Omagh

:This article is about the town of Omagh. For the film of same name see: Omagh (movie).

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Omagh (Irish, An ?maigh) is the county town (and largest town) of County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. Nearly 20,000 people live in Omagh town and it is the largest town in the west of Northern Ireland. It is the county town of Tyrone, having taken the title from Dungannon around 1768. The town is said to owe its origins to an abbey founded in 792 AD.

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The Real IRA bombed the market town in August 1998, killing 29 people - 13 women, 9 children and 6 men. One of the women killed was pregnant with twins.

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The Ulster-American Folk Park in Omagh includes the cottage where Thomas Mellon was born in 1813, before emigrating to Pennsylvania, in the United States when he was five. His son Andrew W. Mellon became secretary to the US Treasury.

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Omagh is the birthplace of internationally renowned song writer Jimmy Kennedy, who wrote Red Sails in the Sunset, the Hokey Cokey and The Teddy Bears' Picnic. Also born in Omagh were Sam Neill, star of Jurassic Park, actor Gerard McSorley, and reclusive Donegal-based playwright Brian Friel.

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Omagh is currently twinned with the town L?Hay Les Roses in France. Omagh also contains the headquarters of Omagh District Council.

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Irish: Irish may refer to:...

County town: A county town is the 'capital' of a county in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county....

Town: In American English, a town is usually a municipal corporation that is smaller than a city but larger than a village. In some cases, "town" is an alternate name for "city" or "village" (especially a larger village). Sometimes, the word "town" is short for "township."...