50-590: Sion Mills is a village to the south of Strabane in County Tyrone , Northern Ireland , on the River Mourne . In the 2001 Census it had a population of 2,050 people. It is a tree-lined industrial village and designated conservation area, particularly rich in architectural heritage . The village of Sion Mills was established by the Herdman family in 1835. The family operated a linen production mill in
100-507: A brigadier was the cavalry equivalent of a corporal . To reflect the status of the Horse Guards as Household Troops , brigadiers ranked with lieutenants and sub-brigadiers with cornets in other cavalry regiments. When the Horse Guards were disbanded in 1788, the brigadiers and sub-brigadiers of the 1st and 2nd Troops became lieutenants and cornets in the 1st and 2nd Regiments of Life Guards , respectively. Brigadier remains
150-755: A Strabane shop in which John Dunlap learnt the printing trade. Dunlap went on to print the United States Declaration of Independence . Dergalt , the ancestral home of Woodrow Wilson , 28th President of the United States , is near Strabane. On 8 May 2008 it was severely damaged by a fire. In 2014, a mural was painted in Townsend Street with the intention of showing support for the people of Palestine following Israeli military action in Gaza . Strabane transmitting station
200-428: A major influence on the development of Sion Mills and the model village. Robert Owen promoted experimental socialistic communities and transformed the village of New Lanark into a model community in the early 1800s, New Lanark provided high standard working conditions, education and shops which provided affordable good quality food. New Lanark became a model for industrial communities in the 19th and 20th centuries around
250-587: A monastery at Camus [from whence the parish of Camus-Juxta-Mourne gets its name]. Other monasteries and religious sites were established at this time at Urney , Ballycolman , Donagheady, and Artigarvan . Vikings 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
300-695: A part of the Raj ) in 1893 and had settled in Sion Mills around 1903. He was largely instrumental in having the Church of the Good Shepherd built in the village, construction beginning in 1909. He and his wife carried out many other improvements to the village, and they were amongst the founders of the Derry Feis . Brig. Gen. Ricardo was buried in the vestibule of the church upon his death in 1923. He
350-483: A star (major general), crown (lieutenant general), or both ("full" general). Brigadier is the highest field officer rank (hence the absence of the word "general"), whereas brigadier-general was the lowest general officer "rank". However, the two ranks are considered equal. Historically, brigadier and sub-brigadier were the junior officer ranks in the Troops of Horse Guards . This corresponded to French practice, where
400-669: A substantive rank in the British Army. The Royal Marines, however, retained it as an acting rank until 1997, when both commodore and brigadier became substantive ranks. Brigadier-general was formerly a rank or appointment in the British Army and Royal Marines , and briefly in the Royal Air Force . It first appeared in the army in the reign of James II , but did not exist in the Royal Marines until 1913. In
450-765: Is Christ Church, Bowling Green. The main Presbyterian Church is located on the Derry Road while the main Methodist Church is located on Railway Street. Education in Strabane is provided by a mixture of infant, primary and secondary schools. The central location of the town allows parents the choice of schools in Derry , Omagh and Donegal . There are two secondary schools in the town: Holy Cross College and Strabane Academy . Holy Cross College
500-497: Is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility owned and operated by Arqiva . It includes a 305.5 metre (1,002 ft) high guyed steel lattice mast , which is the tallest structure in Ireland . The transmission antennas surmounting the structure are contained within a fibreglass cylinder. Constructed in 1963, it came into service on 18 February of that year. Brigadier General (United Kingdom) Brigadier ( Brig )
550-535: Is a senior rank in the British Army and the Royal Marines . Brigadier is the superior rank to colonel , and subordinate to major-general . It corresponds to the rank of brigadier general in many other nations. The rank has a NATO rank code of OF-6 , placing it equivalent to the Royal Navy commodore and the Royal Air Force air commodore ranks and the brigadier general (1-star general) rank of
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#1732790132431600-519: 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 (across Lifford Bridge ) is the smaller town of Lifford , which
650-549: 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
700-544: Is regarded as a blueprint for the future of education in Northern Ireland because it caters for both academic and vocational paths. The other secondary school is Strabane Academy which was formed in 2011 when Strabane Grammar School merged with Strabane High School . The North West Regional College which has campuses in Derry , Limavady as well as Strabane offers a range of vocational and non-vocational courses for post 16 year olds. The National Trust owns
750-522: Is situated at the confluence of the rivers Mourne and Finn where they meet to form the Foyle. The foothills of the Sperrin Mountains rise immediately behind the town and it is surrounded by hills and uplands. There are many picturesque small glens and wooded valleys immediately adjacent to the town including Strabane Glen , a steep wooded gorge , which is a designated ASSI. Strabane has an Irish-medium nursery, Naíscoil an tSratha Báin , which
800-772: 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. 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 (later Tír Eoghain ) and Connail (later Tír Chonaill - mostly modern County Donegal ) were established, and Orighella were assimilated into
