Belturbet Inside

Belturbet's location is at one of the best places for crossing the River Erne. When the Anglo-Normans tried to conquer Cavan in the early 13th century, Walter de Lacy built a motte-and-bailey on Turbet Island. The fort was probably made of wood and it hasn't survived, though the steep mound of earth where it was built is still to be seen. In the late 16th century the local O'Reilly chieftains built a castle opposite Turbot Island. This has not survived either. `

As part of the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century the lands around Belturbet were granted to the English "undertaker" Stephen Butler. He soon established a thriving urban centre, whose prosperity relied heavily on its position on the River Erne. In October 1641 the town was seized by the Irish as part of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Belturbet was the site of one of the massacres of planters, in which over two dozen were thrown from the town's bridge and drowned. In March 1653 Belturbet, under Viscount Magennis of Iveagh, was the last town in Ireland to fall to Cromwell; the final Irish stronghold at nearby Cloughoughter held out a further month.[7]

Belturbet also acquired an English garrison in the late 17th century. Many of the original fortifications are in good repair. The town retains much of its original lay-out. The main street leads to the square or 'diamond' where all of the town's important buildings are situated. The parish church dominates the sky-line; some of it dates from the early 17th century, and it was one of the first Anglican churches built in Ireland, reputedly using materials from Drumlane Abbey. In the 1650s the proto-Quaker leader, William Edmundson was detained at Belturbet and put in the stocks.[8] The parish church was damaged by lightning in the 1720s.

The town was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons from 1611 to 1800. Between 1725 and 1793 Catholics and those married to Catholics could not vote.