Editing Strabane (section)

==History==
===Early history===
[[File:Strabane Fair.jpg|thumb|Photograph of Strabane Fair by Herbert F. Cooper, {{circa|1910}} (PRONI)]]

The locale was home to a group of northern Celts known as the [[Orighella]] as far back as the fourth century when the territories of [[Eógan mac Néill|Owen]] (later [[Tír Eoghain]]) and [[Conall Gulban|Connail]] (later [[Tír Chonaill]] - mostly modern [[County Donegal]]) were established, and Orighella were assimilated into the [[Cenél Conaill]]. With the arrival of [[Saint Patrick]], a mission established a church in the area near [[Castlefin]], and having visited the [[Grianan of Aileach|Grianán Aileach]] for the conversion of Owen, returned along the Foyle river, establishing a further church at [[Artigarvan|Leckpatrick]] (the name means 'the flagstone of St. Patrick'). A later church was established at [[Lifford|Lifford/Clonleigh]] by a mission headed by [[Columba|St. Colmcille]]. In AD 586 St. Colgan established a monastery at Camus [from whence the parish of Camus-Juxta-Mourne gets its name]. Other monasteries and religious sites were established at this time at [[Urney, County Tyrone|Urney]], [[Ballycolman]], Donagheady, and [[Artigarvan]].<ref name="worldcat.org">{{cite book|title=The Fair River Valley : Strabane through the ages|oclc=045721315}}</ref>

===Middle Ages===
[[Vikings]] arrived at Lifford in AD 832 and maintained a presence on the Foyle until AD 863 when they were expelled by [[Áed Findliath]]. The regional seat of power was to be the Grianán Aileach until 1101, when it was destroyed by the [[O'Brien dynasty|O'Briens of Thomond]], and was then moved to Urney, three miles outside Strabane. In 1243, the seat of power for all Tyrone and the O'Neill dynasty was moved to [[Cookstown]]. It was during this epoch, in AD 1231, that [[Franciscans|Franciscan friars]] established a religious foundation on what is now the old graveyard at St. Patrick's Street, Strabane.<ref name="worldcat.org"/>

===Seventeenth century===
The town was settled by Scottish families in the 1600s, an action that preceded the [[Plantation of Ulster]]. In 1608, during [[O'Doherty's Rebellion]], most of the inhabitants fled to the safety of the fort of [[Lifford]] following Sir [[Cahir O'Doherty]]'s [[Burning of Derry]] and Burning of Strabane.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gf0kwdkfjPQC&pg=PA2|title=Overlooking the River Mourne: Four Centuries of Family Farms in Edymore and Cavanalee in County Tyrone|first= Michael |last=Cox|year= 2006|page=2|publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation|isbn=978-1903688441}}</ref>

===Twentieth century===
[[File:Strabane.JPG|thumb|left|Main Street, Strabane]]
[[File:Strabane Town Hall.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Strabane Town Hall]]]]
In 1921, Strabane became a border town following the [[partition of Ireland]].<ref>{{cite news |title=The Border Dividing Ireland Has Long Been Invisible. Brexit Threatens to Make It Real. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/business/ireland-border-brexit.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=26 December 2018 |access-date=3 December 2022}}</ref> Sitting directly astride the border, Strabane suffered extensive damage during the Troubles from the early 1970s: [[Strabane Town Hall]] was destroyed in a bomb attack in 1972.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/imported/a-pleasant-trip-down-the-fair-river-valley-28310122.html|title=A pleasant trip down the Fair River Valley|date=5 July 2008|newspaper=The Belfast Telegraph|access-date=3 December 2022}}</ref> The damage continued throughout much of the 1990s, with bombings and shootings commonplace; [[Irish Republican]] [[paramilitary]] groups, mainly the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]], regularly attacked the town's [[British Army]] and [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) bases. Strabane was once the most bombed town in Europe in proportion to its size, and was the most bombed town in Northern Ireland.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.channel4.com/news/gay-bar-lgbt-strabane-the-central-northern-ireland-video|title=How one gay bar changed attitudes in rural N Ireland|work=Channel 4 News|access-date=2018-11-08|language=en-GB|archive-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108065634/https://www.channel4.com/news/gay-bar-lgbt-strabane-the-central-northern-ireland-video|url-status=live}}</ref>

Many civilians and members of the security forces were killed or injured in the area over the course of the Troubles. Many British Army regiments from [[England]], [[Scotland]] and [[Wales]] served in Strabane at various times during the Troubles in the barracks at the locally named "Camel's hump" beside [[Lifford Bridge]]. As a result of the [[Good Friday Agreement]], there is no longer any British Army presence in the town. Strabane became involved in the [[Ulster Project|Ulster Project International]], sending [[Catholic]] and [[Protestant]] teenagers to the [[United States]] for prejudice-reduction work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ulsterproject.org|title=Ulster Project International|publisher=Ulsterproject.org|access-date=30 June 2015|archive-date=25 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150625012348/http://www.ulsterproject.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the height of [[The Troubles]], Strabane garnered the dubious distinction of the highest [[unemployment]] rate in the industrial world. It is one of the most economically deprived towns in the United Kingdom. Huge economic damage occurred when much of the town centre flooded in 1987.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.derryjournal.com/news/flood-disaster-recalled-25-years-on-1-4374105|title=Flood disaster recalled - 25 years on|newspaper=[[Derry Journal]]|date=16 October 2012|access-date=8 July 2017|archive-date=26 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826055527/http://www.derryjournal.com/news/flood-disaster-recalled-25-years-on-1-4374105|url-status=live}}</ref>

In August 2005, a [[Channel 4]] television programme presented by property experts [[Kirstie Allsopp]] and [[Phil Spencer (television personality)|Phil Spencer]] named Strabane the eighth-worst place to live in the UK, largely owing to unemployment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/best&worst/best&worst_strabane.html|title=The Best and Worst Places to Live in Britain|publisher=Channel4.com|access-date=30 June 2015|archive-date=22 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622081327/http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/best%26worst/best%26worst_strabane.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Strabane had been moved out of the top 20 in the 2007 edition.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7045609.stm|work=BBC News|title=Town shrugs off dismal TV label|access-date=24 May 2010|archive-date=18 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018043216/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7045609.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

As a result, the Strabane Community Unemployed Group<ref>{{cite web|title=NICVA|date=11 March 2016|url=http://www.nicva.org/organisation/strabane-community-unemployed-group|access-date=19 November 2018|archive-date=19 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119173401/http://www.nicva.org/organisation/strabane-community-unemployed-group|url-status=live}}</ref> was founded to find solutions to long-term unemployment and combat the causes of unemployment. Sister Mary Carmel Fanning, a retired Catholic girls school principal who had been awarded the [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]] for her services to education in 1997,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/54794/supplement/17 |title=Listing |date=13 June 1997 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk |access-date=8 July 2017 |archive-date=20 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020231116/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/54794/supplement/17 |url-status=live }}</ref> became a director of the group later that year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/NI032994/officers|title=Strabane Community Unemployed Group|publisher=Companies House|access-date=3 December 2022}}</ref>