0:00:02 > 0:00:04My name is Lesley Riddoch.
0:00:04 > 0:00:09I grew up in Belfast because my parents, both Highlanders,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11moved there for work when I was aged three,
0:00:11 > 0:00:14then back to Glasgow when I was 13.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16So I am a Scot.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18And as a journalist and writer,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Scotland is the focus of most of my work.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24But I've never lost touch with Northern Ireland.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28In this series, I'm going to explore the relationship
0:00:28 > 0:00:30between Scotland and Northern Ireland,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33how it's expressed through community...
0:00:33 > 0:00:35I think the southern part of Scotland would nearly be
0:00:35 > 0:00:37the seventh county, the amount of Northern Irish folk
0:00:37 > 0:00:39that have moved across.
0:00:39 > 0:00:40..through language...
0:00:40 > 0:00:42You would meet somebody every day
0:00:42 > 0:00:44that you would be talking Ulster Scots to.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46..through culture and faith.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49And I'm going to meet people on both sides of the North Channel
0:00:49 > 0:00:52for whom those things that link Northern Ireland and Scotland
0:00:52 > 0:00:57are an integral part of their lives, their identity and their future.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00I don't know if it's Ulster Scots, if it's Scots,
0:01:00 > 0:01:01or if it's Scot Irish or what it is,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04I don't know what the label is but there's something there.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26This is Dunadd Hill Fort in Argyll
0:01:26 > 0:01:27on the West Coast of Scotland.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Once the citadel of the Kings of Dal Riata,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37whose ancient kingdom straddled the Irish Sea.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40It's a physical embodiment of the historic links
0:01:40 > 0:01:43between Scotland and Northern Ireland.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50It lies at the centre of mainland Scotland's
0:01:50 > 0:01:54most important archaeological landscape.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59Over 800 historic monuments, cairns, standing stones and rock art -
0:01:59 > 0:02:02evidence that for over 5,000 years,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05this has been a significant place.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13The story of Scotland as a nation begins here
0:02:13 > 0:02:17and people from the North of Ireland are credited with being
0:02:17 > 0:02:18its first Kings.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22So before I start looking at the relationship
0:02:22 > 0:02:24of Scotland and Northern Ireland today,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28I'm meeting archaeologist Sharon Webb at Kilmartin Museum
0:02:28 > 0:02:33to find out more about Dunadd and its connection to Ulster.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40So, Sharon, what is the significance of Dunadd?
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Basically, it is the capital of the Kingdom of Dal Riata,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47which was a kingdom that stretched across the whole of Argyll
0:02:47 > 0:02:51and also into Northern Ireland, mostly the County of Antrim.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58We've got quite a lot of fairly high hills in between here and Glasgow
0:02:58 > 0:03:00and Edinburgh, so the transport links would have all been
0:03:00 > 0:03:02around the sea.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05It kind of made a lot of sense for that to be one whole kingdom
0:03:05 > 0:03:06as it was.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12The reason we know that this is the capital is related
0:03:12 > 0:03:15to the carved stone that you can see almost at the summit of Dunadd,
0:03:15 > 0:03:17and on the stone is carved a footprint.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23And the footprint is particularly significant because we know
0:03:23 > 0:03:25from early documentary evidence that
0:03:25 > 0:03:28part of the inauguration ritual of a king was that they had to
0:03:28 > 0:03:30place their foot into this footprint
0:03:30 > 0:03:33because kings were not hereditary, so that ritual kind of
0:03:33 > 0:03:35sealed the deal, as it were.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42There was a kind of accepted view that people from Northern Ireland
0:03:42 > 0:03:45got in their ships and came over and invaded this part of Argyll
0:03:45 > 0:03:47and then founded the Kingdom of Dal Riata.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52But actually, there's no evidence of an invasion at all.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54In fact, actually, some of the evidence points
0:03:54 > 0:03:56to the movement of people going the other way,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58so from Scotland to Northern Ireland.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03I kind of wonder myself whether these groups of people
0:04:03 > 0:04:07living on these two bits of land separated by a sea
0:04:07 > 0:04:09have always had contact because we've got
0:04:09 > 0:04:12artefacts in our collection that go right back to the Neolithic period,
0:04:12 > 0:04:145,000 years ago,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18which come from Antrim, from Northern Ireland,
0:04:18 > 0:04:20in the form of stone axes,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22which are made of stone that you can only find
0:04:22 > 0:04:23in Rathlin Island and Northern Ireland.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30So, those contacts have been going on for ages and ages,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33so to kind of see it as a sort of one-off invasion
0:04:33 > 0:04:35might not make as much sense
0:04:35 > 0:04:38as to say they already were one people, as it were.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45It's long been part of the founding myth of Scotland that the first
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Scottish kings were invaders from the North of Ireland.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55But Sharon's explanation that the people of Dal Riata,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59both here and in North Antrim, were in fact the same people...
