0:00:02 > 0:00:03In the first part of Minding Our Language,
0:00:03 > 0:00:06we looked at the historical roots of the Scots language
0:00:06 > 0:00:09and how it made it over here to Ulster.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11In this programme, we'll be concentrating
0:00:11 > 0:00:15on the rich and varied catalogue of Scots and Ulster Scots literature.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18But first - I know the programme's only started,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22but I reckon you need to be insulted.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43One area where the Ulster Scots language excels itself
0:00:43 > 0:00:45is in the insult.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47It has it down to a fine art.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Your buddy's as lazy as sheugh water.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51He's yin slate aff and the other's slidin'.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Now, you might say you don't know any Ulster Scots,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56but if I was to call you a "sleekit gulpin",
0:00:56 > 0:01:00or a "carnaptious skitter", or a "bletherin' pachle",
0:01:00 > 0:01:01you'd be upset.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04Maybe it's not very good at positive affirmation.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08A lot of the terminology is negative.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10In fact, Ulster Scots has so many words,
0:01:10 > 0:01:15I can give you over 25 insults beginning with the letter G.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18SHOUTING
0:01:23 > 0:01:25A lot of the terms are derogatory,
0:01:25 > 0:01:27but at the same time, they're colourful.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37If you're talking about a "sleekit auld targe" for a woman,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40it'd be very hard to capture or convey that in English.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47It's hard to be as effective in English.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50English has got a much more stilted vocabulary
0:01:50 > 0:01:52for really offending somebody.
0:01:54 > 0:01:55BARMAN:
0:02:04 > 0:02:06At the start of 18th century,
0:02:06 > 0:02:08it looked like Scots in its written form
0:02:08 > 0:02:11was in terminal decline.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13But then, something remarkable happened.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15And it all started with this man.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, in the year 1728,
0:02:20 > 0:02:25was a collection of rural folk poetry and works by Ramsay himself,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28which did much to spark a revival of interest in the language.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32And it featured a poem from William Starrett,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35a man from Strabane.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37He sent this verse epistle to Allan Ramsay,
0:02:37 > 0:02:38who responded to him,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40and both of those poems
0:02:40 > 0:02:42are in Allan Ramsay's book.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44William Starrett's Ulster Scots
0:02:44 > 0:02:46is very dense, very musical, very lilting
0:02:46 > 0:02:48and very definitely not English.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Ramsay's work encouraged the likes of Robert Fergusson.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56Fergusson loved Edinburgh, and his poetry was gritty and urban.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59"Auld Reekie", which is the "wale o'ilka toun",
0:02:59 > 0:03:02which means "the best town in the world" -
0:03:02 > 0:03:05it's the choicest town, "wale" is choice.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08"Wale o'ilka toun" - choice of every town.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10It's a celebration of Edinburgh itsel'.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Everything about it is worth celebrating
0:03:12 > 0:03:14and "auld reekie" means the smoke -
0:03:14 > 0:03:17this really is an approach like James Joyce.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20He celebrates a'thing - everything.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Now, Fergusson in turn was hugely influential
0:03:24 > 0:03:27on Scotland's most famous son.
0:03:27 > 0:03:28No, not Billy Connolly.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31No, not Mel Gibson.
0:03:31 > 0:03:32Robbie Burns.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39We're in the Robert Burns Room.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41This is the Robert Burns committee room
0:03:41 > 0:03:42in the Scots Parliament.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45Is there a room in Scotland not named after Robert Burns?
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Well, I tried to find them when I was First Minister
0:03:48 > 0:03:50and change that, of course.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Robbie Burns is everywhere in Scotland -
0:03:54 > 0:03:57even the hotel we booked here in Stirling.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01Burns stayed here in the year 1786.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04He was upset at the rundown nature of Stirling Castle,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08and so scratched a poem on the second floor window of his hotel bedroom.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11The poem bemoaned the loss of the Stewart line
0:04:11 > 0:04:14and insulted the Hanovers, who had taken over the British Crown,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17describing them as an "idiot race".
0:04:17 > 0:04:20"Who know them best despise them most."
