Month: April 2026

The speaker on Wednesday 22nd April 2026 was Dr Duncan Motherwell, a local GP with an interest in beekeeping. Having started with one hive some six years ago he now has twenty. Dr Motherwell brought with him a jar of his homegrown honey and a box of tongue depressants ( Say AHHH) with which to taste his produce. All agreed it was excellent.

To get started on his hobby Dr Motherwell took a 10-week beekeepers’ course with the Fermanagh Beekeepers Association but admits he still has a lot to learn. For the uninitiated he explained that there are three types of bee in each hive – a Queen which lays two thousand eggs per day – worker bees which collect nectar from flowers and make honey, and drones whose sole purpose is to mate with the Queen.

From April onwards when hives becomes active again after winter, beekeepers open them to inspect progress. A comb will fill with honey in a week when wildflowers are in bloom. A big event in beekeeping is the annual swarm when the Queen leaves the hive and other bees follow. Often the swarm will settle in a nearby tree or bush where it can be captured and placed in a new hive. Back in the old hive a juvenile Queen matures and spawns the next generation.

Doctor Motherwell explained that nectar is 80% water and honey 20%, the excess moisture being evaporated by the air currents created by worker bees flapping their wings. Honey is a healthy natural food and good for your health but with fewer medicinal properties than folklore suggests.
Doctor Motherwell was thanked for his talk by club member Alistair Orr

The speaker on Wednesday 16th April 2026 was club member, Jim McBride, talking about AI (Artificial Intelligence).  Jim’s background in computing meant he was able to address the topic with insight and understanding. He began with a brief history of innovation showing that AI was born during World War II when Alan Turing helped break the German enigma code at Bletchley Park, proving that machines could perform complex reasoning tasks.

After the Second World War when Europe and Japan were rebuilding America forged ahead attracting the best scientists from around the world. The leading companies in the early days where AT&T and Bell Labs, which pioneered programming and developed transistors. Big names followed including Intel, IBM, Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft. which clustered in a part of California that became known as Silicon Valley.

The breakthrough to modern AI came as recently as 2017 when Google researchers introduced the transformer and new architecture that could understand language far better than anything before. This single idea led directly to a bunch of AI providers including ChatGTP, Gemini, Claude, and Co-pilot. These systems are so capable that they are being used to build the next generation of AI machines.

Jim demonstrated the power of AI by playing a poem about Omagh written by AI and set to music composed by AI. All were impressed. There followed a lively question and answer session which ran well past the hour at which the club normally closes.

 

The speaker on Wed 8th April 2026 was club member Kenneth Collins and the topic was Omagh Workhouse. This well illustrated address was the result of detailed research enhanced by the fact that Kenneth had actually worked in the same building during one of its later iterations.
In the Ireland of 1800 with a population of eight million it is estimated that two million were living in varying degrees of destitution. In 1838 the Irish Poor Relief Act was passed and across the country Commissioners set up 163 Poor Law Unions each with a workhouse.

Each had a Board of Guardians (29 members – mainly from the landed gentry plus 9 ex-officio members). The Omagh Union was larger than most taking in an area of 272 square miles. A suitable six acre site was identified between Woodside Terrace and St Julian’s Road and George Wilkinson (an Oxford architect) was selected to draw up plans. The Board of Guardians borrowed funds from the Exchequer Loan Office on the basis of a long term loan. The contract for £6557 was agreed in 1839 and building opened in 1841.

The standard design was on the basis of full segregation of the 800 inmates – men, women, boys and girls. The complex included an admissions block, exercise yards, dormitory blocks, a kitchen, dining hall, school room, infirmary, laundry, a building called the idiots’ block and a mortuary (or dead house). Kenneth included the only surviving photograph of the Omagh building – an excellent shot of the Admissions Block.

The Omagh Union had a working farm and an agriculturist so the daily activities were farming and breaking stones for men and laundry and food preparation for women. Daily routine consisted of a 6am bell, 6.30 roll call, prayers, grace and breakfast. 7.30 work. 12noon to 2pm dinner, 2pm back to work.
The regime was harsh and boys were caned for misbehaviour. However there is some evidence that Omagh may have been a more progressive institution. In 1880 the Master took 40 children on an excursion to Bundoran.

There are very few remaining records so Kenneth searched back copies of the Constitution for reports relating to the workhouse. During the famine occupancy rose to 1177 inmates and fever spread rapidly. In 1848 George Wilkinson was brought back to design a Fever Hospital.
Many workhouses were converted into hospitals (for example Limavady) but in 1922 a meeting of the Board of Guardians decided not to follow this route as the Tyrone County Hospital fulfilled that role.
In 1948 the NHS arrived and the workhouse finally closed its doors after 107 years. The building then became Omagh General Hospital and a maternity wing was added.
In 1954 when Omagh Rural District Council occupied part of the building Kenneth was employed as a Building Surveyor and he was based in an office there.
In 2006 the Workhouse/General Hospital was demolished and it is a matter of considerable regret that today there is no evidence on site that this iconic building ever existed.