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My name is Lesley Riddoch. | 0:00:00 | 0:00:02 | |
I grew up in Belfast because my parents, both Highlanders, | 0:00:03 | 0:00:07 | |
moved there for work when I was aged three, | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
then back to Glasgow when I was 13. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
So, I am a Scot. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
And as a journalist and writer, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
Scotland is the focus of most of my work. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
But I've never lost touch with Northern Ireland. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
In this series, I'm going to explore the relationship | 0:00:23 | 0:00:27 | |
between Scotland and Northern Ireland, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:29 | |
how it's expressed through community... | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
I think the southern part of Scotland | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
would nearly be like the seventh county, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
the amount of Northern Irish folk that have moved across. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
..through language... | 0:00:37 | 0:00:38 | |
You would meet somebody every day | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
that you would be tagging "Ulster Scots" to. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:42 | |
..through culture and faith. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:43 | |
And I'm going to meet people on both sides of the North Channel | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
for whom those things that link Northern Ireland and Scotland | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
are an integral part of their lives, their identity and their future. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:56 | |
I don't know if it's Ulster Scots, if it's Scots, | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
if it's Scot-Irish or what it is. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
I don't know what the label is, but there's something there. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
For over a thousand years, | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
the narrow stretch of sea between Northern Ireland and Scotland | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
has been a highway for traders and churchmen, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
seasonal workers and students | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
travelling between our two countries. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
And it's those connections, forged through work and faith, | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
that I want to find out more about. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
Farm labourers may no longer travel to Scotland to dig potatoes, | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
as they once did, but the tradition of buying and selling livestock | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
in the auctions of Stirling and Lanarkshire is alive and well. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
Lawrie Symington Auctioneers in Lanark | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
is one of the biggest marts in Scotland. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
Each year, hundreds of thousands of animals pass through this ring, | 0:02:09 | 0:02:13 | |
from family pets for a pound, to bulls worth | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
tens of thousands of pounds. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
We've a mixed Japanese and Mexican... | 0:02:19 | 0:02:20 | |
Among the 30 staff is farmer and auctioneer David Lowry, | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
from Saintfield in County Down. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:26 | |
Three, I'm bid. Four. ?4. I'm at five. Five. ?5. Six. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
Six. I'm at eight. ?8... | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
'I started in 1976 as a boy | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
'in my local town in Saintfield.' | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
30, 32, 35... | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
'You get the buzz and a kick out of it when the crowd gets going | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
'and the atmosphere is there. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:44 | |
'You get gathered into it as well.' | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
?38. HE BANGS GAVEL | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
?38. There we are, 204. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
I actually hold the world record for auctioning a sheep | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
at 220,000 guineas. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
14. 16? 16, I'm bid. At 16. At 16... | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
So, what actually brought you here? | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
Probably the price of land. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
I could buy land in Scotland for anywhere between | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
?2,000 and, at the very most, nearly ?3,000 an acre. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
And the same land in Northern Ireland | 0:03:11 | 0:03:12 | |
was costing anywhere from ?15,000 to ?20,000 an acre. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
So, that was one big factor, because with only having ten acres, | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
we had to rent quite a bit of land. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
So, we made the decision that we would move to Scotland. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
On April Fools' Day, I bought the farm privately over the phone, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:29 | |
and I remember going up the stairs, | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
my wife was already away to bed, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
and saying, "I have a farm bought in Scotland." | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
And she says, "Ha-ha, April fool!" | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
I says, "Aye, you're either on the bus or you're not on the bus!" | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
And the family ended up in Scotland and never looked back. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:43 | |
David keeps 200 Simmental beef cattle, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
and vet Chris McGregor has come to check on some of them. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
Aye. We've got some fluid in her uterus, certainly. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
Well, that's good news, for a start. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
Yeah, she's in calf, so she is. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
She's in calf, OK? Good. Yeah, just about six weeks. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
About the six-weeks mark? Yeah. Good. That's good news, at least. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
So, are you here checking everyone? | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
Some people will get us to check every cow, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
so that they know which cows are going to calve, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
and also getting a stage of when they are going to calve, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
so they can manage them suitably up until that point. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
Obviously, from your twang, you're a Northern Irish chiel as well. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
Yes. Uh-huh. What took you over here? | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
Initially, I came over to go to university in Glasgow, | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
and after my five years studying there, I got a job with Clyde Vets, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
and I've just stayed so far, so I have. Mm-hm. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:33 | |
So, are you a wee sort of Northern Irish cabal? | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:04:38 | 0:04:39 | |
Or is it just coincidence that there is a Northern Irish farmer | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
