Some background.

Dungannon is a medium-sized market town, located centrally in Northern Ireland, and situated 40 miles from Belfast, in the borough of Dungannon and South Tyrone. Historically, as the stronghold of the O'Neills, Dungannon was the de facto capital of gaelic Ireland.

Dungannon’s first public library was probably the Galland Circulating Library of 1805, though by 1845 there were as many as seven such institutions in the town (when the linen industry was at the height of its powers, and Dungannon was the westerly point of Ireland’s “great linen triangle”). When the SELB was formed in 1973, the branch library was located on the first floor of shared commercial premises in Scotch Street. The current library opened in April 1979 in Market Square, the centre of the town, which at that time was an ideal position.

Originally there was a Divisional Library Headquarters on the 2nd floor but, since its closure (in November 1999, when its workload was folded back into the main SELB Headquarters in Armagh) the branch library has now expanded to take over the whole building .

The adult library is on the ground floor, with both the junior library and a training suite on the first floor, and the computer suite and reference library on the second floor. The third floor is almost completely taken up by a large room which is used for story-time sessions, playgroups, and class visits, and which can also be hired for use by local groups for a (almost laughably) small fee. It has been the venue for such diverse activities as line dancing, yoga, baby massage, drama classes, and speech and drama festivals. There is an adjacent committee room, which is also hired out for use by groups such as Enterprise Ulster, RNIB, the W.I., the U3A, and Dungannon District Council, but Dungannon’s centrality in Northern Ireland has meant it is also regularly used by working groups from the five library boards and the nascent Northern Ireland Library Association (NILA).

Since its introduction in 2003, the computer suite has been a huge success and is almost constantly busy. It has been particularly well-used by Dungannon's large migrant communities who keep in touch with home by e-mail; by viewing their local newspapers on-line; and by use of chat and instant message programs. We now also have collections of books in Portuguese, Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian, all located in the computer suite to maximise impact and visibility. The town of Dungannon is growing more rapidly than most, driven by international migration into the town, to work in a thriving agri-industrial sector.

Welcome to the blog of Dungannon Library.

2009 is the year of the 30th anniversary of the current building housing Dungannon Branch Library. Join us here for all the news as we prepare to celebrate our birthday in style!