Bellanaleck

Bellanaleck Irish: Bealach na Leice
Cleenish Church of Ireland, Bellanaleck
Bellanaleck Location within Northern Ireland
Population	532 (2011 Census)
District	Fermanagh and Omagh
County	County Fermanagh
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ENNISKILLEN
Postcode district	BT92
Dialling code	028
UK Parliament	Fermanagh and South Tyrone
NI Assembly	Fermanagh and South Tyrone
List of places UK Northern Ireland Fermanagh 54°17′42″N7°38′27″W / 54.2949°N 7.6407°W / 54.2949; -7.6407

Bellanaleck (from Irish Bealach na Leice, meaning 'pass of the flagstone' ^[1] ) is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It lies just south of Enniskillen on the main A509 (N3) road towards Cavan and Dublin. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 532. ^[2] It is situated within Fermanagh and Omagh district.

Transport

Bellanaleck is a stop on the Donegal-Enniskillen-Cavan-Dublin Airport-Dublin Bus Éireann Expressway route 30. There is a coach in each direction every two hours during the day as well as an overnight journey. ^[3] Services operate daily including Sundays. Ulsterbus route 58 from Enniskillen to Belturbet via Kinawley also serves Bellanaleck several times a day, Mondays to Saturdays. ^[4]

Demography

On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 532 people living in Bellanaleck, ^[2] of whom

• 58.46% belong to or were brought up in the Catholic religion and 33.83% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' religion;
• 32.52% indicated that they had a British national identity, 40.60% had an Irish national identity and 28.95% had a Northern Irish national identity*. (* Respondents could indicate more than one national identity)
• 11.53% had some knowledge of Irish;
• 2.52% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots; and
• 3.14% did not have English as their first language.

People

• Cathal McConnell, traditional flute player and singer, is from Bellanaleck. He is also a founding member of the famed international group The Boys of the Lough.
• Father Brian D'Arcy, Passionist priest and newspaper columnist, grew up in Bellanaleck.
• Mickey MacConnell, musician and writer of the song Only Our Rivers Run Free

References

1. Flanagan, Deirdre & Laurence; Irish Place Names, page 182. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ISBN   0-7171-3396-6
2. "Census 2011 Population Statistics for Bellanaleck Settlement". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Retrieved 25 April 2023. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.
3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 September 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
4. "Translink".