An American's observations on Northern Ireland culture

by Glen Pratt

The faces! The faces belonging to the plane load of my fellow Belfast-bound travellers were what I noticed first. I was struck by how familiar they looked. One could pluck up those around me and set them down in the Appalachians, the Ozarks, East Texas, or 100 other places in the rural Upper South of America and no native would be able to discern between themselves and these folks. It is no wonder really considering that these areas of America were settled in the main by Ulster-Scots. Now, I was finally coming to see the homeland of the Ulster-Scot.
It has long been a dream of mine to visit my ancestral home of Northern Ireland. This July, I came at the invitation of my good friend Maynard Hanna of the Schomberg Society in Kilkeel, Co Down, to participate in the events surrounding the Twelfth including the Border Reivers Festival there. Better hosts I could not have had than the Hannas - Maynard, Anne, Tracy, and Maldwyn.
Kilkeel, centre of Ulster-Scots faith and family, is a coastal community of farmers and fishermen where the Mourne Mountains meet the sea. Kilkeel is home to a warm people who really opened their arms to me making me feel like family. In a way, I seemed to already know these people and felt a kinship with them immediately. They are the same people I grew up with in the farming and ranching areas of the Oklahoma and Texas of my youth. To a Southerner or Texan, these people of the Mournes would strike one as good ol' 'down-home folks'. And why not? Ulster-Scots are the architects of 'down-home' in America. We are cut from the same cultural cloth.
I was so fortunate to spend my time in a small town where I could really get to know the people personally who I passed on the sidewalk time and again or saw at festival events. I came to know them on a first-name basis. Soon, it was "Hello Glen. How're ya doin' today?" I now count the Hannas, Donaldsons, Nugents, McConnells, Pattons, Martins, and others among my friends.
Throughout the Border Reivers Festival, I could not help but be impressed by the vigorous and essential work of the Schomberg Society. Headquartered in aptly-named Reivers House, the Schomberg Society serves as an umbrella organisation to a number of community and volunteer groups advancing the education of the Ulster-Scots tradition in the area. The Schomberg Society serves as a model for other communities throughout Ulster to emulate as a local way to lead the Ulster-Scots cultural reclamation. Festival attendance by Dr. Noel Flannery and Dorothy Cantrell, of the Irish Peace Institute in Limerick, lends testimony to the cross-community appeal of such organisations and events. Insightful discussions with them yielded a fuller picture of the positive role that organisations like the Schomberg Society have to play in today's culture.
Maynard Hanna hosted me to a whirlwind of activities during my two-week stay. These included marching with the Schomberg Fife and Drum in Kilkeel's Eleventh Night street pageant as General Ginkel in period dress, hearing an insightful lecture on W.F. Marshall by Gordon Lucy, witnessing the procession at Scarva, and attending all the Border Reivers Festival concerts, reenactments, and other events.
With Maynard, I also visited the Ulster Society, the office of the Ulster-Scots Agency, and the Orange Order's Schomberg House, all in Belfast. I was introduced to Unionist politicians Nigel Dodds, Danny Kennedy and Jeffrey Donaldson.
I was interviewed by Paul Clark of UTV. And I finally met the grand old lion of the Ulster-Scots Renaissance, Lord Laird of Artigarvan. We manned the 17th-century reproduction ship, which I nicknamed the 'HMS Diaspora', in the Belfast Twelfth parade along with Mourne men Maynard Hanna, Ivan Martin, and Jim Donaldson.
Never before have I seen such patriotic enthusiasm as that I experienced in the Belfast parade with bands playing, crowds cheering, applause erupting, and a genuine zeal for oneÕs heritage evident everywhere. Of course, the omnipresent Union Jack fluttered above all. I was familiar with the Twelfth before my visit, but I had no idea about THE TWELFTH. I had 'The Sash My Father Wore' memorised by noon.
Maynard Hanna also gave me a personally guided tour of the Boyne battlefield. I was indeed honoured to have one of Northern Ireland's best lay historians in the person of Maynard to guide me. Two more carloads of tourists, including one from California, were lucky to have Mr. Hanna on hand as well.
I was both dismayed and disappointed with the utter inattention given to the Boyne by the Irish government despite supposed commitments to provide a proper setting with preservation, historical interpretation, and cultural development.  A few tarp-covered artillery replicas, two small signs, and a locked outhouse is no way to showcase one of the most important historical sites in all European history.
The Irish government has wonderful tourism development potential waiting to just drop in their hands at the Boyne if only they could free their hands of the political baggage which apparently they grip so tightly.
The birth of constitutional monarchy was an essential act in the evolution of our American democracy. The Boyne therefore is as important as Runnymede or Philadelphia. In my view, we Americans should be celebrating the 12th of July right along with the 4th -- for had it not been for the 12th, there may never have been a 4th. The Boyne must be treated with the respect it deserves.
