Episode 1 Tim McGarry's Ulster Scots Journey

As you probably know, people in Northern Ireland tend to take

the issue of identity quite seriously.

When I say quite seriously, I mean very, I mean extremely,

I mean INCREDIBLY seriously.

In fact, they take the issue of identity so seriously,

sometimes it's not funny.

The two main identities in Northern Ireland

are, of course, British or Irish -

identities firmly, sometimes aggressively, held.

Identity is defined at birth and maintained by religion and politics.

In Northern Ireland, the question, "What are ye?"

is not an innocent question about your career path

or indeed your sexuality.

It is, instead, the query that enables us

to define each other completely.

And even if you don't want to take part in this game,

others will insist on doing it for you.

You play golf?

Do you play British or Irish golf?

Being from Northern Ireland, you have a connection to both.

You've a connection to Ireland, you've a connection to the UK.

Whatever decision I make, it's whether that's, you know,

play for Ireland, play for Britain - not play at all, maybe,

just because I don't want to upset too many people.

Honestly, if he didn't earn 31 grand a day from his sponsors alone,

you'd almost feel sorry for him.

Maybe identity is not black and white - maybe it's more complicated.

Perhaps we need to dig deeper to find out who we really are.

I know all about British and Irish identities

because, well, they're on the news quite a lot.

I want to find out about an identity

about which I know virtually nothing - Ulster Scots.

You see, I have a theory - Ulster Scots is perceived

as belonging to just one side of the community,

and my theory is that most of the perceptions we have

in Northern Ireland are completely wrong.

So, I want to find out if there's anything in this Ulster Scots thing

for me - Tim McGarry, lapsed papist.

So, I'm going on a journey.

Why? Well, it's television.

If you bake a bun or dance on ice for two minutes,

you have to go on a journey.

I'll be taking a look at the close historical links

between Ulster and Scotland.

I'll dip a toe into the Ulster Scots language.

And I'll research my own family roots

to find out if there's any Ulster Scots in me.

This is Torr Head and over there is Scotland.

On a good day, you can see them eating porridge

and deep-frying their Mars bars.

Now, you can't see England from any part of Ireland,

but you CAN see Scotland and, if we can see them, they can see us.

For many centuries, long before the first plantation in the 1600s,

there was a very close connection between Ulster and Scotland.

Indeed, it is believed that the very first settlers

who ever came to Ireland came via Scotland

during the Mesolithic period during the ice age.

They came via the landmass caused by the ice

and settled in Ireland around about 8000 BC.

And where did they first decide to settle?

Where else would you go...

but Larne?

I'm not going to slag off Larne.

I like Larne.

One year, I actually switched on the Christmas tree lights.

Well, I say lights...

But why did the first settlers to come here head straight to Larne?

People came because it had a good natural resource of flint.

What is so important about flint?

Flint is a really important piece of stone

that can be used to make tools.

An essential bit of tool, a knife or a blade. A knife?

For slicing things. You could slice your bread with that!

Yeah, it feels quite sharp still.

It is. It's quite tough, isn't it? It is.

Cos they didn't have steel in those days. No.

It was called the Stone Age cos everything was made of stone.

And this gave a name to a type of stone?

Is Larnian...? The age is Larnian. The age. Yeah, so a period of time.

Larne, you've got a whole age named after you - what more do you want?

We don't know much about pre-Christian Ireland

because, well, people didn't write much down in those days,

and the Romans, who did write stuff down,

didn't want anything to do with us.

Ireland was the only part of Western Europe

that the Romans didn't invade and occupy,

though they did give Ireland its ancient name, Hibernia,

land of winter,

which suggests that the Romans did make it here,

but made the mistake of landing in Portrush in July.

In the first century AD,

the Roman commander Agricola contemplated invading Ireland.

He probably looked out from over there and went,

"I can take this place."

In fact, he calculated it would only take one legion to conquer Ireland.

But then, for some reason, he thought better of it.

I reckon he probably looked over and saw us fighting over a flag

and said, "No, tell you what, just leave it."

