At the latest monthly meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Sinn Fein’s Sheamus Greene raised the issue of the motorway that was promised to Enniskillen when the railways were closed in the county in the late 1950s.

Mr Greene said that he had brought it up once again at a recent meeting with Department for Infrastructure (DfI) roads officials.

He said that, when the trains were taken from Fermanagh in 1957, the government in the North at the time had promised to build a motorway from Belfast to Enniskillen.

The Brookeborough councillor said, “I suspect that no road upgrade has ever taken as long as that. I’d ask for it every year and possibly another 57 years or whatever, when somebody else that’s sitting in the chair will still be asking it. 

“I would hope that we keep at them and that, at some stage, it maybe will fall on sympathetic ears.”

Council chairwoman, Siobhan Currie, replied, “62 years, I think that is, Sheamus.”

Responding to Cllr Greene’s claims, the UUP’s Robert Irvine told the council, “He may not be aware, or he may be aware and he’s chosen to ignore it, but it was a DUP councillor Bert Johnston on the old Fermanagh District Council who was the one who actually kept up the argument in regard to the return of the railways and the upgrade required when they were taken away for the A4. So I think there’s obviously cooperation going on between the DUP and Sinn Fein in that regard, so I think there’s obviously cooperation going on between DUP and Sinn Fein in that regard, so it’s very good to see.”