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Cleenish Island is in County Fermanagh. Twelve homes were built here in 1920 for soldiers who had returned from the war. They sit in a tranquil setting, on large plots of up to 40 acres.

The sturdy, double-storey houses have largely survived the ravages of time - but 11 of them lie empty. The twelfth was the home of Johnny Balfour. Johnny was from Fermanagh and found himself without a job after the war. Once he moved to Cleenish, Johnny married and started to farm cattle and pigs. His son Sammy lives there to this day.

The housing scheme on Cleenish was one of many on the island of Ireland. The estates were built under the Irish Land (Provision for Sailors and Soldiers) Act of 1919 to cater for some 80,000 returning soldiers.

The scheme was more politically complex than the 'Homes for Heroes' project in Britain. There was no conscription in Ireland, so the government had used incentives such as land and housing in return for enlistment.

There were also fears that returning ex-servicemen would be discriminated against in the allocation of public housing by Sinn Fein-controlled councils. As a result, the scheme was run by Dublin Castle rather than the local authorities.

Most homes were initially built in rural areas, but during the 1920s they were increasingly located in urban and suburban areas. Approximately 4,000 cottages were built, roughly one-quarter of them in what became Northern Ireland.

The standard design was for a four-roomed house. In rural areas there were no bathrooms due to the lack of adequate water supplies and drainage.

During the 1930s there were a number of complaints from tenants about the comparatively high level of rent charged.

Marion Maxwell from the Bellanaleck Local History Group has been researching the story of the soldiers’ homes.

Location: Cleenish Island, County Fermanagh, BT92 2EZ
Image of one the soldiers' homes on Cleenish Island

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