0:05:01 > 0:05:03..linked by birth, marriage,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06culture and language, is so much more interesting.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13In the centuries since then, we've borrowed and embraced
0:05:13 > 0:05:16cultural traditions from both sides of the North Channel.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23But if I want to discover whether that's still the case today,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25then I've got to start with
0:05:25 > 0:05:28arguably Scotland's greatest cultural export -
0:05:28 > 0:05:29Robert Burns.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36I know he has an unrivalled place in Scottish culture,
0:05:36 > 0:05:37but what about in Northern Ireland?
0:05:42 > 0:05:47BAGPIPES PLAY: Scotland The Brave
0:05:51 > 0:05:57I've come to a hotel outside Belfast for the 130th Belfast Burns Supper.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01I know that because my father made an address to the same association
0:06:01 > 0:06:03in 1968.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06That year, they had tinned haggis because of an outbreak
0:06:06 > 0:06:11of foot and mouth disease, which led to a ban on all imported meats.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14So here, half a century later, almost,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18I'm following in his footsteps and I'm curious to find out whether
0:06:18 > 0:06:22this Scottish tradition has real vibrancy in Northern Ireland
0:06:22 > 0:06:25or is perhaps the preserve of a few enthusiasts.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31His knife see rustic Labour dight,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Like ony ditch
0:06:40 > 0:06:44And then, O what a glorious sight.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Deil tak the hindmost! On they drive.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
0:06:53 > 0:06:54Are bent like drums
0:06:54 > 0:06:59The auld Guidman maist like to rive,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01Bethankit hums.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03'In return for my supper tonight, and following
0:07:03 > 0:07:08'in the family tradition, I've been asked to say a few words of my own
0:07:08 > 0:07:09'about Robert Burns.'
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Well, thanks very much for the invitation to come here tonight.
0:07:13 > 0:07:19This phenomenon of gathering every year since, I think, the early 1800s
0:07:19 > 0:07:24to celebrate one man and think all the time carefully about his poetry
0:07:24 > 0:07:26is really absolutely unique.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28There are no Shakespeare suppers.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31There are no Dylan Thomas teas.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34There are no Brian Friel feasts.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37Burns inspires other people to try.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42I've found that all sorts of people have heard Burns and heard in it
0:07:42 > 0:07:45ideas, language, vocabulary that is in them,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48that would let them have a bit of a go.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52So here's to another 130 years of the Belfast Burns Association
0:07:52 > 0:07:56and for all that he's inspired, ladies and gentlemen,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59please be upstanding and drink a toast to the immortal memory
0:07:59 > 0:08:01of Robert Burns.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03GLASSES CLINK
0:08:06 > 0:08:09'Talking to people, I can see there's a real passion
0:08:09 > 0:08:12'for Burns here and a feeling that Burns Night isn't just
0:08:12 > 0:08:16'a Scottish tradition but an Ulster tradition, too.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20'I'm hoping the president of the Belfast Burns Society, John Blair,
0:08:20 > 0:08:21'can tell me more.'
0:08:21 > 0:08:24I feel like I could have been in Scotland tonight,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26it was that authentic.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29You're telling me that you could be practically at a Burns Supper like
0:08:29 > 0:08:32this in Northern Ireland any day of the week for a couple of weeks?
