STRABANE'S GEOGRAPHICAL location as a gateway to the Donegal Highlands is matched by the extent to which its history can introduce us to a better understanding of the diffrent cultures and events that have made north-west Ulster such a distinctive region. The variousness of its history from earliest times to the recent past is superbly caught in this most comprehensive of local histories. The clan rivalries in Pre-Plantation times, culminating in the collapse of the Gaelic order in the Nine Years War, are succeeded by the Plantations undertaken in the seventeenth century. This crucial period also saw Strabane come to the fore not only for its strategic importance but as the principal town on the Abercorn estate, one of the largest landed estates in Ireland. Local historians of the past and present have pieced together the many strands of the fabric of this progressive market town and regional centre. The joys and sorrows, poverty and plenty, successes and failures contained in the stories on transport, communications, education, religion and entertainment are all the work of local experts whose peerless local knowledge and research skills are matched by their abilities to tell a good story.This project was initiated by the late Jim Bradley in whose name the ten contributors, the Ulster Historical Foundation and the Strabane History Society are pleased not only to complete the work but to offer it as a model for other town histories. The fruit of their labour, a well-balanced and beautifully illustrated study of a historically significant town, will be read and enjoyed throughout the Fair River Valley and beyond.