Cookstown

Discover Cookstown

Cookstown is a town historically in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, but since 2015 part of Mid-Ulster "super-council" area. It's named for Dr Alan Cooke who founded it circa 1620 as an Ulster Plantation town, but for 150 years it didn't get going. Then it grew with the linen industry, acquiring its famously long wide main street, and the railway arrived. The 20th century collapse of textile trades and the sectarian "Troubles" fed upon each other and Cookstown slumped. In the 21st century it's slowly reviving through the Good Friday Agreement peace and as a commuter town for Belfast but remains a work in progress; in 2011 it had a population of 11,599. Medieval Kings of Tyrone, the O'Neill dynasty, were inaugurated a couple of miles south at Tullyhogue. Notable local people include "Typhoid Mary" Mallon and the politician Bernadette Devlin McAliskey.