0:08:32 > 0:08:36There's that many suppers and people trying to get a night that nobody
0:08:36 > 0:08:38else has and everybody tries to get a weekend,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42but now there's that many, the weekends is all tied up.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43What is that about?
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Because, you know, you're not getting taught Burns at school.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Is that just a hankering after the old days or is it the music
0:08:49 > 0:08:50that you love, what is it?
0:08:50 > 0:08:54Well, for me anyway it's the music, the dancing and, like, where I am,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58I'll be living probably as close to Scotland as I would be to Belfast.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Years ago, whenever the farmers burnt the barley straw and that
0:09:03 > 0:09:05up at Stranraer, we were able to see that there from home, like.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08And also, where I am there, I can see up,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10right up in the West Coast there to Islay.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13I can see the Paps of Jura, which is roughly 100 miles
0:09:13 > 0:09:14up on the West Coast.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19You used to listen to me when I was on Radio Scotland.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21- You could hear it. - I did. Oh, no problem, yeah.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24If you actually listen to your own station at times,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28you'll hear quite a lot of requests from people from Ballymena
0:09:28 > 0:09:30up the North Coast there. We can pick it up clearer than
0:09:30 > 0:09:33what we pick, supposedly, Downtown, up
0:09:33 > 0:09:35or any of those stations around here.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39So, what does Burns mean to you or, indeed,
0:09:39 > 0:09:41what does Burns Night mean to you?
0:09:41 > 0:09:44To me, the biggest thing is the music.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46The songs, the songs that he wrote.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48What would be your favourite song, then?
0:09:48 > 0:09:49I would say A Red, Red Rose.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Even when I would be maybe playing it myself,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55you can nearly picture where he lived or where he was at the time
0:09:55 > 0:09:56he wrote it, or whatever,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59and you get this image of him in your head whenever
0:09:59 > 0:10:02you're playing that particular song anyway, or that tune,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05and to me that's the one that really...
0:10:05 > 0:10:07that takes you back.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Well, this is as feisty and authentic a night,
0:10:15 > 0:10:20a Burns supper, as I have encountered anywhere, actually.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22I'm hearing from people around me that there are dozens
0:10:22 > 0:10:26of Burns suppers going on. I'm hearing all the time about how much
0:10:26 > 0:10:30music is bringing people backwards and forwards from Scotland
0:10:30 > 0:10:33to Northern Ireland and people's easy reference points
0:10:33 > 0:10:37in Scottish culture is really quite astonishing
0:10:37 > 0:10:39to find here in Northern Ireland.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41The craic has been brilliant,
0:10:41 > 0:10:43the music is really strong and there's a sort of
0:10:43 > 0:10:48easy familiarity with people, which is what the essence of
0:10:48 > 0:10:49a Burns supper is all about,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53so it's been a fantastic night here and a bit of an eye-opener.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59'I'm sure they'll forgive me for saying that the average age
0:10:59 > 0:11:02'at the supper was on the high side.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05'Maybe that's always the case at formal occasions like these.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09'But where does the future of these Scottish cultural traditions lie in
0:11:09 > 0:11:13'Northern Ireland? Are young folk so interested in Scottish music
0:11:13 > 0:11:14'and dance?'
0:11:19 > 0:11:22To find out, I'm travelling to County Tyrone
0:11:22 > 0:11:24to visit the Sollus Centre in Bready -
0:11:24 > 0:11:28a community centre with an Ulster Scots ethos.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31It's also home to the Sollus Highland Dancers.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35Winners of UK and European championships,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38their commitment and talent has taken them round the world.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51James, we're sitting not on the coast facing Scotland.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54We're in an area that's famous for the O'Neills.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58Why, here, is there an Ulster Scots centre?
0:11:58 > 0:12:00The O'Neill dynasty basically finished
0:12:00 > 0:12:04when the Plantation arrived here, and in this area it was
0:12:04 > 0:12:07predominantly Scottish planters that were planted here
0:12:07 > 0:12:11back in the early 1600s, and ever since that,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15the names that arrived from Scotland then are still prevalent here today,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18like Rankin, Campbell.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21My surname is Kee, which, I believe, come from clan McKay,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24so that's where the Scottishness has come from,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26right back to the Plantation to the present day.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28First.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30Second.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32And there's a new generation here,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36just as enthusiastic about their Scottish culture.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39James's daughter Georgina runs Highland dance classes
0:12:39 > 0:12:42for more than 500 pupils every week.
0:12:42 > 0:12:43BAGPIPES PLAY
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Ready...
0:12:45 > 0:12:46and go.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Land, feet, land, feet, land, feet.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51Have you got your hands nice and tidy?
0:12:51 > 0:12:53We're not doing high cuts this time. Land, land.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57You have learnt Highland dancing, you're an accomplished dancer,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00you teach it. Why Highland dancing and not Irish dancing
0:13:00 > 0:13:02or any other kind?
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Well, everybody was always in the pipe bands in this community,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10it was just something that happened in all the rural areas around here.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12I started off as a drum major and then as a piper.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Keep up on that back foot, Jessica.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16'As a young girl, you wanted to dance
0:13:16 > 0:13:19'and you always seen Irish dancers here, there and everywhere,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21'they were everywhere here,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24'but Highland dancing was so different, yet they wore the tartan,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27'they used the music that we knew so well.'
0:13:27 > 0:13:29So it was like that cultural connection,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32but had, like, the girlie side of dance kind of thing
0:13:32 > 0:13:33that we looked for.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37'So there was no teachers in Northern Ireland.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41'We got a girl called Mischa Dodds, who's from Fife,'
0:13:41 > 0:13:44and she travelled across here every weekend for nine years
0:13:44 > 0:13:45to teach us to dance.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47Full points and get your knees out.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50'She would have flew here maybe on a Friday,
0:13:50 > 0:13:51'taught us all day on a Saturday,'
0:13:51 > 0:13:52took me back with her,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55competed all day on a Sunday, took me to auditions.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58She trained me up and put me through all my teaching exams
0:13:58 > 0:14:00and that's what built up the Highland dance scene
0:14:00 > 0:14:01and the competitions then here as well.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Keep them hands up. Up, up, up, up, up, up. Big finish.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09But you must have had no boyfriends, no life, no homework.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12You must have done nothing, but spend much of your youth
0:14:12 > 0:14:15going backwards and forwards to Scotland every weekend?
0:14:15 > 0:14:16When I was part of the Edinburgh Tattoo team,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19it was every weekend from February to August,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21I was in Edinburgh every weekend.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27Do you see yourself as Scots?
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Yeah, absolutely.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32My dad was a member of the Orange Institution.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36In most of the local Orange halls in the Strabane district
0:14:36 > 0:14:39there was a pipe band that would have been part and parcel
0:14:39 > 0:14:42of that community. So you've got...
0:14:42 > 0:14:44You're surrounded by the skill of the Highland bagpipes,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46you're dressing up in tartan,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50so that Scottishness was there from a very early age.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53It's who we are, it's our tradition.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56I have grown now to an age that I am proud to tell the story that I'm an
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Ulster Scots, I'm Scots Irish, and I always say that
0:14:59 > 0:15:02if I'm going to a football match in Scotland, for example,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05and I get off the ferry in Stranraer,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07the hair's standing on the back of your neck.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10It's the only way I can describe it to say,
0:15:10 > 0:15:11"Look, this feels like home."
0:15:11 > 0:15:14As Daddy says, Scotland feels like home, it really does.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16It's like a wee home from home,
0:15:16 > 0:15:17and you get so many friends in Scotland
0:15:17 > 0:15:19and there's so many judges and dancers,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21and we're always coming and going,
0:15:21 > 0:15:22and they're always coming and going.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24So, I don't know if it's Ulster Scots,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27if it's Scots, or if it's Scot Irish or what it is,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30I don't know what the label is but there's something there,
0:15:30 > 0:15:31it's something in us.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Well, there's no doubting the energy in that room,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44and the way that the enthusiasm of one family at the centre it,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48the Kees, has kind of spread into the whole community to pull them in,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51not just to the piping or the dancing,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53but to a kind of Scottishness.
0:15:53 > 0:15:58It's evident that people feel Scottish, and so far from Scotland,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00that's absolutely astonishing.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07Somewhere with a much closer geographical proximity to Scotland
0:16:07 > 0:16:10is Cushendall on the north coast of Antrim.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15It was once part of the Kingdom of Dal Riata,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18ruled from Dunadd in Argyll, where my journey began.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24The connections between this part of Northern Ireland and Scotland
0:16:24 > 0:16:27run deep but they aren't the same as those in Bready.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Cushendall is a place steeped in Irish culture,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35language and Gaelic games.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42A mile above the town are the remains of Layd church.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46Dating from the medieval period,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50the parish is said to be named after a Scottish lady called Lydia,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52who eloped here with her lover.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Its original parishioners were Roman Catholic,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00but after the Reformation
0:17:00 > 0:17:02it became an Anglican place of worship.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08For centuries, Layd church was the chief burial place
0:17:08 > 0:17:09of the MacDonnells,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11who came across from Scotland in the 14th century
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and ruled this part of Antrim for generations.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25And the names inscribed on the headstones - Hamiltons, McCauleys,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29McDonnells and McAllisters - are both Irish and Scottish.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Families with roots in both nations.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42For broadcaster and County Antrim man Liam Logan,
0:17:42 > 0:17:46it's the very complexity of the Scottish-Irish connection
0:17:46 > 0:17:50and how that's fed into the language, to Ulster Scots,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52that particularly interests him.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Liam, can you tell me something about the connection, then,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58between the Glens of Antrim here and the West Coast of Scotland?
0:17:58 > 0:18:00Well, first of all, Lesley,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04you only have to look out at the water there and you'll see Scotland.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06People certainly have been going back and forth
0:18:06 > 0:18:09o'er that bit of water for, not hundreds of years,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11thousands of years.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13If we look at your own background, though, Liam,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15you're not, in a sense,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17born into the traditions you'd expect
0:18:17 > 0:18:19that would lead you to such an interest in Ulster-Scots.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22I mean, you're from a Catholic background yourself.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25I think it's worth noting that language
0:18:25 > 0:18:29doesn't recognise political or religious differences.
0:18:29 > 0:18:30I'm an enthusiast.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33I'm somebody that likes Ulster Scots.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35I like the fact that
0:18:35 > 0:18:39there are particular words and particular phrases
0:18:39 > 0:18:42that enliven the way we speak,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and I think that's what makes us different.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47And my own introduction to Ulster Scots
0:18:47 > 0:18:51came through a family friend called Alec Catherwood.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54And I saw his name written down and I said to him,
0:18:54 > 0:18:56"Hould on a minute." I says, "You're called Catherwood,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59"but it says there your name is Calderwood."
0:19:00 > 0:19:05And I look back on it now, and he gave me a very prescient,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09a very far-sighted explanation as to why that should be.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12He said, "They're both right."
0:19:12 > 0:19:16That's not a very Northern Ireland thing to say.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19He then pointed out that the people I knew up the road called Ellett
0:19:19 > 0:19:21were in fact the Elliotts.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23The people I knew who lived down the road that we knew
0:19:23 > 0:19:27as the Caffels were actually the Caulfields.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31And the people over the road that were his relations,
0:19:31 > 0:19:32he was married onto them,
0:19:32 > 0:19:37we knew them as the Eckisons, but they were in fact the Atkinsons.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39So, I thought it was peculiar.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42I mean, I learned then
0:19:42 > 0:19:44that there was an otherness about the written word
0:19:44 > 0:19:48and the spoken word, and I think that's at the heart of Ulster Scots.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Ulster Scots isn't something
0:19:50 > 0:19:53everyone in the Glens will identify with,
0:19:53 > 0:19:55but the Scots lilt of their accent,
0:19:55 > 0:19:57and the words they use
0:19:57 > 0:20:00certainly straddle both cultural traditions here.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05It's there in many of the shared words,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09but the shared words aren't all exclusively Scots.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12The Auld Alliance meant that
0:20:12 > 0:20:15there was quite a number of French words brought in.
