Ederney ()
At the 2021 census it had a population of 553. Ederney lies in the Glendarragh River Valley near Lower Lough Erne and Kesh. It is from Belfast, over from Dublin and about 16 miles from both Omagh and Enniskillen. The village and its hinterland (the Glendarragh Valley area) has a population of several thousand.[ History of Ederney (Ederny) , ederney.com; accessed 3 February 2016.]
Ederney is located on a tourist route adjacent to Lough Erne. It is approximately from the border with the Republic of Ireland and from the west of Ireland tourism trail, the Wild Atlantic Way, in County Donegal.
Public transport
Ulsterbus route 194 serves Ederney with one daily journey in each direction except Sundays, linking it to
Irvinestown,
Enniskillen and
Pettigo. Route 83A provides a link to
Omagh on Mondays & Thursdays only.
History
Local historian Leo Mulligan, MBE, details that at the time of the Plantation of Ulster there was a settlement of significance at Ederny, when the land grant (titled "Edernagh") was given to Captain Thomas Blennerhassett of
Norfolk in 1610. He created the Manor of Edernagh on a
demesne and a
court baron on the shores of Lough Erne, which he later named Castle Hassett. He established the new village of Ederny (Edernagh).
[ Thomas Blennerhassett profile, cpedia.com; accessed 3 February 2016.]
By 1797, the settlement is recorded in the Topographia Hibernica as Ederny Bridge and "fair days" were held there.[ Topographia Hibernica 1797, google.co.uk; accessed 3 February 2016.]
Built heritage
One of the principal buildings in the village is Ederney Town Hall, locally styled as the "Townhall", erected in 1839.
[Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, libraryireland.com; accessed 3 February 2016.] It remains in use as a village community centre.
Another local landmark is Drumskinny stone circle. Drumskinny () is the site of a stone circle in the nearby townland of Drumskinny.[ Database - Drumskinny , Logainm.ie; accessed 3 February 2016.] The site consists of 39 stones set in a circle. The arrangement is reportedly related to the seasons, moon and sun, and dates from the Bronze Age.[ History of Ederney, ederney.com; accessed 3 February 2016.][ Environment and Heritage Service NI - State care Historic Monuments, ni-environment.gov.uk; retrieved 16 September 2007.]
Sport
The village has a
Gaelic football club, Ederney St Joseph's.
Demographics
As of the 2011 census, there were 587 people living in Ederney.
[ This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.] Of these:
-
17.21% were aged under 16 years and 18.91% were aged 65 and over
-
50.6% of the population were male and 49.4% were female
-
82.11% were from a Catholic background and 15.5% were from a Protestantism background
At the 2021 census, 553 people were living in Ederney. According to the 2021 census, Ederney had the highest proportion of residents who spoke Irish daily in County Fermanagh with 3.99%, which was higher than the average across Northern Ireland (of 2.43%).
Notable people
-
Michael Barrett (1841–1868), Fenian and last man to be publicly hanged in Britain.
[Hickey, D.J. & Doherty, J.E., A Dictionary of Irish History, p. 26. Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1980; ]
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Martin McGrath (b.1981), inter county who was one only three Fermanagh players to win a GAA All Star award.
See also
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Market houses in Northern Ireland
External links
