| Enniskillen Town Hall | |
| Coordinates: | 54.3448°N -7.6385°W |
| Location: | The Diamond, Enniskillen |
| Built: | 1901 |
| Architect: | William Alphonsus Scott |
| Architecture: | Renaissance style |
| Designation1: | Grade B+ Listed Building |
| Designation1 Offname: | Town Hall |
| Designation1 Date: | 20 August 1976 |
| Designation1 Number: | HB 12/17/001 |
Enniskillen Town Hall is a municipal structure in The Diamond in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The town hall, which is one of the meeting places of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, is a Grade B+ listed building.[1]
The current building was commissioned to replace an earlier market house, financed by Sir William Cole, who was closely involved in the Plantation of Ulster, and completed in around 1618.[2] In the late 19th century, after the market house became dilapidated, civic leaders decided to construct a new town hall on the same site.[2] [3]
The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Lady Enniskillen on 2 May 1898.[4] [5] It was designed by William Alphonsus Scott of Drogheda in the Renaissance style, built in limestone with Dungannon sandstone dressings at a cost of £13,000 and was officially opened by the Countess of Erne on 6 January 1901.[5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the Townhall Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a Doric order portico with heavy oak doors and a fanlight; there was a balcony and a French door on the first floor with two pairs of Corinthian order pilasters supporting an entablature and a pediment with a coat of arms in the tympanum. In the north western corner of the building there was a six-stage tower with a copper dome.[2] In the third stage of the tower there were niches containing stone statues of soldiers from two local-raised regiments: the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.[6] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber.[7]
The building served as the headquarters of Enniskillen Borough Council until it lost its administrative functions to Fermanagh County Council in 1967.[8] After the eastern part of the building had been partitioned into offices in 1980,[9] it went on to become the meeting place of Fermanagh District Council.[10]
On 10 February 2003 the Continuity Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb outside the town hall in anticipation of an intended visit to Northern Ireland by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, two days later; three officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland were hurt in the blast.[11] [12] Together with The Grange in Omagh, the town hall became one of the two meeting places of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council when it was formed in April 2015.[7] After one of the two stone statues of soldiers lost an arm in bad weather, the statutes were repaired in May 2015.[13]