and a vet in the same neck of the woods? | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
It's partly a coincidence, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
but I thought when I moved over | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
with family 16 years ago, | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
that I would be a loner and there would be no Northern Irish about, | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
until about after a month I realised | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
just how many Northern Ireland farmers there were | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
within a 20-mile radius of where I had bought the farm. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
So, are there differences, then, in the way that the Northern Irish | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
and the Scottish farmer operate in an auction? | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
In Northern Ireland, they're laid-back. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
And, eh, they see the animal in the ring and they think, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
"That looks a right beast there. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:16 | |
"That would maybe do a job. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
"Will I buy it or will I not buy it?" | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
Back home, you nearly could bid for a beast and go for a cup of tea, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
and come back and still be able to buy it before the hammer goes down. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
Whereas in Scotland, you have 30 seconds to make up your mind, | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
or the lot is through the ring, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
the hammer's down, you've missed that one, | 0:05:32 | 0:05:33 | |
so move on, pick something else. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:35 | |
It seems, quite uniquely, actually, | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
that farming seems to be one industry | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
where there is an active industry spanning the channel. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
So, it's almost as if the channel between Northern Ireland | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
and Scotland is not there? | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
Yeah, I think the southern part of Scotland would nearly be like | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
the seventh county, | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
the amount of Northern Irish folk that have moved across. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:55 | |
It's home from home. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
I knew there were a fair few Ulster folk | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
living in this part of Scotland, | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
but I'd no idea just how much business goes on | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
between the Northern Irish and Scottish farming communities. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
Of course, agriculture isn't the only thing we share. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
One of the most enduring ties between our two countries | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
is religion. And the links between the Presbyterian Church in Ireland | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
and Scotland are particularly strong. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
The first Presbyterian congregations were established | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
in Ireland in the early 1600s by settlers from Scotland, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:41 | |
and there's been a flow of ideas and people backwards and forwards | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
ever since. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
# Make me a channel of your peace... # | 0:06:49 | 0:06:54 | |
I've come to Belfast to meet two Scotsmen | 0:06:54 | 0:06:57 | |
ministering to congregations on the Shankill Road. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
Jack Lamb is originally from Stirling, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
and was called to Townsend Presbyterian Church | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
in 1996. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
# Only light | 0:07:07 | 0:07:12 | |
# And where there's sadness ever joy. # | 0:07:12 | 0:07:17 | |
Just a short walk up the road, Colin Duncan is minister | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
of Shankill Methodist Church. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
Well, we've got a little Scottish enclave here today! | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
But I just wonder, just to start off with you, Colin, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
what was it that brought you over here in the mid-'90s, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:38 | |
which would have been a pretty dodgy time | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
to be coming to Northern Ireland? | 0:07:40 | 0:07:41 | |
Yes, there was quite an interesting reaction to it at that time, | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
to the news that we were coming over here. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
One of them was horror | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
directed towards Brenda, my wife, and myself. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
"Why would you take your children over to that place?" | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
And the other reaction was, | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
"Oh, you're going to Northern Ireland, you'll love it." | 0:08:00 | 0:08:02 | |
And certainly, in our time here, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
we've been at home from the minute of stepping off the ferry, | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
back in 1994. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
I think one of the things I love about Northern Ireland is that | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
you're never going to get a big head over here. No, that's true. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
It's like, back in Scotland, you know, | 0:08:14 | 0:08:16 | |
if you ever thought you're getting up there, | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
there'll be somebody coming along and say, "Oh, I kent his faither." | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
And you'll never get ideas above your station. No, that's true. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
Was there any reaction from your congregation about a Scot | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
coming in to take over the helm? | 0:08:28 | 0:08:29 | |
I think, if the truth be told, | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
sometimes the accent can be an asset. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
For many of them, it's like almost a... | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
a memory, a generational memory. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
"This is an accent from the old country, going back." | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
And they'll tell you, "My grandparents lived in Scotland," | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
or "My great grandparents lived in Scotland, | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
"then they moved over here to get involved in | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
"Harland and Wolff shipyards." Mmm. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
I think that's partly it, Lesley. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
What particularly is it about this community for you? | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
Just the challenge in the Shankill. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:04 | |
I think, as ministers, we've got to face the fact that, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
despite there being... | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
roughly 41 places of worship | 0:09:10 | 0:09:14 | |
in the Greater Shankill area, | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
of the local population attending church services on a Sunday morning, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:21 | |
