Benny Cassidy RMG11
AHEAD of its one year anniversary, a Facebook page offering Fermanagh folk a nostalgic trip down memory lane has taken the Internet by storm, gaining 13,500 likes in 45 countries worldwide.
The ‘Old Enniskillen’ page was set up by Benny Cassidy in February 2016 but has proved hugely popular since its inception, attracting fans from all around the world.
Mr Cassidy admits his own keen interest in local history helped inspire the ‘Old Enniskillen’ page as he had previously been putting up old photographs on his personal Facebook page. When he soon noticed that he was getting a lot of comments and feedback, he decided to create a page devoted to Enniskillen and says the reaction since then has made it all worthwhile.
“People love looking through memories of Enniskillen and their support and interaction has been absolutely brilliant. We have new people coming on board every single day. There’s a lot more younger people taking an interest than I ever imagined whereas before it was more the older folks. Now we have 18-25 year olds as our biggest demographic and that’s mainly females.”
The page is now regularly attracting interest in countries as far away as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Swaziland, Saudi Arabia and the USA.
“It’s a light-hearted look at the history of the town and something for the whole community to enjoy. The great thing is the large number of photographs and stories coming through from people. Their comments really help to bring the pictures to life and they can help to fill in the gaps and solve mysteries about who is who. Also it’s been a great forum for people to get back in touch with old friends.”
Mr Cassidy says he is indebted to all the contributors who keep his Facebook page inundated with photographs, videos and stories for the page and believes the page will continue to go from strength to strength for many more years to come.
“The real beauty for me is that I get to see everything first!” he added.
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