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Dromore - (Droim Mor) "The Great Ridge"

Dromore, in the Parish and Barony of Omagh, was in 1838 described as a poor village in hilly and bleak country which stretched far around, yet the arable lands were for the most part good. The population of the village was 480 in 1831, in 1841 it numbered 551 and at present 1,200 approximately.

The striking, musical, rhythmic townland names are an immediate clue to the way that Nature, in her cataclysmic Ice Age mood, fashioned this corner of Tyrone - the words in Irish for hill (druim, cnoc, cor, iomaire, mullan, tulach) predominate. The name "Dromore" (Droim Mor) itself means "the great ridge". The word "meen" (found in Meenagowan and Meenagar) shows the wet, healthy nature of much of the land. The hills, though numerous, are unpretentious; few rise above 500 feet. Heather clad Greenan (864 feet) is tall enough to dominate the whole parish. Dromore parish consists of over sixty townlands; roughly elliptical in shape, it is bounded on the north by Drumquin, on the south by Trillick, on the west by Ederney and on the east by Omagh and Fintona. The village itself lies about the eastern focus of the ellipse, nine miles from Omagh and sixteen miles from Enniskillen; a trunk road links it with both these towns.

The town was originally built in 1757 when the then Lord of the manor, William Hamilton, of Aughlish House gave a grant of the townland of Mullinacross, now called Dromore, to two families - Stewart and Humphreys. The Town at that time consisted of only four houses. The original name of the townland is derived from an ancient stone cross which formerly stood on the top of the hill overlooking the town, and near to where the Cistercian Abbey was located. This abbey which was destroyed by a fire in 1690 is said to have been built on the site of a nunnery founded by St. Patrick for St.Cettumbria, the first Irish female who received the veil from his hands. In the village, still to be seen, are the ivy-clad remains of a Protestant church built in 1694.
"A good fair and market town situated one mile from Dromore Road Station on the Great Northern Railway, Mr Josephe Scott's cars from town atend all passenger trains. A market is held on each Monday and a fair on the 17th of each month" - this was a description of Dromore in 1885. During the Rebellion of 1798, when Lord Blayney came to Tyrone, owing to Dromore being principally inhabited by rebels, he set it on fire and burned
some of the houses, but owing to the exertions of Captain Charles Muirhead, Lieutenant James Alexander and the Rev. Benjamin Marshall the balance of the town was saved from destruction.

In the area around Dromore are to be found a number of ancient earthen forts. At Dullaghan about four miles to the northwest is a Druid's Altar - a small roofless chamber tomb. A tannery was known to have existed in the village.

In the Dromore Parish at least nine locations of Mass Rocks are known. During the times of the Penal Laws certain "Mass Gardens" were located in the district where the local parishoners met in seclusion to celebrate Mass. It is said that Lord Belmore, who owned considerable property around Dromore, was so impressed with the devotion of the congregation at one of these gatherings, which he came across one day by chance, the he made available a piece of ground for the erection of a church.

This is where the Catholic Church of Dromore now stands. Today this small and typical Ulster township possesses many fine houses, two banks, numerous shops, a ballroom, hotel and fine schools. Agriculture and the building trades provide part of the employment and contributes work to the surrounding district. Though not on a river, it's close to good angling rivers and loughs. Dromore is one of the fastest growing villages in the district

THE FESTIVAL YEARS

By Seamus McNabb

I wasn't born a director! Indeed, we were far from the world of the theatre when I was growing up in rural Tummery. I have no formal training which makes me jealous of the students of today. They have their drama, their communication studies and their technology. However, on second thoughts, many of them, despite their study, hold no real love for art in its many forms. Perhaps they are suffering from overfeed? I do love the theatre but I got my love from the simple upbringing it St. Dympnas. No head in the air nor artificial ladidas there! Perhaps we did lack the technical know how, perhaps all our stage manoeuvres were less than West Endish but what we did was genuine and for the love of our art without profit and sometimes without credit. I say this last thing with great care for I respect and value the audiences over the years. They turned out time after time. If they liked what they saw, they let you know. One or two plays that they were not so thrilled with, well you just knew.They didn't necessarily come and say so. It is to everyone's credit that Dromore still holds on to the practice of Amateur Drama!

As mentioned elsewhere, I was dragged screaming into directing due to tragic circumstances. My first production of "The Country Boy" was a daunting experience. Here I was supposedly telling Will Ward and Eugene Donnelly what to do! Men that I had apprenticed with over the years were now supposed to listen to a jumped-up jack like me. But, to my amazement, they did. You see there has always been the honourable tradition in St. Dympnas' that the director is the boss, even when he's wrong! With my first production successful and me, relatively unscathed, I allowed by youthful exuberance to out and chose an English play by Yorkshire man J.P. Priestly. The "Inspector Calls" had had many successful outings in the West End. The world of the well-to-do Birlings in the South of England was a daunting setting for Dromore actors. I detected the lack of association with such a society in the initial readings but to their eternal credit, the cast stuck to the task. Grainne McGlone was a marvellous set designer who know how to provide a setting for such prosperity and Willie Ward turned out an excellent performance as the Inspector. The audience loved the story with its moral lessons and I had got away in the smoke again!