850-966: The Catholic place of worship, is admirable for its severely plain lines – a long rectangle with a striking representation of the Last Supper on the slate facade. Oisín Kelly was the artist. A prominent local landlord and businessman in the area in the early 20th century was Brigadier General Ambrose St. Quentin Ricardo, C.M.G. , C.B.E. , D.S.O. , Q.S.A. (1866–1923), a director of Herdman's Ltd.. Born at Gatcombe Park , his family's seat in Gloucestershire in Britain , he had married Elizabeth Alice ('Ella') Herdman in Thyet Myo in Burma (then
900-568: 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 (the name means 'the flagstone of St. Patrick'). A later church was established at Lifford/Clonleigh by a mission headed by St. Colmcille . In AD 586 St. Colgan established
950-588: 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 good game fishing rivers and lough fishing at Moorlough and Lough Ash. Geography Strabane
1000-467: 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. In 1921, Strabane became a border town following the partition of Ireland . Sitting directly astride the border, Strabane suffered extensive damage during
1050-570: The 1740s, the substantive rank of brigadier-general was suppressed, and thereafter brigadier-general was a temporary appointment only, bestowed on a colonel or lieutenant-colonel (or on a colonel commandant in the Royal Marines) for the duration of a specific command (similar to a commodore ). The appointment was abolished in both the Army and the Marines in 1921, being replaced in the Army by
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#17327901324311100-552: The 2011 census, 91.57% of the residents were from a Catholic background and 7.22% were from a Protestant background. There are a number of places of worship for the residents of Strabane and the surrounding district. The three main Catholic churches are the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Barrack Street, Sacred Heart Church, Derry Road and St. Mary's Church, Melmount Road. The main Church of Ireland church
1150-674: The Donegal Railway, making it the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee . The 3 ft ( 914 mm ) 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
1200-625: 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,
1250-469: 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
1300-541: The Johnny Crampsie Music Festival. Strabane plays host to a Saint Patrick's Day Parade each year. One of Strabane's most notable features are five 20 ft (6.1 m) steel structures on the banks of the river. Designed by Maurice Harron , they consist of two dancers and a fiddle player on the Lifford side, a flute player on the Strabane side and a drummer in the middle. According to
1350-509: The L&;ER in 1883. The Finn Valley Railway (FV) opened from Strabane to Stranorlar in 1863. The FV was originally Irish gauge but in 1892 it merged with the 3 ft ( 914 mm ) narrow gauge West Donegal Railway (WD) 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
1400-714: The NI total, representing a decline of 2.2% on the Census 2001 population of 13,456. Of these: As of 2015, Strabane and Derry councils joined to form Derry City and Strabane District Council , and have a strong nationalist majority. At the local elections in May 2011 , members of Strabane District Council were elected from the following political parties: 8 Sinn Féin , 4 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 1 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 1 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and 2 Independent Nationalist . The council chairperson for 2013-14
1450-475: The River Mourne into a flax spinning mill, and erected a bigger mill behind it in the 1850s. The River Mourne has powered industrial machinery here since 1640, according to civil surveys from the mid-17th century this was also the site of a former corn mill. After the site was bought in 1853 by The Herdman Brothers, the architectural company Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon were hired to extend the compound. The mill
1500-512: The Sion Mills cricket tradition, Sion Mills was used as the venue to celebrate when the Irish team beat a west Indian touring team in July 1969. The Herdman brothers were religious, and built Churches. For the first 30 years James Herdman used to beat a drum to call the people to church. The church was a converted building in the village were everyone gathered. The work and theories of Robert Owen had
1550-643: 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 (RUC) bases. Strabane was once the most bombed town in Europe in proportion to its size, and
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1600-722: 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. On Census day 2021 there were 13,507 people living in Strabane. Of these: On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 13,172 people living in Strabane (5,123 households), accounting for 0.73% of
1650-630: 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 ,
1700-428: The United States military and numerous other NATO nations . The rank insignia for a brigadier is a St Edward's Crown over three "pips" ( "Bath" stars). The rank insignia for a brigadier-general was crossed sword and baton. Brigadier was originally an appointment conferred on colonels (as commodore was an appointment conferred on naval captains) rather than a substantive rank. However, from 1 November 1947 it became
1750-464: The appointments of colonel-commandant (which already existed as a rank in the Marines) and colonel on the staff . These appointments, although reflecting its modern role in the British Army as a senior colonel rather than a junior general, were not well received and were both replaced with brigadier in both the Army and the Marines (although not replacing the substantive rank of colonel commandant in
