Most of us know, like an article of faith, the tune and chorus by heart.
It is old, but it is beautiful, and its colours they are fine,
It was worn at Derry, Aughrim, Enniskillen and the Boyne.
My father wore it as a youth in bygone days of yore,
And on the Twelfth, I love to wear the sash my father wore.
As one of the most recognisable cultural ballads connected to the history of this place, The Sash commemorates four victories by King William III over King James II during the Williamite War in Ireland from 1689 to 1691. Its writer omitted Limerick and Athlone, perhaps to better assist the rhythm and rhyme of the tune. In any case, Enniskillen certainly deserves its place in the top six battles. The town name is, of course, shorthand for a wider campaign of battles and engagements at places in and around Fermanagh at Newtownbutler (the biggest and bloodiest), Belleek, Cornagrade, Trillick, Omagh, Augher, Ballindarragh, Lisnaskea, Donagh, Wattlebridge, Crom, Bloody Pass, Sligo, Ballyshannon, Manorhamilton, Belturbet, Cavan, Monaghan and Meath.
In the spring of 1689, the Williamite Inniskilleners decided not to wait for the war to come to them. Instead, they embarked on a hit-and-run land offensive by attacking Jacobite supply chains from Dublin to Derry. Like the Apprentice Boys, they too had denied entry to the forces of James II, and to secure their poorly defended island town without walls, they fortified the bridges and constructed two forts with bastions on its western and eastern approaches. The forts were of a type widely used throughout the 17th century to facilitate wide-angled canon fire, and a visit to Fort Hill today demonstrates just how big they are. Square-built with four diamond-shaped corners, they had steep sides and deep ditches, and it took a lot of co-ordinated communal labour to make them.
The waterways played a role as well. Inniskillener sources provide four instances of amphibious activity: the calling in of all vessels from around Lough Erne to Enniskillen island, an overnight despatch of two hundred militia by land and water to lift the first siege of Crom in March, the sending of a flotilla to Belleek to transport weapons and munitions, and the escape of captured Jacobite General Lord Mountcashel from Enniskillen.
Imagine then my surprise when visiting Trannish island a couple of years ago to find a demi-bastion fort on its northern shore of similar size and design to the east fort in Enniskillen, and to learn subsequently that no reference was made about it in the sources. Moreover, current heritage records simply state that it was built to protect the southwest approaches to Lisnaskea and Castle Balfour, but without saying from whom. A confused picture. If the Inniskilleners made no mention of it, and took no ownership of it, who built it, and why?
Trannish island is located south of Enniskillen on a strategic crossing point for travellers moving east-west by ferry on Upper Lough Erne. Therefore, it might be reasonably considered as an ideal location for a fort built by the Inniskilleners as a possible north-south supply depot, or a command-and-control centre between Enniskillen and Belturbet. To test this theory, three canoeists recently set out from Enniskillen to replicate the overnight journey by militia sent to lift the siege of Crom “by land and water” in March 1689. The aim was not to disprove the viability of this daring venture per se, but to consider whether or not resources and men might have been garrisoned on the island so that they could be transported at a moment’s notice to the aid of Creighton at Crom if needed. Our experiment was not like-for-like, taking nine hours to reach Crom in fast and lightweight kayaks under a full moon with great visibility and calm waters. It proved little other than to show that the original journey could have been completed without a staging post at Trannish, but it would surely have been difficult in bad weather and total darkness against the flow and prevailing wind using heavy cots laden with weaponry; a long, arduous night on the water heightening the imagination of the Inniskilleners about what the morning might bring.
Writing in 1895, the then Earl of Erne reflected on the general situation in 1689. “Crom castle was in those days a place of considerable strategic importance, commanding as it did the waterways between the two fortified towns of Enniskillen and Belturbet, and when the surrounding country was covered in forest, the lake was the principal means of communication. Colonel Abraham Creighton collected his tenants and retainers, and with others of the neighbouring settlers, made of Crom a stronghold, which it was imperative on the Jacobite generals to reduce”.
By July, James II was sufficiently confident that Derry would fall to order Jacobite Commanders Lord Mountcashel, Patrick Sarsfield and the Duke of Berwick to destroy Enniskillen and Crom Castle. His order brought a long, successful campaign of harassment by the Inniskilleners to its bloody climax around Newtownbutler and the nearby drowned drumlin landscape of Upper Lough Erne at Crom.
Historian and author Darren Graham considers that Trannish might have been built by Creighton after the first siege of Crom on the premise that, if the Jacobites were victorious at Derry, they would storm south on land and water, destroying all in their path. Graham also believes that Creighton was powerful enough, and had the necessary resources, to take such independent action. It is also possible that the fort may not have been used at all as the enemy eventually attacked on land from Ballyshannon, Omagh, and Belturbet to the south.
Creighton may also have been unpopular; if so, the Inniskilleners may have minimised his role in their winning narrative. As the estate records of Crom were destroyed in a fire in 1764, we may never secure a primary source for confirmation and will have to seek other ways to solve the mystery of Trannish island fort and the confused narratives concerning the Bloody Pass, Inishfendra island and Wattlebridge.
Other strategically placed, and as yet unexplored, lough shore pinch points such as those around Inishmore island at Portreagh and Drummee for example, hint at hidden hands controlling water-based traffic. Further research is needed on Fermanagh’s amphibious and military history to re-examine and reassess this aspect of the hugely important, but stubbornly understated role that Fermanagh played in the Williamite War in Ireland. It is a titanic story, and we might look elsewhere for inspiration in the telling of it. Although omitted from the top four battles listed in The Sash, the 1691 Siege of Athlone is today examined brilliantly by Athlone Museum through a sympathetic portrayal of its main cast of characters on both sides of the conflict in an accessible and considered way within a much larger European conflict. We should be able to do the same. For now, Trannish island continues to hold its secrets. All comments and suggestions will be gratefully received.
Investigations for this detective story began over a year ago. Sincere thanks to Eddie Brogan, Darren Graham, James Bamford, Nora McManus, Peadar McManus, William Wilson, Seamus Keenan, David Bolton, Marion Maxwell, Trevor Foster, Carroll O’Dolan, Share Centre, The Inniskillings Museum, the Council of Wise Persons and Ordnance Survey NI.
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