Committee formed to advocate for the retention of the historical St. Lucia Barracks in Omagh as a community asset
A public meeting to discuss the sale of St. Lucia Barracks Omagh, County Tyrone was held in Omagh Community Hub on Thursday night, August 14. The meeting follows the recent announcement that St. Lucia Barracks site which is jointly owned by the Ministry of Defence and Department for Infrastructure is to be put up for public sale. The meeting was a way to try and gauge public resolve to campaign against the sale and feed in ideas for the use of St. Lucia Barracks for the community.
Those that spoke at the meeting all agreed that the site which has remained unused since the Army vacated it almost twenty years ago in 2007 is a wasted resource not just for Omagh, but County Tyrone and Northern Ireland in general.
Ideas suggested for the possible use of the site included a Military Museum, a Harry Ferguson Museum of Innovation to tell the stories of all the innovators and achievers from Northern Ireland. A County Tyrone Museum. A veteran’s centre and using the existing houses on the site for a veteran’s home was also mentioned along with other ideas for tourism, education and research. Concerns were also raised as to the security of the site following recent malicious files, environmental issues was also raised about the recent fires that could be poisoning the town.
It was agreed to establish a committee of five members to make the case for retaining St. Lucia Barracks for the community. Elected were: Matthew Bell, James Herron, Stevan Patterson, Robert Sproule and Tony Watson.
The meeting attended by more than 40 members of the public was organised by Stevan Patterson who also produced a little booklet to help make the case for St. Lucia Barracks and tell a little of it’s very important history. The booklet is titled Time to Act and was given out before the meeting.
The committee will meet shortly and agreed to keep the public informed of developments.
As the meeting was held on the 56th anniversary of the start of Operation Banner and the eve of the 80th anniversary of VJ-Day that signalled the end of the Second World War a short act of remembrance was held and two minutes silence observed to conclude the meeting.