Qualla: Fintona

Fintona: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit yeowatzup, CC BY 2.0. The horse was always called Dick, regardless of its sex. From 1855 until 30 September 1957 - over a century of continuous service - a horse-drawn tram ran the single mile between Fintona village and Fintona Junction railway station, hauling passengers between the village centre and the main line of the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway. First and second class passengers travelled inside the tram. Third class sat exposed on the top, weather permitting. When Fintona's tram made its final trip in October 1957, it was the second-last working horse-drawn tram in the British Isles - only the one on Douglas promenade in the Isle of Man outlasted it, and that one is still running. The Fintona tram now sits in the Ulster Transport Museum. The village still announces itself with road signs showing Dick pulling his van, the driver, the conductor, and a third class passenger up top. No village in Ireland identifies itself quite so charmingly.

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Image: yeowatzup | CC BY 2.0

Fintona: Fionntamhnach: White Field

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Liam Hughes from Milwaukee, WI, USA, CC BY 2.0. The name Fintona derives from the Irish Fionntamhnach. Fionn can mean white, bright, blonde, or fair-coloured. Tamhnach can mean a field, a clearing, an oasis, a grassy upland, or an arable place in a mountain. The combination is usually translated 'white field,' but the more poe...

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Image: Liam Hughes from Milwaukee, WI, USA | CC BY 2.0

Fintona: Dick the Horse

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Fintona horse tram operated on the single-mile spur line from the village to Fintona Junction station from 1855 onwards. By 1957, the rest of Ireland's tram and railway networks had been thoroughly modernised - electric trams, diesel locomotives, and bus services had replaced...

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Image: Kenneth Allen | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fintona: Two Mountains and a River

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fintona lies in the civil parish of Donacavey in south-west County Tyrone, hard against the County Fermanagh border. The village sits on a series of gentle hills, with Main Street climbing up and over a hill summit. Around four miles to the south-east, halfway between Fintona and...

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Image: Ardfern | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fintona: Two Churches and a Golf Course

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0. Fintona's modern village life is shaped by its two primary schools, three church communities, and the recreational facilities at Ecclesville Demesne. Denamona Primary School (controlled) and St. Lawrence's Primary School (Catholic maintained) educate the village's children up to ...

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Image: Kenneth Allen | CC BY-SA 2.0