Enniskillen

After seeing Boyle Abbey, in the rain sad to say, I next went North and arrived at Enniskillen, a large town by Irish standards, in County Fermanagh.  This was the site of a 1987 bombing that killed 11 people, and injured 63 people.  The IRA planted the bomb.  According to one news report I found on line, “The device went off without warning at 1045 GMT at the town’s cenotaph where people had gathered to pay their respects to the war dead.”  The dead included three married couples, a retired policeman and a nurse.

There’s little to remind one of the violence of those days now in this town, which is dominated by its skyline to include the Enniskillen Castle, situated beside the River Erne in County Fermanagh.  It was built almost 600 years ago by Gaelic Maguires.  Guarding one of the few passes into Ulster, it was strategically important throughout its history.  In the 17th century it became an English garrison fort and later served as part of a military barracks.

The castle is also the home of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Museum, which I toured.