Loughries Ulster-Scots Summer Scheme

Sixty children are attending the Loughries Historical Society Summer Scheme which runs throughout this week in Castle Gardens Primary School in Newtownards.  They are full to capacity and the demand was greater than the number of places.  This is one of about 30 summer scheme supported by the Ulster-Scots Agency, with most of them in Northern Ireland and a few across the border in Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal.

There is good co-operation between the society and the school and indeed the school is to the fore in bringing Ulster-Scots culture into the classroom.  There are some people who say there is no demand for Ulster-Scots in schools but summer schemes such as this show that there is a genuine demand.

I was impressed by the tuition in music and dance and it was good to see the boys participating in the country dances.  The children learning the fiddle did a good job on the old tune The Star of the County Down and certainly had our feet tapping.

It was encouraging to hear that the summer scheme has received some support from Ards Borough Council as well as the funding from the Agency but of course nothign could happen without the team of dedicated volunteers.

Cultural diversity

Yesterday I visited the McCracken International Summer School in North Belfast, which is now in its 11th year.  It is based at the 174 Trust and also at St Patrick's School further up the Antrim Road.  The summer school is part of the annual programme of the McCracken cultural society which promotes the Irish language in the north of the city and it was extremely well attended.  While I was there there were performances in Irish and Scottish Gaelic and there was an international and multicultural lunch.  I am very conservative in my tastes but the Colombian fruit salad was delicious! 

In the evening I also visited the Cairncastle Ulster-Scots Festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary and growing year by year.  The quality of the performers was very high and the evening was enjoyed by a very large audience.  The festival runs through each day until Saturday, with the main cocnert each night in the the marquee, and then there is a Praise Service at 2.30 pm on Sunday.  The growth in the festival is due to the hard work of the Cairncastle Ulster-Scots Society and reflects the growth in Ulster-Scots activity across the Province.

Anne Frank exhibition

The Anne Frank exhibition, which is touring Northern Ireland is currenly at Mossley Mill in Newtownabbey and will be here until 29 September.  Anne Frank was one of so many Jewish chidlren who were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust and this is her story. 

The exhibition is the work of the Anne Frank Trust UK in partnership with the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam and includes a near-life-size replica of Anne's room in hiding and a virtual tour of 'the secret annexe'.  It is well worth seeeing and it addresses a variety of moral questions.

I spoke at the launch and the main speaker was Gilliam Walnes MBE, the director and co-founder of the Anne Frank Trust UK.  The chairman for the evening was Gerald Steinberg, president of Northern Ireland Friends of Israel and vice-chair of the Belfast Jewish Community.

Olympic 'Open Weekend' 23 July 2010

Last weekend was Open Weekend to mark two years to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Open Weekend involved 119 events across Northern Ireland and was developed to help people see, touch, hear and take part in new things to spark interest and enthusiasm in the run up to the Games in 2012.

I attended the launch of this year’s Open Weekend with Belfast Lord Mayor, Councillor Pat Convery, at Belfast City Council’s ‘Try It’ event at the Ozone Leisure Complex in Ormeau Park. The community sports event involved over 500 children aged between the ages of 8 and 15 from summer schemes across Belfast. They had the opportunity to try out over 15 Olympic and non Olympic sports, as well as participating in dance.

We were joined at the event by Paul Deighton, Chief Executive Officer, London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), and Boyzone’s Shane Lynch, who is an ambassador for Donaghmore's arts and sports project ImagineAction.

The clock is ticking

Recently I met four time Olympic gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent to highlight the fact that the London 2012 Olympic Games will commence in two years time.

'The journey began back in 2005 when London won the bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Since then my Department has been working closely with a range of key partners to ensure that the Games will leave a lasting legacy for the people of Northern Ireland.

A great deal has been achieved to date, on a sporting, social and economic level. For example, a total of 20 local projects have been awarded the prestigious London 2012 Inspire mark in recognition of their excellence and innovation. These projects have already had a considerable positive impact and will continue to do so in the run up to the 2012 Games and beyond, with combined projected participation figures of almost half a million people.'

On the economic front, local businesses have won contracts for providing facilities and services for the 2012 Games, which is great news for the local economy. Work is also ongoing to attract teams to undertake their pre-Games training in Northern Ireland, which will again be a bonus for our economy.'

'Northern Ireland has a successful track record at the Olympics, from Dame Mary Peters to Alan Campbell. I am confident that many of our local athletes will be taking part in the Games, with many of our leading sportspeople already focusing their training efforts towards 2012.'

John Hewitt Summer School 2010

The 23rd John Hewitt International Summer School runs throughout this week in the Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre in Armagh.  Among the well-known writers appearing at this year’s Summer School are Michael Longley, Louis de Bernières, Eavan Boland, top American poet, Sharon Olds, Terry Eagleton, Joseph O’Connor, Glenn Patterson and Blake Morrison.

I travelled down to Armagh to open the Summer School and was welcomed by the director Tony Kennedy OBE.

Im ,y speech I referred to Hewitts' book on Rhyming Weavers, which was published in 1974 and did much to stimulate interestin the country poets of antrim and Down, especially the rhyming weavers, many of whom wrote in Ulster-Scots as well as English.  The book was republished in 2004 with an introduction by Tom Paulin.  At the end of the introduction Paulin said:

John Hewitt's anthology, re-issued here, initiated a process of cultural recovery and restitution which needs to be constantly recognised and encouraged.

I was impressed by that phrase 'cultural recovery and restitution'.  Some important element of our culture and history in Ulster has been marginalised or forgotten, especially by what I sometimes call the cultural elite or the cultural establishment.  That is why the Ulster-Scots revival is so important.  It is recovering a 'missing strand' in our cultural diversity.

The Twelfth in Eire

Eire politician Michael McDowell, a former tanaiste, has suggested that the Twelfth might become a public holiday in the Republic.  The suggestion was made at the MacGill Summer School in County Donegal. 

During his address last Wednesday Michael McDowell, a former leader of the Progressive Democrats and a former attorney-general, asked if 12 July should become a national holiday.  He asked if it was 'perhaps now time to consider the Twelfth a national holiday across the island - that is if 'the Orange' is truly to be seen as part of 'the nation' at all?'

'Could an Irish government minister in the near future attend a Twelfth demonstration in Northern Ireland in the same way they now attend St Patrick's day parades around the world?' he asked.

He said that there was a failure in the Republic to address the significance of the orange panel of the Tricolour.  'It has been famously conceded that Northern Ireland was a cold place for Catholics.  But that raises a question,' he said.  'Are we in the south warm towards the Orange tradition?  Do we respect it?  Have we created a society, a history and a culture in which the Orange tradition, so understood, finds itself in a cold place?'

He said the 'great majority of the people of the Republic still have difficulty in according genuine parity of esteem to the Orange tradition in Irish history' but they needed a 'great change of heart'.

Michael McDowell raises important questions about how the Orange family, especially in the border counties, is accommodated in the Republic.

He also raises questions about how nationalists in Northern Ireland view the Orange tradition and treat that tradition.  I noted his reference to the Orange section in the Tricolour and recalled that republicans had erected Tricolours, with that Orange section, on the Crumlin Road in Belfast in order to express their opposition to an Orange parade on 12 July!

This was an interesting speech from Michael McDowell and I welcome it in that it shows a warmth and respect for the Orange tradition. It certainly contrasts sharply with the bitterness and sectarianism shown by many republicans and even by some nationalists in Northern Ireland.