The Sheelees, or Stream of the Fairies (Fermanagh) has long been a scourge and a puzzle to the people living about it.

Deep and dark in its waters, mystic in its moods, and, according to local tradition, a curse hanging over it: ‘Bad shall ye (Sheelees) be for fish and for fishing, good for drowning and always unlucky to meddle with.’

In its serpentine course of some 15 or 16 miles the Sheelees separates the mountains of Bo from Magherbwee, or the Golden Plain.

Sometimes in autumn and winter the river overflows its banks and spreads out for miles across the surrounding valleys, doing much damage.

In summer it looks like a great grey serpent basking in the sun, its mouth by the Abbey of Liscoole, and its tail spreading out and terminating in the little lake of Bunahone, near the village of Derrygonnelly.

It is a deep and dangerous river, dropping suddenly from its edgy margin to a depth of 15 or perhaps 20 feet, and is scarcely ever resorted to by bathers.

Although lying in the same valley as Lough Erne, the Sheelees runs in the opposite direction. The Erne flows from south-west to west, the Sheelees from west to east.

Tradition ascribes its peculiar uphill course to St. Faber, who in fleeing from her enemies, lost her book in the river. She raised her staff, causing the waters to be turned back and thus regain her lost treasure MSS. Then, as the tradition goes, the Sheelees rushed back to Liscoole Abbey, where it was met by the monks and turned into Lough Erne.

Various attempts have been made by the Fermanagh landowners to have the Sheelees drained but without success.

Even the late Mr. J.G.V. Porter of Belleisle who in the Erne drainage, failed to have the Sheelees floods remedied. It baffled all their engineers, and so pursued its course of destruction. The last drainage effort was the greatest failure of all. ‘Twas an old roadmender, wise in the ways and tradition of the country, who told me the story, which on inquiry I found to be true. - PADRAIC BURNS; in the Irish Independent.