0:04:20 > 0:04:22Realising that this could be quite offensive to some
0:04:22 > 0:04:25and possibly dangerous to himself, Burns came back to the hotel
0:04:25 > 0:04:28a couple of months later and smashed the window.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31By the way, please don't try that at the Europa.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33Now, I'd like to say that our crack team of researchers
0:04:33 > 0:04:36working on this programme knew about this story
0:04:36 > 0:04:38before they booked the hotel.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39But I can't.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42No...it was the only hotel in Stirling that would have us.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45Now, some people are a bit sniffy about Burns
0:04:45 > 0:04:48and all that wearing of kilts and addressing haggises,
0:04:48 > 0:04:50but Burns is worth more than a second look.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54He's celebrated globally. He's a hero in Canada and Russia.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56There are Burns societies all over America.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Bob Dylan claimed inspiration from him.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01And if that's not a good enough reason to read him,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04well, Jeremy Paxman hates him.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06He started writing about 13, 14.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10He was really taken by one of the girls who was helping him
0:05:10 > 0:05:12on the harvest, Nelly Kilpatrick,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14and he thought he'd try his luck
0:05:14 > 0:05:16and he wrote a song for her called Handsome Nell.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19- Right.- So that was his first attempt, really,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21at what he calls "the sin of rhyme".
0:05:21 > 0:05:24"My love is like a red, red rose
0:05:24 > 0:05:26"That's newly sprung in June
0:05:26 > 0:05:28"And I will love thee still, my dear
0:05:28 > 0:05:31"Till all the seas gang dry."
0:05:31 > 0:05:33Very romantic.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36But to be honest, Robbie used to say that to all the girls.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Not to be crude about it, but when it came to his love life,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43Robbie Burns had a wee touch of the Russell Brands.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06In his lifetime, Burns was known as the Ploughman Poet,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09which makes him sound like a kind of rapping Poldark.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13Mind you, Robbie took his shirt off even more often than Poldark.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15He had lots of relationships with different women.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17He fathered at least 13 different children.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19- 13?!- Yeah.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23- By how many different women? - Five, that we know of.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Initially, Burns published to raise money to go to the West Indies.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29He thought one last roll of the dice would be worth a punt.
0:06:29 > 0:06:30And it worked.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32The Belfast Newsletter was the first paper in Ireland
0:06:32 > 0:06:35to print extracts of his work,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38and the first edition of Burns' poetry printed outside Scotland
0:06:38 > 0:06:40was printed here in Belfast.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Burns, interestingly, didn't profit from that,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44so it was...
0:06:44 > 0:06:46- You mean the Belfast people kept the money?- They did.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48- That wouldn't be like us. - It was in the days before copyright.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Now, when Burns wrote in Scots, he often had a glossary
0:06:53 > 0:06:57at the back of his books translating the Scots words into English.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02In Ulster, however, the glossary remained...well, unread, unthumbed.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Why? Well, because everyone here perfectly understood
0:07:06 > 0:07:08every single Scots word.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09If you look at Tam O'Shanter,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12for example, Burns' masterpiece,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14entirely written in Scots, and right in the middle
0:07:14 > 0:07:16of this rollicking, Scots-written ghost story,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18there's a couple of stanzas in English -
0:07:18 > 0:07:20"But pleasures are like poppies spread..."
0:07:20 > 0:07:23He puts that couple of stanzas in, just to demonstrate,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25"Listen, if I'd wanted to write in English, I could have done.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27"I just didn't."
