New documentary showing off history and wildlife of Co Fermanagh village

A new documentary has told the stories of some of the most well-known local faces in the Co Fermanagh village of Belcoo.

‘Belcoo Voices’ was produced by local filmmaker Joshua Hanna on behalf of the local council funded Catchment Care programme.

The documentary speaks to a number of local farmers, fisherman and Belcoo natives on the history and importance of the local biodiversity systems in the area.

READ MORE: Inside Inis Rath: The island home to a small community of Hare Krishnas in Co Fermanagh

Among those who feature in the first part of the documentary, which is available to view on Youtube, include the owner of Inis Keen island, where cattle are ferried to and from the mainland by a steel barge.

Martin Higgins tells the documentary of how life on the island has progressed since years gone by.

“My name’s Martin Higgins, I’m standing here on my island, Inis Keen island, in the middle of Lough MacNean," Martin says.

“My father gave me this island after he passed away. Our ancestors, this is where they lived back in the 1800s.

“They were self-sufficient so they were, they grew their crops of corn and potatoes.

“Now we’ve got a steel barge, we call it a cot. Prior to that we used to swim the cattle off, swim them on, that was the way it was done because there was no other way of doing it.”

Filmmaker Josh said it was a really enjoyable project to work on, and added there was a second part of the series to come.

“We’ve done one which is focused on Belcoo and another one which we have coming up focused on Kiltyclogher.

“It’s called Belcoo Voices and it was made on behalf of the Catchment Care project, which has been around for a long time now.

“It was just to get a feel for local attitudes and local feelings towards changes in the ecosystems, and the different forces affecting that.

“The film shows the opinions of the local people in Belcoo, I think it’s turned out well.

“They were originally supposed to be 10 minute long films but they ended up being about 20, which is how these things tend to go.”

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