The bank has confirmed that their Belleek branch will close its doors on Friday, March 24th after a well-publicised campaign to save the border village’s last remaining bank fell on deaf ears

The bank’s decision to proceed with their plan came despite 7,500 people signing a petition opposing the move and a week of daily protests supported by local MLAs and councillors from both Fermanagh and nearby Co Donegal.

The branch, with hundreds of customers on both sides of the border, is one of eight across the North shutting its doors. Hundreds of customers with accounts in Belleek now face a 50 mile return trip to Enniskillen to visit their nearest branch. 

In a statement to the Fermanagh Herald, a spokesman said: “Belleek branch will close on Friday, 24th March. We have already written to customers to inform them of the closure and we will write to them again this week.

 “The existing Bank of Ireland UK ATM in Belleek will remain open and we have installed an External Lodgement ATM in our Enniskillen branch which will be available 24 hours. We are working with business customers to ensure alternative banking services are available and, in March, the branch team will be demonstrating our online banking services.”

Bridie Gormley of the Belleek Chamber of Commerce told the Herald that there is much anger and increased security fears locally as the closure date looms. 

“We stressed all along that Belleek was a special case because of the distance to the nearest bank. Despite our week long protest and petition, the bank already had its mind made up. If they can treat their customers with such a lack of respect, we would be urging people to leave Bank of Ireland and find alternative ways to do their banking.”

Ms Gormley added,“There is only so much that you can do online. You can’t make lodgements or get change and because of this it brings an added security threat. I have no doubt that we will see robberies increasing locally once the bank closes.”