1800-754: The general public, offering a 270-seat theatre, art gallery, tourist information centre and cafe-bar. The Alley was Northern Ireland Building of the Year in 2008, and won the Allianz Arts and Business Award 2009 and The Green Apple Award 2008. The venue has hosted the All Ireland Confined Drama Finals (2008) and is the current home of the North West Music Festival, The Stage Write Schools Drama Festival, Sounds Like Summer Music Festival, Strabane Drama Festival, and
1850-464: The latter) in 1928. From the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918 until 31 July 1919, it used the appointment of brigadier-general. This was superseded by the rank of air commodore on the following day. The rank insignia for appointment of the brigadier-general was a crossed sword and baton; the insignia for higher grades of general consist of this device, with the addition of
1900-532: The village. The name Sion comes from the townland of Seein , which lies to the south of the village. It is an anglicisation of an Irish placename: either Suidhe Fhinn (meaning "seat of Finn ") or Sidheán (also spelt Síodhán and Sián , meaning " fairy mound "). The second part of the name is the English " mill ". Sion Mills was laid out as a model linen village by the Herdman brothers, James, John and George. In 1835 they converted an old flour mill on
1950-466: The world for example, Sion Mills. The Herdman brothers, like Owen, believed in education for not only children but for adults too, they provided evening classes for adults. They also placed an emphasis on recreational activities and talent, in 1842 there was a village band and George Herdman provided singing-classes for the girls who worked in the Mill However, nearly everything in Sion Mills today
2000-557: Was 1,907 accounting for 0.11% of the NI total. Of these: Sion Mills has a strong cricket tradition and was the venue for a celebrated moment in cricket history when the Irish team beat a West Indian side in July 1969. Sion Mills Cricket Club plays in the North West Senior League . Sion Mills railway station opened on 9 May 1852 and shut on 15 February 1965. Strabane Strabane ( / s t r ə ˈ b æ n / ; from Irish An Srath Bán , meaning 'the white river-holm')
2050-547: Was Ruairí McHugh of Sinn Féin. Since 1997 Strabane has been part of the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of West Tyrone , held since 2001 by Sinn Féin's Pat Doherty . From 1983 to 1997 it was part of the Foyle constituency, held during that time by the then-SDLP leader John Hume . The local Gaelic football team is Strabane Sigersons . Strabane Cricket Club and Fox Lodge Cricket Club are members of
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2100-405: Was a great-grandson of the famous political economist David Ricardo (1772–1823). At its peak the mill employed 1500 people. By the 2000s, China had begun to dominate the linen market across Europe and this led to the closure of Herdmans Ltd production in Sion Mills in 2004, resulting in the loss of 600 jobs. On Census Day (27 March 2011) the usually resident population of Sion Mills Settlement
2150-510: Was built with grey ashlar stone which was quarried locally in Douglas Bridge, the building was designed as a fireproof mill. The builder of the mill was John McCracken. The mill opened in 1835 and worked until 2004. The model village which was created by the Herdman family also incorporated recreational amenities for locals such as a community centre, cricket, bowling and football clubs. These amenities can still be seen today for example,
2200-591: Was created in 2003 with the amalgamation of Strabane's three Catholic post-primary schools, the Convent Grammar School, St Colman's High School and Our Lady of Mercy High School. The college had been operating across the three sites until its £29 million state-of-the-art new building opened in September 2009, catering for 1,400 pupils. Holy Cross is a co-ed bilateral college, which means it offers grammar status education within an all-ability school. It
2250-472: Was designed later, in the 1880s and 1890s, by James Herdman's son-in-law, the English architect William Frederick Unsworth . Sion House, a half timbered Elizabethan style mansion originally built in the early 1840s, was largely remodelled and expanded in the 1880s by Unsworth, around the same time as he was designing the first Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (this theatre
2300-590: Was destroyed by a fire in 1926). More modest half timbered buildings include the gatehouse, the Recreation Hall and Old St. Saviour's Church. Unsworth based his design for the polychrome Anglican church, the Church of the Good Shepherd (1909), on a church in Pistoia in Tuscany. This church is built in an Italian neo-Romanesque style. By contrast, the modern Church of St Teresa (1963, by Patrick Haughey),
2350-408: 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. The town was settled by Scottish families in
2400-483: Was founded in 1994, and a Gaelscoil (primary school). A common greeting in Strabane and the wider North West is "Have ye any bars?" This means "What's the news?" or "What's the latest gossip?" This may derive from Irish, from the phrase "barr nuachta," meaning "titbit," referring to a tasty piece of news. In 2007, the Alley Arts and Conference Centre (designed by architects Glenn Howells and AJA ) opened to
2450-620: Was founded to find solutions to long-term unemployment and combat the causes for 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. The Irish gauge 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway (L&ER) reached Strabane in 1847, Omagh in 1852 and Enniskillen in 1854. The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) took over
2500-416: 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
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