Данганнон: История и современность города в графстве Тирон

Town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Dungannon (, ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 16,282 at the 2021 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had its headquarters in the town, though since 2015 the area has been covered by Mid Ulster District Council. For centuries, it was the 'capital' of the O'Neill dynasty of Tír Eoghain, who dominated most of Ulster and built a castle on the hill. After the O'Neills' defeat in the Nine Years' War, the English founded a plantation town on the site, which grew into what is now Dungannon. Dungannon has won Ulster in Bloom's Best Kept Town Award five times. It currently has the highest percentage of immigrants of any town in Northern Ireland.

For centuries, Dungannon's fortunes were closely tied to that of the O'Neill dynasty which ruled a large part of Ulster until the 17th century. Dungannon was the clan's main stronghold. The traditional site of inauguration for 'The O'Neill' was Tullyhogue Fort, an Iron Age mound some four miles northeast of Dungannon. The clan O'Hagan were the stewards of this site for the O'Neills. In the 14th century the O'Neills built a castle on what is today known as Castle Hill; the location was ideal for a fort, for it was one of the highest points in the area and dominated the surrounding countryside, giving (depending on the weather) the ability to see seven counties. This castle was burned in 1602 by Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, as Crown forces under Lord Mountjoy closed in on the Gaelic lords towards the end of the Nine Years' War. In 1607, ninety nine Irish chieftains and their followers, including Hugh O'Neill, set sail from Rathmullan, bound for the continent, in an event known as the Flight of the Earls. In what became known as the Plantation of Ulster, their lands were confiscated and awarded to Protestant English and Scots settlers; Dungannon and its castle were granted to Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy of Ireland. Sir Phelim O'Neill seized the town in the opening stages of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and issued the Proclamation of Dungannon, in which the rebels set out their aims and proclaimed their loyalty to Charles I. O'Neill claimed they had been ordered to rise by the King, and later produced a forged commission in support of this. During the course of the Irish Confederate Wars, Dungannon changed hands several times; Scots Covenanter forces under Alexander Leslie captured it in September 1642, before O'Neill took it back in spring 1643. In 1973, the town became the seat of the new district of the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council. In 1782, the town was the location where the independence of the Irish Parliament was declared by members of the Protestant Ascendancy who controlled the parliament at the time. The castle was partially excavated in October 2007 by the Channel 4 archaeological show Time Team, uncovering part of the moat and walls of the castle.

In the late 1960s Northern Ireland was plunged into an ethnopolitical conflict known as the Troubles. On 24 August 1968, the Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ), the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), and other groups, held Northern Ireland's first civil rights march from Coalisland to Dungannon. The rally was officially banned, but took place and passed off without incident. The publicity surrounding the march encouraged other groups to form branches of NICRA. During the conflict Dungannon suffered numerous bombings, and almost 50 people were killed in and around the town. The deadliest attack was on 17 March 1976, when a loyalist car bomb killed four Catholic civilians.

On 7 May 1954, a convoy of circus wagons crashed and overturned in Dungannon. The convoy was on its way to hold a circus in Ballygawley when a pilot lorry, which was towing three wagons, struck a chemist's shop while taking a sharp bend on Irish Street. The driver lost control of the lorry, which continued on to Market Square. The first of its wagons, carrying eight horses, four Shetland ponies and an ass, toppled over, smashing the front of two drapery shops. The second wagon, carrying three lions, crashed into the front of a hair salon and a hardware shop. Locals broke the back of the horses' wagon open, to free the animals trapped inside. A large group of locals and police physically moved the wagon containing the lions back onto the road to allow it to be removed.

Dungannon is in the southeast of County Tyrone, within the historic barony of Dungannon Middle and the civil parish of Drumglass. The town grew up around a hill, known locally as Castle Hill. There are three small lakes on the southern edge of town, the biggest of which is Black Lough. There are also two parks in the eastern part of town: Dungannon Park and Windmill Wood Park.

Until its closure in 2010, the crystal glass producer Tyrone Crystal was based in Dungannon.

Dungannon is linked to the M1 motorway, which runs from the southeast of the town to Belfast. There is an Ulsterbus town bus service that runs daily that serves the town's suburbs, formerly operated by the Optare Solo buses. The nearest railway station is on Northern Ireland Railways.

The Irish gauge 1600 Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Junction Railway (PD&O) linked the town with from 1858 and Omagh from 1861, completing the – Derry railway route that came to be informally called "The Derry Road". The Great Northern Railway took over the PD&O in 1876 and built a branch line from Dungannon to Cookstown in 1879. and the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) closed the branch altogether in 1959. The site of Dungannon station is now a public park and the former trackbed through the station is now a greenway.

Dungannon Cricket Club was established in 1865. Attempts were made to re establish the club after the First World War and this was done in 1929 and survived until 1933 when Lord Ranfurly died, which for a second time left the club without a ground. Cricket was kept alive by the Royal School, Bankers and the RUC until 1939 when the Second World War broke out. The club was reformed in 1948 mainly due to the efforts of Eddie Hodgett and the NCU leagues in 1952 and continues to do so to the present time. The club has never quite reached senior cricket as it has limited resources and relies on the District Council for a ground. The club has played on at least five different locations during its existence. Home games are played at Dungannon Park.

Dungannon Swifts F. C. is the town's local team, which plays in the NIFL Premiership, and is Tyrone's only representative in the league, following Omagh Town's collapse. The club represented Northern Ireland in European competition in the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup and the 2007–08 UEFA Cup.

The local boys' Gaelic football club is Dungannon Thomas Clarkes (Thomáis Uí Chléirigh Dún Geanainn) while the ladies' football team is Aodh a Ruadh.

Dungannon Golf Club, which provides an 18 hole course, appointed its first woman captain in January 2022.

The local Hare Coursing Club has been in existence since the 1920s but the sport was popular in the area long before the formation of the club. With hare coursing currently banned in Northern Ireland, the Dungannon club organises meetings in the Republic of Ireland.

Greyhound racing was once a popular sport in Dungannon. The Dungannon Greyhound Stadium was opened in July 1930, the third track in Northern Ireland after Celtic Park and Dunmore Stadium. The stadium, also known as the Oaks Park Greyhound Stadium, remained operational until January 2003 when it was closed by Dungannon (Oaks Park) Stadium Greyhound Racing Limited who had taken over the track in 1995 and saw the opportunity to make a substantial profit by developing the site.

Dungannon Rugby FC, founded in 1873, was one of the first towns in Ireland to form a rugby club.