Films

This short celebratory film highlights our area’s landscape and heritage from Cuilcagh Mountain to the shores of Upper Lough Erne. Made by a young film graduate the film draws on local knowledge to interpret the landscape and it combines stories, music, film footage and photographs of heritage project activities undertaken by the community, along with interviews of people at selected heritage sites. The film won a National Heritage Award 2020.

Award-winning history project about a unique resettlement scheme for eleven returning veterans from the Great War who lived and farmed on Cleenish Island in Upper Lough Erne. The veterans suffered greatly, having between them fought at almost all of the bloodiest battlefields of the war. However, the island was to become a lonely place for its inhabitants without a bridge, electricity, running water, and shops or other amenities. Just one of the battle-scarred soldiers was to remain on Cleenish. Bellanaleck History Group. The project was a Heritage Angel Award winner in 2017.

Award-winning community archaeology project entitled Battles, Bricks and Bridges about the discovery of the site of the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits which was the opening salvo of what became known as the Nine Years War in 1594, the making of traditional Arney slap bricks which was a core economic activity in the area for hundreds of years, and the dating and restoration of Old Arney Bridge which is now recognised as one of the oldest plantation bridges in Ulster built around 1620. The project was developed by Cleenish and Killesher Community Development Associations and it won Best Community Engagement category in the British Archaelogy Awards 2016.

Henry Glassie, Emeritus Professor of Folklore at Indiana University came to live along the Arney River over a seven year period in the 1970s’ before publishing his book “Passing The Time In Ballymenone” in 1982. His understanding of local customs, storytelling, and anthropology is recognised as a unique academic achievement and as a major contribution to the cultural life of the area. Arney Hall was packed with a capacity crowd in July 2014 to welcome him back, and the audience enjoyed an evening of witty and reflective conversation between Henry Glassie and local story teller and interviewer, Seamus McCanny.