Episode 2:
In the first programme of this short series we began our journey along the border, catching some of the best views from Carlingford Lough as far as Counties Monaghan, Armagh & Tyrone. We now continue, following the Blackwater River upstream marking the boundary between Monaghan and Tyrone. Beyond Aughnacloy, farmland gives way to forest – millenial forest – on both sides of the border; Derry Gorry & Favour Forest Royal.
The border travels onwards and upwards to the boggy uplands of Sliabh Beagh, where Fermanagh meets Tyrone & Monaghan before zig zagging its way to Clones, an ancient monastic settlement. Once bustling Ulster market town, but because it is surrounded on three sides by the border it has lost out, except maybe on Ulster Final day!
“Tá Banc Uladh druidte anois…an Northern Bank ansin druidte fosta. Níl ach Banc na hÉireann fágtha anois – má fheiceann tú suas ansin sin Oifig an Phoist sin dúnta feasta.”
BRIAN MacDOMHNAILL
Near Clones we come across one of the most unusual cross-border houses – where the front door is in County Fermanagh and the backdoor in Co.Monaghan. The Royal Mail delivers the post and ESB Networks the power ! But just up the road is a similar story on a bigger scale – The Connons or The Drummully Polyp is a substantial piece (16 townlands) of County Monaghan almost totally surrounded by Co. Fermanagh and is only connected to the rest of the Republic by a narrow 100m stretch of the Finn River with no direct road access.
Continuing along the Finn River we find Castle Saunderson. Once a 12,000 acre estate and home, since the Ulster Plantation, to the prominent Unionist Saunderson family. Edward James Saunderson was the first leader of the Irish Unionist Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule. A few years after partition (1927) the Saundersons moved away, but owned the castle until 1977, when it was sold and resold and badly damaged by fire. But the ruined Castle and over 100 acres were acquired by Scouting Ireland and today Castle Saunderson is a cross-border international scout centre.
“San lá atá innú ann bíonn daoine sa bhaile ar an bhfón, ag féachaint ar an TV agus rudaí mar sin. Ní féidir dul amach san nadúr, ach leis na gasóga is féidir leat… is féidir leat dul amach ag siúl sna caoillte amach san nadúr – agus is rud iontach í.” BAIRBRE PIGOTT-GLYNN Gasóga na hÉireann
From here the Border takes to the water, and a maze of lakes. Waterways Ireland is currently working to restore navigation here as part of the Ulster Canal restoration project aiming to re-connect the Shannon – Erne Navigation system with Lough Neagh and the North Coast – making in possible to boat from Limerick all the way to Coleraine.
But for the Belturbet Rowing Club it’s enough to get the kids out on the water and pass on the skills that will let them have fun on the water for the rest of their lives! Just a stones throw from what’s become known as Quinn Country where one man has certainly left his mark on the landscape.
“What I love about his story is that the landscape made him… he started drawing out gravel that he found on his land … then he got sand and started making glass… so it’s rooted in the geology…that’s where his businesses started… the quarry is absolutely vast…So the land made him and then he turned around and he made the land.”
GARRETT CARR, Author of “The Rule of the Land”
Bawnboy, Co. Cavan provides another surprising twist to this border country with Jampa Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation and retreat centre named by the Venerable Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche
“This house was an old Church of Ireland house, on a crumbling estate.. from Owendoohan House he gave it the new name of Jampa Ling and Jampa means ‘loving kindness’ and Ling means ‘place’. So he gave it the name – ‘Place of Loving Kindness’, 27 years ago and people just started coming….” DESMOND GOUGH – Jampa Ling
The Border rises to its highest point at the dramatic Cuilcagh Mountains. A stunningly beautiful landscape which has been pretty inaccessible to all but dedicated hill walkers until recently…when as part of the cross border Cavan Burren / Marble Arch Global Geo Park a board-walk was built to protect the rare blanket bog from erosion in this Special Area of Conservation. The boardwalk provides a 7km route to ascend the 550m to the top of Cuilcagh, with 36 flights of steps up and the same back down, still not for the faint hearted!
Still in Fermanagh, Florence Court, the former home of the Earls of Enniskillen but in the care of The National Trust since the 1950’s. An 18th Century Palladian Mansion has been restored after a devastating fire in 1955 but conservation work on the estate is ongoing and the Walled Garden project has attracted a dedicated group of volunteers.
“The whole ethos of The National Trust is that these places would have been previously for the lucky few…they’re now for everyone…and because The National Trust can’t sell any properties – it’s for everyone – forever! And that seems to attract volunteers and staff who are very keen to form a good team..” DAVID CORSCADDEN, The National Trust – Florence Court.
Below ground nearby, the Marble Arch Caves are now only one of many attractions in the cross-border Geo Park. Indeed some research indicates underground water networks beneath the border and the Cuilcagh Mountains feed northern waters into the uprising at the Shannon Pot in Co. Cavan, the traditional source of the River Shannon.
Blacklion & Belcoo twin towns separated by the border…here there are traces of the borders of the past, but just down the road in Leitrim the past is very much present and has its dancing shoes on ! at The Rainbow Ballroom of Romance in Glenfarne. Made famous by the William Trevor short story but still going strong every 3rd Sunday of the Month.
And another oldtime favourite, Belleek, straddling the border between Donegal & Fermanagh, is maybe more famous for its porcelaine since 1857 and the skill of the craftswomen and men remains as impressive today.
From Belleek the border skirts Lower Lough Erne before veering northwards through Pettigo, switching back to touch Lough Derg with its ancient pilgrimage island and crossing the wild lands between Donegal and Tyrone before the Finn River forms a natural boundary which is beautifully bridged at Clady. Historically an important crossing point, the oldest bridging point between here and the sea. The Finn river brings the border with it when it joins the Mourne River at Lifford in Donegal & Strabane in Tyrone to form The Foyle, which makes short work of leading the border to the Sea. There are no crossing points until Derry City, only abandoned railway bridges, almost emphasising the divide that the Border has brought between neighbouring Counties Donegal and Derry. Derry / London Derry / the Maiden City / Stroke City / Legend Derry.
“Ní thaitníónn an teideal sin “Maiden City” liom, ach aontaím leis an méid ainmneacha atá ar an áit seo. Is mise Cara Ní Mhaonaigh – ach is Cara Park mé feasta – agus is Cara Mooney agus is Madonna Kebab mé! Tá fhios agam an sort Identity Crisis atá ag Doire!“
CARA PARK NÍ MHAONAIGH
The walled city is a real embodiment of the complex identities forged by our troubled history and is encircled by the border on the West side before the border-line, having travelled over 500km, makes it way to Lough Foyle, where it once again, like in Carlingford, somehow travels underwater to the Atlantic ocean – without agreement.
PADRAIG O’DRISCOLL
Láithreoir / Tuairisceoir
KEVIN CUMMINS
Stiúrthóir & Léiritheoir Feidhmiúcháin