0:07:27 > 0:07:29But besides the romanticism,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32the descriptions of rural life and the love poems,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35there was one other key aspect of Burns' later life.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39MUSIC: Flower of Scotland by the Corries
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Scots Wha Hae is ostensibly about Bannockburn,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05but its firebrand language is also about so much more.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07Scots language was the language
0:08:07 > 0:08:09of the dispossessed and the marginalised,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and through Burns, it was now clearly identifying itself
0:08:12 > 0:08:15with the cause of Scottish nationalism.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18Burns' increasingly nationalist and revolutionary stance
0:08:18 > 0:08:21lost him many friends in the establishment.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24He was an advocate of the French Revolution in the early days,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26until they threatened Britain with invasion.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28He followed the American Revolution as well,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30the Wars of Independence, very keenly.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33I think Burns was an agitator, really, but he had to watch himself,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36because towards the end of his life, he worked for the Crown -
0:08:36 > 0:08:38he was an excise man, or a taxman.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40He had to balance his political views
0:08:40 > 0:08:42with the need to make a living.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45And as the government clamped down,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48well, even the People's Poet got a wee bit scared.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Scots Wha Hae was published anonymously.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56- And Jeremy Paxman hated him. - Um...Jeremy Paxman said
0:08:56 > 0:09:01that...he was a purveyor of "sentimental doggerel."
0:09:01 > 0:09:02I wouldn't have minded that opinion,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05but it was in the preface to a Chambers dictionary,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08so it was a bit naughty of Chambers to do that, I think.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11- So, he's not welcome here. - Yeah, I'd love to show him around.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14- THEY LAUGH Just charge him double!- Exactly!
0:09:14 > 0:09:17There were poets in Ulster writing in Ulster Scots
0:09:17 > 0:09:19before Burns burst on the scene,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22but there is no doubt he took things to a different level
0:09:22 > 0:09:24and popularised poetry.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27He was a massive influence on the Rhyming Weaver poets
0:09:27 > 0:09:31of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41The Rhyming Weavers were a new breed of Ulster Scots writer.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45Many of them were self-taught, they were politically radical -
0:09:45 > 0:09:49some of them were involved in the 1798 Rebellion.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Their poetry drew on the landscape that surrounded them,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55but was also irreverent and deeply egalitarian.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58Of course, in those days, the poet was a bit of a star,
0:09:58 > 0:09:59someone to look up to,
0:09:59 > 0:10:04and the Rhyming Weavers were kind of like the X Factor stars of the 1800s.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09Except, of course, that the Rhyming Weavers wrote their own stuff
0:10:09 > 0:10:11and were quite good.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Mind you, some of the stuff they wrote might surprise you.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20Every walk of human life is contained in the poems,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22if you look deep enough to get them.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24Robert Huddleston certainly dealt
0:10:24 > 0:10:26with the earthiness of human life.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30He has written one particular poem, The Clergyman And The Schoolmaster,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33and yes, it does deal with some very untoward goings-on.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Two wives and the two husbands, the clergyman and schoolmaster,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39had no families, no children, they'd...failed.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42But after a few of these encounters in the bar,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45all of a sudden, the children where blossoming,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and he suggests that if you are having problems in the farmyard
0:10:48 > 0:10:51with your hens and your roosters, perhaps just a little bit of...
0:10:51 > 0:10:54- Mixing and matching. - ..animal husbandry is required, yes.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57So, yes - long before Ashley Madison,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Robert Huddleston told us that adultery was alive and well,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04here in Moneyreagh.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Yes - Moneyreagh.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11The Bangkok of County Down.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Not many people about today.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Must be all "indoors".
0:11:24 > 0:11:27Francis Boyle lampoons this very fancy doctor
0:11:27 > 0:11:29who comes to Donaghadee
0:11:29 > 0:11:33and pretends to be very wealthy and respectable,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36but it turns out that what he's doing in Donaghadee
0:11:36 > 0:11:39is he's taking care of the ladies of the night who are there,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42attracted by the sailors who are in the town.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45It's kind of like the ancient version of a Twitter mob.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49If you want to lampoon somebody and Twitter didn't exist,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51the local poet was the man that you went to.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56Forget statues and awards -
0:11:56 > 0:11:59you know you've made it when you've got a pub named after you.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03In 1951, the great poet John Hewitt
0:12:03 > 0:12:06got a Masters in Arts at Queen's University
0:12:06 > 0:12:10when he wrote a paper on the Weaver poets of Antrim and Down.