Silent Valley residents Ann and Diane Nugent showed me Carrickfergus Castle, the Shankill and Falls murals, Downpatrick, and numerous sites throughout Belfast. And in a special treat, George Patton, of the Ulster-Scots Agency, took me on a tour of the Ulster-American Folk Park in Omagh.
At the Ulster-American Folk Park, I must admit though that I could not help but feel somewhat slighted at the lack of attention given to the greatest Ulster-Scots heroes in American history in place of so much space and attention given to relatively nameless figures of subsequent Irish migrations. When Andrew Jackson is barely given a nod and Sam Houston and Davy Crockett are only allowed two lines on a dark, back corner wall, then something is terribly wrong with the focus and historiography of the park's governing body.
In addition to historical sites and the recognition of political connections between Northern Ireland and America, I identified other cultural connections between our two countries. A staunch Protestantism defines much of the Northern Ireland of today as it does the American South. Of course, it was the Ulster-Scots Presbyterians who colonised the Southern American frontier and paved the way for the Methodists, Baptists, and other Protestant denominations that followed. Interestingly, when strolling through Mourne Presbyterian Church cemetery in Kilkeel one Sunday after the service, I counted at least half a dozen of my family's surnames among those buried there. I also found the grave of Alexander Chesney, who was on the opposing side when my Ulster-Scots ancestor fought him at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.
I was also stunned by the commonality of the speech of Ulster-Scots and that of Americans in the rural areas of the Upper South, the Ozarks, Oklahoma, and Texas. I heard so many manners of speaking that I previously thought were peculiar only to those like my grandfather and the Stewart mother who raised him. I don't mean sayings that are common in the U.K. and the U.S. I mean sayings, turns of a phrase, word choices, inflections, pronunciations, contractions, and particular words that that I have heard only in the rural Upper South and in Northern Ireland. Only in these two places. Nowhere else.
I spent a great deal of time with my grandfather when I was young and my manner of speaking is patterned after his. I was taught in school and by society that the way I spoke was incorrect and that only uneducated hillbillies and country hicks talked this way. But I heard many people in the Mournes speaking in these ways using hallmarks of 'hillbilly talk' in their everyday conversations. Actually, this is the descendant of an old way of speaking that has its own rules and forms. It is not necessarily incorrect English. Rather, it is a different form of English and should be recognised as such. It is fascinating to hear how this cultural bond has lasted for more than two and a half centuries. Indeed, I did feel at home!
In interacting with the local folks of the Mournes, I witnessed the traditional characteristics of the Ulster-Scot about which I had only read in American history books from the days when Ulster-Scots won the old Kentucky frontier, settled East Tennessee, and gained the independence of Texas. I saw these characteristics in their raw and undiluted form - a fierce loyalty to kith and kin, a keen adherence to faith, the keeping of time-honoured traditions, a reverence for forebears and their sacrifices that go not unforgotten, rugged individualism, a self-assuredness and unshakable sense of place, an artful heartfelt expression combined with an unequivocal directness, an unquestioning moral clarity under girding decisions, and the living maxim that 'if you ain't fer us, yer agin us.'
ncidentally, without saying when, where, or in what company, I was able to confirm that our American moonshine of the Southern Appalachians did in fact originate in Ulster.
I left Northern Ireland with a much different and more complete view of the complex cultural and political situation there. And I left with a better understanding of the hardy people of Ulster who conquered the American frontier and founded our nation because I have now seen their sturdy stock in the flesh. I have seen them in the Mournes, in Kilkeel, and elsewhere.
During my time in the Mournes, I could not help but feel that today's Ulster-Scot is still living on a frontier, a border land, on the edge. Hearing the very personal stories of those who have been touched by tragedy over the past 35 years drove that home to me. With a view of Galloway in one direction and of Ireland across Carlingford Lough in the other, the Ulster-Scot is still between two lands, a frontiersman in a way, perhaps a cultural frontiersman, but not unlike his ancestors. Modern Ulster-Scots have been living on the margins almost between two governments - London and Dublin. But today they are fighting for and reclaiming their identity and making their imperatives known.
It is heartening to see that spirit alive and well in these people. This is the same spirit that I have read about in our Ulster-Scots ancestors who fought for, won, and built our American nation claiming an identity all their own. So for me, this was not just a trip to another country.
It was a journey of self-discovery. In knowing the Ulster-Scot of today, I gain a keener kinship with my own Ulster-Scots ancestors, which, in turn, means I gain a better understanding of myself. Now, in times of both need and of quiet reflection, I can remember them and draw upon this tradition that is in me, that is in every Ulster-Scot.
Glen Pratt is director of special projects and program development for the Ulster-Scots Society of America. Contact him at UlsterScotGP@yahoo.com.