There's never been a series of Who Do You Think You Are?

done in Northern Ireland. That's because here it would have to be...

IN BELFAST ACCENT: Who Do Ye Think Ye Are?

Or else, Think Ye Are Something, Do Ye?

Yes, that's the typical Northern Ireland sceptical attitude.

But it is always worthwhile looking into your family roots.

You never know what you'll find.

And if you do want to research your family background,

the place you have to go is the Ulster Historical Foundation.

And that's where I'm going right now.

Well, five minutes' time.

Ten minutes, tops.

So, Tim McGarry's Ulster Scots Journey -

could I, Tim McGarry, be an Ulster Scot?

Well, I know I have a lot of relatives up in Rasharkin

and they sound like Ulster Scots.

But I've come to the Ulster Historical Foundation and Gillian's

very kindly helping to look into my roots to see how far I go back.

Now, the only relations I really know

go back as far as my great-grandfather,

who came from Rasharkin.

I think you've told me that his name is Patrick McGarry. Mm.

That's about as much as I know. Have you found anything else?

Yes, we've found Patrick and his wife and family

living in Rasharkin 100 years ago

in the 1901 and 1911 census.

So, they were both schoolteachers at that stage. Schoolteachers?!

Oh, how boring.

Nothing more exciting? Well, we'll see!

They were both living in Rasharkin at that stage,

but the census tells us that actually Patrick's wife Mary

came from County Down. And that would have been quite common -

if you were a schoolteacher,

you did move about the country quite a lot for work.

And then we were able to find a copy of their marriage record.

So, what was her maiden name?

So, she was Mary Anne Clelland when she married in 1888.

Is Clelland a significant name in any way? It's a Scottish name.

So, we've only gone back a few generations

and it looks like I could have Ulster Scots roots,

or Ulster Scots connections.

Thank God for that, otherwise the programme would've been ruined.

We started looking for any Mary Anne Clellands we could find

whose father was called James in that period in County Down.

We knew she was 22 when she married in 1888,

so we knew she was born around 1866.

We found this birth certificate.

So, this is Mary Anne, and she's born on 18th November 1865,

in Nuns Quarter, a townland called Nuns Quarter.

Nuns Quarter? How ironic.

She was very Catholic, a very religious woman!

Nuns Quarter is where?

It's on the Ards Peninsula, just north of Kircubbin.

You've Nuns Quarter and beside it, Inishargy.

So, my great-great-grandmother came from here, Nuns Quarter.

Now, I'm not sure if she came from downtown Nuns Quarter or

the lower east side of Nuns Quarter.

You know, the bad side of town.

Well, I say town...

So, after the Romans decided not to invade Ireland,

the Irish decided to invade bits of Scotland.

In fact, that is where the name Scotland comes from.

Scoti was the name Roman writers gave to Irish raiders and bandits

who attacked Roman Britain, and the name stuck.

So, Scotland was named after a bunch of Irish people.

For centuries, there's been a very close connection

between Scotland and Ulster.

For hundreds and hundreds of years, there'd been invasion,

counter invasion, raids, immigration, emigration

intermarriage, settlements.

One man has a theory about one emigrant from Scotland to Ireland.

There are a number of ancient churches in Scotland

which claim to have been founded by Patrick.

So, St Patrick came from Scotland to Donaghadee?

I know some folk in Donaghadee today

who could take you down there at low tide

and show you a rock which, tradition claims,

bears the marks of his feet and also of his horses' hooves.

Forget New York, we could have the massive St Patrick's Day parade

here in Donaghadee.

Why not? I think that would work.

St Patrick, Scottish? Pah.

I suppose it could have been worse - he could have been English.

Of course, the influence of St Patrick can't be underestimated.

Within a few decades, all of Ireland had been converted to Christianity

and shortly afterwards, monasteries and abbeys were founded

all over the country

and became centres of great learning in Dark Ages Europe.

Did you know that Bangor Abbey, for instance,

was known as The Light of the World?

And, yes, I do mean Pickie Pool, gravy-chip Bangor.

And then there's this famous abbey at Nendrum, just outside Comber.

