Retirement for some is a welcome respite from year of toil and grind. A rest for the weary body.

For Kenny Boylan, while he was ready to retire, you still feel even after 47 years working for NIE he would be fit for plenty more.

The well known 63 year old started life in retirement on the first day of 2021 and looking back at over four decades with NIE he says he loved every minute of it.

But Kenny recalls how it was a lucky break which got him into the company in the first place.

At the age of 16, Kenny went for an interview with NIE, despite you needing to be 18 years old to get a job.

"Whenever I sat down this big, baldy headed man in the middle says young Boylan do you know who I am?" Kenny remembers.

"I says I think you're Mr. Robinson. He was a man called Ernie Robinson and he was the manager for the whole of the west of district at that time.

"He says I knew your mother and father well and he says cub I remember you when you were running about in nappies. I was all embarrassed, I nearly died."

Kenny grew up in the aluminium houses on Windmill Road, and this Ernie Robinson lived a few doors down from his family.

After a few more questions about his head for heights and pay, that was it and Kenny was in the door.

He started working as a linesman and learned how to climb poles before progressing to technician and then engineer, finally finishing up as Project Engineer for NIE on the Public Realm Scheme.

"On December 19, [2020] I was 27 years without a day off. I've been really lucky health wise and I had a great working relationship with everybody in NIE, it was a fantastic firm to work for.

"I'm a lover of Enniskillen and Fermanagh and it was just brilliant to finish off with that big job through Enniskillen talking to all the people that I would have known."

As well as being a lover of Enniskillen, Kenny could not get enough of working during any storms that hit Fermanagh.

"See callouts and storms, I used to love that. I never missed a call.

"Trees over the lines out in the middle of the night, 2am or 10pm, it wouldn’t have mattered. Saturday, Sunday I would have worked round the clock."

He recalls the worst one that he remembers to have hit the county during his career on Boxing Day, 1998.

"The winds started and lasted for about 12 hours. 100mph winds and it devastated the place. I think we had 170 broken poles in Fermanagh. We got finished up around 10pm on New Year's Eve.

"It was horrendous, the biggest storm in my time. A complete hurricane."

Kenny was also involved in some major infrastructure developments such as the a the large 33Kv lines that were built the whole way from Enniskillen to Teemore to help power Sean Quinn's cement factory in the 80s.

With plenty of time now on his hands, Kenny hopes to get houses built for his three children.

A well known and successful cyclist he also cannot wait for the return of the cycling season.

Locally he is the Over-60 Hill Climb champion for the last three years and he is planning on retaining that title while he is also just looking forward to getting out with the Lakeland Cycling Club.

But he will look back on his career with NIE with pride and fondness summing it up saying: "I'll be honest they were really good to me. They really reward people who work hard. An absolutely brilliant company to work for.

"Its been amazing time working with them."