Episode 6 Santer

Hello, there, and welcome once again to Santer.

On this programme, Leslie Morrow takes up with Dean McAuley

at the sheepdog trials in Cairncastle...

'This is Joe, great hill dog.'

So, you stick with that, if you get a dog that you like, that's...

-If you get a dog that you like, it's half the battle.

-Aye.

..Paula McIntyre fries up a good Ulster-Scots feed

in a Ballymoney chip shop...

'Need to let it to cool a minute or two'

because it would just burn the whole bake off you!

..Frank McLernon tells us all about a memory he has had from he was a wean...

"Och," she said, "I'll tell you, son,"

she says, "it's the living death."

Well, that scared the wits out of me!

..and Mark Wilson rounds off his musical journey across Scotland

in Campbeltown.

It's obvious that the music and the instruments HAVE travelled back and forwards

across that little bit of water for hundreds of years.

But afore all that, here's Eddi Reader with yin of my favourites,

Wild Mountain Side.

# Beauty is within grasp

# Hear the Highlands call

# The last mile is upon us I'll carry you if you fall

# I know the armour's heavy now I know the heart's inside

# It's beautiful, let's go over The wild mountain side

# Snow is falling all over Out of clear blue skies

# Crow is flying high over You and I are going to wander

# High up where the air is rare Wild horses ride

# It's beautiful just roamin' The wild mountain side

# Wild and free we'll roam

# Only a mile to go

# Aaaa-ooooooo-aaaaa-oooooo

# Wild and free we'll roam

# Only a mile to go

# Beauty is within grasp Hear the Highlands call

# The last mile is upon us

# I'll carry you if you fall

# I know the armour's heavy now I know the heart inside

# It's beautiful just over The wild mountain side

# It's beautiful, let's go over The wild mountain side

# Let's go over

# Ooooooh. #

Boys, I'm quare ready for a feed

and I know, in the town, the chip shop to go to,

the yin where Sharon Brownlow is.

Would you like salt and vinegar? Right.

I wonder if Paula McIntyre's anywhere about?

Paula, this would be a bit of a first for you in a chip shop?

-Aye but this is great, I love this.

-What are you making?

I'm going to make, it's...

We've got coalie here and monkfish, Anne.

-I know you like fish, so...

-I do.

Coalie...and what I'm going to do is bread them,

you know, like you do for breaded plaice, or whatever.

These are Veda crumbs, I'm sure you don't use these here, do you?

-No, we do not, they'd be a bit black looking!

-THEY LAUGH

And Veda is very Ulster-Scots -

it was invented in Scotland and they only make it here.

-Used to make it everywhere, all over the UK.

-Aye, it would do rightly.

Do you like Veda and cheese on a Sunday evening?

It's all right now and again, I would eat it if I was stuck.

Aye, well, you can try this here.

I would eat most things, that's why I'm the size I am!

THEY LAUGH

You're going at that big a rate, Paula.

Ah, but I'm not really, I'm not really.

She's looking for a job in here too. I'll maybe lose mine!

I'll tell you what, I used to work here, Sharon, this is where I had my first job.

-Aye, this was The Starfish then.

-Right? Hey, that's some time ago -

I was only a wean in the pram then, so I was!

That's ready to go now.

Easy now, in case you burn yourself.

Dinnae stir the things cos see if you stir it,

you hae to wait till they come up to the top

cos if you dinnae, it would take the breadcrumbs aff it.

You want it up here, up on the thing here, now?

This has been my life's ambition, honestly, to do this.

You're brave and quick at learning, like.

Anne, that's the wild garlic dressing.

Need to leave it to cool a minute or two

because it would just burn the whole bake off you!

Gorgeous.

I think the breadcrumbs are nice, aren't they?

-Sure everybody likes Veda, don't they, too?

-It's nice.

It's nice, so it is.

-Would you like salt and vinegar, Tristan?

-Aye, I wouldn't mind.

-Oh, aye, Anne!

-There you go, Tristan!