0:12:10 > 0:12:11The remarkable thing is,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15when he submitted his paper to the academics and professors,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18they genuinely thought he'd made the whole thing up.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23None of them had heard of these Ulster Scots poets.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25So, they made him take them down to the Linen Hall library,
0:12:25 > 0:12:27take them to Central library,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29take them to the newspapers collections
0:12:29 > 0:12:31and actually prove that these existed.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34So they thought he literally was spoofing his load
0:12:34 > 0:12:35and had made all this up.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37As is often thought nowadays as well.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46James Orr was one of the finest writers in Ulster Scots
0:12:46 > 0:12:47that there ever was.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Orr was a member of the United Irishmen.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51He was an on-the-run.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54He was also a Freemason and a self-taught poet
0:12:54 > 0:12:58of extraordinary ability and humanity.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01He produces pieces that are, um...
0:13:02 > 0:13:04..very, very finely crafted,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07as finely crafted as anything you'll find,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09you know, in the best of English or Irish literature.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12But he never lost his radical principles.
0:13:12 > 0:13:18He is very, very clear about the dignity of the ordinary person
0:13:18 > 0:13:19and that really comes through
0:13:19 > 0:13:22in the Irish Cottier's Death and Burial.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Earlier on, we visited
0:13:52 > 0:13:55the multi-million-pound Robert Burns museum.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Burns' birthplace cottage has been beautifully restored.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07And this is what James Orr gets.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10Not so much as a blue plaque on the outside.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12I mean, come on - even Daniel O'Donnell
0:14:12 > 0:14:14has got his own museum.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16We should be shouting
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Orr's reputation from the rooftops.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21A writer of his calibre,
0:14:21 > 0:14:27who has produced work that reflects a period that is key,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31absolutely key, to Irish history, the Rebellion-Union period,
0:14:31 > 0:14:36and gives us a unique, Northern, Presbyterian perspective on it,
0:14:36 > 0:14:41it amazes me that he's not on the exam syllabus.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Everyone watching this programme has heard of Seamus Heaney.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51But hands up who has actually read lots of his poetry?
0:14:51 > 0:14:53And no, I don't just mean that you know that line
0:14:53 > 0:14:55"when hope and history rhyme".
0:14:55 > 0:14:57Who has read lots of him?
0:14:57 > 0:14:59Don't worry - I'm the same. Most of us are.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Most of us don't actually read an awful lot of poetry.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04But, thanks to this programme,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06I've actually read quite a lot of James Orr.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09And do you know what? He's bloody good.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11He's funny, he's political, he's clever,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14he's a brilliant observer of human life,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17of people and their foibles and flaws.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Orr had a couple of flaws himself.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Because he didn't have a wife to come home to
0:15:24 > 0:15:26and a happy family,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28he was inclined to seek company at an inn
0:15:28 > 0:15:32and just got too fond of the drink
0:15:32 > 0:15:36and of the company of drinkers as a result of that,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38and he seems to regret the amount of time
0:15:38 > 0:15:40that he has to spend with people like that.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43- He wouldn't be the first to do that, now.- No.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Carol said to me, "Tim, whatever you do,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47"please do not call James Orr
0:15:47 > 0:15:50"the George Best of Ulster Scots poetry."
0:15:50 > 0:15:52So I won't.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55All I will say is that when Ballycarry finally gets
0:15:55 > 0:15:58the airport it so desperately needs,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00there is only one contender for the name.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Burns' poetry led to a temporary resurgence in the Scots language.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17But Burns died in 1796 and by the early 1800s,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21the language was suffering neglect and marginalisation.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27The Walter Scott Memorial is the biggest monument to any writer
0:16:27 > 0:16:30anywhere in the world - though, to be fair,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32Jeffrey Archer's not dead yet.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Now, Walter Scott spoke in broad Scots,
0:16:35 > 0:16:37but he wrote in English.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39The only time he ever wrote in Scots
0:16:39 > 0:16:42was when he wrote for rural or working-class characters,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46and that really sums up the position of Scots in 19th-century Scotland.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50A man who speaks Scots in everyday life writes in English
0:16:50 > 0:16:53because that is the only way to get published.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55By the middle of the 19th century,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Scots and Ulster Scots was being actively discouraged in schools.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01The Education Acts in Ireland and Scotland
0:17:01 > 0:17:05confirmed that English was to be the medium of all education -
0:17:05 > 0:17:09all books and all lessons were from now on to be in English.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12A certain snobbery that came in with the education system
0:17:12 > 0:17:14suggested that Ulster Scots was just bad English,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17and so for that reason, people were writing in English instead.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22If I used a Scots word in polite company,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24my mother would tell me off.
0:17:24 > 0:17:25So I might say, "I'm going oot",
0:17:25 > 0:17:27and she would say, "No, you're going out."
0:17:27 > 0:17:28So she'd tell me off about that.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31She thought if you spoke Scots, you'll never get at a decent job,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34like running the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36- Little did she know! - THEY LAUGH
0:17:36 > 0:17:40By 1940, the Scottish Education Department stated
0:17:40 > 0:17:43Scots "is not a language of educated people anywhere
0:17:43 > 0:17:46"and could not be described as a suitable medium
0:17:46 > 0:17:48"of education or culture."
0:17:48 > 0:17:52It meant that school wasn't much fun for the average Scots speaker.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55People were made fun of, at school, particularly.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58They didn't have their culture or their language respected
0:17:58 > 0:18:00and it was very, very damaging for people.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03People came out the other end feeling...unhappy...
0:18:05 > 0:18:09..uncertain about their culture and uncertain about their speech.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12It was... It shut people up. It shut people up.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14Yeah, I think anybody who grew up in the country
0:18:14 > 0:18:16would have that sort of experience.
0:18:16 > 0:18:17Um...
0:18:17 > 0:18:21My mum tells me about kids
0:18:21 > 0:18:23who were literally chased around the classroom
0:18:23 > 0:18:26with the teacher with a cane because they weren't speaking properly.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28It was the same as the proscription of Gaelic.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30It wisna quite as savage
0:18:30 > 0:18:32and it would depend on individual teachers -
0:18:32 > 0:18:34and, of course, a lot of the teachers spoke Scots.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36They were fae these towns and a' the rest of it.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39But there was this idea - "No, no, you have to learn to speak English
0:18:39 > 0:18:41"to get on in the world."
0:18:41 > 0:18:44There was nae concept of bilingualism.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46People's culture, which stretched back centuries,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49their language culture, stretching back centuries,
0:18:49 > 0:18:50treated with utter contempt.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53Given the hostility of the establishment
0:18:53 > 0:18:55to Scots and Ulster Scots,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59it isn't surprising that the literature went into decline.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03Scots literature is almost on its knees
0:19:03 > 0:19:05because naebody is using the Scots language
0:19:05 > 0:19:07to tackle big subjects.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09The people that followed Burns,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11they followed the kind of countryside,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14the couthy side, the wee Scotland.
0:19:14 > 0:19:15There's a lovely poem -
0:19:15 > 0:19:17"Wee, a nice wee word
0:19:17 > 0:19:19"And Scots, too - it maks you proud."
0:19:19 > 0:19:22You ken? I mean, and that's, "Oh, God," you know...
0:19:27 > 0:19:29But suddenly, everything changed.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33In 1926, Hugh MacDiarmid wrote a poem called
0:19:33 > 0:19:36A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Come on - who hasn't done that?
0:19:39 > 0:19:40A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle
0:19:40 > 0:19:42begins wi' an attack
0:19:42 > 0:19:43on the Burns cult -
0:19:43 > 0:19:47the way that this incredibly revolutionary-living poet
0:19:47 > 0:19:50has been turned into a kind of mummified house god.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55I was opposed to certain ideas that were current at that time,
0:19:55 > 0:19:57promulgated by the Burns...
0:19:58 > 0:20:01..Club of London and I decided,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03in consonance with my own character,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05to take a very different
0:20:05 > 0:20:06angle of approach.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42MacDiarmid's real name was Christopher Murray Grieve.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44He was a Communist
0:20:44 > 0:20:46and a founder member of the Scottish National Party.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50He was probably also the greatest Scottish poet of the 20th century
0:20:50 > 0:20:52and he wrote in Scots.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle was like a childbirth in church.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01The shock that suddenly...
