Ulster's Three Traditions (2)

On 26 October I commented on Ulster's three indigenous cultural traditions, a theme which has also been taken up by Mark Thompson in his blog http://clydesburn.blogspot.com/.

For some time there has been a tendency by elements in the cultural establishment to adopt a a two traditions model for Northern Ireland.  However that has not always been the case and in this and some future posts I intend to give some examples of academics and authors who have recognised that the three traditions model is the right one. 

Thirty years ago, in 1979, Professor F S L Lyons, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, endorsed the three-traditions model in his book Culture and Anarchy in Ireland 1890-1939.  He also illustrated it in this way:

It will be remembered that whenever President de Gaulle wished to commune with his soul he withdrew to his country estate at Colombey les Deux Eglises. So also Captain Terence O’Neill (as he then was) when prime minister of Northern Ireland, would sometimes leave the hurly-burly of Belfast and seek refuge at his ancestral home in the little town of Ahoghill. The parallel did not escape the wits and before long Ahoghill was rechristened Ahoghill les Trois Eglises. Like most Ulster jokes this one has a sting in its tail. The single phrase, ‘les trois eglises’, reminds us not only of the co-existence of three local cultures within the context of the dominant English culture but also that these three cultures were embedded in three different varieties of religion - Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic.

The ‘two traditions’ model in Northern Ireland is outdated and redundant.  It is a flawed model and the sooner it is buried the better.

North West 200

Michael Rutter, Mervyn Whyte, Nelson McCausland & Stephen Thompson

This morning I travelled up to North Antrim to Mather's Cross, a bend on the North West 200 circuit.  It was an opportunity to see the work being undertaken by DRD Roads Service to improve the bend and make it safer.  This work is part of a general road improvement programme but it will also benefit the North West 200 and Mervyn Whyte, the race director, has been advising Roads Service on the changes to be made.

The improvements at Mathers Cross will contribute significantly to improving safety at the NW 200.  Every effort must be made to improve the safety of our road races and my own department has set aside £2 million over the next two years to help motorsport improve safety at events. 

Motor cycle road racing is extremely popular in Northern Ireland and we have some excellent circuits.  The English rider Michael Rutter, who was there this morning, said that the NW 200 is the best road race in the world and he should know for he has won it twelve times. 

I also met Mervyn Whyte and the seven strong management team who have come together with him to take the race to a new level.  My department has been working with Mervyn, the Coleraine & District Motor Club, Coleraine Borough Council, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and others, to secure the future of the race and that has now been done.

There is the potential to make Northern Ireland the road-racing capital of the world, with the best circuits and the best races, and that should be our ambition.  Not only can we provide excellent racing for the riders and spectators but we can generate considerable income for our tourist industry.

Remembrance Sunday

This morning I attended the Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in Belfast and there was a good turn out of councillors from the DUP, UUP, SDLP and Alliance.  The first wreath was laid by the new Lord Lieutenant of Belfast, Dame Mary Peters, as the representative of Her Majesty the Queen.

Tonight I attended the Remembrance Day service in the Free Presbyterian Church in Magherafelt.  It was a good service and Rev William McCrea took as his text John 15:13 - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  He said that we should remember (1) the soldiers who fought for our freedom (2) the saints of God who suffer for their faith and (3) the Saviour who died for our forgiveness.

The Good Shepherd

The 23rd Psalm is the best known of all the Psalms in the Bible and it has been translated and paraphrased into Scots and Ulster-Scots many times.  In fact an anthology of some twenty versions of Psalm 23 in Scots was compiled and published in 1987.

The following version of The Good Shepherd appeared back in 1995 in the second edition of Ullans, the magazine of the Ulster-Scots Language Society  It had been rendered at a recent meeting of the society in Ballyclare by Ernie Scott, a native Ulster-Scots speaker and a member of the society's committee.  Ernie is still on the go and I met him back in September at the Broadisland Gathering in Ballycarry.

Wha is my Shephard wel A ken

The Lord hisel is He.

He leads me whaur the girse is green

An' burnies quaet that be.

Aft times A fain astray wud gang

An' wann'r far awa.

He fins me oot, He pits me richt

An brings me hame an' a'.

