Wednesday, February 09, 2011

"Take pride in rural Ulster"

#alttext#
Pictured left:
Harnen Stand, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum.


"...If rural England, rural Wales and rural Scotland find it very much worth while to devote so much attention to the development of rural craft industries surely it can be argued that a predominantly rural community such as ours would find a similar interest even more profitable? We are convinced that this is a field in which immeasurably valuable work is waiting to be done. What is wanted, apart from some degree of practical assistance from Government, is goodwill and enthusiasm from all who take pride in rural Ulster and its way of life and its wonderful traditions..."


Q: When do you think the above excerpt was written?

a) 1952 in a publicity brochure by a big commercial animal feeds firm
b) 1998 painting a rosy glow after the Belfast Agreement
c) 2002 as part of the DCAL / Ulster-Scots "Futuresearch" process
d) 2010 in a government report on diversification, ecology and the "green economy"

Answer to follow...

UPDATE - the answer is of course (a). The excerpt is from "Ulster's Rural Crafts" published by E.T. Green Farm Stock Foods for the Balmoral Show in 1952. I wonder what the author thought during the following decades as they watched cottages being bulldozed, stone gate pillars being replaced by concrete posts, five bar gates replaced by galvanised versions, all accelerated by government policies and the small print clauses of grant schemes?.

1 comments:

Jenny said...

hunh - that's cool!

... now I'm wondering if some of the old things we've been calling "trivets" in Appalachia were actually used as harnens. That's worth some looking in to - thank you!

... and I'm guessing A. :)