Études Irlandaises, 38-2

Études irlandaises 38-2 | 2013 Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland today: Language, Culture, Community Wesley Hutchinson (dir.) Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/3485 DOI: 10.4000/etudesirlandaises.3485 ISSN: 2259-8863 Publisher Presses universitaires de Caen Printed version Date of publication: 20 December 2013 ISBN: 978-2-7535-2887-1 ISSN: 0183-973X Electronic reference Wesley Hutchinson (dir.), Études irlandaises, 38-2 | 2013, « Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland today: Language, Culture, Community » [Online], Online since 20 December 2015, connection on 23 September 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/3485 ; DOI : https://doi.org/ 10.4000/etudesirlandaises.3485 This text was automatically generated on 23 September 2020. Études irlandaises est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale - Partage dans les Mêmes Conditions 4.0 International. 1 EDITOR'S NOTE Acknowledgments Études Irlandaises would like to thank the following individuals and bodies for permission to reproduce material in this volume: – William Davison, for permission to reproduce “Yin Life”; John Erskine for permission to reproduce “Tha Merle bi Lagan’s Loch”; Willie Drennan for permission to reproduce a passage from “Andy Blair”; James Fenton, for permission to reproduce “Jeerin the Jum” and “A Nighber Wumman”; Dan Gordon, for permission to reproduce a scene from The Boat Factory; Jennifer Orr for permission to reproduce her message; Philip Robinson for permission to reproduce “Ayont the knowes”; – The Ulster-Scots Language Society for permission to reproduce the “Dolly McQuoit” passage from The Humour of Druid’s Island by Archibald McIlroyand Samuel Turner’s, “Leezie McMinn”; – The Ulster-Scots Community Network for permission to reproduce a page from Fergie an Freens oan tha Fairm and the translation of the relevant passage into English. I would also like to thank Anne Smyth, Philip Robinson, Ivan Herbison and Eull Dunlop for their invaluable help as intermediaries with several of the authors whose work is reproduced here and for their advice on detailed points of translation. Any mistakes that may remain are entirely my fault. Thanks also go to Liz Hoey, Local Studies Librarian, Ballymena Library, for her ongoing generous assistance. A note on terminology Readers may be puzzled by the variety of terms and spellings used in the following articles : Ulster-Scots, Ulster Scots, Ullans… Given that the choice of each of the contributors is the result of a conscious decision – some actually explain their preference for a particular form – it has been thought best simply to respect their preferred orthography or terminology. Foreword The views expressed in this volume are those of the individual authors. They do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or of Études Irlandaises. Études irlandaises, 38-2 | 2013 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland: from neglect to re-branding Wesley Hutchinson Ulster-Scots in Literature ans Publishing Publishing the “invisible” language – some influences on Ulster-Scots publishing in the modern revival period Anne Smyth Beyond the rhyming weavers Ivan Herbison Poetic justice: ensuring a place for Ulster-Scots literature within the school curriculum in the north of Ireland Carol Baraniuk Ulster-Scots Psalmody: A Consideration Philip Robinson Ulster-Scots in the Community Broadcasting Ulster-Scots: Ulster-Scots media provision in the modern revival period Laura Spence Fiddles, Flutes, Drums and Fifes Willie Drennan The Ulster-Scots Musical Revival: Transforming Tradition in a Post-Conflict Environment Gordon Ramsey Language and Politics in Ireland – a Constructive or Destructive Interconnection? Ian James Parsley The Irish Ulster Scot Liam Logan Common Identity Ian Adamson A Selection of Ulster-Scots Writing A selection of Ulster-Scots writing Selection and commentary by Wesley Hutchinson Wesley Hutchinson Études irlandaises, 38-2 | 2013 3 Comptes rendus de lecture (Lecture de) Synge and Edwardian Ireland Hélène Lecossois (Lecture de) Community Politics and the Peace Process in Contemporary Northern Irish Drama Hélène Alfaro-Hamayon (Lecture de) Art in Ireland since 1910 Alexandra Slaby (Lecture de) Your Place or Mine ? Marjorie Deleuze (Lecture de) Ireland Through European Eyes : Western Europe, the EEC and Ireland, 1945-1973 Marjorie Deleuze (Lecture de) A History of Ireland in 100 Objects Marjorie Deleuze Étude critique (Critique de) Être là (Grennan), Sans titre (Squires) et L’Observatoire des Oiseaux/The Bird- Haunt (Clifton) Clíona Ní Ríordáin Études irlandaises, 38-2 | 2013 4 Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland: from neglect to re-branding Wesley Hutchinson 1 Just over ten years ago, Etudes Irlandaises brought out a special issue on the Irish language: La langue gaélique en Irlande hier et aujourd’hui, edited by Danielle Jacquin (n° 26-2, winter 2002)1. This issue reflected the high level of interest in France for the Irish language and for Gaelic culture in general2. I would like to preface this introduction by thanking the board of Etudes Irlandaises for agreeing to back the idea of pursuing this interest in questions relating to language and culture in a special issue of the journal given over to an area that has received infinitely less attention in France: Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland. 2 Ulster-Scots language and culture have been the object of attack on a wide variety of fronts. Significantly, criticism has been root and branch. In its most extreme form, it is alleged that there is quite simply no language and that the entire “tradition” is merely an “invention”. 