Ricky Graham with the message in a bottle that he found on the shore of Lough Erne recently RMG27
Lisnaskea man Ricky Graham, who works for Greentown Environmental, made the discovery recently while out on patrol on the water around Enniskillen with his co-worker Elvin Higgins. The pair stumbled on the letter still sealed and dry.
“We were out on a boat near the Round ‘O’ and I saw this bottle bobbing about in the water. I could see that inside there was a piece of paper saying that there was a message inside. I was so surprised and when I called Elvin over to show him, he was blew away by it too,” Ricky told the Herald.
After two years in the job, Ricky never imagined making such a discovery: “You hear about these sorts of stories all the time but I never thought that I would find one myself. I was very happy to find it.”
The discovery could mean someone’s dream has come true. The letter was written on 18th July last year by James Ledwidge from Gorey in Co. Wexford. He has written to the lucky finder asking them to get in touch about when and where they unearth it.
Ricky says he will be getting in touch with its owner.
“I’m going to write back and tell him where I found it so hopefully I’ll get a reply and make his day. It sounds like he could be a young fella but I don’t know for sure so I’m curious to find out who it was.”
It’s not known if the letter was simply sent off floating in a bottle in the lake last summer or if it travelled from further afield before ultimately ending up in the Erne.
“It’s hard to know where it came from but it may have travelled some distance with the floods. It would be amazing if it did come all the way upstream from Wexford and it is possible,” added Ricky.
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