Belcoo


Belcoo is a small village and townland in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, 10 miles from Enniskillen. It is on the County Fermanagh/County Cavan border beside the village of Blacklion in the Republic of Ireland. It had a population of 540 in the 2011 Census. It is situated within the Fermanagh and Omagh District.
The Lough MacNean Tourism Initiative has been in operation since 2003, and is an economy building project, aimed at addressing tourism needs in the area while promoting cross-border relations. Belcoo Enterprise Ltd opened in 1992 in units shared with the Belcoo Historical Society, a doctor's surgery, a chiropodist and Lakeland Community Care. The Mullycovet corn mill, which functioned from 1830 until the 1920s, is being restored. The Indigenous Resources School of Transferable Skills aims to teach marginalised groups including the unemployed, New Age travellers, the disabled, to use natural materials as a learning facility.

History

The earliest mention of the village is in the old Ulster Saga "Argain Belcon Breifne" also known as "Togail Bruidne Bélchon Bréifne". This tells the tale of a trap set for the great Ulster hero Conall Cernach by a Breifne chief named Belcu Brefne. However Conall manages to reverse the trap and causes Belcu's sons to kill Belcu by mistake. The place where the tale occurs was later named Belcu or sometimes Belcon in honour of Belcu. Isaac Butler in his book "A Journey to Lough Derg" written in c. 1749 states-
See "Dabhach Phádraig: St Patrick's Holy Well, Belcoo, County Fermanagh", by Mairead O'Dolain, in the Clogher Record, Volume 18, No. 1, pp.103-116..
A modern interpretation however states that the name of the village derives from the béal meaning mouth and cumhang or cung meaning narrowing, referring to the village's position on a narrow neck of water between Upper and Lower Lough MacNean. This interpretation is given support, firstly in the 14th century Book of Magauran where it is mentioned several times as Cunga, secondly in an Inquisition held at Dromahair on 22 July 1607 which described the boundaries of County Leitrim inter alia as- and so to Beallacowngamore, and then to Beallucowngabegg, and thirdly by the name of the place on the 1609 Ulster Plantation map where it is named 'Kiliconge', i.e. Coille Cunga meaning "The Wood of the Narrow Strip of Land". The townland to the immediate north of Belcoo continues this interpretation as it is called Drumcoo, i.e. The Hill of the Narrow Strip of Land. Another often used derivation is Béal Cú i.e. where Cú is the word for hound. Hence the village name would mean "The Mouth of the Hound". Máire MacNeill in her book "The Festival of Lughnasa", 1962, gives a local Belcoo folktale about balefire coming out of a hound's mouth before it is killed by Saint Patrick. This tale is also found in Glangevlin folktales.
In the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the English Army erected a fort at Belcoo which can be seen on the Down Survey maps of 1655. When the Irish surrendered at Cavan on 27 April 1653, paragraph 7 of the Articles of Surrender stated-"That Collonel Reily with the partie now with him on the west side of Loughern lay downe their armes, and deliver such forts in the islands, with all the amunicion and provision therein that is in his powre, at or before the 18 May next, at Crohan, and Collonel Hugh Me Guier's regiment to lay downe their armes the 18 May next, at 'Belcowe fort', in the county of Fermanagh, and all others of his partie included in these articles are to lay downe their armes in the severall counties where their quarters are, in such places as the Governors of the several counties shall apoynt." The fort was still in existence in 1700, as an entry in the Calendar of Treasury Books dated 1 June 1700 states there was "1 foot soldier at Belcoe who receives an allowance of £14 per annum in respect of fire and candle for the Barracks"
In Seamus Pender's "A Census of Ireland, Circa 1659", the village is called "Belcow".
In 1718, John Dolan of Fermanagh wrote- About ye middle of Lough Earn there is but a small arm like a large river for about an English mile and over this arm is a fine large ford called Belcoo, whereon stands a barrack on ye north side; and on ye south side of this a skirt of ye county Cavan borders ye said lough. Near Belcoo is a holy well consecrated by St Patrick wherein are miracles yearly wrought upon devout persons by performing their stations with true devotion are often restored to sight and limb and of other distempers by virtue of ye said water and by ye grace of God,.
In his book "Upper Lough Erne", written in 1739, Reverend William Henry states, "Lough Macnane... is contracted into a narrow, deep canal, in which form it flows through a flat meadow for half a mile to the redoubt of Bellcoe, where is a good ford and a new bridge across it. From the ford, the lake, expanding again, continues for three miles more".
Matthew Sleater's Directory of 1806 states "Belcoo-bridge over a river containing the two lakes called Lough Macnean, which extends along this road 6 miles".
About two miles north-east of Belcoo is Gardenhill, an old derelict homestead. It is located on the side of a hill in Gardenhill townland, just off the sideroad from Belcoo to Boho. Parts of this old homestead possibly date from the early years of the Plantation of Ulster in the early seventeenth-century. It was rented, and later owned, by the Hassard family for around 300 years. Gardenhill is privately owned and is not open to the public.

20th century

With the Partition of Ireland in 1921, Belcoo became a border village. On 28 March 1922, during the Irish War of Independence, a column of fifty Irish Republican Army volunteers crossed from County Cavan and seized the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in Belcoo after a three-hour battle. Fifteen RIC officers were captured and marched across the border and held until 18 July.
See also The Troubles in Belcoo, which includes a list of incidents in Belcoo during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities.

Transport

Belcoo is situated on the A4 road from Enniskillen, at the point where it reaches the border with the Republic of Ireland and becomes the N16. Buses on the Enniskillen to Bundoran Ulsterbus Service 64, operated by Translink, stop here.
The village formerly had a small railway station on the railway line serving Sligo and Leitrim and Enniskillen. In 1878 a stationmaster's house and six houses were built for railway workers and their families and the following year the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway line opened with Belcoo station serving both Belcoo and Blacklion. Belcoo railway station opened on 18 March 1879, and closed on 1 October 1957. The last trains ran through the station on 20 September 1957.
Bus Éireann calls at Belcoo on the service Sligo-Manorhamilton-Enniskillen Expressway route 66.

2011 Census

On Census Day the usually resident population of Belcoo / Holywell Settlement was 540 accounting for 0.03% of the NI total.