25 YEARS AGO/1982
Telephone exchange to close?
OMAGH Telephone exchange on the Kevlin Road is likely to close down within the next three years, it was learned this week. The shock news comes as yet another hammer-blow to an area already badly hit by unemployment, having hardly recovered from the grim announcement by Nestles last year that it was cutting its workforce by half.
Rumours of impending changes in local telephone operations have been rife in Omagh recently, and these became a shattering reality this week when a spokesman for British Telecom admitted that the 11 main exchanges in the Six Counties, including Omagh's, would be concentrated in four centres, and that these were likely to be Belfast, Derry, Enniskillen and Portadown. The Enniskillen centre would obviously cover the Omagh area and, although it is not clear what will happen to the jobs of the 46 people who work in the local exchange, some redundancies are inevitable.
Councillor criticises army delay
A TRILLICK DUP councillor has criticised the army for waiting two weeks before dealing with a suspect roadside bomb near Kilskeery. The suspect device was on the Omagh-Trillick road and an area outside Trillick was sealed off on Tuesday morning before an army explosives expert announced in the late afternoon that the rusting creamery churn lying in a ditch was a false alarm.
The Rev. Ivan Foster, Commandant of the Third Force in Co. Fermanagh, and one of four DUP councillors on Omagh District Council, claimed that he was told by a policeman at the scene that the RUC told the army about the suspect device a fortnight ago.
50 YEARS AGO/1957
Go forth and multiply – Bishop
IF IN the past their country districts were able to support more people than they found today, what excuse was there for the want of marriage amongst the families of the parish? So asked Most Rev. Dr Farren, Lord Bishop of Derry, speaking in the Church of Mount St Patrick, Gortin, on the occasion of his triennial visitation when he administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to the children of the parish.
His Lordship told the people that if they allowed their farms to become untenanted "then Gortin ceases to be the great Tyrone parish of which you are proud, of which your ancestors were proud and for what they made so many sacrifices. In some of the other parishes where the population is going down the number of children at school is increasing, but here not merely is your population going down but the number attending the schools is also going down, so that at the present time, the smallest number of Catholic children attending school in any parish is in the parish of Gortin.
"What is the cause? I think you know yourselves. It is the want of marriages. Therefore I appeal to you young people still on the farms to realise your responsibilities to keep alive that great people from which you sprang. That can only be done by marriage, not late but early in life.
MP loses Senate seat
LIAM Kelly, the abstentionist MP for Mid-Tyrone lost his seat in the Irish Senate election at the weekend. In the last Senate, he was elected to a seat in the Labour panel while serving a 12-month sentence in Crumlin Road Prison, Belfast.
75 YEARS AGO/1932
Tragedy at 'Leinster 200'
TRAGEDY marred the tenth annual reunion of the 'Leinster 200', Ireland's famous international road race for motorcycles at Skerries on Saturday, when a popular Dublin motorcyclist, R. J. Nicholson, hon. secretary of the Tallaght and District Motorcycle Club, who was acting as marshal in connection with the race, was run into by one of the competitors and received injuries from which he succumbed later.
'Derg angler's amazing catch
FISHING for pike in the River Derg near Crewbridge, Mr Joseph McGlynn, Crew, observed a rat swimming across the river and near the centre being swallow by a pike.
Fishing with a spoon, Mr McGlynn soon afterwards hooked a pike and succeeded in landing same. Thinking that this might be the pike which had swallowed the rat, he proceeded to open it on the river bank when, to his astonishment, out rushed the live rat.
After a brave fight for freedom, it was killed by Mr McGlynn's terrier.
Damage by foxes
IN Drumquin district during the past week, considerable damage has been done by foxes. In addition to fowls destroyed, a number of lambs have been killed.
Similar damage by foxes is reported in the Sperrin Mountain district. During the last fortnight, Mr F. B. Foerster, steward at Beltrim, Gortin, killed over 16 foxes.
100 YEARS AGO/1907
Plate on display
WE notice that in the window of Mr Sheffield, jeweller, Market Street, Omagh, there is a grand display of plate which has been made to special order for the new Tyrone County Club. Mr Sheffield is to be congratulated on securing this order thus showing that Omagh can compete successfully against city firms when an opportunity is given to its business people to tender for such work.
Mutiny survivor
AMONGST the surviving officers of the Indian Mutiny, the jubilee of which has just taken place, is the Clerk of the Peace for Tyrone, Colonel Lewis M. Buchanan C.B., Edenfell, Omagh, who served with the Connaught Rangers in the relief of Lucknow.
Dromore accident
WHILE cycling down a steep hill near Dromore recently, Mr H. J. Guy, draper, had a narrow escape from serious injury. The chain came off his machine and, while trying to use the brakes, he was thrown to the ground, receiving only slight injuries.
Sites named
ST COLUMBA's Terrace (5 houses), St Brigid's Terrace (9 houses) and Fairmount Road were the names chosen by the Omagh Urban Council at Monday's meeting on the proposition of Mr Thomas O'Kane seconded by Mr Henry McGale for the new houses in Meetinghouse Hill.
Name plates are to be put up in Irish and English.
