Road, or 'the back road' as the locals call it. During its time it was home to the Blennerhasset and Maguire families in the seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century. The Troubles On 2 December 1984, 28-year old Alistair Slater, a member of 22 SAS of the British Army, and 27-year-old Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer, were both shot dead during an IRA ambush and a gun battle between an undercover 22 SAS British Army units and an IRA active service unit near Kesh. 26-year old Kieran Fleming, an IRA volunteer, drowned in the Bannagh River, near Kesh, as he tried to escape from the gun battle. The IRA men had been attempting to bomb a Royal Ulster Constabulary police car in Kesh. Slater was posthumously awarded the Military Medal for his bravery in the action. Slater's Directory 1870 This information from Slater's Directory of 1870 tells of the economic activity about Kesh at that time. Local attractions The Lough Erne Hotel, originally a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, later a tapestry house, and now the only hotel in Kesh by the Glendurragh River at the top of the main street. Still has the old gaol doors intact from the 1800s. Belleek Pottery, world famous producer of Parian china. The Boa Island carved stones, graveyard and enclosure are Scheduled Historic Monuments sited in the townland of Dreenan 5 miles from Kesh Castle Archdale Estate and marina, a large amenity that includes gardens, walks, water sports and other facilities; the complex also has a large caravan and camping park Drumrush Lodge, a restaurant and caravan park that also has a private marina that offers a full range of water sports Lough Erne is nearby and linked with Kesh by a navigable river terminating at the marina in the middle of the village beside the Lough erne Hotel The Manor House Hotel, away in Killadeas, provides golf and water sports facilities as well as a private leisure club and swimming pool Muckross, an inland lakeside 'beach' which used to be popular with families is now taken over almost exclusively by jet-skiers. It is south of Kesh, about from the village on the shore of Lough Erne North Fermanagh Club, a football (during winter) and cricket (during summer) venue on the Crevenish Road Kesh Primary School The date the school was established is unknown but the Clogher Records record a school