When your family has been living on the shores of Lough Erne for approximately 300 years, it is only natural that they would become involved in such things as boat building and commercial fishing.

And so it is for the Cathcart family, who have been associated with the lough and its islands for generations.

From Staff Island to Innishcreagh, from Killygoan to West Island, the Cathcarts’ experiences of Lough Erne are colourful, not least that of 95-year-old Eric Cathcart, who resides on West Island with his son, Andrew, and granddaughter, Eden.

The first Cathcart lived on Staff Island and then Eric’s grandfather Allan was born on Killygoan.

By the time Eric’s father, William Robert, was born, the family were living on Innishcreagh; however, when Eric came along, they had moved to West Island.

In a history provided by Eric’s daughter, Helen Wilson, there were pleasant memories of living on the lough.

“One of the earliest was in about 1945, when during the war, huge parts of the plantations were cut down for the war effort and people like the Cathcarts and Healys were able to make some money towing the trees to Enniskillen.

“The trees were formed into rafts and pulled down to Enniskillen. Timber became very scarce after the war. Food was also very scarce during the war, and Eric remembers swans even being sent to feed the prisoner-of-war camp.”

Part of Eric’s work, along with his brothers, Jack and Alfie, was being sent out to cut down an oak or larch tree (with permission from Mr. Porter) in order to build a boat.

The tree trunks were then towed to Enniskillen where they would be loaded onto a horse and cart and transported to the sawmills.

After being planked to various sizes, the planks were placed on a rowboat and the Cathcarts would then row back upstream – not using engines then – to the West Island, where the boat building was carried out.

Various hand tools were used in the shipwright’s toolbox, such as hand drills, dollys, saws, pinchers, ball pein hammers, spoke shaves, clamps, rulers, planes, levels and rivet sets.

“One snippet Eric talks of was that to drive the rove onto the copper nail, he used a section of the barrel of an air rifle to set the rove – that is improvisation!

“They had to go to Enniskillen to get their nails and tools, to either Dickies or Richardson & Clingon. The boats were always painted in a slate grey colour,” said Helen.

The fishing industry also played a large part in Eric’s life, with fish such as eels, bream, or pike, which they caught by long-lining or netting.

“These were then transported by train from Lisnaskea and ended up in Billingsgate Market. The eel season was from June 1 to the end of August, and the eels would have been kept in water cages until they had enough to send to market. The eels were packed in ice and kept alive.”

Eric recalls a Dutch man who came to live in Enniskillen, taking over the buying of the eels from the locals, coming around every week to collect them.

The rest of the year was spent coarse fishing and when that wasn’t available, the farming was done, putting in potatoes, making hay, and fixing the nets and, of course, building boats.

Helen continued: “Another memory Eric has is of the local Orange Lodge meeting in the dining room of the house he now lives in, and as a child he remembers walking over on the July 12 morning to see them come parading down the lane, and marching on foot to Enniskillen or Lisnaskea, wherever the local parade was then.”

Boat building was another keen interest for the Cathcarts, with Eric experienced in the building of the traditional Lough Erne Cots.

Cot racing played a huge part in the lives of the people of Lough Erne, with hundred of spectators turning up to watch them.

“Prior to building the Clinker Boats, the Cathcarts built the traditional Lough Erne Cots, and this tradition continues today with Eric’s son, Andrew, building a 22-foot cot – the same style as the cots that were traditionally built by his forefathers.

“When the cot [that is currently being restored] is built, the Cathcarts will race this cot and, like [the boats of] his ancestors, [it] will return to the West Island victorious,” added Helen.

Newspaper reports from back in the day included Cathcarts such as Eric’s father, Allan, winning races on the water.

The memories and experiences live on with Eric as can be seen in a poem (right) he has written reminiscing about his childhood.

And while the Cathcart family have plenty of history with Lough Erne, with the likes of Andrew and Eden living on West Island, there will continue to be a connection to the water for generations to come.

THE OLD PLACE

by Eric Cathcart

Two-wheel tracks with grass between.

Brings me back where I have been.

Here’s the briar covered wall,

The blackened chimney soon to fall.

The barn roof like a torn sail,

Resounds no more to father’s flail.

And no poultry, big or small,

Will ever come to mother’s call.

There was the shed for the turf and the logs,

And shelter for the water spaniel dogs.

Then the stable where Major fed,

And listened for my father’s tread.

Next was the byre for milk cows – four

And twenty swallows, maybe more.

Here was the low roofed pigs crow,

Where mushrooms once refused to grow.

This gap leads down to the shore,

And over there is Innishmore.

Here I played with brothers – five,

Why am I the only one still alive?

Two-wheel tracks with the grass between,

I shall return no more where I have been.