As Stormont got underway, two hours away, right on the frontier with Donegal in the Country and Western town of Belleek, some locals were watching some history flowing as freely as the Erne waters in the iconic Fiddlestone Bar on the Main Street.

But the interest was minimal, which showed how disconnected the general public are from big-time politics in this Border town.

However, the two men who spoke to us echoed the strong belief that the politicians who were not working should not have been paid.

But this was a new dawn and time to get back to work. This is the edge of the Western world – and you could not be any further away from the centre of power in that big building on a Belfast hill.

Belleek is also my bailiwick – a verdant village where they are more worried about if the Erne Gaels GAA footballers can win a county championship after losing to Enniskillen Gaels and Derrygonnelly Harps for the past few years in a row, than about Stormont.

It is also strong 'Shinner’ country, so the prospect of Michelle O’Neill becoming First Minister is a source of pride for some.

But for a few others, she will be administering British rule in Northern Ireland, as Baroness Arlene Foster pointed out in her column in The Impartial Reporter last week.

Most of the punters did not want to talk or have their pictures taken in a bar that is named after a local fiddler called Denis McCabe, who was entertaining the gentry on a boat in Lough Erne in 1770.

All parties had drink taken, and McCabe fell out of the boat and was drowned.

Fiddlestone owner Cormac McCusker told The Impartial Reporter that the return of the Assembly was a good development.

“It’s about time and it's long overdue. And it should have been done years ago – we have already wasted two whole years.

“Let them go ahead now and work together and put everything behind them.”

He added that the politicians should not have got a penny when the Assembly folded two years ago.

“Look at the likes of nurses, who are struggling on low pay for years.

“They are much more entitled to that money than politicians who do not turn up for work and sat at home doing nothing.

“In any other job you would get the sack. They should not have been getting a penny.”

When asked what the return of the Assembly would mean to the Fiddlestone and Belleek, Mr. McCusker said: “It will bring stability, and we depend a lot on tourism around here.

“It is bound to help tourism, and cross-Border trade dropped when Stormont was not functioning.

“Things will pick up, and fair play to Michelle O’Neill, of Sinn Féin, who has a big task in front of her. She can only do her best and it is good to see it.”

Meanwhile, customer Joe Lannon said it was “great to see Stormont up and running”.

He continued: “The hard-liners should stay out of it, and let’s get the money to pay all these workers up to date.

“That is very important, and [as for] the politicians who walked out of their jobs – we don’t get paid if we walk out of ours, so why should they get paid?”

When asked for his views on Michelle O’Neill becoming First Minister, he said: “It would not matter to me who was First Minister, as long as the government is up and running, and they just get on with it.

“We have a crisis in the South West Acute Hospital, and hopefully that can be addressed now.

“We have a great NHS service, and it belongs to the public. We own it; keep it up and running, and that is it.”

When the commentators and politicians came on the television in their shiny suits to announce a historic day at ‘the house on the hill’, there was silence in the old bar as customers looked up at their rulers.

Watching them, you felt as if events in Belfast were on a different planet.

And the silence was mainly a silence of indifference in this remote part of Northern Ireland, where many people are still wondering if Erne Gaels will take that long-awaited county title for the pride of this verdant village on the far edge of the province.