Tho' A pass through the gruesom sheugh

Fin' A ken that He is near.

His muckle cruk wull me defen'

Sae A hae nocht tae fear.

Ilk comfort whilk a sheep cud need

His thochtfu care provides.

Tho' wolves an' dugs may prowl aboot

In safety me He hides.

His guidness an' His mercy, baith,

Nae doot wull bide wi' me,

While faulded on the fields o' time

His hame ma dwellin' be.

Willie McBride

Tonight there was an excellent concert in the Belfast Waterfront Hall to mark the 40th anniversary of the East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force Regimental Band.  According to the programme it was also an evening to remember 'those sons of Ulster who bravely charged forth in France and Flanders embedding the name of the 36th Ulster Division for ever into the annals of British military history'.

The band provided an excellent and varied programme, drawn from Ulster, Scottish, Irish and international music.  Great credit must go to those who have done so much to raise the musical standard of the band to this high level.  Great credit must also go to the band for the excellent organisation of the event.

The other performers were the Ulster-Scots Experience, with their mixture of fiddles and accordions.  They incorporated some Ulster-Scots and Orange songs into their part of the programme and were received enthusiastically by an appreciative audience.

They had several songs about war and one of these was Eric Bogle's Green Fields of France, also known as Willie McBride, which is about a young soldier who died in France in 1916 at the age of nineteen.  It is not entirely clear whether Bogle actually saw the name on a headstone but there are two soldiers of that name buried at the Authuile Military Cemetery on the Somme.  One of them is Private William McBride of the 9th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who died on 22 April 1916.  His parents were from Lislea in county Armagh but he was twenty-one when he died.  The other McBride in the cemetery was a private in the 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusilers and he is identified only by the initial W.  He died on 10 February 1916 but his age is not given.  Another soldier, Rifleman William John McBride of the Royal Irish Rifles is recorded as having died on 2 July 1916 but has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial.

The Christian Sabbath

Recently someone posted on this site commenting that I had posted on the Sabbath. He asked if this was working and if it conflicted with my stance of not attending sporting and other events that take place on Sunday. 

I believe that God has given us the Lord's Day or Christian Sabbath and that it is a day set apart for rest and relaxation, for worship, for the family and for Christian activity. After a very busy week I value the rest, the opportunity to attend church and to be at home with my wife. As a result I do not attend sporting events or go shopping on Sunday.

Since starting this blog I have posted several times on the Lord's Day but a careful look at what I posted will show that there is a difference in the matters I comment about on Sunday. Three of them have been about Christian hymns and hymnwriters, one was about the old Covenanter preacher Alexander Peden and the other was about the Ulster Sabbath.

A Sabbath is not about doing nothing but about doing things that are appropriate.

HMS Caroline

HMS Caroline, a First World War light cruiser, was built by Camell Laird in Birkenhead and launched and commissioned in 1914.  She is therefore the second oldest commissioned warship in the Royal Navy and saw action at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Caroline was placed on the reserve list in 1922 and in 1924 Sir James Craig had her transferred to Northern Ireland as headquarters for the newly formed Ulster Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.  However her time as a commissioned ship is coming to an end and she will be formally decommissioned early next month.  She will then become the property of the newly created National Museum of the Royal Navy.  I had already visited the ship on 24 September but it was a privilege to be invited to the decommissioning dinner, which was held on the ship last night.

An informal group of stakeholders has been convened to consider the future of HMS Caroline - with representatives from DCAL, DSD, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Belfast Harbour Commissioners and Belfast City Council, as well as the Royal Navy, and there is a desire that she remain in Belfast permanently as a museum ship and part of our maritime heritage.  However this will be dependent on preparing a sustainable business plan.

The guest of honour at the dinner was Rear Admiral Martin Alabaster, Flag Officer for Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland and Flag Officer for the Reserve Forces, and it was interesting to meet several former members of the RNR, whom I have known down through the years without realising that they were actually members of the Reserve.  A message of loyal greeting had been sent by the Commanding Officer to the Queen and Her Majesty had sent a letter of congratulation to HMS Caroline after 85 years of unbroken service as the Ulster Division of the Royal Naval Reserve.