County Fermanagh


County Fermanagh is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland.
The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the county town and largest in both size and population.
Fermanagh is one of four counties of Northern Ireland to have a majority of its population from a Catholic background, according to the 2011 census.

Geography

Fermanagh spans an area of 1,851 km2, accounting for 13.2% of the landmass of Northern Ireland. Nearly a third of the county is covered by lakes and waterways, including Upper and Lower Lough Erne and the River Erne. Forests cover 14% of the landmass. It is the only county in Northern Ireland that does not border Lough Neagh.
The county has three prominent upland areas:
The county borders:
Fermanagh is by far the least populous of Northern Ireland's six counties, with just over one-third the population of Tyrone, the next least populous county.
It is approximately from Belfast and from Dublin. The county town, Enniskillen, is the largest settlement in Fermanagh, situated in the middle of the county.
The county enjoys a temperate oceanic climate with cool winters, mild humid summers, and a lack of temperature extremes, according to the Köppen climate classification.
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty manages three sites of historic and natural beauty in the county: Crom Estate, Florence Court, and Castle Coole.

Geology

The oldest sediments in the county are found north of Lough Erne. These so-called red beds were formed approximately 550 million years ago. Extensive sandstone can be found in the eastern part of the county, laid down during the Devonian, 400 million years ago. Much of the rest of the county's sediments are shale and limestone dating from the Carboniferous, 354 to 298 million years ago. These softer sediments have produced extensive cave systems such as the Shannon Cave, the Marble Arch Caves and the Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore hills. The carboniferous shale exists in several counties of northwest Ireland, an area known colloquially as the Lough Allen basin. The basin is estimated to contain 9.4 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, equivalent to 1.5 billion barrels of oil.
The county is situated over a sequence of prominent faults, primarily the Killadeas – Seskinore Fault, the Tempo – Sixmilecross Fault, the Belcoo Fault and the Clogher Valley Fault which cross-cuts Lough Erne.

History

The Menapii are the only known Celtic tribe specifically named on Ptolemy's 150 AD map of Ireland, where they located their first colony—Menapia—on the Leinster coast. They later settled around Lough Erne, becoming known as the Fir Manach, and giving their name to Fermanagh and Monaghan. Mongán mac Fiachnai, a 7th-century King of Ulster, is the protagonist of several legends linking him with Manannán mac Lir. They spread across Ireland, evolving into historic Irish clans.
The Annals of Ulster which cover medieval Ireland between AD 431 to AD 1540 were written at Belle Isle on Lough Erne near Lisbellaw.
In the early 9th century, the Erne was considered to be the boundary of Connacht and Ulster, specifically the over-kingdom of Airgíalla. The Fir Manach proper, Tirkennedy and Magherastephana, along with Clankelly were part of the western Airgíalla group-kingdom of Uí Creamthainn with its seat at Clogher, whereas Lurg was associated with the northern Airgíalla branch of Uí Fiachrach centred at Ardstraw.
Fermanagh was a stronghold of the Maguire clan and Donn Carrach Maguire was the first of the chiefs of the Maguire dynasty. However, on the confiscation of lands relating to Hugh Maguire, Fermanagh was divided in a similar manner to the other five escheated counties among Scottish and English undertakers and native Irish. The baronies of Knockninny and Magheraboy were allotted to Scottish undertakers, those of Clankelly, Magherastephana and Lurg to English undertakers and those of Clanawley, Coole, and Tyrkennedy, to servitors and natives. The chief families to benefit under the new settlement were the families of Cole, Blennerhasset, Butler, Hume, and Dunbar.
Fermanagh was made into a county by a statute of Elizabeth I, but it was not until the time of the Plantation of Ulster that it was finally brought under civil government.
The closure of all the lines of Great Northern Railway within County Fermanagh in 1957 left the county as the first non-island county in the UK without a railway service.

Administration

The county was administered by Fermanagh County Council from 1899 until the abolition of county councils in Northern Ireland in 1973. With the creation of Northern Ireland's district councils, Fermanagh District Council became the only one of the 26 that contained all of the county from which it derived its name. After the re-organisation of local government in 2015, Fermanagh was still the only county wholly within one council area, namely Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, albeit that it constituted only a part of that entity.
For the purposes of elections to the UK Parliament, the territory of Fermanagh is part of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone Parliamentary Constituency. This constituency elected Provisional IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands as a member of parliament in the April 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election, shortly before his death.

Demographics

2011 census

On Census Day, the usually resident population of Fermanagh Local Government District, the borders of the district were very similar to those of the traditional County Fermanagh, was 61,805. Of these:
  • 0.93% were from an ethnic minority population and the remaining 99.07% were white
  • 59.16% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic religion and 37.78% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian ' religion
  • 37.20% indicated that they had a British national identity, 36.08% had an Irish national identity and 29.53% had a Northern Irish national identity

    2021 Census

On Census Day, the usually resident population of Fermanagh Local Government District, the borders of the district were very similar to those of the traditional County Fermanagh, was 63,585. Of these:
  • 58.8% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic religion and 35.5% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian ' religion.

    Community background and religion

ReligionNumber
Christian55,89287.9
Catholic35,41255.7
Church of Ireland13,06520.5
Methodist2,5524.0
Presbyterian1,9893.1
Other Christian 2,8744.5
Protestant and Other Christian: Total20,48032.2
Other6010.9
Islam2160.3
Hinduism500.08
Other religions3350.5
None/not stated7,09211.2
No religion5,8859.3
Religion not stated1,2071.9
Total63,585100.0

Ethnicity

Country of birth

Main languages

Knowledge of Irish

  • In County Fermanagh, 1.91% claim to use Irish daily and 0.22% claim that Irish is their main language.

    Knowledge of Ulster Scots

  • 0.99% claim to use Ulster Scots daily in County Fermanagh.

    National identity

Industry and tourism

Agriculture and tourism are two of the most important industries in Fermanagh. The main types of farming in the area are beef, dairy, sheep, pigs and some poultry. Most of the agricultural land is used as grassland for grazing and silage or hay rather than for other crops.
The waterways are extensively used by cabin cruisers, other small pleasure craft and anglers. The main town of Fermanagh is Enniskillen. The island town hosts a range of attractions including the Castle Coole Estate and Enniskillen Castle, which is home to the museum of The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Fermanagh is also home to The Boatyard Distillery, a distillery producing gin.
Attractions outside Enniskillen include:
The classification of settlements by NISRA defines six categories following the 2011 census, namely; Large towns, Medium towns, Small towns, Intermediate settlements, Villages and Small villages or hamlets. The majority of the settlements in County Fermanagh lie within the final category, five within the village category and one each in the intermediate settlements and medium towns categories. No settlements in the county are classified as Large towns or Small towns.

Large towns

  • none

    Medium towns

  • Enniskillen

    Small towns

  • none

    Intermediate settlements

  • Lisnaskea