omagh. Other roads linking Fintona to elsewhere include the B80 to Enniskillen, the B46 to Dromore, the B122 to Fivemiletown, the B46 to Seskinore and Beragh, the B168 to Clogher and the Derrybard & Greenmount roads that connect to the A5 Omagh to Ballygawley road on to towards Belfast and Dublin.

Public transport

The only public transport available is an Ulsterbus bus service provided by Translink that connects Fintona to Omagh. Seven services run on weekdays and five on Saturdays. There is no service on Sundays.

Sport and leisure

There are numerous sports clubs and facilities in Fintona which cater for a range of activities. Local clubs include Fintona Cycling Club, Fintona Badminton Club and two bowling clubs. Partly thanks to the numerous number of public houses in Fintona, darts, pool and snooker also prove popular.

Fintona Golf Club

Fintona Golf Club was founded in 1904 by C.W.L. Brown-Lecky and is located on part of the Ecclesville Demense. It is a nine-hole course which have twin tees allowing players a different challenge on their second time round. Ronan Rafferty rated it the best nine-hole course in Northern Ireland in a feature on the TV programme 'Ronan Rafferty's Great Golf Journeys'. The course includes a club house and a bar with a function room and catering facilities.

Fintona Pearses GAA Club

Club was founded in late 1916 and first played competitive Gaelic football games a year later. There was already a GAA club in Fintona at the time, the Davitts, which was founded in 1907 and won the Tyrone Senior Football Championship in 1914 but the Davitts folded not long after the Pearses club started. The current club is based at its own grounds just outside the town on the Tattymoyle Road, named St. Lawrence's Park which has undergone substantial redevelopment since the early 1990s which today includes two full-size pitches, a training pitch, a clubhouse with four changing rooms and two stands. Gaelic Football teams are fielded at adult and underage level while a Ladies Gaelic Football club of the same name also play at the same grounds. Hurling has undergone recent development within the club, with its first success in the Under 14 team winning the Tyrone "B" Championship in 2019.

Fintona Swifts Football Club

are a Junior Football Club that was originally founded in the early 1990s. Up until the 2010/11 season the team did not have a home ground in the village and was forced to play their 'home' games elsewhere, normally in Omagh. After years of discussions and stalling, the club finally had a permanent home in Fintona with a pitch based in the Ecclesville Demense opened in August 2010. In August 2015, the club was disbanded after withdrawing from the Fermanagh & Western Football League with a lack of player numbers cited as the reason. A year later, the club was reformed and in its first season back won the Fermanagh & Western Division 3 League. A reserve team was reintroduced at the start of the 2019/20 season. For the 2020/21 season the first team will play in Division 2 while the reserve team will play in Reserve Division 3.

Ecclesville Centre

Based within the grounds of the Ecclesville Demense, opened in 1995 the Ecclesville Centre is unique in the UK and Ireland in being a combined equestrian and community/leisure complex. The facility has proven popular not only among show jumpers and horse riders, but also for other sporting activities especially those based indoors. The equestrian end of the centre includes stables, an indoor arena with judges box and seated stand, and an outdoor facility that includes an outdoor floodlight arena, open parkland and the forest of the Ecclesville Demense. The leisure part of the centre includes a minor hall, a sports hall, changing rooms and a fitness suite with outdoor all-weather tennis courts also available. The centre is a popular venue for local and regional sports competitions including bowls, badminton and indoor football. At a community level the centre is the home of Fintona Cross-Community Youth Club and also a local Sure Start centre. The centre is also capable of holding children's parties with catering facilities & an inflatable bouncy castle.
The centre has also been the venue for several special events and exhibitions since the early 2000s which have proven popular locally and beyond including Farm Machinery, Sport & Modified Cars, Transport, Home & Garden, and Music Concerts. The Northern Ireland National Charolais Show has in recent years been an annual fixture at the centre as has the Omagh and District Canine Club Dog Show.

Parks

The main public park in Fintona is at the Ecclesville Demesne, known as Ecclesville Park. The park itself has a play-area for children and all-weather football & basketball area used alongside the Ecclesville Centre, neighbouring a full-size grass soccer pitch, walking routes, pond and forest. In 2014 additional work was done which extended the play-area and also added an outdoor gym.
There are also children’s play-areas at Mill Street, Ashfield Gardens and Denamona Court.

Education

Fintona has two primary schools; Denamona County Primary School and St Lawrence's Primary School. Two other primary schools, St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's both closed due to falling enrolments; St. Joseph's in 2003 and St. Patrick's in 2009.
There are no post-primary schools in Fintona, children continue their education at schools usually either in Omagh, Dromore or Fivemiletown, while a few also attended schools in Ballygawley and Enniskillen.

Fintona Library

Fintona has its own branch library that was originally opened in the early 1980s in a prefabricated building in Ecclesville Park before moving to its current location on Main Street in 1991. In early 2011 the library was one of ten marked down by Libraries NI for closure who claimed that the library was one of the least used in Northern Ireland and that the roof of the building required repair at a significant cost. A public consultation meeting in Fintona Golf Club on 3 March that year saw a strong local turn out of at least 245 people calling for the retention of the library. On 20 October 2011, Libraries NI announced that the Fintona branch library would remain open while efforts were made to either improve its current premises or find an alternative location in due course.

Media and communications

In the late 1980s and early 1990s a monthly local news magazine, the Village Voice, was published by the now defunct Fintona Development Association. The magazine covered news, features and activities in Fintona, Seskinore and Eskra. As of June 2020, events in Fintona are often covered by Omagh-based newspapers, the Tyrone Constitution, the Tyrone Herald and the Ulster Herald.
A Post Office lies inside Supervalu supermarket on the Tattymoyle Road with daily collections. The local postcode starts with BT78.
A BT Telephone exchange lies just outside the village on the Castletown Road, serving Fintona and the neighbouring hamlets of Seskinore and Eskra. The STD code is 028 in common with the rest of Northern Ireland, with local numbers assigned by BT being in the format 8284xxxx. The exchange was enabled for ADSL broadband in September 2004 while Fibre to the Cabinet broadband services went live in early 2011.
Terrestrial Television along with FM & DAB radio can be received from the Brougher Mountain transmitter site, while similar TV & radio services from the Republic of Ireland can also be received by most people in Fintona. Satellite television is also popular, either through Freesat or the Sky subscription service. There are no cable operators in the village.

Churches

Fintona has several church buildings, including:
Fintona lies in the West Tyrone electoral constituency for elections to both the Houses of Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly. For local government elections, Fintona lies within the West Tyrone District Electoral Area along with Dromore, Drumquin, Trillick, Seskinore and Newtownsaville.

People

Fintona is classified as a village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency . On Census day there were 1,359 people living in Fintona. Of these: