County Tyrone War Memorial, Drumragh Avenue, Omagh, Co Tyrone BT78

County Tyrone War Memorial

A freestanding granite cenotaph erected in 1927 to designs by R. Caulfield of Orpen, located on the south side of Drumragh Avenue in Omagh. The memorial was modelled on Sir Edward Lutyens's Cenotaph erected in London between 1919 and 1920.

The memorial is rectangular on plan and faces west. It stands on a three-stepped octagonal base of coursed squared rock-faced granite. The plinth is chamfered, and the apex features a set-back trapezoidal stone coping. The principal west elevation has stop-end-chamfered corners and is decorated with a bas-relief laurel wreath panel at the apex. Below this is a bas-relief brass panel depicting Winged Victory with fallen soldiers, positioned above a stone panel inscribed "TO OUR GLORIOUS DEAD / 1914-1918 / 'THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVER MORE.'" The bronze panel was designed by Miss Rosamond Praeger, H.R.H.A., of Holywood, County Down, and represents the county's approximately 2000 dead from the First World War. The north elevation is blank except for a central wall-mounted lamp. The east elevation mirrors the north elevation's detailing. The rear elevation is fixed with a bronze panel embossed "1939-1945."

The memorial was unveiled on 28 September 1927 by the Duke of Abercorn, then Governor of Northern Ireland. It was originally positioned at the end of Sedan Avenue with its own screen wall. Following the creation of Drumragh Avenue as a through-road to Sedan Avenue in the 1960s, the memorial was repositioned to face the new avenue and its screen walls were removed, altering its original setting. In the 1970s, the Boer War Memorial was relocated to a position nearby.

The memorial is situated in a paved pedestrian park at the crossroads of Drumragh Avenue (to the east), Mountjoy Road (running north-south), and Sedan Avenue (to the west), with Omagh Bus Station to the east. Though not an outstanding example of its type and having lost its original setting through relocation, the memorial remains of historic interest as a social focus of civic remembrance for the community of Omagh.