The area's unusual border was ascribed in the 1920s to "some long forgotten feud between petty kings". Drummully ED lies in the province of
Ulster near the
tripoint of three
counties, Monaghan, Fermanagh, and
Cavan, which were created in the 1580s from three
medieval Gaelic lordships: respectively
Airgíalla (
McMahon's country),
Fear Manach (
Maguire's country) and
East Breifne (
O'Reilly's country). These lordships had been divided into , subdivided into ("
ballybetaghs") and "tates". In the 15th century the Mac Domhnaill (MacDonnells or MacDonalds) were former rulers of the of , allied to the McMahons of the of
Dartraighe to the southeast, and pressed by Maguire expansion from the northwest. The Mac Domhnaill were gradually concentrated in the ballybetagh of Ballyconinsi, "Hound Island" is the origin of
[the] Connons and
Ballyconinsi ( + ); according to
Nollaig Ó Muraíle, it is unclear precisely where the island is or was;
John O'Donovan said in 1848 that it was a townland "now divided into several sub-denominations". Most of the 16 townlands now in the Drummully ED can be identified among the 16 tates listed in the ballybetagh of Ballyconinsi in records of 1591, 1606, and 1610. The
Tudor conquest of Ireland proceeded by
surrender and regrant, whereby a Gaelic lord would surrender sovereignty to the English monarch as
monarch of Ireland, and be regranted
title to the land under
common law. The 1580s shiring of Ulster proceeded on that basis, with McMahon's country becoming County Monaghan, within which
Dartraighe became the
barony of
Dartree; likewise
Clann Ceallaigh became
Clankelly barony in County Fermanagh. Ballyconinsi was shired with the McMahons rather than their enemies, the Maguires. Most of the Gaelic proprietors in these counties forfeited their lands after the
Nine Years' War or the
Rebellion of 1641. Until 1836, a change to the 1580s boundaries would have required an
Act of the
Irish Parliament (to 1800) or the
UK Parliament (1801–1922). While the
Valuation of Lands (Ireland) Act 1836 facilitated transfer of exclaves (as of Gubdoo from Dartree to
Coole, County Fermanagh in 1842) it did not apply to pene-exclaves.
Electoral divisions were introduced with the
Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838 as
electoral areas for the
boards of guardians of the new
Poor Law Unions (PLUs); Drummully ED was within Clones PLU and initially included most of the parish of Drummully, but in 1877 it was redrawn with its current boundaries. Drummully ED was last used as an electoral area in the
1914 local election. The
Local Government (Ireland) Act 1919 mandated the
single transferable vote, which needed multi-seat
local electoral areas (LEAs) formed by combining single-seat EDs. Since then, EDs have no independent uses but remain legally defined areas used as references for specifying the makeup of larger units, or the location of smaller ones. The
Government of Ireland Act 1920 attempted to answer the "
Irish question" within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, by grouping the counties into separate
home rule jurisdictions of
Northern Ireland and
Southern Ireland, with Fermanagh in the former and Monaghan in the latter. This only took practical effect in Northern Ireland, as it was enacted during the
Irish War of Independence. Following the 1921
Anglo-Irish Treaty, Southern Ireland was succeeded by a
dominion called the
Irish Free State with a provisional border with Northern Ireland subject to change by an
Irish Boundary Commission. Protestant unionists owned most of the land in Drummully but were a minority of the population. 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, 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. 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. The commission's 1925 report proposed straightening the border by transferring Drummully ED's northernmost 14% (; population 51) to Northern Ireland, and (population 3,808) of adjoining Clonkeelan and Derrysteaton EDs from Fermanagh to the Free State. The Clones–Butlersbridge road, the
Ulster Canal, and
the railway line between
Clones and
Redhills would each have been entirely south of the border instead of crossing it four times (the canal forming the border for several hundred yards). However, the report as a whole proved so controversial that publication was suppressed and it was never implemented. Drummully was, and is, inaccessible by road from the rest of County Monaghan except through
County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. It was not policed until May 1924, when the
Garda Síochána were allowed to pass through County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, by which time
poteen making was rife. The Church of Ireland parish of Drummully had its
rectory in County Fermanagh and its church in County Monaghan; for some years after partition, marriages solemnised there were not
registered with the Dublin authorities. The border runs down the middle of a minor road in the north of Drummully. The Irish 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". using the
Irish Air Corps helicopter based at
Monaghan town. Local TD
Jimmy Leonard complained in 1974 of concomitant lawlessness, while in 1980 there were fears that the Air Corps helicopter might be shot down by republicans mistaking it for an
RAF aircraft. These blockages were removed by the 1990s
peace process. Since then, the post-1992
European Single Market and the post-1952
Common Travel Area between Ireland and the UK have made the border "invisible". Nevertheless, when
2010 budget cuts deprived Clones Garda station of its
unmarked car, officers could no longer drive to Drummully. In 1998–9, Drummully Church of Ireland church was subject to three vandalism attacks, ascribed by some locals to sectarianism. The prospect of
Brexit has
uncertain impact on the border; an "
Irish backstop" to preserve an invisible border was included in the November 2018
Brexit withdrawal agreement which
the UK parliament rejected in 2019; the
October 2019 agreement includes a similar arrangement, subject to ratification by Westminster, subsequent EU–UK implementation agreements, and possible future termination by
cross-community vote of the
Northern Ireland Assembly. International coverage of Brexit has often mentioned Drummully as a place especially sensitive to these issues. ==Statistics==