Encouraging response to Ulster Scots podcasts for language week initiative

The eleven podcasts were broadcast during Ulster Scots Leid Week, November 23 to 27, and included a focus on placenames, wildlife and birdlife, poetry and readings of Ulster Scots work.

The extensive programme of podcasts included an introduction to Ulster Scots language and personal reflections by prominent Ulster Scots historian Dr David Hume, who devised the programme.

He was assisted by local poet and writer Davy Moore and readers Robert and Helen Stewart.

Davy Moore presented a podcast of his poems, detailing how they came about and what influenced him as well as his early experiences of Ulster Scots growing up in Kilwaughter.

Robert and Helen Stewart read extracts from W. G. Lyttle, a prominent writer in Ulster Scots in the latter 19th century, including ‘The Trip Tae Glesco’ as well as local poems by writers such as James Orr, John Clifford and Forsythe Gregg among others.

There was also a programme on the life and works of James Orr, Bard of Ballycarry, who is regarded as the foremost of the Ulster Scots weaver poets.

The podcasts were part of the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s Good Relations programme, funded by the Executive Office’s ‘Together: Building a United Community Strategy’.

The Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Councillor Peter Johnston, said he was delighted at the numbers who had accessed the various podcasts and that they had been an educational and entertaining way to learn more about Ulster Scots.

Click here to read: Blue plaque tribute to Larne’s Ulster Scots studies founder

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