So, what else can we deep fry?

Well, Sharon was mentioning the Mars Bars,

but we'll do a slightly healthier version with apples,

like apple fritters.

I'm going to put some oats cos that's very Ulster-Scots

and gives it a nice wee, sort of, texture as well.

-So, in here I've flour and just a wee pinch of baking soda.

-Right.

-I'll heap it in, whisk that round there, Anne.

-Right.

-Keep whisking then.

-So you're putting cider in it?

-Uh-huh.

-Right.

-And that sort of gives you a light batter, OK?

-ANNE LAUGHS

-Try and keep it in the bowl!

-I'm trying to.

See pouring and stirring at the same time?

That couldnae be on.

Just tap that off, Anne, and I'm just going to stir the oats in.

So there's stirring and beating with this batter carry-on.

And that's it, that's lovely.

Just let that rest just for a second, then, OK.

I must say...

-that smells lovely.

-Lovely, aye, yes.

-And then just cut through the apple, Sharon.

-Were ye up raiding the apple trees whenever you got that?

-Oh, yes, absolutely, aye!

-THEY LAUGH

And then all you do is take a bit of the flour,

just regular flour, all right.

OK, so, we'll just shake that.

I'll just throw them into the batter, look.

Just give that a good old stir-round.

Then these go into the deep fat fryer.

Just drop them in nice and easy in case you roast yourself.

-That's it, you're catching on!

-Look at that there.

-I tell you.

-Aye, they're lovely, aren't they?

-See if the old teaching goes for me,

-I'll be down here, Sharon, taking your job!

-Oh, aye!

Your oil's lovely and clean, isn't it? Beautiful.

-Aye, that's changed every day and that.

-That's the key, isn't it?

-It is certainly.

That's what makes a good chip shop, isn't it? Good clean oil.

-You know, you can tell, you can tell by the...

-Aye.

-And what are you doing next, Paula?

-I'm just, I'm going to just a wee sprinkle of just cinnamon sugar

and then we'll cut it up and let everybody try it.

OK, so it's nice and soft, Anne, it's still quite hot, there.

-And what I've got here is clotted cream...

-Lovely.

..just with a wee bit of cinnamon just thrown in. So, there you are.

You know what they say? You have to be bad sometimes!

Mmmm, gorgeous.

-Nice?

-Aye.

-Nice?

-It's nice, aye.

-Taste the cinnamon in it?

-Aye.

OK, Sharon, last bit's for you.

-Lovely.

-It's like a healthy doughnut, isn't it?

I'm sure most of you aw has a memory that has stuck in your head fae when you were weans?

For Dervock man, Frank McLernon,

his was the day he had a wee jouk into a gathering in the Orange Hall.

'I remember when we were growing up as weans, every now and again,

'either in the Orange Hall, or some of the church halls,'

there was a do on.

And folk were bringing sandwiches and bread and...

all sorts of baked fancy goods, I suppose, that they had then.

And you'd ask, "What's this for?"

"Oh, it's somebody's farewell do."

Well, as a wean I suppose you just nodded your head and said, "Aye,"

and of course whenever your mother and father and them was away to these dos,

that gien you a wee bit of free time to get oot

that you werenae allowed otherwise.

And I mind yon nacht there was a do in the Orange Hall

and we went all up

and they were slipping oot and down to George Callan's pub

and you'd hae waited till somebody came oot

and then you'd hae caught the door

and you'd have peeped in to see what was going on.

And the whole hall was done with buntings

and there was folk all dressed

and there were folk sitting at a table with a book.

And everybody was gay and happy

and there was a taste of drink going, illicitly.

No-one's supposed to drink in them halls, but...

they'd drink in anyway.

All of a sudden...

the whole place just went quiet...

and there was this yin here and this woman had her handkerchief out and she was snuffling

and folk were greeting and comforting another and hug another

and the Minister, he gien tae himself, and he got up

and he said prayers and wished them bon voyage, whatever that meant...

for I surely hadn't a clue at that age.

And I mind yin time I asked the question and me granny was there...

and she put her hand on my shoulder,

her wee old bony hand, and she says,

"Och,' she said, "I'll tell you, son,"

she says, "It's the living death".

Well that scared the wits out of me!

So I started to think more about it as I got older

and you know, it's true.

Loads and loads of families were broke up.

They went to the Americas, they went to Australia, South Africa, Canada.

You couldnae mourn for them, for they werenae dead...

but they were away and there were nae way back.

And it was then I started to understand

what they meant by, "The living death".

I often wondered...what happened to a lot of them.

Oh, I know every now and again you hear about the odd one that

made themselves a fortune and became millionaires,

but, hey, they were few and far between.

And, sure, the same thing's happening now.

Young yins are leaving and going here and going there,

but at least, nae odds where they go,

with the world being a whole lot wee-er,

they can always get home again.

You know there's sometimes the weans and other yins will say to me,

"Frank, you spend far too much time thinking of past things,"

but my granny always told me,

"You see, if you dinnae remember what happened

"and if you don't remember the history,

"it has a wild nasty habit of coming up behind you and biting you

"cos history always repeats itself and it always will."

Well, all through this series, we have been following Mark Wilson

on his musical journey across Scotland.

His journey ends this week

as he gets the length of the Mull of Kintyre.

This has been a great musical journey,

but unfortunately now I'm on the last leg of it.

Having started in Carlisle,

I went through the border region to Portpatrick and then up to Dunoon.

I'm now travelling south, down the Mull of Kintyre to Campbeltown.

I've now arrived here on the very tip of the Mull of Kintyre

and you don't need me to tell you

that one of the most famous songs ever written and recorded

was a song of that very name by Sir Paul McCartney,

but what you probably don't know

is that the pipes and drums who played on that recording

was the pipe band from this very town, Campbeltown Pipe Band.

On a personal level, that brings back very fond memories for me.

That was the first record that I ever bought

and jammed along to as a young boy,

but there's a more ancient musical connection between this part of Scotland and Ulster

and that's in the style and the playing of the fiddle.

Archie McAllister,

you're one of the top fiddle players in the world of Scottish music.

Now you grew up and were raised here in this very town of Campbeltown.

'I live just, sort of, 20 miles across from Ireland.'

We've definitely had an influence from the Irish playing,

as well as the Irish have had an influence from us as well,

but we are aware of that

and the more we play in, sort of, folk bands here in Campbeltown,

I was getting more and more into the, kind of, Irish scene,

as well as other influences, like Shetland or whatever.

Now people think, "Oh, fiddle playing's fiddle playing,"

-but there's different styles basically all over the world.

-Yes.

And even in Scotland there's a slightly different style

between the west coast and the east coast.

I know you've studied and learnt within the east coast style,

but, at heart, you're a west coast and Lowlands fiddle style player.

Oh most definitely, aye, definitely.

'It stems from the piping tradition.

'In piping, you know, they use grace notes

'and we sort of try and imitate what the pipes do,'

you know, with grace notes, you know, on the fiddle.

Can you give us a wee demonstration of that, Archie?

Yeah, I could hear at the end, you know, there's the little grace notes coming in

to help make those notes stand out and be defined a little bit more.

You can do it with your fingers

or you can do it with the triplet on the bow.

But you find no problem in playing the fiddle along with the pipes?

Especially here on the west coast because they're the same style?

Not at all.

As long as it's mic'd up with the pipes, you know?

They're that blooming loud!

'Those styles on the west coast of Scotland and the north of Ireland

-'are very, very closely related and very similar.

-That's right, yes.'

Even in Antrim as well, you know, it's very closely related, the style, you know,

but there is a big difference, you know, like in ornamentation

on the left hand of the fiddle,

where in Scottish music from the north-east,

it's a lot of work on the bow.

And where's that style from, Archie?

That's, er, north-east,

well, it's my take on the north-east style.

In the north, they'll probably say,

"That's a west coaster playing north-east!"