3 Much of the debate has centred on the language question: is Ulster-Scots to be seen as a language in its own right, a dialect of Scots, a dialect of English, a “patois”, or simply, as the now classic put-down has it, “a DIY language for Orangemen”? Those interested in the terms in which the debate on language has been carried on in relation to Ulster- Scots should look at the work of Michael Montgomery3, Raymond Hickey4, Máiréad Nic Craith5 and John Kirk6. But they should also look at the pages of the local newspapers (particularly the Andersonstown News and the News Letter), at the responses to public consultation exercises7, and at the debates in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The very variety of these sources indicates that the impact of this debate goes well beyond the world of academia. It is part of a much broader political discussion that follows well- worn and relatively predictable paths. On the one hand, there are those, largely but not exclusively, in the nationalist and especially republican community who accuse Ulster- Scots of having been conjured up ex nihilo as a Trojan horse designed to serve the purposes of a radical unionist agenda, a lure through which to channel much-needed funding away from the Irish language. On the other hand, there are those, again largely but not exclusively, in the unionist and loyalist community who, while often attacking Études irlandaises, 38-2 | 2013 5 Irish in the North as a front for a predominantly Sinn Féin cultural agenda, seek to defend the linguistic status of Ulster-Scots and its legitimacy as the expression of a significant cultural tradition with roots deep in the history of the region. 4 Discussion on the authenticity of the Ulster-Scots project as a whole has been coloured by this political framing at several levels. 5 It would be difficult to deny that much of the progress Ulster-Scots has made to date has been the result of pressure brought by unionist politicians during the political negotiations that have been on-going since the beginning of the 1990s. Thus, Ulster- Scots made considerable headway in terms of official recognition when it was given a passing mention in the 1998 Agreement sandwiched between a similarly laconic reference to “the languages of the various ethnic communities” present in Northern Ireland and the infinitely more detailed – and promising - clauses dealing with the Irish language8. This transitory appearance on the official radar was to be reinforced the following year in the “Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Ireland establishing Implementation Bodies”, a document which defines “Ullans” as “the variety of the Scots language traditionally found in parts of Northern Ireland and Donegal”, and commits the signatories to the “promotion of greater awareness and use of Ullans and of Ulster Scots cultural issues, both within Northern Ireland and throughout the island” 9. This resulted in the setting up of a North/South Language Body with two separate and largely autonomous all-island agencies, financed by the British and Irish governments, Foras na Gaeilge for Irish and Tha Boord O Ulstèr-Scotch (aka The Ulster- Scots Agency) for Ulster-Scots. Within the same logic, when the UK government accorded Irish Part III status alongside Scottish Gaelic and Welsh when it ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2001, Ulster-Scots was recognised as meeting the “Charter’s definition of a regional or minority language” and was granted the lower, Part II status10. At another key stage in the peace process, i.e. during the negotiations at Saint Andrews (2006) called to kick-start the stalled Northern Ireland institutions, Ulster-Scots once again re-emerged as an issue11, especially with the DUP delegation, shadowing discussion on Irish which was being pushed by Sinn Féin12. 6 Thus, as has been the case with Irish, political pressure has been instrumental in pushing forward the process of official recognition of Ulster-Scots. Such coupling of language and culture with political affiliation explains much of the stridency of the debate. 7 However, in the case of Ulster-Scots this political connexion has proved particularly problematic in terms of image. Irish has long had strong associations with a radical political agenda.

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