Episode 5 Sruthanna

# Fare thee well my native green clad hills

# Fare thee well my shamrock glens

# Ye verdant banks of sweet Lough Neagh

# Ye silvery winding streams

# Though far from home in green Tyrone

# By flora first I strayed

# That adorn you Killycolpy

# Where I spent my boyhood days

# Shall I ne'er behold Shane's Castle bold

# Or look on Massereene

# Shall my cot ne'er land on the Banks of Bann

# Coney Island or Rosskeen

# Shall an autumn gale ne'er fill my sail?

# Or the dim declining moon

# See the tempest toss on the shores of Doss

# Or the raging bay of Toome

# Although alas long years have passed

# Still I toast that beauteous Isle

# That soon e'er long in this land of song

# The star of freedom smile

# May plenty bloom from the Bann to Toome

# And the shamrock verdant grow

# Green o'er those graves by Lough Neagh's waves

# And the cross of old Ardboe. #

Just a...a load of quays.

And there would be three men in each boat and there'd be a family connected to them.

So there'd be women out gathering worms,

the old fellows would be running the lines - they'd the skill for it.

And they'd be up there perched under a boat.

Just in this quay, there were five boats.

So you're talking about 20-30 people

who are intimately connected with this place and with fishing.

So it was a big, big industry. And it's...

A lot of young fellas prefer to work as electricians and builders.

They go to Dundalk and make really good money.

It'll be interesting to see what happens now that the recession has hit so hard.

It's possible that there might be a move back to the lough shore.

I suppose you can take the Tyrone man out of Ardboe,

but you can't etc, etc.

It's...it's...it's very important.

You know, I have a huge problem at home, which is that my kids are Dubs,

you know, so there's terrible, terrible internecine strife when Tyrone plays Dublin.

I think of myself as absolutely based here, you know,

and I've always been happiest when I come home to Ardboe.

And in many ways, I envy the boys that I grew up with, who live here...

We sang a lot at home, and Davy Hammond was a friend of the family.

Davy used to come down. Our second single, the difficult second single,

with the Horslips was actually a song that Davy gave us, Green Gravel.

But, you know, I would always have been hugely interested

in the likes of Geordie Hannah.

There are a lot of good players in Ardboe, as well.

The Ryans - there'd be a great tradition of fiddle-playing and that.

Um, so, you know...you couldn't... you couldn't miss it.

It just comes with you. It's kind of genetic.

The local people here got word in the summer of 1940 that they were going to have to be moved from their homes,

35 families, to make way for an airfield.

And by December 1940, all 35 families had been moved out.

And they started creating this military airfield.

And was there much resistance to that at the time?

There wasn't any resistance as such, because the people knew...

It was wartime, and it was more or less a Government edict.

People went without any struggle, but they did get compensated

for the loss of their land and their homes and so on.

And this was primarily an American base, was it?

Initially, the RAF was on it,

setting-up phase, but the Americans took over to train bombing crews

for the bombers, which were bombing Germany over Europe at that time.

I heard a lot of people talking about seeing the bombers coming in.

Usually they flew out in the morning. Some local people thought they were

going to Germany to bomb, but they weren't, they were training.

When they went out, they flew maybe five, six hours, came back.

Maybe they flew over to England, landed, stayed a few hours

and came back late in the evenings, sometimes at night.

And it made a great impact on the local people,

seeing those massive bombers, B17s and B24s coming in

over the countryside and landing here every evening.

I'm noticing here the old control tower, and you can see out the flat land ahead of us here.

It's a massive area. It must have been a massive operation at the time.

The actual construction of it took two and a half years, I think.

And there were hundreds of people employed, mostly labourers,

from around Tyrone, Northern Ireland, even the South of Ireland,

the West of Ireland. A lot of people came here to work.

And how did it impact on the community here?

It was very good economically.

For anybody that was able to work,

it was a great opportunity of getting work after the 1930s,

when there was very little money anywhere.

And then after the war, when the Americans left, they left in what, 1944?

The Americans left here in about September 1944, yes.

And was it abandoned then?

No, it was officially closed down at the end of the Second World War,

late 1945.

It was opened again in 1952 to train fighter pilots for the RAF.

You've worked for years as a community leader here, if you like.

-Yeah.

-What would YOU like to see happen here now for the future?

