Much as I would like to comment on all the various eyesores in the town caused by the lack of upkeep of roadways and footways, litter and the abundance of garish posters bedecking walls, etc. I will confine my comments to what I consider the worst of all.
In November 1950 five railway workers, part of a permanent way gang, were killed at Omagh Station in one of our worst civilian tragedies. Fifty years afterwards a monument of sorts was erected on the site of the old station master's house, supported not by the local council, but by Omagh Rotary Club.
From the outset this memorial was fairly pathetic, but now the site has become unseemly in the extreme. Giant weeds over six feet tall proliferate and the plaque bearing the names of the dead has become obscured.
About a year ago it was tidied up to become a BBC 'Breathing Space' but this temporary improvement only served to accentuate the lack of respect for those killed. This attempt at a memorial is an insult to the dead, but more so to their relations and friends who still reside in the Omagh area. Omagh was an important railway town and surely the local council could take more measures to honour these dead and to provide more lasting mementoes of the whole railway connection in and around the area.
Eamon McGale
Omagh
