1 Introduction

RAYMOND HICKEY ULSTER SCOTS IN PRESENT-DAY IRELAND 1 Introduction Of all the varieties of English taken to Ireland since the 17th century, Ulster Scots is that which has retained a very distinct profile and which can be unambiguously linked to related present-day varieties in western and lowland Scotland. Undoubtedly, Ulster Scots – especially in its rural forms – is quite separate from other varieties of English in the north of Ireland, let alone in the south. Its divergent nature has meant that much debate has taken place concerning its status as a language or ‘simply’ a dialect (Kallen 1999; Montgomery 1999; Görlach: 2000). This issue is not of great linguistic relevance but does have broader external significance. In 1992 Ulster Scots achieved recognition under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (see the assessment of the latter in Nic Craith (2003) and the general discussion in Phillipson 2003, especially pp. 152-157) This charter was adopted by the government of the United Kingdom in 2001. The articles of the European Charter oblige the British government, among other things, to realise the following: The facilitation and/or encouragement of the use of the Ulster-Scots language, in speech and writing, in public and private life; The provision of appropriate forms and means for the teaching and study of the Ulster-Scots language at all appropriate stages; The provision of facilites enabling non-speakers of the Ulster-Scots language living in the area where it is used to learn if they so desire; The promotion of study and research on the Ulster-Scots language at universities or equivalent institutions; There are practical consequences resulting from these formal commitments, such as financial aid for groups concerned with the maintenance and promotion of Ulster Scots. Another consequence is the production of government documents in English and Ulster Scots (see the analysis in Kirk 2000) alongside Irish which also has official status in Northern Ireland. A spin-off of this is that vocabulary has had to be developed which can handle GAVIN FALCONER the contents of official documents (see further discussion in section 4 below). Ulster Scots shares official status as a regional or minority language with some 30 languages in the European Union, including Lowland Scots, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish with which it forms the group of six lesser-used languages of the British Isles which have achieved official recognition. 2 Historical background The succession of James VI of Scotland (1566-1625) as James I (1603-1625) to the English throne led to the establishment of the Stuart monarchy. It lasted until 1688 with an interruption during the Interregnum of 1649-60 which included the Commonwealth and two Protectorates of Cromwell. The latter ended with the restoration of the English monarchy under Charles II. After the Irish lords left Ulster in 1607, James I moved quickly and their lands were escheated. The government decided to initiate the plantation of Ulster along the lines of the Munster plantation in the late 16th century. This time, however, the land was reserved for Scots settlers, encouraged by their compatriot James I, together with Englishmen, mostly from the north Midlands and north of England (Adams 1958: 61ff.; 1967a: 69ff.). Because of the union of the crowns in 1603 the Scottish were allowed to settle in Ireland without difficulty. Settlers were a mixture of private individuals along with royal officials (servitors) and some ‘deserving’ Irish, i.e. those loyal to the crown during the Nine Years War. The plantation settlements were to form the basis for the demographic split of the country (Heslinga 1962). Due to the Scottish and English background of these immigrants the division of Ireland came to be as much linguistic as political and confessional. The plantation of Ulster (Robinson 1989a) was initiated in 1609 and encompassed the counties of Armagh, Derry, Tyrone, Donegal and Fermanagh.1 It also included most of Co. Cavan in south Ulster (now in the Republic of Ireland). Co. Monaghan, also in the Republic, was not part of this plantation, partly because it had been unofficially planted by ‘regrants’ before (Robinson 1994 [1984]: 67). The position of the eastern counties of Antrim and Down was special at this period. Officially, these counties were outside the plantation scheme, but most Scots settled there (as these were nearest to Scotland). The properties they eventually came to possess were not escheated but acquired from native owners who could not survive under the new plantation dispensation with its emphasis on a more market-style 1 See Foster (1988: 62) and Dudley Edwards with Hourican (2005: 160) for maps showing the plantation of 1609-1613. ULSTER SCOTS AND ITS NEIGHBOURS economy. There was some disagreement in the English camp about how to proceed vis à vis the native Irish. Some, like Lord Deputy Chichester, Lord Deputy, favoured a cautious settlement, while others, including James I and