The Senator George Mitchell Peace Bridge (informally called the Peace Bridge or Aghalane Bridge) is a road bridge across the

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

. It carries the A509 / N3 road between

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 14,086 at the 2011 censu ...

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

and

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...

. The bridge spans the Woodford River ( Irish: ''Sruth Gráinne'', meaning 'the Gravelly Stream' or 'the Gravelly River', sometimes anglicised as the River Gráinne or the Graine River).

Old bridge

The bridge replaces an earlier structure to the east, known as Aghalane Bridge, carrying an 'approved road' over the border with formal custom patrols. Aghalane Bridge was named after Aghalane ( Irish: ''Achadh Leathan'', meaning 'Broad Field'), a

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

on the

side. This older bridge, which also spanned the Woodford River, was destroyed on 21 November 1972 by Ulster Loyalists during

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

. No paramilitary group has ever claimed responsibility for the bombing. It was quickly replaced by a temporary bridge, but following the detonation of a bomb in the nearby market town of Belturbet the following month, the British Government decided to leave the bridge in a state of disrepair and demolish the temporary structure. The lack of a crossing cut off access to farmland in southern

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh (), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of alleged Laigin or ...

from Belturbet. Local traffic had to undertake a detour, severing communities and leading to economic decline in the area, with many businesses in Belturbet closing.

New bridge

The current bridge opened in April 1999. It is long, with in

and the remainder in

, and was named after the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, George J. Mitchell, who acted as chairman in the Irish peace process talks that led to the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

the previous year. Of the proposed £1,930,720 cost, £1,061,250 was pledged to be funded by the EU Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. There is a statue near the bridge on the County Cavan side commemorating the peace process, with the inscription "Peace For All".

References

{{Coord, 54.12237, -7.48164, format=dms, type:landmark, display=title Road bridges Bridges completed in the 20th century International bridges The Troubles in County Fermanagh Bridges in Northern Ireland Bridges in the Republic of Ireland Road bridges in Europe Buildings and structures in County Cavan Buildings and structures in County Fermanagh 20th-century architecture in the Republic of Ireland Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border crossings

Old bridge

New bridge

See also

References