The former Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in Market Square, Dungannon, was built in 1871, shortly after the Fenian Rising, to a design by James Higgens Owen, who combined a defensive police post with Scottish Baronial styling. It closed in 1982 when a new station opened and later fell into neglect.
In a 2019 report on an appeal to restore it, a local historian told the Northern Ireland World newspaper that there was the story of the so-called Black Sergeant, who was stationed at the barracks and tried for a gruesome murder in the late 1800s. He was found guilty, the historian said, and hanged there, and the legend goes that he now haunts the place. He invited readers to send in their own memories of the building.
The Irish News listed it in 2021 among Northern Ireland's haunted places, noting that Dungannon had several reported sightings. The story gives no name or date for the sergeant, and records of executions at a police barracks have not been checked.
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