Tempo, historically called ''Tempodeshel'' (),Place Names NI
/ref> is a small

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

at the foot of

Brougher Mountain Brougher Mountain transmitting station is a major transmitting station in Northern Ireland. It is located between County Tyrone and County Fermanagh, on top of a high hill called Brougher Mountain. It has four other transmitter sites in its digi ...

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 a ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The Census of 2011 recorded a population of 489 people. It lies within the

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council Fermanagh and Omagh District Council ( ga, Comhairle Ceantair Fhear Manach agus na hÓmaí; Ulster-Scots: ''Districk Cooncil o Fermanagh an Omey'') is a local authority in Northern Ireland and was established on 1 April 2015. It replaced Ferman ...

area.

History

The name ''An tIompú Deiseal'' ("the right-hand turn") may refer to a bend in the Tempo River near the village. There is a local legend that

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...

left a manuscript here on his way to

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , 'Cethlenn, 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 ...

and that he told his servant to "turn right" to go back and retrieve it. On 25 October 1920, during the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

, the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...

(IRA) raided the

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...

barracks in Tempo for weapons. RIC sergeant Samuel Lucas was shot and fatally wounded, but a group of armed

Ulster Volunteers The Ulster Volunteers was an Irish unionist, loyalist paramilitary organisation founded in 1912 to block domestic self-government ("Home Rule") for Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom. The Ulster Volunteers were based in the ...

arrived and drove off the IRA unit. Shortly after, a Catholic civilian with republican sympathies, Philip Breen, was shot in the doorway of his family's pub in the village and later died of his wounds. Tempo is the birthplace of

Young Irelander Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...

Terence MacManus Terence Bellew MacManus (born 1811 or 1823 – 15 January 1861) was an Irish rebel who participated in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Sentenced to death for treason, he and several other participants were given commuted sentences in 1 ...

, one of the leaders of the 1848 Rebellion.Terence MacManus profile

Education

Schools and pre-schools serving the area include Tempo Controlled Primary School, St. Mary's Primary School and the Tempo Community Playgroup.

Places of interest

Tempo Manor is a Victorian Manor House, built in 1863 and standing in of grounds and woodlands. Campbell's Bar is the oldest public house in the town and is known for its reported supernatural sightings. The ''Fermanagh News'' reported the bar as the most haunted place in Fermanagh in 1994.

2001 Census

Tempo is classified as a small village or hamlet by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (i.e. with population between 500 and 1,000 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 533 people living in Tempo. Of these: *23.2% were aged under 16 years and 21.5% were aged 60 and over *48.2% of the population were male and 51.8% were female *69.0% were from a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

background and 30.4% were from a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

background *5.7% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed For more details see
NI Neighbourhood Information Service

References

Sources