it's reckoned to be something between 1% and 3% | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
of the local population. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
Coming into the Shankill... | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
This is a very working class sort of community. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
With people, what you see is what you get. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
There's no back doors to them. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
They'll say what they think. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:37 | |
And I find it a very refreshing place to work in | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
from that point of view. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:41 | |
The last few years have been particularly exciting, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:47 | |
because quietly, in the background, | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
there are closer relationships, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
positive relationships happening | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
between what I would want to call the one community. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
The people are struggling with the same issues, | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
and there's just this thought that | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
if they could come together in some way, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
my goodness, they would be a powerful voice, you know? | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
Working class Belfast is the subject of a performance I saw recently | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
at the Edinburgh Festival that made a real impression on me. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
I'm here at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
to meet its creator, Matt Regan. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:39 | |
The millies - | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
they're outside the factory now, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
shouting, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
whistling, | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
watching the afternoon fade | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
till the streets are still. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
Och, there's Belfast being made | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
inside the giant linen mill. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
So, consider the mill. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
Those old machines | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
from the mucky past. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
The show kind of unfolds like an album. There's kind of | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
tracks, little bits. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
And one of the bits, one of the many bits, we talk about - | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
the millies, which is a slang term for women who work in the mills. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
I think there's a very easy, kind of, metaphor about them | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
making fabric and making the fabric of Belfast. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
And a lot of my family were millies, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
so I really connect to them making things. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
And I talk about the Ulster Museum. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
I talk about my experience of Belfast. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
In that superheated atmosphere, you are wet with water. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:45 | |
Your hands are torn | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
and lacerated to the bone | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
for your contribution | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
to the material of Belfast. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
It kind of makes you wonder, actually, why Scots theatres | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
would get behind a piece of theatre that's fundamentally about Belfast. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
Aye, that was one of my concerns early on. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
I was always a little bit worried about, | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
"Do they understand? Or are they relating to this | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
"wee story about Belfast?" | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
And, continually, people really would connect to it. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
Now, you yourself, you've been here since 2010 when you came, | 0:12:17 | 0:12:21 | |
classically, for a couple of weeks and ended up staying. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
What do you make of it? Oh, it's wonderful. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
But it's so similar in so many ways, the people are so similar. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
it's the same kind of sense of humour. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
We have such a similar background of industrialism | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
and sectarianism and divides... | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
And the same kind of... | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
Same kind of taste of the place. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
It was the perfect place for me to come to. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
And all the millies go... | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
HE WHISTLES A TUNE | 0:12:46 | 0:12:48 | |
So I says to him, so I do, | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
"It's absolutely shocking, so it is. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
Och, hiya, Peter. How are you doing, love? Are you all right? | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
Those links that we've looked at. Are they still there? | 0:13:07 | 0:13:11 | |
Are there still links, really, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:12 | |
between Scotland and Northern Ireland? | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
Yeah, definitely. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:15 | |
I think it might be more one-way than a lot of people | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
would like to think. I think it is Northern Ireland looking outwards, | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
and a lot of young people my age looking outwards. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
There's a huge contingency of us over here, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
Northern Irish people over here, who are... | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
contributing over here, and one of the exciting things was, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
hopefully, me bringing this show to life | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
and persuading people to consider Northern Ireland, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
to consider Belfast. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
Glasgow is such a vibrant cultural hub. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
I can't wait to see Belfast like that. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
Matt raises a point I've often wondered about - | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
is the relationship between Northern Ireland | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
and Scotland one-sided? | 0:13:53 | 0:13:54 | |
Certainly, many more young people leave Northern Ireland | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
to live in Scotland than vice versa... | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
..but when you consider the contribution they make | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
to Scottish life and culture, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
I'd say Scotland gains quite a bit from its connection | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
to Northern Ireland. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
Here, you can stop and listen... | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
..to voices... | 0:14:19 | 0:14:20 | |
