On the edge of Lough Erne, in the village of Bellanaleck, a small wooden hut rests and in it for the last 50 years, you would have found Eric Doogan.

However, you will find him there no longer, as Eric is now happily retired after spending his entire career at Erne Marines.

Eric joined the business at 16 and is now 66. He took the job at the age of 16 after Marion Maxwell (née Cathcart) told him about an opening and a man called Bob Ewart looking for a worker. He has never worked anywhere else.

Reflecting on his time at Erne Marine, Eric said: “It didn’t feel like 50 years; employee-wise, I am the longest man working in the same firm on Lough Erne.”

The business has evolved over the years, he explained. “When I went there it was hire boats; when I started it was a man called Bob Ewart who owned it, and we bought the hulls and built the inside of the first three or four cruisers when I was there.

“When I first started, I lived in Arney, and Bob had hire bikes and he gave me one to cycle to work from Arney.

“A few years after that, he bought them [cruisers] completed, then there were hire boats there and they were there for about ten years after William Swann took over, and for the last 30 years I was doing the servicing, maintaining and looking after the place.

“I was there every day of the week, and when we had the hire boats, I was on call 24/7.”

He says times have changed for tourism on the lake. “There are only two hire companies left on the lough, and now a lot of them [cruisers] are gone.”

Most of his life has revolved around the lough. “I took up the fishing and the shooting but I quit the shooting a few years ago.

"I did everything on the lake: worked on the lake, fished on the lake, shot on the lake, spent my weekends on the lake, so I have been on the lake for the past 50 years!

“I went to Spain twice, and I never liked it, so I bought my own cruiser and spent holidays on the lake.”

He hopes to spend some time cruising with his wife, Violet, in his retirement: “I would usually go as far as Ballyconnell, Belturbet, Belleek, and I might get a bit further now.”

He will still have one important task to complete in the future - he plans to teach his two grandsons, Alfie and Charlie, how to fish aboard his fishing boat.