It's a fine example of what these abbeys and monasteries

would have looked like.

Nendrum has the oldest tide mill in the world.

And it also has this - a very famous sundial,

which the monks were able to use once, sometimes twice a year.

So, we gave the Scots their name and they gave us St Patrick.

But that's not all.

Because it is accepted that the very first King of Scotland

was a man by the name of Fergus Mor, or Fergus the Great.

And where was he from?

Here - County Antrim, Dunseverick,

just a couple of miles down from the Giant's Causeway.

And in the fifth century AD,

Fergus the Great led an expedition to Scotland to Kintyre and Argyll,

and there he set up the great Scottish kingdom of Dalriada.

King Fergus was crowned the king of a joint kingdom

in the early sixth century.

He goes across from Dunseverick, he goes to Dun Athad,

he takes some of his family with him,

he probably takes some retainers with him,

but what he doesn't take with him is an army -

so he's not going to conquer territory.

He's going to regularise a settlement that's already there, obviously.

Nowadays, all kings and queens of Scotland

have to claim some descent from Fergus the Great.

Yes, that's right, folks.

Queen Elizabeth II has a little bit - not very much, to be honest -

but a little bit of County Antrim in her.

According to an old Scots chronicle,

in the year 503 AD, King Fergus had a skin problem.

Well, they just didn't moisturise in those days!

Mind you, there isn't a cleanser in the world

that can save you from leprosy.

So in order to cure his leprosy,

King Fergus decided to visit a very famous healing well.

Sadly, the cure didn't work...

partly because he didn't get there,

when his ship hit a rock and he drowned.

Mind you, it wasn't just any old rock.

It was the rock upon which Carrickfergus Castle now stands.

Indeed, Fergus's death gives its name to this very place.

It is the carraig, or rock, of Fergus.

Carrickfergus.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a television exclusive

to the Tim McGarry Ulster Scots Journey.

For the first time ever,

we are filming the grave of Fergus Mor, the first king of Scotland.

Yes, his last resting place is around here in a farmer's field

just outside Monkstown.

For centuries, Irish and Scots pilgrims came here

to Monkstown Abbey to pay their last respects to the great Fergus Mor.

But as you know, times change,

and the building - well, it's a wee bit neglected now.

So, if Her Majesty the Queen is watching,

and I see no reason why she wouldn't be

once the horse racing's over - Liz, your ancestor is buried round here.

Please, give us a few quid - we'll put a sign up, tidy the place up.

So, the kingdom of Dalriada

could afford to be pretty smug about itself.

In the sixth and seventh centuries, the kingdom covered Antrim,

Down and most of the West of Scotland.

And why was it so successful?

Well, because of the quick and easy sea transport.

Of course, there's always a downside.

And the downside to quick and easy sea transport was -

well, the Vikings.

Now, the Vikings don't have a great image.

They're always seen as marauders and pillagers,

only interested in plunder -

a bit like modern day bankers.

So, when they came to Ireland, well, they did destroy a bit.

They destroyed Bangor, and the monastery here at Nendrum.

I mean, just look what they did to that round tower there.

The Vikings spelled the end of Dalriada

but like all invaders, they liked the look of the place,

so they intermingled with the Irish, intermarried and settled.

So did the next lot, but who were they?

MUSIC: "Swords Of The Thousand Men" by Tenpole Tudor

The next invaders of Ireland didn't come via Scotland.

They were the Normans.

The Normans first arrived in Ireland in the year 1169

after they were invited in.

Sure, you know what it is like - invite somebody into your house,

they never go home.

The Normans first landed in southern Ireland but one band of them,

led by John de Courcy, headed north to see what was available.

# Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, yeah

# Over the hills came the swords of a thousand men... #

Actually, he didn't have a thousand men, he only had a few dozen,

but that was enough to take Ulster.

And to prove he was not a man to be messed with,

he built this - Carrickfergus Castle.

Nothing like that had ever been seen at the time.

The walls are 90 feet high,

they are three to four feet thick.

