Fermanagh bottom of pile in record year for passports


FERMANAGH has come bottom of the pile for Irish passports being issued despite 2022 being a record year for applications and renewals. A staggering 1,080,000 passports were given out over the last 12 months from applicants across Ireland and beyond. The total number of Irish passports sent out to those applying from the North came […]

Council launches open doors scheme for guide dogs


COUNCIL Chairman Barry McElduff has taken the lead in helping Fermanagh’s guide dogs gain access to the county’s shops, restaurants and other public places. Cllr McElduff teamed up with Guide Dogs Northern Ireland in support of the charity’s ‘Open Doors’ campaign which aims to protect the rights of guide dog owners. The law gives guide […]

Celebrating the feast of county’s own St Fanchea


LAST Sunday not only marked the first day of the new year, but also the feast of Fermanagh’s own St Fanchea, who is one of several revered saints to be celebrated on the Lough Erne Pilgrim Trail. While her name is well known around the county, and Enniskillen parishioners will also be familiar with her face from the […]

Donagh man caught in Canada snow storm


A FEARSOME ‘bomb cyclone’ of treacherous heavy snow and icy conditions brought America and Canada to a standstill last week, with the resulting total death toll standing at 59. In the midst of it all in snowy and frozen Vancouver was Fermanagh ex-pat Patrick Quaile. “We have been told constantly by the news not to […]

Tributes flow for popular Tanya Dunne


A WAVE of sadness spread across Fermanagh and South Donegal last week after the heartbreaking news that a popular and well-respected Belleek woman had lost her brave battle with cancer. Tanya Dunne (née O’Shea) passed away last Wednesday at Sligo University Hospital. Aged just 42 years old, Tanya’s funeral service took place in Bundoran last Friday, which would […]

Sr Bridie Rogers remembered as a ‘remarkable woman’


TRIBUTES have been paid to Fermanagh nun Sr Bridie Rogers, who passed away at the weekend following a long life dedicated to helping others. Sr Rogers, who spent 70 years serving as a Sister of Mercy, passed away on New Year’s Eve surrounded by her family and fellow nuns, and was laid to rest at the […]

Family has nursed open wound over bomb victim Geraldine


THE brother of Geraldine O’Reilly has spoken of how his family, and that of Patrick Stanley’s, have been “living with an open wound” since their loved ones were killed in the Belturbet bombing 50 years ago. Anthony O’Reilly was with his 15-year-old sister on the night of her murder, having driven her into Belturbet for chips. […]

Feeley pays tribute to Belturbet bomb dead 50 years on


TRIBUTES were paid in Belturbet to two teenagers “who were doing simple things before becoming forever intertwined” by the horrors of 50 years ago. Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council, Cllr John Paul Feeley, spoke at the commemoration of the Belturbert Bombing of 1972 and honoured the short lives of Geraldine O’Reilly and Patrick Stanley who […]