his advisor Sir Francis Bacon, were inclined towards a more radical approach which was embodied in the ‘orders and conditions’ issued in 1609 which offered the framework for the plantation. The allocations of land were smaller than they had been in Munster: 2,000 1,500 and 1,000 acres were the proportions of ‘profitable land’ with a certain amount of waste land and bog (Canny 2001: 200). The recipients were to be of three types. English and Scottish ‘undertakers’ who were ‘to build defensible buildings, to remove the existing occupiers from their estates by a designated date, and to populate their lands exclusively with English or Scottish Protestant tenants’. The second type consisted of servitors, civil or military servants of the crown in Ireland.. The third type comprised ‘individuals who could lay claim to previous landowner or freehold status in Ulster and who were considered deserving either by the king or the Dublin government’ (Canny 2001 loc. cit.). The 28 baronies, into which the counties of Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Derry and Tyrone were divided, had eight reserved for English and eight for Scottish undertakers. The remaining 12 baronies were for servitors and native Irish. The Scottish undertakers tended to have smaller estates that the English, probably because they were not in as financially a robust a position as the latter (Robinson 1994 [1984]: 79). In fact, the Scottish undertakers had just slightly more acreage in plantation grants (81,500 acres) compared to the English (81,000) although they were more numerous (Robinson 1994 [1984]: 86). The settlers from lowland Scotland received the slightly less profitable lands because their average incomes were somewhat below that of the corresponding English undertakers. Furthermore, their estates were scattered across the escheated land. Additional factors for the demographic development of Ulster are important here: in 1610 many landless Irish, who were supposed to move to estates administered by the church or by officials, were given a stay of eviction. Initially, this was because undertakers had not yet arrived in Ulster. But when they did, tenancies were granted to the Irish because these were willing to pay higher rents. Indeed by 1628 this situation was given official recognition by a ruling which allowed undertakers to keep native tenants on maximally a quarter of their portions at double the normal rent. There was much competition between Irish, English and Scottish settlers with the Irish generally having to be content with poorer, more marginal land, such as the Sperrin Mountains of central Tyrone, while others, for whatever reason, remained to work under Scottish/English owners. In the context of the plantation, one can mention that James I convinced merchants from London to participate. The Irish Society was set up by 12 London-based companies and was instrumental to the plantation of Co. GAVIN FALCONER Derry, then renamed ‘Londonderry’ to reflect the engagement of these companies. However, this involvement was not continuous and the momentum waned. There were also Scots settlers in the city, forming a sizeable proportion, indeed the majority, by the 1630s. The success of the Ulster plantation was relative: the numbers envisaged by the English administration did not always reach the targets set nor did the landlords always have the capital to carry through the agricultural and urban projects which the government had envisaged. Many of the companies retained Irish tenants (against the wishes of the English crown) and there were conspiracies against the English, notably in 1615. Furthermore, for lack of funds or because of debt, many English and Scots withdrew from the scheme. Their land was taken over by others who extended their own estates. However, because of the Scottish credit networks, those settlements run by Scots tended to remain in Scottish hands (Canny 2001: 234), so that success or failure of the settlements did not necessarily lead to a demographic shift. The plantation of Ulster is regarded in works on Irish history, e.g. Canny (2001) and Foster (1988), as the major event at the beginning of the early modern period. There are differences in the assessment of both its significance and value. The major grievance which it triggered stemmed from the banishment of local Irish to poorer, more marginal lands in Ulster with the fertile lowlands left in English or Scottish hands. Scholars such as Philip Robinson are grounded within a Protestant tradition and stress, in their treatment of the plantation, the achievements it brought with it in terms of improved infrastructure and economy for the province. Others scholars largely in this tradition are T. W. Moody (Moody 1939) and Raymond Gillespie (Gillespie 1985), both of whom have written widely on Ulster history. Such authors tend to highlight the amalgam of cultures which has occurred in the province (Robinson 1994 [1984]: 186-94), despite claims to the contrary.

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