Fintona

Fintona
Tyrone
Main Street, Fintona, looking north.
Location
Grid reference:	H443612
Location:	54°29’52"N, 7°19’4"W
Data
Population:	1,164  (2011)
Post town:	Omagh
Postcode:	BT78
Dialling code:	028
Local Government
Council:	Fermanagh and Omagh
Parliamentary constituency:	West Tyrone

Fintona is a village and townland in Tyrone. Its population at the 2011 Census was 1,164.

The village is in the south-west of County Tyrone, Fermanagh, in Tyrpone's Barony of Clogher (while a northern portion of Fintona parish is in that of Omagh East).

This is a sizable village, a child of the railway (since departed). It has a goodly range of shops and small businesses, a GP clinic, a vet, two supermarkets and a restaurant among other smaller shops, cafés and pubs. A substantial amount of working residents however commute to Omagh, Enniskillen or further afield.

Name

Fintona is derived phonetically from the Irish name of the area, Fionntamhnach; this is often translated to mean "white field". However other meanings have been recorded due to various English translations for "fionn" and "tamhnach". "Fionn" may refer to a colour that is described as white, bright, blonde or fair-coloured, while "tamhnach" may refer to a field, clearing, oasis, grassy upland or arable place in a mountain.

In the past, the English spelling of the area has varied, with "Findonagh" in use as recently as 1937 in Church of Ireland documents, while "Fentonagh" and "Fintonagh" were also in use in the 19th century. The current spelling, 'Fintona', has been recorded as first used in 1774.

History

Approaching Fintona

The local area has been known to have had human activity for around 4,000 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 Demesne, 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 (open 5 June 1853) and Fintona Junction (open 1 May 1856). 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

The Fintona horse tram circa 1930

Possibly the most well known bit of history associated with Fintona was the horse-drawn tram (or "van" to the locals) that took passengers from Fintona railway station to Fintona Junction station one mile away. The name of the horse was always "Dick" regardless of whether a stallion or a mare. 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 Isles, the only remaining one now being on Douglas promenade on the Isle of Man. The "van" now sits 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.

About the village

The village sits amongst and across gentle hills; the centre of Main Street is on a hill summit and its ends at the feet of the same hill. There are small pockets of flat ground, mostly at the Ecclesville Demesne. By road distance, Omagh, the county town of Tyrone, is eight miles to the north while Enniskillen, Fermanagh's county town, is nineteen miles to the south-west.

Towards the south-east about four miles away, about half-way between Fintona and the village of Fivemiletown, the land rises to the summit of Murley Mountain, (known better locally as "Fivemiletown Mountain", also occasionally known as "Stranisk Hill" after its local townland), which has a peak of 1,024 feet above sea level. On this peak and the surrounding land are two close by wind farms, Lendrums Bridge (opened in 2000) and Hunters Hill (opened in 2008).

Quiggery Water

A small river named the "Quiggery Water", the source of which is on the northern slopes of Murley Mountain, flows through Fintona with bridges crossing it at Kiln Street and Mill Street as well as just outside the village at a location known as the Carnlea crossroads. This river then joins with the Ballynahatty Water to form the Drumragh River, which in turn joins the Camowen River in Omagh to form the River Strule.

Sport and leisure

Fintona Golf Club

• Badminton: Fintona Badminton Club
• Bowling: Two clubs
• Cycling: Fintona Cycling Club
• Football: Fintona Swifts F.C. (junior football)
• Gaelic sports: Fintona Pearses GAA, founded in late 1916
• Golf: Fintona Golf Club

Fintona Golf Club

Fintona Golf Club was founded in 1904 by C.W.L. Brown-Lecky and is laid out 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 his programme 'Ronan Rafferty's Great Golf Journeys'.

The course includes a club house and a bar with a function room and catering facilities.

The Ecclesville Centre

Based within the grounds of the Ecclesville Demense, opened in 1995, the Ecclesville Centre is unique in the British Isles as 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, including exhibitions of 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, alongside 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.

Donacavey Parish Church (Church of Ireland)

St Lawrence's Roman Catholic Church

Fintona Presbyterian Church

Churches

• Church of Ireland: Donacavey Parish Church, on Eccleville Road
• Methodist:
  • Fintona Methodist Church, on the Craigavon Road, next to the Fintona Presbyterian Church
  • Fintona Independent Methodist Church, on Kiln Street and is an outreach ministry from its parent church in Omagh.
• Presbyterian: Fintona Presbyterian Church, on the Craigavon Road next to the Fintona Methodist Church
• Christian Brethren: based at Fintona Gospel Hall
• Roman Catholic: St Lawrence's, located outside the village

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Fintona)

• Fintona Medical Centre
• Fintona Credit Union
• Fintona Golf Club
• Fintona Independent Methodist Church
• Donacavey Parish (Catholic)