It's a statement of power,

a statement of status,

a statement that the Normans are here to come.

Carrickfergus was the centre of the area

that the Normans conquered in Ulster.

It looked like the Normans were going to be able to conquer

all of Ireland fairly easily, but one thing stood in their way.

What was it? You've guessed it, the Scots.

Have you seen the film Braveheart?

Mel Gibson as William Wallace,

leading the first Scottish rebellion against the English.

I really like it. One reviewer didn't like it.

the very famous Robert the Bruce.

And when Robert the Bruce fought the English, he had his ups and downs.

and where did he end up?

We all know the story of the cave and the spider.

Just across the narrow water in Ulster was an English garrison,

so Robert the Bruce sent his brother Edward over to deal with them.

who had fought at Bannockburn and then put Carrickfergus,

which was the main castle in Ulster, under siege in September 1315.

In the summer of 1316, it looked like the garrison was going to surrender

and 30 Scottish soldiers came to take the surrender of the castle.

And, instead, the garrison grabbed them,

closed the gates again and said they were going to fight on.

And it is said that as the food ran out and as the water ran out,

they actually ate their 30 Scottish prisoners.

Now, whether that is fact or legend, we don't know.

Edward Bruce was eventually defeated in the year 1318

in a battle outside Dundalk.

They say his body

is buried in a church there.

Well, bits of it may be,

because he was beheaded

and bits of him were sent to the four corners of Ireland.

But the effect of Bruce's invasion of Ireland cannot be overestimated.

After that, British rule in Ireland was shattered.

And it would take a long, long time

before they ever dominated Ireland again.

MUSIC: "The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin

Dunluce Castle - famous for being on the cover of a Led Zeppelin album.

Ask your da, he'll explain it to you. Where were we?

Ah, yes - the Scots saved the Irish from the English -

for a bit.

Now, despite what Mel Gibson says, I'm afraid it's not true -

not all Scots were on the side of Robert the Bruce,

some of them lined up with the English.

And Bruce wanted a word with them,

and they didn't fancy having a word with him

so they fled to the Glens of Antrim.

The MacDonnells are probably the most famous family.

They seized lands in the Glens and their capital was Dunluce.

The problem with the MacDonnells

was that they were Scottish and Catholic,

which didn't please Queen Elizabeth I,

who was Protestant and English

and who saw this place and everyone in it as an affront to her kingdom.

So when an English expedition, including Sir Francis Drake,

massacred a lot of MacDonnells, including women and children,

on Rathlin Island here, the Queen was very pleased.

Even more pleased was the Earl of Essex,

who reported delightedly that they had killed over 600 people -

and even better, according to him,

Sorley Boy MacDonnell had to watch the massacre

helplessly from the coast,

perhaps even here, where I am standing.

Essex reported that Sorley Boy must have been...

The Queen was so pleased that she told the executioner she would...

Probably gave him an OBE.

And then we found that her mum's mother's name was Jane McClelland.

And he was an assistant farmer -

so it all ties in with the information we have

from her marriage. An assistant farmer?

An assistant farmer, yes. A farmer with an assistant?!

I have never heard of an assistant farmer. That's fine, OK.

Is there anything else significant about this?

The only thing is that his residence was different

to where the child was born. And then we looked a little bit more

to try and find the marriage record of her parents,

and we did not find any marriage record for that couple.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Are you saying my great-great-grandfather

and my great-great-grandmother weren't married?

It certainly looks that way, yes. Really?!

Excuse me, my great-grandmother was a very highly respected woman

in Rasharkin, and a schoolteacher. She was indeed.

But she was actually (illegitimate)? Yes, it would appear so.

We find a marriage record in 1869 for a James Clelland from Inishargy,

a farmer, marrying a Margaret Holland

in Ballywalter Second Presbyterian Church.

So he didn't even have the decency to marry her?!

So...

My great-great-grandmother, possibly illegitimate,

and the father...didn't marry her?

He married someone else? No, he...

It appears that he then married someone else a few years later

and then the mother, Jane McClelland,

she marries in 1873 in Greyabbey Roman Catholic Church.