0:21:01 > 0:21:03"But, this is nae just a wee dialect.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06"This is a language. This is a modern language."
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Almost single-handedly, he dragged the Scots language
0:21:10 > 0:21:15from its folksy, rural cul-de-sac and put it centre stage.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18I certainly wouldn't be writing the kind of poetry I have written
0:21:18 > 0:21:21if I weren't a Scottish nationalist and a Communist.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37However, even the genius of MacDiarmid couldn't prevent
0:21:37 > 0:21:40the decline of the Scots language.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42As television dominates,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46as the world becomes...becomes interrelated,
0:21:46 > 0:21:53then it is increasingly difficult to defend accents, languages,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55against that power of uniformity.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Interestingly enough, Burns thought that in the late 18th century,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03so the fact that we are still going strong in the 21st century
0:22:03 > 0:22:07is probably a compliment to the robustness of Scots.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11In the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, all the parties agreed
0:22:11 > 0:22:15that Ulster Scots was part of the cultural wealth
0:22:15 > 0:22:16of the island of Ireland
0:22:16 > 0:22:20and the UK government has formally recognised
0:22:20 > 0:22:22both Scots and Ulster Scots as languages
0:22:22 > 0:22:27under the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32Yet, controversy still remains as to the actual status of Ulster Scots
0:22:32 > 0:22:34and efforts to protect and promote the language
0:22:34 > 0:22:38have led to criticisms and problems.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40I can see why people have been...
0:22:41 > 0:22:44..uncertain about some of the production of material
0:22:44 > 0:22:49that has come out of some of the agencies that support Ulster Scots,
0:22:49 > 0:22:50because I've seen them,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53and I'm kind of looking at them thinking,
0:22:53 > 0:22:54"I don't know what any of this means."
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Maybe it's because I'm not from that community,
0:22:57 > 0:22:59but I suspect people in the community
0:22:59 > 0:23:02are maybe looking at this stuff and wondering the same stuff.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04I remember getting a phone call from a neighbour
0:23:04 > 0:23:07that got his single farm payment documentation
0:23:07 > 0:23:11from the Department of Agriculture through the letterbox, and there was
0:23:11 > 0:23:13reams and reams of it in Ulster Scots.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17And this guy was an Ulster Scot and enthusiastic about the language,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20but in typical canny Scots fashion,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22in a time of financial austerity,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25he saw this as being a needless waste of money,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27cos, sure, everybody knows and understands English.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30What Ulster Scots does attract,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32or the notion of Ulster Scots as a language,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35is a kind of payroll vote from certain sectors.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39One of those sectors is Unionist politicians
0:23:39 > 0:23:42and in a way, it's a kind of shibboleth.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45When people who speak the language see these documents
0:23:45 > 0:23:47and they read these words, they think,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49"Well, that doesn't have anything to do with me.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51"What's that about? Why are they doing this?
0:23:51 > 0:23:53"Who are they doing it for?" Now, these are sensible
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and perfectly reasonable questions for people to ask.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58Why shouldn't they? It's their money being spent.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03So, is it a language that needs laws and bilingual translations?
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Or does it just need a wee bit of encouragement in education?
0:24:07 > 0:24:11Well, you'd have to be a politician to decide that, and...apparently,
0:24:11 > 0:24:12they're a bit busy at the moment.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15We need to stop the bickering over language.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18One of the things that amazes me is that we are still not
0:24:18 > 0:24:20teaching children in schools Ulster Scots.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22We don't have the textbooks
0:24:22 > 0:24:24and we don't have a GCSE in Ulster Scots,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26so that's the stuff to focus on.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29I've no problem with people translating stuff and putting it in ads,
0:24:29 > 0:24:31but that is not how you revive a language.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Mark, there are people who are sceptical about Ulster Scots.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Give them a few ideas of where they would really enjoy
0:24:36 > 0:24:37Ulster Scots literature.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39Definitely have a look for Ballads of Down,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42by George Francis Savage-Armstrong - great stuff.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44And have a look at things by John Clifford
0:24:44 > 0:24:46or by WG Lyttle or Archibald McIlroy.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Somebody like Charlie Gillen, talking about whenever
0:24:49 > 0:24:51all the farmers knew the names of individual cattle
0:24:51 > 0:24:54right through to buying a second-hand computer
0:24:54 > 0:24:56or commentating about the rituals of courtship.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59This doesn't involve Tinder, then? This is kind of...