In 1959, the land was sold back

to the original owners - most of them took up that offer.

But unfortunately, the roadways were not reinstated, the original roads.

So although we're left with three pristine runways at that time, and a three-mile perimeter road,

it didn't really link the two parts of the community together, and that is still missing today.

# One night as I lay slumbering

# In my silent bed alone

# Some reckless thoughts came to head

# And caused me for to roam

# For to leave my native country

# And the wee girl I adore

# So I thought it fit for to take a trip

# Strange lands for to explore

# Now the night before I went away

# I was walking up Brocagh Hill

# When I met my darling upon the road

# And her eyes with tears did fill

# Stay you at home, dear John she said

# And do not go away

# For I'll have none to come court me

# When you are on the sea

# Now Brocagh Brae's a nice wee place

# Where nice wee girls live in

# You'd swear they were the nightingales

# When they sit down to sing

# Where salmon trout

# All sport about

# Round Lough Neagh's verdant shore

# So let them all say as they will

# You are mine for ever more. #

-Peter.

-Good to see you again.

-Peter, how are you?

-Had you a good run down?

Grand run down, great.

-Bit tired.

-But you're here at last.

-Peter, you're the only resident on this island.

-I'm the only resident on Lough Neagh!

Does being the only resident require any special qualities?

Oh, it does. You have to have a special mindset, to begin with.

During the summer, you'll have an average of 5,500 visitors here.

But then come October to March, no-one.

So you've got to be prepared for both extremes, you know.

And how do you put your day in during the winter?

Oh, I have plenty work to do during the day. As I say, I have my work,

and at night, classical music and a good book. Keep your mind occupied,

that's how you combat loneliness.

The work that you mention - what work do you do?

Well, this time of year, the summertime, you'd be cutting grass

and generally meeting and greeting people. But cutting the grass

and keeping the place tidy, keeping the paths clear and that.

But in the winter, you can do the groundwork, you can really get into doing drainage

and digging holes that need to be... or filling UP holes sometimes.

But generally protecting the island, cos storm damage can be pretty severe.

And we had a wind blew through here recently,

which took down quite a large tree there and another one just behind me.

So that all has to be attended to.

So that's my job now, to get the saw out and get stuck into that.

One thing that would strike you about this island

and around the lough is the history, it must just be steeped in it.

The history is tremendous. The earliest civilisations here

would have been about 8000 BC. The Mesolith period.

And through all the periods of history, Coney Island has seen occupation.

And of course, with each period of occupation, they've left their mark behind them.

One of the most tangible bits of evidence of the early civilisations

is the round tower here, built by the Normans

at the end of the 12th century, beginning of the 13th century.

A really stunning monument.

This was as far west as they came, so they brought all their treasures with them to Coney Island.

They dug a well and put the treasures in it to protect them.

But history doesn't tell us what happened to the Normans,

so we can only assume they intermingled with the local peoples, married and dispersed.

What they did, they forgot about those treasures.

And when the O'Neills were here, things were getting out of hand

between the O'Connors and them in...1564.

Lord Henry Sydney was sent here to control the O'Neills, who were stationed here.

And he discovered the goods in the well.

Fished them out, took them back to England, became the wealthiest man in the British Isles, bought his way

into the ministry and became the equivalent of Prime Minister. Lord Deputy Sherriff or somesuch.

An extract from a letter he wrote to a friend - "I have so much gold plate on my sideboard, I fear I shall have

"to engage a carpenter to construct me a new one."

But he was a miserable old goat, and the place was falling down around him when he died.

That's the Lord Sydney who tried to name Lough Neagh Lough Sydney.

Correct. Coney Island was known as Sydney's Island and Lough Neagh

as Sydney's Lough. Among Anglos, not locals.

Did he leave any treasure behind? Is any still here?

Well, there's a tree has grown

over the well, and the tree is a beech tree - it's 118 years old.

The lifespan of a beech is about 125 years.

I retire in about nine years' time.

That tree comes down, you'll not see me for dust. I'll be in there digging.

He must have left a wee trinket there for me for my retirement.

But I wouldn't think so, I would say he probably got it all.

And would you trust us to spend a night on your island?

Well, I am doing. LAUGHTER

-We'll not get up in the middle of the night. We'll not go near your tree.

-You're very welcome indeed.

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