Drummully

Drummully or Drumully (Irish: Droim Ailí;[1] "rocky ridge"[2]) is an electoral division (ED) in the west of County Monaghan in Ireland.

Known as the Sixteen Townlands[3][4] to locals and as Coleman's Island[5] or the Clonoony salient[6] to the security forces, it is a pene-enclave almost completely surrounded by County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.

Since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 (following the partition of Ireland in 1921), the Fermanagh–Monaghan border has formed part of the international border between the United Kingdom and what is now the Republic of Ireland, leaving Drummully as a practical enclave, connected to the rest of the republic only by an unbridged 110-metre (360 ft) length of the Finn River.

[12] In 1640, most of Ballyconinsi was owned by "Jacob Leirrey, Esq[uire], Eng[lish] Protestant", with small tracts retaining Gaelic owners.

While the Valuation of Lands (Ireland) Act 1836 facilitated transfer of exclaves (as of Gubdoo from Dartree to Coole, County Fermanagh in 1842[21]) it did not apply to pene-exclaves.

[25] Since then, EDs have no independent uses but remain legally defined areas used as references for specifying the makeup of larger units,[26] or the location of smaller ones.

[28] Submissions to the boundary commission from unionists (including Fermanagh County Council and the Church of Ireland parish of Drummully) proposed to resolve the inconvenience of the locality's sinuous border by transferring Drummully ED to Northern Ireland,[29] while those from nationalists (including Clones urban district council and the Free State government) proposed transferring all, or at least adjoining parts, of Fermanagh to the Free State.

[30] Nationalist and unionist locals both submitted that they would rather the area were entirely on the "wrong" side of the border than preserve the status quo.

[37] The Dublin government gave the British military permission, renewed annually, to overfly the area "to facilitate the transport of men and materials, the evacuation of casualties and, in particular, the shadowing of suspect vehicles".

[39] Local TD Jimmy Leonard complained in 1974 of concomitant lawlessness,[40] while in 1980 there were fears that the Air Corps helicopter might be shot down by republicans mistaking it for an RAF aircraft.

Nevertheless, when 2010 budget cuts deprived Clones Garda station of its unmarked car, officers could no longer drive to Drummully.