AS DOMINICK Noone travelled from Enniskillen to Boho on a Summer's day back in 1826, little did he know what awaited him.

Promised the hand of a lady of his choice, instead Noone met a cruel fate as a traitor and informer ...

Today, the hills above Boho, which are covered in gorse and heather, are a wild and beautiful place. Located amongst one of the clump of trees which sprout up from these hills is 'Noone's Hole'.

Previously known as 'Sumera' in the Barr of Boho, it is where Dominic Noone met his gruesome end on July 23, 1826.

Noone was a Leitrim man by birth who came to live in Derrygonnelly. He became a popular young man in the district, especially with the ladies.

His fair hair, good looks and his neat dress sense made him a recognisable figure, and he was also an excellent dancer.

After some time in Derrygonnelly, Noone was asked to join the Ribbonmen – an illegal organisation set up to protect peasants and farmers, keep down rents and stave off evictions.

At this time, Noone was courting a young lady by the name of Ann Jones, who is believed to have jilted Noone.

Out for revenge, he turned informer on the Ribbonmen in the district, including Ann's brothers.

Police soon started arresting locals and, for a time, nobody knew why – until it was discovered that Noone was the informer.

This was not before a young man by the name of John Maguire was sentenced to transportation for life in March, 1826, after the informer swore that Maguire had asked him to become a Ribbonman.

To keep Noone safe, he was placed in Enniskillen gaol, but he was allowed to move about freely.

However, the people of Derrygonnelly were furious with what had happened, and were determined to get their revenge.

There are different versions of what happened next but one is that Noone was smuggled out of the gaol disguised as a woman, persuaded that he was going to marry a young lady of his choice.

However, on July 23, he was brought to a desolate field overlooking the deep cave that would later bear his name.

Nobody really knows how Noone met his death. Some say his tongue was ripped out in case he might get free and inform on his captors.

Others say he was badly beaten, and then thrown down the 200ft-deep hole.

However, his body landed on a ledge, and his captors were not happy with this, so they sent a man down to throw his body even further down so it could never be detected.

Noone was soon reported missing, with a strong suspicion that he was thrown down the cave, but none of the locals would go down and retrieve the body.

A reward was offered for whomever would retrieve the body, and a man called Cavanagh from Castlecoole accepted it.

The night before the planned recovery, locals threw down huge rocks to try and cover the body. Yet the next day, after descending 190 feet, Cavanagh saw the body of Noone, tied it to himself, and was hoisted back up again.

The recovered body, when examined, was reported to be missing the lower jaw, and there appeared to be no brain.

When it came to the burial of Noone, the people of Boho would not let him be buried in their graveyard, regarding him as a traitor, so he was instead taken to Monea.

Ann Jones went on the run, hiding in the mountains as a search for her got under way. It is said that on one occasion she had to hide under water with only her mouth above the surface before she escaped to Enniskillen, disguised as a man, then making her way to America.

Of the culprits, no one was ever prosecuted, and there was a wall of silence around Noone's death.

However, many of the locals were brought to court for being members of the Ribbonmen.

A substantial £100 reward for bringing the murderers to justice was never collected, and for a long time afterwards, whenever the people of Derrygonnelly travelled to Leitrim for fairs, they were eyed with distrust by the locals, who had heard what had happened to their fellow Leitrim man.

Today, the cave remains a lonely, desolate spot high in the hills, hidden among trees, where visiting hikers and wanderers may be struck by the rugged, natural beauty of the isolated spot, but unaware of its once violent past that left its mark for ever more with the name, Noone's Hole.