Belcoo

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Coordinates: 54°17′46″N 7°52′16″W / 54.296°N 7.871°W / 54.296; -7.871
Belcoo
Irish: Béal Cú
Belcoo

 Belcoo shown within Northern Ireland
Population 486 (2001 Census)
District Fermanagh
County County Fermanagh
Country Northern Ireland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town ENNISKILLEN
Postcode district BT93
Dialling code 028
EU Parliament Northern Ireland
UK Parliament Fermanagh and South Tyrone
NI Assembly Fermanagh and South Tyrone
List of places
UK
Northern Ireland
Fermanagh

Belcoo pronounced: [bɛlˈkʉː] (from Irish: Béal Cú, meaning "mouth of the narrow [stretch of water]")[1][2] 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 (with Holywell) of 486 in the 2001 Census.

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" (Massacre of Belcu Brefne). 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, "At Bell Con is a famous well called Davagh Patrick or the Holywell".[3]

A modern interpretation however states that the name of the village derives from the Irish: béal meaning mouth and cumhang or cung meaning narrowing, referring to the village's position on a narrow neck of water (river) between Upper and Lower Lough MacNean. This interpretation is given support by the name of the place on the 1609 Ulster Plantation map where it is named 'Kiliconge', i.e. Coille Cunga = "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.[4]

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 of May next, at Crohan, and Collonel Hugh Me Guier's regiment to lay downe their armes the 18 of 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."[5][6] The fort was still in existence in 1700, as an entry in the Calendar of Treasury Books dated 1st 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 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".[7]

Matthew Sleater's Directory of 1806 states "Belcoo-bridge (which leads to Garrison in Fermanagh County) over a river containing the two lakes called Lough Macnean, which extends along this road 6 miles".

The Troubles

For more information see The Troubles in Belcoo, which includes a list of incidents in Belcoo during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities.

Transport

An ornate white gate obscures the view of a small stone station building and platform, with grass growing where the railway tracks would have been. In the distance at the far end of the platform is the original signal building.
Restored level crossing gates, platform and station building, now a private residence.

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.[8]

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.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Flanagan, Deirdre & Laurence; Irish Place Names, page 172. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0-7171-3396-6
  2. ↑ Placenames NI - Belcoo
  3. ↑ Butler, Isaac (1892). "A Journey to Lough Derg". In Cooper, Austin. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 5 II: 13–24. 
  4. ↑ MacNeill, Máire (1962). The festival of Lughnasa: a study of the survival of the Celtic festival of the beginning of harvest. London: Oxford University Press. 
  5. ↑ Gilbert, John T. A Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland from 1641 to 1652 p374
  6. ↑ Dunlop, Robert (2008 reprint of 1913). Robert Dunlop, ed. reland Under the Commonwealth. Manchester University Publications - reprinted by BiblioBazaar, LLC,. p. 336. ISBN 978-1-116-08088-9. 
  7. ↑ Henry, Rev. William (1892). King, Sir Charles S, ed. Upper Lough Erne. Dublin: William McGee. pp. 50–51. 
  8. ↑ "Ulsterbus Service 64 Outbound Timetable". Translink. Retrieved 5 October 2010. 
  9. ↑ "Belcoo station". Railscot - Irish Railways. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007. 

References

External links

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