Arney Bridge
IRELAND’S foremost battlefield archaeologist has been booked by a community group in Arney to give a talk on a local battle which, he will say, was an important battle at the beginning of a long war, ‘the legacy of which you could say we are still living with today’.
The speaker, Paul Logue, is a senior archaeologist with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. The battle he will address came to be known as, the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits.
The talk takes place in Cleenish Millennium Hall, Arney on Thursday of next week, 9th January at 8pm. The event is free. Refreshments, including biscuits! will be provided.
The organisers of the talk, the Cleenish and Killesher Community Partnership, have two more exciting events planned for next month and February.
They follow the successful launch of its ‘history, heritage and culture programme’ in October.
Linked to a planned archaeological dig to identify the site of the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits the first event will be a talk by
Paul’s talk will place the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits within the wider political and military context in Fermanagh and Ulster at the time.
He will describe how the events of that day unfolded, and he will explore aspects of the Nine Years War, which began in earnest with the battle on the Arney River in August 1594, and ended with the defeat of the Gaelic Lords in 1603.
The outcome of the war eventually led to the Flight of the Earls in 1607 and the subsequent Plantation of Ulster.
The second event is a talk and demonstration by well-known local family researcher and genealogist, Frankie Roofe who people will know as superintendent of the Townhall in Enniskillen.
The talk forms part of a ‘Family and Genealogy’ evening in Killesher Community Hall at Tully Mill, Florencecourt on Thursday 16th January. at 8.00pm.
The third event is a series of reminiscing and storytelling evenings which will be facilitated by Seamas Mac Annaidh.
A native of Enniskillen, Seamas, who now lives in Belcoo, is a well-known and authoritative local historian, writer and broadcaster.
This, the first of four reminiscing nights, will take place in the Millennium Hall in Arney on Thursday 30th January at 8pm.