An organisation has been set up to help Protestants who were forced to abandon isolated Border farms to return to their homesteads. The organisation, FEAR Fermanagh Ltd, has been set up to assess the scale of intimidation during the period of more than 25 years and to prepare a plan of action involving the reclamation of uncultivated acres and restoration of old farmhouses.
Mrs Arlene Foster, whose family had to leave after her father, a policeman, was ambushed by gunmen near Roslea in 1979, said: "Families don't want to sell up because that means selling their birthright, but if the peace process holds - and it's still at an extremely tender stage - then hopefully they'll return."
Mrs Foster (27), a solicitor now living in Enniskillen and secretary of FEAR (Fear Encouraged Abandoning Roots), said: "It's all about confidence, and at the moment because of the political situation and the parades issue, Protestant confidence isn't great. There is a feeling that attempts are still being made to squeeze them out of the community in which they live."
She pointed out that two tiny churches, one near the Border, were attacked last week. "The trouble over the summer parades may have been forgotten about, but meanwhile all this tension is simmering away in the background.
"Ideally, we want these families to return. It's no good having all this land lying there unused, but if they do go back, will they feel comfortable?"
A community worker has been called in to trace the families forced to leave, as the exact number is not known. The group may seek finance from EU's peace and reconciliation fund.
"If we could get even some of these people back on their land it would be worthwhile," Mrs Foster said. "We are trying to think of ideas to re-establish the farms and get a sense of community again because at the time a majority of Catholics were sympathetic and sorry to see their Protestant neighbours leave."
Mr John McClure, a former part-time soldier, left his farm at Garrison when his neighbour and friend was killed by the IRA in 1972. He yearns to return.
His son, Richard (25), now farms the land on a part-time basis, but the old family home, drains, ditches and fencing are in poor condition.
Mr McClure, who now lives outside Enniskillen, said: "With the ceasefire there isn't as great a threat any more, and I suppose the only thing stopping me is finance.
"All my old Catholic neighbours would like me to return, but then it was never them I worried about when I was in the UDR. It was the people who came across the Border to shoot who were the problem."
According to Councillor Tommy Gallagher of the SDLP, who lives in Belleek, near the Border with Donegal, the new peaceful atmosphere could help to build up the trust and confidence needed to develop good-neighbourliness.
"Reconciliation does not happen overnight. But people returning to homesteads they had to leave are part of the rebuilding of those relationships," Mr Gallagher said.
"People who had to leave did so in order to survive because of the atmosphere of fear and tension at that time. They were not threatened in any way by the local community. Now we are in a different situation," he said.