'Thanks for letting me have a wee tune with yourselves.

'I found it really, really easy and a pleasure playing along with yourself'

and your brother, Alec. Two great, great musicians that, er,

yeah, I think you're keeping the Scottish traditional music

alive here in this part of Scotland

-and that's helping keep it alive over in Ulster as well, too.

-Thank you.

I've now come to the end of my musical journey through Scotland,

one in which I have felt a personal connection,

both historically and culturally along every mile that I've travelled

because my Lawson and Wallace and Wilson ancestry

is all from this part of Scotland.

Although, on a misty day like today,

it's hard to see across that little bit of the North Channel to Ulster,

it's obvious that the music and the instruments

HAVE travelled back and forwards across that little bit of water for hundreds of years...

and long may it continue to do so.

'Now then, do you know the difference in a bake and a neb?

'Nae better pair to ask than Liam Logan and Gary Blair.'

Of course, Gary, the Ulster-Scots has a whole different way

of describing body parts.

-That they hae.

-Starting, maybe, with your head.

-Right.

And when you were younger, did you ever get a slap in the ear?

Never a slap in the ear, as often as a, "Clash in the lugs".

-Did that happen to you often?

-As you can tell, it did, aye!

-Out front is your neb.

-Aye, that's your nose, there.

-And down below your nose is your mooth.

-That's right.

If somebody wanted to tell you to keep quiet,

-they maybe would have said, "Shut yer gub".

-That's right, aye.

But if they were more polite, they'd have different ways of doing it.

Aye, or my Granda had a great habit of saying, "Houl yer tongue,"

and whenever my uncle's grand-daughter came over from England to stay with us,

and he gien that roar one day, "Would ye houl yer tongue," they were lost, dear love her.

Like that, there. Not knowing how long to do it for!

Of course you would also say, "Houl yer wheesht."

"Houl yer wheesht," aye, that's right.

It must be difficult if you're coming in from an outsider's point of view.

Say if you were a doctor and a patient came in with an Ulster-Scots tongue in their head.

Aye, it wouldn't be easy, I would say all the Latin they hae learnt

and all the medical journals that they read, they'll not find a cure

for a "Razor sore thrapple," or "A pair a sore een."

-Which would be sore eyes.

-It would be.

The other thing - if you were dealing with somebody that was very able,

somebody that was very shrewd, you would say,

"He would take the eye out of your head

"and tell you you were better looking without it!"

-Aye, did you ever do that?

-Not me, Gary, I'm a decent fella.

I would say you maybe hae a collection of een in the house,

I would say you hae!

WHISTLING

'Dean McAuley has a powerful good relationship with his twa dogs

'and they enter competitions baith at home and abroad.

'Leslie Morrow caught up with Dean

'at the sheepdog trials in Cairncastle.'

Ah, ah, ah, ah, out! Ah, ah, ah!

Are you happy enough with that run yourself?

If I'd got the first gate, I'd be happier,

but I was happy enough to get finished.

They penned up well, there.

Aye, they went in quick and shed quick.

Good start, good finish,

-but a bit in between there was...

-Let me down a bit.

-Aye.

HE WHISTLES AND SHOUTS

This here's Jim, he's coming six years old.

I've had success with him.

I run One Man and His Dog with him running and Young Handlers in Wales.

I won one with him there two weeks ago.

-Jim's very keen now.

-Very keen, aye?

-He's not even lifting his eyes off the sheep, there, at the minute.

-Stay, stay.

This dog here, this is Joe.

He was about two year old when I got him

and he wasn't doing an awful lot

and then I broke him and then he settled.

He's turned into a good dog,

probably he's my, the best I have, probably the one that I won't sell.

Aye, you stick with that, if you get a dog that you like, that's...

-If you get a dog that you like, it's half the battle.

-Aye.

-You'll hae a great relationship with the two dogs then?

-Aye.

Whenever you're out with them every day, you get, you bond to them.