..in linen. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:23 | |
I've come to the Verdant Works in Dundee, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
A museum dedicated to telling the history of the jute mills | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
that once employed more than 50,000 workers in this city. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:40 | |
MILLS THRUM AND WHIR | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
Just one of these machines makes an incredible noise, | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
and they're just a third of the size of the originals. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
Can you imagine the noise there must have been for the mill girls, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
the millies that Matt sang about, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
working here eight to ten hours a day | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
with these machines clanging away in the background? | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
Jute, which was used to make rope, twine and hessian sacks, | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
was the reason many women with a background working | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
in mills in Ireland came to Dundee | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
in the 19th and early 20th century. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
But the mills have long gone, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:50 | |
and today it's Dundee's universities that draw young people here | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
from Northern Ireland. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:56 | |
It's a tradition that dates back to the 17th century, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
when there was no university in Ulster. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
Then Anglicans went to Trinity College, Dublin, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
but most Irish Presbyterians seeking third-level education | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
came to Scotland. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
Today, Dundee seems to be particularly popular | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
with Northern Irish students, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
and to find out why I'm meeting Kevin Burns, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
vice president of the students' union | 0:16:22 | 0:16:24 | |
and a regular at Scottish and Irish | 0:16:24 | 0:16:25 | |
traditional music sessions that are so popular here. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
So, what is it about Dundee that you like? | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
It's small enough to know everybody | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
and it's big enough to still have loads of things to do. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
It's not one of those cities where it's a bit anonymous, if you know what I mean? | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
You know everybody. Somewhere around 50% of our students | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
are international students, so, they come from everywhere. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
It's an international village, | 0:16:50 | 0:16:52 | |
but it's still a village, it's still very, very small. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
What do you think Northern Irish students contribute to Dundee? | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
Our accents. Honestly, erm... | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
That's true. Yeah, no, it's true. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
I mean, if you walk around this campus, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
you just hear people from all over the place. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
I can almost pinpoint the town they're from, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:07 | |
at this stage. If not, definitely county. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
Students not from Northern Ireland kind of develop a twang. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
I mean, it's an accent that sticks. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:14 | |
That's the thing. You know what I mean? That kind of, the... | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
"De-ne NE ne-ne ne-ne"... | 0:17:16 | 0:17:18 | |
It carries through. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
And does it feel like home from home? | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
Yeah. I mean, home is still home, but I feel established here. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
I feel like I know a lot of people. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
There is Northern Irish people behind every shop counter and bar. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
Musicians? Musicians. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
Oh, loads of musicians. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
You're hard-pressed to find a society or a sports team | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
in Dundee that doesn't have Northern Irish students. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
And also, you know, we bring our own sports over here, | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
and we participate in the, kind of, the native sports here. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
I mean, the shinty team is full of people from Belfast, | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
Gaelic team is full of people from Glasgow. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
The game of shinty is as old as Scotland itself, | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
and it no coincidence that it looks so like hurling. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
Some say the game was brought here by the Irish 1,000 years ago. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:10 | |
But over the centuries, it's developed its own style | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
and rules of play. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
Jenni Cunningham had played hockey back home in Comber | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
and took up shinty when she came to study in Dundee. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
Jenni, you're a Northern Irish lass here in Scotland. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
What on earth would bring you to shinty? | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
Well, I just thought, I've come to Scotland, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
so I might as well try something that's very Scottish. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
So, I've given camogie a crack as well and just thought, | 0:18:32 | 0:18:35 | |
"Why not try shinty, too?" | 0:18:35 | 0:18:37 | |
And tell me about shinty. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
It looks like hockey, but it's a lot freer, shall we say? | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
Well, I mean, it is very similar to hockey. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
A lot of people say it's just a bit rougher. It is a contact sport, | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
but it's not that bad. You know, there are rules, so you can't just flatten someone. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
And, I mean, that's compared to hockey, but compared to hurling or, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
camogie, how does it compare? Is it the same, basically? | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
Well, sometimes some of the hurling ones would come and play with us, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
and they do hurling versus shinty as well, so they are quite similar | 0:18:59 | 0:19:03 | |
in a lot of ways. There's a lot of similar rules. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
It feels to me that Dundee is half-full | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
of Northern Irish students. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:09 | |
I mean, maybe that's just my perception, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
but is that what you feel? | 0:19:11 | 0:19:12 | |
It does feel very much like Belfast, and the people are really friendly. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
It feels like home, you know, | 0:19:16 | 0:19:17 | |