0:20:15 > 0:20:16My favourite was footer.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22Footer, that comes from a medieval French word called foutre,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25so this is part of what's important about Ulster Scots
0:20:25 > 0:20:27and language in general.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32It is not a series of words chiselled onto a granite slab.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34It's a changing thing.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37I think that's why it's relevant still today,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40not that we use every single word that we speak
0:20:40 > 0:20:42as an Ulster Scots word,
0:20:42 > 0:20:47but sometimes the mot juste is an Ulster Scots word,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50so remember that the next time you're footering about!
0:20:53 > 0:20:56And how do you feel about Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic?
0:20:56 > 0:21:00I mean, we're sitting here between all sorts of streams of language.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03People talk about Ulster Scots as being the great link
0:21:03 > 0:21:06between Scotland and Ulster and Ulster and Scotland,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09but that's not really the full story.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11There is a story there
0:21:11 > 0:21:14which is about Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic
0:21:14 > 0:21:18and they're also common tongues both sides of that sheugh.
0:21:19 > 0:21:25There are a number of linguistic rivers that flow into Ulster.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30I mean, we've got all the folk coming o'er here with King Billy
0:21:30 > 0:21:33so there is an Ulster Dutch tradition.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36There is the Huguenots
0:21:36 > 0:21:38who were persecuted out of France, so they came over
0:21:38 > 0:21:40and they brought a lot of their language,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43and if people get an interest in a word,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47if they have a gra for a particular word that appeals to them,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50that fits well in their mouth, they're going to take it,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52no matter where it comes frae.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56I suggest to you that people actually enjoy that fact
0:21:56 > 0:21:58that there are many tongues.
0:22:01 > 0:22:02By drawing attention to the way
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Ulster Scots has borrowed from other languages,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09how it cuts across political and cultural divides,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Liam is challenging the notion that
0:22:11 > 0:22:14it's somehow the preserve of one community over another.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18In East Belfast,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Linda Ervine is also confronting
0:22:20 > 0:22:24long-held prejudices about language and who it belongs to.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32In 2011, she set up Turas,
0:22:32 > 0:22:34an Irish-language project
0:22:34 > 0:22:38that has more than 120 students and ten classes a week,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41something that would have been quite unthinkable
0:22:41 > 0:22:44when I was a girl growing up in East Belfast.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47SHE SPEAKS GAELIC
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Sitting here in loyalist East Belfast,
0:22:53 > 0:22:59it doesn't feel as if Gaelic is part of this tradition or this place.
0:22:59 > 0:23:00No, it doesn't,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03but if you also realise that the townland here is called
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Ballymacarrett,
0:23:05 > 0:23:10Townland of the Son of Art, which of course is a Gaelic place name.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12We have more Gaelic place names, I'm told,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15here in East Belfast than there are in West Belfast.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22When I started on my journey, on my turas of learning the language,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24these were the things that I started to learn -
0:23:24 > 0:23:28our townland names, our place names, our surnames,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32many of the words that we use in our everyday speech are from Gaelic.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36When you went to those first Irish-language classes,
0:23:36 > 0:23:38did you feel a bit of an outsider?
0:23:38 > 0:23:40I suppose I did at first, yes.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45I mean, I, at that time, through my own ignorance, I regarded it,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47I suppose, as many people do, as a Catholic language.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Once you have a deeper understanding
0:23:52 > 0:23:55and a realisation of the true heritage of the language,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57and when I look at Gaelic now,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00and I understand that it was spoken in all of Ireland,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03on the Isle of Man and in most of Scotland.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10There's words I see on your board there
0:24:10 > 0:24:13that actually links Scots and Gaelic,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17like the Scots word for a jumper is a gansey,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20and then it's the Irish word
0:24:20 > 0:24:23and it's the Scots Gaelic word, so there's all those links.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26What's your own backgrounds that's brought you in
0:24:26 > 0:24:28to learning Irish or Gaelic?
