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cornkister
Posts: 13
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Posted:
26 Oct 2003 at 12:13 |
| The Scottish Executive are to be congratulated on supporting the Gaelic Language Bill but how sad that they refuse to entertain giving any status to Lallans, the language of Lowland Scotland . How different things are in Northern Ireland. There, the Ulster - Scots Agency, which promotes Ullans, the language and culture of the people who settled in Northern Ireland from the Scottish Borders from about 400 years ago, has official recognition and a million pounds to spend this year alone. The Agency came into being in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement and their active promotion has already helped bring about a major revival in the language and culture and a noticable increase in cultural tourism particularly from the USA. Why do we in Scotland seem fated always to be blind to the importance of nurturing our heritage? |
Simon T
Posts: 6410
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Posted:
27 Oct 2003 at 09:27 |
This is very interesting. I had never heard of Ullans before. Scotland definately needs to do better in this respect. There doesn't seem to be enough Scots language activists within the Scottish parliament compared to the gaelic voice.
Maybe if they redistribute some of Scottish opera's 7.5 million we could get some of it. |
rab
Posts: 63
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Posted:
27 Oct 2003 at 17:09 |
A lot of the Ulster Scots have their forebears in the Borders Reivers. Its good to hear that the Scots language in some form is getting support but it just maks oor lots lack o interest look a' the mair stupid.
Scottish Opera have used up their basic grant of £7.5 millions. Wagners Ring Cycle was a big success but none of their other stuff seems to draw the punters. They have asked Frank McAveety for another £1.5 million but so far he's turned them down. |
John Minging
Posts: 265
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Posted:
27 Oct 2003 at 22:36 |
Couldn't agree more with the cornkister. Ulster-Scots gets european recognition and access to development funds and Scots (be it Lallans or Doric) can't enjoy recognition by its own parliament. One major reason for this is the lack of understanding of the history of the language by its own people. Our education system still views it as a proletarian dialect yet teaches us that Burns was a great international poet! Shome mishtake shurley! I fimly believe that our Labour politicians feel uncomfortable with Scots as a language. If recognised, it would take the majority of Scots away from being viewed as speaking a dialect of english (when in fact modern English could be viewed as a dialect of the older Scots!), to speaking one of our national tongues, a scary prospect for Scottish-Unionist politicians.
A word of caution re Ulster-Scots. I've been over to NI to do Burns gigs on behalf of the Ulster-Scots movement and it was interesting , to say the least. There appeared to be a strong connection with loyalism (albeit there are many dedicated people who don't view it that way) and I got the impression that it was being used to give loyalists a culture distinct from irish gaelic (one fiddle /piper/accordion player actually accused irish players in sessions of being political because he perceived they wouldn't listen to his scottish music, something I've never, ever encountered with Irish musicians - he then went on to give me the bigoted run-down on the F--- irish). I found it very disappointing. I've always thought that music brought people together but I really got the impression it was being used to drive them further apart. I don't know what to say about it, I just felt deflated. the language I love and grew up with used to drive a wedge between people. Even the taxi drivers were giving it large when they knew I was going to a Burns night. Little did any of them know they were speaking to fourth generation Irish famine immigrant! It just made me feel seik et the heirt. |
cornkister
Posts: 13
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Posted:
29 Oct 2003 at 14:33 |
Always disappointing to come across bigotry. It will surely decrease as the efforts of the agency to broaden appeal gains respect. According to the overview on the Ulster Scots Agency website
"The Agency recognises the need to communicate with all audiences ? i.e. Ulster-Scots and non-Ulster-Scots, as to why the movement has a value.It needs to explain what the culture is about, why the language has survived and why it should continue to survive in a way that adds positively to life within the island of Ireland"
They are jointly funded by north and south and there are offices already established in both Belfast and Donegal with initiatives such as schools programmes, a newspaper, education campaigns already in place and plans (with assured funding) for an Ulster-Scots Academy.
Oh for Lallans to be even part of the way down that road! |
John Minging
Posts: 265
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Posted:
29 Oct 2003 at 19:50 |
Hi Cornkister
I may be wrong but I think the Belfast office doubles as a loyalist prisoner, family drop-in centre. I certainly saw one such centre which appeared to be the Ulster-Scots language office.
There is strong interest in Ulster-Scots in Donegal especially in places such as Newton Cunningham. The approach of the people there, compared to those over the border in for example Newtonards, appeared to be markedly different and less centred on dislike of Irish culture (the Donegal people are Irish after all) and more to do with having regard to their own scottish connections and culture. I could have read it all wrong and it's based on playing a limited number of gigs, but that was my impression. I'm very troubled by it all, really, it does make me feel very sad. |
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