doesn't feel like you've come to another country. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:19 | |
And are you planning to stay here | 0:19:19 | 0:19:20 | |
or leave when you've finished your course? | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
I could actually see myself staying here. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
There's a lot more job opportunities where I'm interested, | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
in Scotland, and I absolutely love it here. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
And you're only a flight away from home or a quick ferry, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
so it's not too far. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:32 | |
It's interesting that all the Northern Irish people I've met | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
who now live in Scotland | 0:19:40 | 0:19:41 | |
express the same idea of it being home from home. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:46 | |
Whether they came here for better work opportunities, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
to buy more land or to study, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
it's that easy familiarity of the place and its people | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
that's allowed them to stay. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
30 miles off the coast of mainland Scotland, | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
the Isle of Lewis is the largest and northernmost island | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
in the Outer Hebrides. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
The history and culture of the island's been shaped | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
by the Vikings and the Celts. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
More people here speak Gaelic than in any other part of Scotland, | 0:20:15 | 0:20:20 | |
and it's one of the few places where the Sabbath is still | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
strictly observed - | 0:20:22 | 0:20:23 | |
everything's closed here on Sunday. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
Those who attend Back Free Church are among the few remaining | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
congregations to sing psalms in Gaelic | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
in the traditional way. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
THEY SING PSALM IN GAELIC | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
We've been listening to this fantastic, emotional, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
powerful wave of sound that is Gaelic psalm singing. Yes, yeah. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
You're the presenter. What is the whole technique? | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
Well, it actually all comes from a very simple melody. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
All these tunes that we have in the Gaelic psalm singing tradition | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
are originated from very simple | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
Lowland and Continental tunes. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
So, what we have done, or what the Gaelic tradition has done, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:24 | |
is they've taken these simple melodies | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
and they have ornamented these melodies | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
with grace notes. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:30 | |
THEY SING PSALM IN GAELIC | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
And then when you put them all together | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
with everyone doing their own thing, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
it should be an absolute horrible noise, | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
but in this amazing way, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
there's a sort of harmony created, if you see what I mean. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:59 | |
It doesn't matter if you're a croaker, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
you will not be heard and nobody will look round at you and say, | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
"That's a horrible voice." It gets absorbed. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
And this mixture of good voices and not so good voices... | 0:22:07 | 0:22:12 | |
..I think makes it what it actually is. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
We are called the Wee Frees, and we're always looked on as dour people, | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
but we're not really, Lesley. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
You know, honestly, I mean, we might appear to be dour, | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
but we're actually quite humorous people. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
HE SINGS IN GAELIC | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
But the other thing that's unique is using Gaelic. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
It actually totally suits the Gaelic style. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:39 | |
Now, people would ask me, "Can this be done in English?" | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
And I said, "Yes, it can, but it won't sound right in English." | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
This system, I think, that we have | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
reflects what I would call the sean-nos Gaelic singing style. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:53 | |
In other words, | 0:22:53 | 0:22:54 | |
what we were allowed to do in the Protestant tradition, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
we were allowed to take what essentially is a secular | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
style of singing into the church. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
THEY SING PSALM IN GAELIC | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
Sean-nos is also an Irish musical tradition, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
and Calum, and members of the congregation, | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
have been invited to sing in Ireland, North and South, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
many times. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:18 | |
See, this connection that we have with Ireland, I think, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
is a very strong connection. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
I sometimes actually think that, musically, we've got more in common | 0:23:23 | 0:23:27 | |
with Ireland than we have with southern Scotland. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
It must be very confusing, though, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
to folk in Ireland when they are hearing Protestants using Gaelic | 0:23:31 | 0:23:36 | |
in song the way you do. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
It seems to confound all the divides within Ireland. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
Absolutely. Because, even now, the vast majority of Protestants | 0:23:41 | 0:23:46 | |
in the North of Ireland, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
they look on the Gaelic as being | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
very much a Catholic thing. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:54 | |
And historically, that's not true, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:55 | |
because the other thing that I find really intriguing... | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
Over in Ireland, historically, they were... | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
The Protestants were singing in Gaelic, | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
because there is a Bible called the McLeod Bible over there. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
Interestingly, they have got the psalm exactly in our meter, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
in the Gaelic language. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
And the thing about the psalms, Lesley, is, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
theologically, you're on safe ground. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
Everyone likes the psalms, whether you're a Catholic or Protestant. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