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Tinder? That's something you light the fire wi'.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05I'd like to see an Ulster Scots version of that!
0:25:05 > 0:25:08All languages are different. As somebody once said,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12a language is just a dialect with an army and a navy.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16Who knows if they'll get an army and navy in there?
0:25:16 > 0:25:19But as we've seen, Scots was the language of the monarchy
0:25:19 > 0:25:21and the government of Scotland,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23and while it certainly was similar to English,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25it was also distinct as well -
0:25:25 > 0:25:29the same way Norwegian is similar to, but distinct from, Swedish.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Speaking to a number of Scots language activists,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35certainly there is an underlying nationalist agenda.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39They spoke about respect, esteem, about culture being valued.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42They say Scots was the way their grannies and their cousins spoke
0:25:42 > 0:25:45and it doesn't deserve to be mocked or derided.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48They don't speak that way just to get a grant.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52So, what implications does that have for the Ulster Scots?
0:25:52 > 0:25:55What would you say to people in Northern Ireland who say,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58"Look, Ulster Scots, I don't need it, it's not part of my life,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01"why should we bother paying money for it, for instance?"
0:26:01 > 0:26:02I would say to these folk,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05do you really want your bairns and your grandchildren
0:26:05 > 0:26:07to lose a' this heritage?
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Everything that's been written in Ulster Scots,
0:26:10 > 0:26:15the way that Ulster Scots expresses the reality o' Ulster,
0:26:15 > 0:26:16do you want that just to dee?
0:26:16 > 0:26:20To be lost forever as a living force?
0:26:20 > 0:26:22Cos there's nae need for it. It's nae very expensive.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25You just stop correcting the children in the classroom.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27You encourage the children to use these words.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29There is something very soothing, something unique,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32something lilting and musical in it, you know?
0:26:32 > 0:26:35It makes me feel my Scottish ancestors.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38There is just something very hamely about the hamely tongue.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43It's really important to hang on to distinctiveness
0:26:43 > 0:26:47and personality and accent and language, wherever you can,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51and, you know, we should nourish and protect it,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54because it's what makes life worth living.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56There is a richness about the Scots language
0:26:56 > 0:26:59of which...few can be surpassed.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01It's part of your ain identity
0:27:01 > 0:27:05and if you're a' just speaking a kind of computer language,
0:27:05 > 0:27:06where are you?
0:27:06 > 0:27:07Who are you?
0:27:07 > 0:27:10The programme should be called Minding Our Languages,
0:27:10 > 0:27:12because all the languages spoken here,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15all the indigenous languages - English, Ulster Scots and Irish -
0:27:15 > 0:27:18they are all our responsibility and our duty to support
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and to promote and to protect them.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27You can't insult a language. It's a thing. It is inanimate.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29It can't answer back.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Dictionaries aren't going to fly off a shelf and attack you.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34So, when you mock Irish or Ulster Scots,
0:27:34 > 0:27:38you're basically mocking those who speak it, who learn it,
0:27:38 > 0:27:39who value it and enjoy it -
0:27:39 > 0:27:43which means I probably have a few apologies to make.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Now, I doubt I'll convince everyone that Ulster Scots is a language.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49I'm not 100% sure myself.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52But let's take the politics out of it.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57I hope I've shown you that, even if you think Ulster Scots is a dialect,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59it also has proper linguistic roots.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01It has a history and a literature
0:28:01 > 0:28:04and therefore, it deserves some respect.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06And besides that, well,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10it's something that...something that's just a bit of craic.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14"Craic", by the way, is a Scots word. Not Irish.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16That's another programme entirely.