0:24:28 > 0:24:30We lost out in the state schools
0:24:30 > 0:24:32because Irish was never taught
0:24:32 > 0:24:34and somehow, I just always felt deprived
0:24:34 > 0:24:36that this was a language that was all round us
0:24:36 > 0:24:40in all our place names and every place we go to, every town,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43it's there, and I even saw it in my mother, who's now 90,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46words she uses are actually Irish words.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49And I think it's such a shame we lost that.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51I had a poem which was macaronic,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54both in English and Irish,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and I went looking to get the Ulster Scots of it.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59And, in fact, I came up here asking
0:24:59 > 0:25:03for the Ulster Scots of it and Linda, she said to me,
0:25:03 > 0:25:05"I can teach you the Irish of it."
0:25:05 > 0:25:09So that's how I, basically, was introduced to come here.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13I came looking for Ulster Scots and I ended up learning Irish!
0:25:13 > 0:25:15I think the attraction, too, is
0:25:15 > 0:25:19you're not identified as belonging to one political party
0:25:19 > 0:25:21or nationality or Protestant
0:25:21 > 0:25:24or Catholic or Unionist or whatever,
0:25:24 > 0:25:29when you're learning your Irish in the surroundings here.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32And I think that's the particular beauty of it.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36This cautiousness about language,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40religion and politics simply doesn't exist in Scotland
0:25:40 > 0:25:43where Gaelic is spoken by people of all religions and none,
0:25:43 > 0:25:45and of every political persuasion.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51I've been over on the West Coast of Scotland a number of times.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53I almost felt a sadness
0:25:53 > 0:25:56because I saw people in Scotland with the music,
0:25:56 > 0:25:58with the language,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01they're Gaelic people but they're Presbyterian people,
0:26:01 > 0:26:07and they were able to enjoy their Scottishness, enjoy being a Gael.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10It's been denied to me because of my religion.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15And yet, because of their position and their religion, they do have it.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19I want people in Northern Ireland to understand
0:26:19 > 0:26:23that this is not about being Irish,
0:26:23 > 0:26:25it's not about being Catholic,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27it's not about being political,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30it's something that belongs to us all.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Tell me a bit about the connection that you're making, really,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35between Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots?
0:26:35 > 0:26:39Up until I started learning Irish, I had no interest in Ulster Scots.
0:26:39 > 0:26:40I thought it was a bit of a joke.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43And then, it was people in the Irish-language community
0:26:43 > 0:26:46who challenged me and said, "No, you need to look at this again."
0:26:46 > 0:26:51I met Scots speakers and I met Ulster Scots people,
0:26:51 > 0:26:53and I started to recognise the beauty of it,
0:26:53 > 0:26:55and the history of it, too.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58I also realised, of course, that it's full of Gaelic,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and Gaelic has borrowed into Scots
0:27:01 > 0:27:02and Scots has borrowed into Gaelic,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05so there's that lovely crossover and that overlap.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08And again, I think it's sad in Northern Ireland
0:27:08 > 0:27:12that we're always trying to divide things up into little boxes.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15And they don't divide up as neatly as that.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19So, for me, Scots, Ulster Scots, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22they are things that impact our English
0:27:22 > 0:27:24every day here in Northern Ireland,
0:27:24 > 0:27:28so it's something we should be able to all embrace and all enjoy.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36What's fascinating about Linda is that her links with Scotland
0:27:36 > 0:27:38are not about her family, they're about language,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41and they're not about the language you'd expect,
0:27:41 > 0:27:43it's not Ulster Scots, it's Gaelic.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48And there's a wistfulness there
0:27:48 > 0:27:51about the ease with which Scots Gaelic speakers
0:27:51 > 0:27:55sit within their own tradition and the politics of the country.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Maybe that's something that Linda would like to see
0:28:00 > 0:28:02happening here in Northern Ireland, too.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09I feel like I've only just dipped my toe into the cultural connections
0:28:09 > 0:28:11between Northern Ireland and Scotland.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16There's so much more to be told,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19but what I've already learned is that it's a much richer,
0:28:19 > 0:28:24more diverse and more vibrant and relevant connection than I imagined.