Hundreds of Brackaville people, and even some from Coalisland, gathered excitedly for the dramatic opening of a time capsule which had been sealed since 2020, nearly five years ago. Locals maintain that they have gained great insight into how people in the area lived their daily lives back then and are willing to share their findings with scientists in Belfast.

After opening the chest, there were loud ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaahs’ as items were pulled out one-by-one and shown to the excited spectators. Included were face-masks, hand sanitisers, toilet rolls and a copy of the Tyrone Times from June 2020. There was also a 6-pack of McCoys crisps and a £20 ticket for a Stewartstown GAA draw.

Brackaville historian, Kelly Gillis, explained:

“What we learned was that the people of the time were fairly primative. They seemed to be avoiding some kind of illness, hence the face-masks or some have suggested if there was perhaps a religious aspect to it and that the clergy had made people wear them to stop kissing and stuff. The hand sanitisers must have been used because they were a very dirty people, maybe digging for spuds barehanded. Toilet rolls were probably new to Brackaville people in 2020. It’s really quite exciting.”

One item caused much consternation, an official MOT certificate, but it was agreed that it was probably mistakenly dropped in by someone from Newmills.