Fermanagh and Omagh: Lakeland on the Frontier
Fermanagh is water. Upper Lough Erne and Lower Lough Erne stretch across the county, connected by a narrow channel at Enniskillen — the county town, built on an island between the two lakes. The loughs and their maze of smaller islands create a landscape unlike anywhere else in Northern Ireland: flat, watery, quiet. Devenish Island holds monastic ruins dating to the 6th century. Boa Island has enigmatic Janus stone carvings. The Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark, straddling the border with County Cavan, contains some of the finest show caves in Europe. Enniskillen itself is a garrison town with two notable castles and a grammar school whose alumni include Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett.
Omagh, the county town of Tyrone, carries a heavier recent history. On 15 August 1998 — months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed — a Real IRA car bomb killed 29 people and two unborn children on Market Street. It remains the single deadliest incident of the entire Troubles. The memorial garden on the site marks the spot. Beyond this, Omagh is a functional market town serving a large rural hinterland that extends into the Sperrin Mountains. The borough as a whole is the largest in Northern Ireland by area and among the most sparsely populated. Farming — beef, sheep, dairy — dominates the economy. The border wraps around the south and west; Fermanagh has more frontier with the Republic than any other Northern Irish county, sharing boundaries with Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan, and Monaghan.
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Fermanagh is water. Upper Lough Erne and Lower Lough Erne stretch across the county, connected by a narrow channel at Enniskillen — the county town, built on an island between the two lakes. The loughs and their maze of smaller islands create a landscape unlike anywhere else in Northern Ireland: flat, watery, quiet. Devenish Island holds monastic ruins dating to the 6th century. Boa Island has enigmatic Janus stone carvings. The Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark, straddling the border with County Cavan, contains some of the finest show caves in Europe. Enniskillen itself is a garrison town with two notable castles and a grammar school whose alumni include Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett.
Omagh, the county town of Tyrone, carries a heavier recent history. On 15 August 1998 — months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed — a Real IRA car bomb killed 29 people and two unborn children on Market Street. It remains the single deadliest incident of the entire Troubles. The memorial garden on the site marks the spot. Beyond this, Omagh is a functional market town serving a large rural hinterland that extends into the Sperrin Mountains. The borough as a whole is the largest in Northern Ireland by area and among the most sparsely populated. Farming — beef, sheep, dairy — dominates the economy. The border wraps around the south and west; Fermanagh has more frontier with the Republic than any other Northern Irish county, sharing boundaries with Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan, and Monaghan.
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