Ulster- Scots more than ‘a lock of words wouldn’t get you through the day’ indeed, more than just a language

LETTER composed in response to an article in the Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday July 26 by Malachi O’Doherty ‘Why Ulster Scots of today doesn’t reflect language of my father’

They declined to publish this version, but may consider a shorter one.

Dear Sir

Malachi O’Doherty’s recent piece trashing the idea of an Ulster-Scots language, highlights a central problem Ulster-Scots in its various forms, has faced for many years. 

That anyone, on flawed or false premises, can paint a ridiculously partial picture, without feeling the need to refer to the actual experts in the various fields, of Ulster-Scots. 

Not me, I hasten to add.

The Ulster-Scots Agency must really take some responsibility for the domination of this type of narrative in the public debate.

In spite of the funding it receives it has failed to create a counter narrative that puts nonsense like this to bed.

To take language. Ulster-Scots language is a recognised European minority language. 

Not “a lock of words and phrases that wouldn’t get you through the day on their own.” 

International European recognitions do not come about to pander to the needs of unionists or any other political grouping.

Scots/Ulster-Scots was designated a European minority language because it met certain criteria. 

Daddy Dordy doesn’t set those standards, linguists and academics do.

Last year I won one of the top Scots language literary prizes for poetry; later in the year, the top Ulster-Scots prize for a short story.

This is a culmination of a journey I have been on for many years. 

It’s not done for money, to be unionist, to spite Irish, or any of the other commonly cited motivations. 

I’m not an Orangeman, I don’t drink harp and I’m not from Ballymena, I’m from Donegal, just like Bernard Dordy. 

I do it for the same broad set of reasons that cause readers to read and writers to write in any language, Ulster-Scots and English being my two mediums. 

I even have a ‘cupla focal’ of Irish.  

My work is nothing without the context it sits in. 

The efforts of my many peers; the current blossoming of new talent; as dedicated as myself; academics and linguists who have built international reputations on their work, PHD students, whose doctorates are recognised across the world; people who have rescued the works of lost  authors, or compiled dictionaries and grammars, often at their own expense. I could go on.   

If Malachi wants his dad to be his Ulster-Scots language benchmark, cool, but why does a reputable newspaper platform such nonsense?

The apparent reason for the piece, is to have a swipe at the Ulster-Scots part of Culture and Language Bill going through Westminster.

“Bernard Dordy would have had no use for a Commissioner appointed to protect his language rights.” he says.

It’s disappointing to see such reductionism from a writer with such an impressive shelf of published work. 

The actual title is the “Commissioner for the enhancement and development of the language, arts and literature associated with the Ulster Scots and Ulster British Tradition.”

Longwinded and not my first choice, but it does get across in some sense, that Ulster-Scots is about a lot more than the phrases of Bernard Dordy, indeed a lot more than language.

One example of the many possible is the fact that literature on the Ulster-Scots/Scots Irish diaspora in America is written almost exclusively in English, as are most histories about Ulster-Scots people.   

In a contemptuous parting shot, he bins the new Ulster-Scots National Minority designation. 

In doing so Malachi is, probably in line with what many people, both unionist and nationalist think.

But reflect on this. 

Unionism is being demographically eclipsed by nationalism; there is intolerant populism on the rise, particularly on the republican side.

Surely the spirit of the designation must be to help Protestants and Unionists to accept and manage their new minority status in Northern Ireland and ultimately the United Ireland.So, if that’s not the case, what’s the plan for that particular job of work?

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission support both the Minority Language, and National Minority designations. 

Protections for many Heritage and Culture traditions practised predominantly in the Protestant/Unionist sector (as well as others such as U-Scots Language from across the community), will be coming through these Ulster-Scots designations.

If it’s all rubbish as Malachi suggests, do we need to go out and waste public money, getting a whole new set of designations? 

People, both unionists and nationalists, should try and get used to this idea, that whether they like it or not, Ulster-Scots in it’s many forms will be around for a long time. 

And the Ulster-Scots Agency needs to step up.