The Ulster American Folk Park We went to Omagh on our school tour in 1999. First, we went to the Ulster American Folk Park, which shows the 'Old World', or what life was like in Uster before emigration, and the 'New World' of America after emigration. Some of the emigrants who moved to America from there became very successful.

We began in Old World, which shows what life was like in there around the beginning of the nineteenth century. We saw old cottages, a chemist's, a forge, and a pub. We saw a school house which had long wooden benches and bare walls. The guides were dressed in period costume, and they demonstrated how bread was baked on a a griddle, how they spun wool, wove cloth, and how the blacksmith made horseshoes.

We went to the docks and saw the typical boarding houses emigrants would have stayed in before departure. Some of these buildings are original. We then saw a boat called the Brig Union like what was used to sail to America . They were called "coffin ships". It was dark and cramped, and must have been very unhealthy. When we got off the ship , we had "landed" in the New World, we were "in" America. We saw the types of log cabins they lived in, a barn and a Pynnsyvania farmhouse. We learned about the different jobs members of the family did, like splitting logs, hunting, and making soap and candles.

The Ulster History Park
Then we went to the Ulster History Park . The Park traces the history of the settlement in Ireland from the time of the first people to arrive here, nearly 10,000 years ago , to the seventeenth century. In the park you can see the full scale models of the houses and other monuments that people built at diffrent times through the 10,000 years.


The Mesolithic Era.
The earliest settlers in Ireland were hunters and gatherers. They lived by hunting and fishing, and by gathering nuts and berries. They moved from place to place in search of food. They lived in simple huts covered with animal skins. The Neolithic Era.
During the Neolithic era, people made some very important discoveries. They discovered how to plant seeds and grow crops, and that some animals could be tamed. They were the first farmers. This meant they no longer had to wander in search of food, so they began to build more permanent homes. They started to make pottery and jewellery.

Neolithic people had great respect for the dead. They built huge tombs. Examples are court tombs, wedge tombs and dolmens.

We drove through Omagh. It was strange to see where the bomb had exploded. We said a silent prayer. We finally went to Aladdin's Kingdom. There were two ball pools and we had great craic. It was a very good tour, but the bus journey was a bit long.