Ederney

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.[5]

Local historian Leo Mulligan MBE details that at the time of the Plantation 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 450 acres (1.8 km²) 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).[6][7]

By 1797, the settlement is recorded in the Topographia Hibernica as Ederny Bridge and "fair days" were held there.[4][8]

Glendarragh Valley Inn's location allows tourists to take advantage of the scenery of the Glendarragh River Valley and the Fermanagh Erne Lakelands with its lakes, tree covered landscapes and islands. The village has a GAA (Gaelic football) team which plays annually from February to August.[9][10]

One of the principal buildings in the village is the Townhall or Market House as it was first known, established about 1839. Originally, there were three bays on the ground floor which housed an open arcade. An upper floor was often used as a hall for social events as well as a school classroom. During a reconstruction in the late 1880s, the open arches were built-up and the building modernised into a two-storey three-bay building.[11]

Townhall, established circa 1839

Some of the standing stones at nearby Drumskinny

The main front has a single large arch flanked by small windows at the ground floor and three windows at the upper floor. There is a simple pediment with a circular plaque which now houses the village clock. The side elevation has a single large arch at the lower level and a fine Venetian window at the upper level. In the early part of the 20th century the ground floor was still in use as a market place before being leased to Gracey's of Enniskillen for an egg packaging depot.

The upper floor was used for various uses from the late 1880s to the middle of the 1990s as a school classroom and as theatre and entertainment venue and was the location for Ederney's first cinema. A separate first floor room was used for meetings by the Masonic lodge. By the late 1980s, the building had become an eyesore having been mostly derelict for several decades. It was taken over by the Fermanagh District Council and redeveloped for community use following some local lobbying. Today it is fully operational as a village community centre accommodating for and providing facilities and services for the community.[4]

Another interesting landmark is Drumskinny stone circle. Drumskinny (from Irish Droim Scine 'knife ridge') is the site of a stone circle in the nearby townland of Drumskinny.[12] The historic site is easily accessed and consists of 39 stones set in a circle. The arrangement is supposed to be related to the seasons, moon and sun. The site reportedly dates from the Bronze Age.[13][14]

• Michael Barrett (last man to be publicly hanged in Britain)[15]
• John Maguire (Irish journalist), Director of International Relations and Cooperation of France Médias Monde.
• Fr. Joe McVeigh (priest and civil rights activist)[16]
• Martin McGrath who was an inter county player for Fermanagh winning an GAA All Star award in his career; he was one three Fermanagh players to do so.[17]
• Paul and Declan McCusker play for the Fermanagh senior inter-county GAA team.

Ederney is classified as a small village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with population between 500 and 1,000). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 554 people living in Ederney. Of these:

• 25.3% were aged under 16 years and 16.8% were aged 60 and over
• 51.8% of the population were male and 48.2% were female
• 84.8% were from a Catholic background and 14.4% were from a Protestant background
• 9.4% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed

For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

• Market Houses in Northern Ireland

• St Joseph's Parish Website
• Fermanagh Gold - A Little History of Ederney