Right... Hold on.

Again, he got married in a Presbyterian church?

Yes. But she's Catholic?

Well, she married in a Roman Catholic Church,

so it would appear that she was.

This is cross-community smut!

I'm actually genuinely surprised about the revelations

about my great-great-grandmother and father

and I'm a little bit pleased, to be honest.

Yes, I am at least a bit Ulster Scot, and a wee bit cross-community.

I could probably get my own EU peace grant just for myself.

And, yes, my great-great-grandmother went a few miles up the road

to get a man. She didn't go very far -

But to be fair, though, she was very brave.

To have an illegitimate child and not get married in 1865?

She must have been the talk of the town.

Well, I say town...

Chichester Street. Named after Arthur Chichester.

Well, "Who the hell is he,

"and why does he have a street named after him?" I hear you ask.

Well, he was a favourite general of Queen Elizabeth I.

The Queen was determined to conquer all of Ireland

but Ulster held out against her.

In 1594, the famous Gaelic chieftain Hugh O'Neill rose up in rebellion,

starting what was known as the Nine Years War.

The war ended in defeat for the Gaelic chieftains

and, as a reward to Arthur Chichester,

the Queen gave him a castle

and ownership of what we now know as Belfast.

So, Arthur naturally started to name streets after himself.

Well, you would, wouldn't you? So, this is Chichester Street.

HORNS HONK

It didn't have as many bus lanes in them days.

Arthur Chichester would have been one of the most important people

at the end of the 16th and early 17th century.

There's a bloke kneeling at the bottom. Who is that guy?

That's Sir John Chichester,

and he was governor of Carrickfergus in the late 1590s.

He is Arthur's big brother? Arthur's big brother.

John Chichester had a parley with James McDonnell,

but instead of bringing small numbers and sitting down

and talking sensibly, both brought hundreds of men

and a battle broke out. John Chichester was killed,

he was decapitated,

and it is said that his head was put in a barrel of salt

and brought down to Dungannon, where Hugh O'Neill's base was

and that the Irish played football with his head around the camp.

That's not nice! So, Arthur was very annoyed about that?

He did bear a grudge - and a year and a bit after John was killed

he became governor of Carrickfergus himself, in 1599.

He was one of Elizabeth's top generals,

fighting the O'Neills and the MacDonnells as well.

The MacDonnells managed to survive,

and when King James came to the throne, they curried favour with him

by settling more lowland Scots here in the Glens of Antrim.

Indeed, Ulster was the last place in Ireland

to resist the English conquest.

The last hooray for the Gaelic chiefs was the Battle of Kinsale

in 1601 and then, of course, the famous Flight of the Earls of 1607.

Now, many people think that the first major migration

of Scots into Ulster occurred with the Great Plantation.

But, as we have seen, Scots have been coming to Ulster

for hundreds and hundreds of years -

and, indeed, before the Great Plantation

there was one other major migration of lowland Scots into Ulster.

That occurred in 1606, and it all began with a jailbreak

and some cheese.

The man who escaped was called Conn O'Neill.

Who he? I hear you cry.

Well, Conn was the head of the Clandeboye O'Neills,

the Gaelic chieftain who owned South Antrim and most of North Down.

For years, the English crown had been trying

to relieve Conn of his lands.

And in the year 1602 they got their chance.

What happened was Conn threw a Christmas party.

Nothing unusual there, I hear you say.

Indeed, by all accounts, it was a jolly good party.

According to one contemporary record, it was a grand debauch -

a kind of 17th-century bunga bunga party, but then disaster struck.

What's the worst thing that could happen at an Irish party?

Yep. The drink ran out.

Well, Conn did what any reasonable Irish person would do.

He sent some of his men to rob the nearest wine store

in the nearby village of Belfast.

Unfortunately, on their way, his men encountered some English troops.

A fight ensued, one of the troops was killed.

Conn was immediately arrested

and charged with levying war on the Queen's soldiers.

High treason.

Of course, nowadays, high treason has a penalty

of, well, 100 hours community service.