HE WHISTLES

Some of the commands there, you're whistling and you shout at them,

but tell me, go through some of the calls there.

Jim's, to the left, is, back out, and it's...

HE WHISTLES

For a wee, just a wee right, a small one, not fast, it's just...

HE WHISTLES

-And for a right one, it's...

-HE WHISTLES

-..for a big one.

-And that's for Joe?

-Joe's left's, get by, and his is...

-HE WHISTLES

-And his stop is...

-HE WHISTLES

-His right's, away to me, and it's...

-HE WHISTLES

How long did it take you to learn to whistle like that?

Oh, that was one day coming home from school I learnt that.

-Yin day coming home fae school?

-One day coming home from school.

-All in yin day you learnt how to whistle?

-I learned how to.

It wasnae sweet for a while, but I learnt how to do it.

The Sheepdog Trials have been running at Cairncastle from 1936

and even if they don't attract the crowds of folk they did years ago,

there's them that wouldn't miss it.

What do you think of the quality of stuff there today?

Oh, real top class, that, today. It's going well, isn't it?

Those sheep know fine rightly that dog's controlling them.

It's interesting to see the dog operating.

A whistle and it drops and a shout and it gets up and...

To me, it's just yaldering and whistling,

but the dog knows what it's about.

-You'd think there'd be more women into...

-There are a lot of women.

-Is there a lot of women?

-Aye, very much.

Cos they like roaring and shouting and whistling

and getting you to obey and stuff!

Do you see much of a change in trialling over the years?

Oh big changes, like men turned out complete families

and men were there dressed in their Sunday best

with their dark suits and their brown boots, polished up.

Years ago when they were trialling? There with the wife and weans

-and it was a day out for the whole?

-Oh, aye, collar and tie job, then.

And what really made this trial

-was that we'd very strong Scottish support.

-Right.

And that brought the Ulster men out too...

-just to see the Scottish dogs.

-Aye.

He's going now onto a nice line to the first gate.

-Straight line to the next set of gates?

-Yeah.

-No too much speed, just nice and...

-Nice and steady, oh, aye.

How many points have you to start?

It's out of 100 points on the whole course.

He came too far down to the left,

wasted a couple of points coming off that

and you hae nine minutes to do it,

but you don't want them twisting wi' you, for it's wasting time that you might need to finish.

It sounds easy, you know, when you say you just go through them gates

in a straight line, fae there to the next point.

-No, it's not easy.

-Not easy.

-Do you ever get frustrated with them?

-You get them days, all right!

-You get frustrated and do a lot of roaring and shouting at them?

-Aye.

-HE SHOUTS

-They stand a fair bit of shouting at them. Would anybody else stick that?

-I wouldn't have thought so.

Well, sadly, that's near enough it from Santer,

but dinnae worry, we'll be back in the spring.

And during that series, Mark Wilson takes off on another musical journey

fae Donegal across the Atlantic to Canada and into the States.

Among the artists he'll be meeting there

are the brilliant Madison Violet from Nova Scotia.

And what better way to end the programme than them playing us out?

See you early next year, cheerio!

# No, it won't be easy But I'll bite my tongue

# Give myself completely While the fight is still young

# It's a premonition Of the things compelled to come

# There ain't nothing I can do That ain't already been done

# Stuck in love Stuck in love gone wrong

# Stuck in love That cared more about the song

# Stuck in love Stuck in love gone wrong

# There ain't nothing left to sing That ain't already been sung

# I remember the days when my heart felt fast asleep

# I was dreaming of days when they held lovers in the keep

# I was thinking of nights we would have walked to different beats

# Ain't no promise I can make For crying through my teeth

# Stuck in love, Stuck in love gone wrong

# Stuck in love That cared more about the song

# Stuck in love Stuck in love gone wrong

# There ain't nothing left to sing That ain't already been sung

# Stuck in love Stuck in love gone wrong

# Stuck in love That cared more about the song

# Stuck in love Stuck in love gone wrong

# There ain't nothing left to sing That ain't already been sung. #

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