Mid Ulster: The Quiet Centre
Mid Ulster occupies the geographic heart of Northern Ireland without commanding much attention. Three market towns — Cookstown, Dungannon, and Magherafelt — anchor the borough. None has a population much above 12,000. Cookstown's main street, reputedly the longest in Ireland at over a mile, runs dead straight toward the silhouette of Slieve Gallion in the Sperrins. Dungannon, once the seat of the O'Neill chieftains and capital of the old Gaelic lordship of Tyrone, is now better known for its food processing plants and growing migrant worker population — Portuguese, Lithuanian, and Timorese communities have established themselves here, drawn by employment in the meat-packing industry.
Lough Neagh's western shore forms the borough's eastern boundary. The lough's eel fishery — the largest wild eel fishery in Europe — is based at Toome, where the River Bann exits the lake. Sand extraction from the lough bed is another significant local industry, though one that generates environmental controversy. The Sperrins, a range of low, rounded mountains of Dalradian schist, extend across the borough's northwest. They lack the drama of the Mournes or the Causeway coast, but their emptiness has its own appeal. Beaghmore stone circles, a complex of Bronze Age alignments near Cookstown, sit quietly in bogland with little signage or fanfare. Politically, Mid Ulster is strongly nationalist — Sinn Fein holds the Westminster seat and dominates council elections. The area's association with the Provisional IRA during the Troubles remains a sensitive local reality.
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Mid Ulster occupies the geographic heart of Northern Ireland without commanding much attention. Three market towns — Cookstown, Dungannon, and Magherafelt — anchor the borough. None has a population much above 12,000. Cookstown's main street, reputedly the longest in Ireland at over a mile, runs dead straight toward the silhouette of Slieve Gallion in the Sperrins. Dungannon, once the seat of the O'Neill chieftains and capital of the old Gaelic lordship of Tyrone, is now better known for its food processing plants and growing migrant worker population — Portuguese, Lithuanian, and Timorese communities have established themselves here, drawn by employment in the meat-packing industry.
Lough Neagh's western shore forms the borough's eastern boundary. The lough's eel fishery — the largest wild eel fishery in Europe — is based at Toome, where the River Bann exits the lake. Sand extraction from the lough bed is another significant local industry, though one that generates environmental controversy. The Sperrins, a range of low, rounded mountains of Dalradian schist, extend across the borough's northwest. They lack the drama of the Mournes or the Causeway coast, but their emptiness has its own appeal. Beaghmore stone circles, a complex of Bronze Age alignments near Cookstown, sit quietly in bogland with little signage or fanfare. Politically, Mid Ulster is strongly nationalist — Sinn Fein holds the Westminster seat and dominates council elections. The area's association with the Provisional IRA during the Troubles remains a sensitive local reality.
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