But in those days, the penalty was death.

Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy of Ireland,

very kindly offered to execute Conn

without the necessity of a trial or anything.

He was hoping to seize some of Conn's lands.

Fortunately for Conn,

Queen Elizabeth I went and died

without an heir, which meant the end of the Tudor line

and the accession onto the throne of James I.

And that was good news, because it gave Conn's wife an idea.

She approached a man by the name of Hugh Montgomery

and came with a deal.

She said, "Spring my husband Conn out of jail,

"get him a pardon from King James

"and I will give you half of Conn O'Neill's lands in Ulster."

There aren't many cheese-based prison escapes.

I love a good prison escape. Normally it's digging tunnels,

but there was a man by the name of Conn O'Neill

managed to escape from prison in Carrickfergus Castle.

What's the story behind that?

His wife smuggled in ropes in two cheeses

and with those ropes he was able to scale the walls of the castle

and the Montgomerys whisked him off to Scotland.

But another Ayrshire man, James Hamilton, got wind of the plan

and he muscled in on the deal.

Hamilton was sent by the King of Scotland to Dublin.

He set up a school in Dublin and become a founder of Trinity College,

but used his position of influence

to get access to the Royal correspondence.

So all the mail that was going between Dublin

and the Royal Court in London, Hamilton was getting access to.

So he was basically a spy and reading the stuff? He was.

He was feeding information back to the King of Scotland,

because the King of Scotland knew the Queen of England had no children

and suspected he was next in line.

So he was just gathering information and waiting for the day

and Hamilton was his man.

And when the king was asked to authorise the proposed deal

between O'Neill and Montgomery, Hamilton's man intervened

and said, "See all that land?

"You can't divide that in two.

"Divide it in three and give a third of it to Hamilton."

The land that they took, what did they find when they got here?

About 40 years previously, Elizabeth had sent English troops

across to try to take County Down by force from the Clandeboye O'Neills.

It didn't work - the O'Neills fought back and fought hard

and in the course of that they burned all of the stone buildings.

But who was physically here? Were people ejected?

Did you steal my land?

When the Scots arrived,

there was, the records say, hardly any people here at all.

Hamilton's headquarters at Killylea seemed to prove to Montgomery

that he'd been sold a pup,

and Hamilton had ended up with all the best land.

Tensions between the two men led to Hamilton hiring a map-maker,

Thomas Raven, to set out exactly who owned what.

The beautifully illustrated Raven maps survive today

and can be seen in North Down Museum.

Montgomery and Hamilton didn't get on very well, is that right?

They loathed one another.

So this map is a way of just determining who owned what land

and where those boundaries were.

We are looking here at a map of... it says East Holywood.

We have somewhere called Balle Derre. We have Knocknagoney up here.

For some reason the Tesco isn't there, but I don't know why.

But if you look at Holywood, East Holywood,

we have what looks to me like the Maypole. It is, indeed.

So the Maypole does actually date from the 1600s?

Yes, and possibly before this.

It just means it was there when they drew this map.

It doesn't tell us how long it was there beforehand.

So, if I was to stick this book under my arm and run out there

and bring it to the Antiques Roadshow,

what sort of value would we get?

Priceless. You couldn't put a value on it.

But we wouldn't let you out the door anyway.

You'd stop me, would you? Yeah, we'd jump on you.

There's a fella over there who looks like he would stop me,

but I'd give you a go!

So, we've just romped through several thousand years of history

and discovered how closely our past is linked to that of Scotland.

And talking of romps,

we've also learned that no matter how respectable

you think your family is,

there's always some dark secret out there to embarrass you.

Yes, my great-grandparents were teachers.

The shame!

I've also discovered Ulster Scots roots that I never knew I had,

just four generations back.

On the next programme, we'll be looking at the biggest

and most controversial influx of Ulster Scots - the Plantation.

OK, so, I'm just going to go in here and get myself all dolled up.

'Presenting the forecasts

'on BBC Newsline, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Foyle

'is just part of what we do.'

But whenever the weather becomes the news,

I want to be there bringing you that story.