Well, that was a complete surprise. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
There's music, language and religion in there, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
but not grouped together in the way you might classically think | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
from a Northern Ireland perspective. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
One thing's sure, though, when it comes to culture and tradition, | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
nothing in Scotland and Northern Ireland | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
is as straightforward as you'd think. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
A member of Back Free Church, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
Lisa MacLean, from Bellaghy in County Londonderry, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
relocated to the Isle of Lewis 12 years ago. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
A tenancy had become available in the village | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
that my husband grew up in, | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
so that became something that looked like it was going to be | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
a real opportunity for us to build our own home, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
and, I guess, look at... | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
establishing something on the croft as well. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
One of the first things I actually commented on when I came here was, | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
you know, I couldn't believe there were no hedges. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
It just seemed so strange to have no hedges. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
I think people back home and people here are quite similar. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
I think, probably, the differences I see are in a work context. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
I feel that there's a lot of entrepreneurship | 0:25:32 | 0:25:36 | |
in Northern Ireland, | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
whereas I think what I see here is people maybe think more | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
in a community context. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
In 2010, Lisa became commercial development manager | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
with the Galson Estate Trust, | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
an organisation of local crofters who came together to buy the land | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
that had been in the hands of private landlords for centuries. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
I just think it's just been so inspirational | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
to see people | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
take that ownership and run with it. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
It's just been great to be involved with something that has such a clear | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
purpose, and that's to make the land sustainable for future generations. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
One of the biggest differences here, though, is Gaelic. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
Do you? No, I don't. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
And I have to be honest and say I probably spent | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
a long number of years sort of saying, "I don't need to speak it. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
"I'm fine." | 0:26:31 | 0:26:33 | |
Now, the time has come where I do probably need to start learning. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
One of my children is about to start school next year | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
and he'll be going into Gaelic medium, so, yep, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
I need to brush up on some basic Gaelic | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
to at least be able to help him. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
So, all of that really comes together in the church. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
It's kind of fused together, the music, the religion, the language. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:52 | |
So, how important is your faith to you? | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
Vital importance, vital importance. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:57 | |
I think my faith really is what | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
has helped keep me in such a remote area | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
that I have struggled with at times. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:04 | |
I mean, it's just so vast and so remote here, | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
and home was... The landscape is just so different. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
The openness of here is just amazing and this skies here | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
are just something else, I think. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
They're just huge and amazing, and it's hard | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
not to be touched by creation, really, here. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
Growing up in Northern Ireland, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:29 | |
I always knew that Scotland was our family's home. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:33 | |
I just hadn't realised how many other folk | 0:27:33 | 0:27:35 | |
share those strong cultural connections and family ties. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
In this series, I've discovered those connections | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
aren't just ancient history, or some shortbread-tin version of culture. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:52 | |
The Scots traditions played out in Northern Ireland | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
are alive and kicking. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:56 | |
Language is important to community and identity in both countries. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
One thing that's kept coming up is the ease with which folk | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
from one nation fit and flit to the other. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:10 | |
Whether it's a Scot in Northern Ireland | 0:28:10 | 0:28:12 | |
or a Northern Irish person in Scotland, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:14 | |
they all describe their new surroundings as a home from home. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
1,300 years ago, the North Channel was a bridge, not a barrier, | 0:28:23 | 0:28:28 | |
linking one ancient kingdom of Dalriada. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
Is it really so different today? | 0:28:31 | 0:28:33 | |
True stories from the heart. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:08 | |
I just feel as though the decisions I made when I was younger | 0:29:08 | 0:29:10 | |
have just ruined my future. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
We'll go home and the horses still need mucking out | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
and the animals need feed. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:16 | |
Mightn't be in this particular outfit - | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
I probably will take the hat off! | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
In Islam, it's forbidden to force a girl into marriage | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
without her permission. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:24 | |
Come through that crowd, and the cheering - "Aaaah!" - | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
and you get into that ring, | 0:29:27 | 0:29:28 | |
and everything else fades away. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
True North returns with... | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
You want to make some sort of a deal? | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
By the command of His Majesty, | 0:29:40 | 0:29:42 | |
kill him! | 0:29:42 | 0:29:43 | |
No-one in this city has only one master. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
I do. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:48 | |
Yah! | 0:29:48 | 0:29:49 |