Letter from Robert Burns Jr. – Belfast, 13 September 1845

Today is New Year's Eve and at midnight around the world crowds of well-liquored folk will blunder their way through a few lines of 'Auld Lang Syne', an old Scottish song collected by and usually attributed to Robert Burns.

This letter came into my possession during 2014. Written by Robert Burns Jr. from 2 York Road, Belfast to Miss Isabella Begg at Bridgehouse, Ayr. It's unspectacular in terms of content, but the date does not coincide with his other known visits to Belfast in 1844 - suggesting that he was a more regular visitor than is often thought. His daughter, Eliza (33 years old in 1845) and her daughter Martha (6 years old in 1845) moved to Belfast in the early 1840s having been in India and London. They lived in the city for about 25 years, mostly in the York Road district but later at Wilmont Terrace on the Lisburn Road.

Robert Burns Jr was born in 1787, the same year as the (second) Edinburgh edition and (third) Belfast edition of his father's poems. So the letter seems to be a 58 year old uncle getting his 39 year old niece to do a bit of travel arranging for him.

.......................................................

2 York Road, Belfast, Ireland
Saturday September 13th 1845

My dearest Isabella
If the weather should permit I shall leave Belfast for Ardrossan on the morning of the 23rd. As I am desirous of getting to Ayr the same evening for the purpose of avoiding passing the night at Ardrossan. I wish you to enquire at the Terminus as what hour the last train leaves Ardrossan and Kilwinning for Ayr. Please to let me know this as speedily as possible for should I set to Ayr that evening. I shall expect to have the pleasure of your company at breakfast at Mr. Johnston's on the morning of the 24th. 

Eliza and Patty are well and send you their love. My love to my Aunt, to Agnes and yourself.

Believe me,
My dearest Isabella
Yours ever and truly

Robert Burns 

.......................................................

Isabella Burns Begg Sr (photo here from around the same time as the above letter was written when she would have been 74 years old) was the youngest sister of the poet Robert Burns, and so was therefore Robert Burns Jr's aunt. She moved back to Ayr after her husband John Begg died in 1813, and was kept busy telling stories to visitors about her (late) famous brother. Two of her daughters were Agnes Brown Begg (1800–1883, presumably the Agnes mentioned in the letter) and her namesake Isabella Burns Begg Jr (1806–1886, presumably the Isabella the letter was written to).

So was 'Patty' a nickname for Martha? And who was Mr Johnston? 

Dal-Araidhe and Dalriada / Ferdoman, King of the Ards

Before the Anglo-Normans arrived in the 1170s, Ulster was different. Dalriada connected today's North Antrim with Argyll in Scotland. Today's County Down was the confusingly-similarly-entitled Dal-Araidhe.  

 

I had a great night just before Christmas in giving an illustrated talk to Upper Ards Historical Society in Portaferry. They have been very helpful and supportive over the years and it's always good to go and share information with like-minded neighbours. I'd like to get to more of their meetings but the busyness of life gets in the way. Their Journal is an exemplary production, and over the many years it has been published some of my late grandfather's poetry has featured in it.

On the afternoon before I went, I flicked through my copy of An Ards Farmer; or, an Account of the Life of James Shanks, Ballyfounder, Portaferry by James C Rutherford, published in 1913, the year after Shanks' death. Shanks was a renowned collector and antiquarian, fascinated by Ards Peninsula history from Stone Age artefacts to the 1798 Rebellion, with a love of Robert Burns and Presbyterian history. (oh to have a time machine...)

Shanks was a friend of G.F.Savage-Armstrong and they shared a love of ancient historical tales, G.F.S-A. providing Shanks with all of the inscriptions from Ardkeen graveyard. Shanks wrote a letter to the Belfast Morning News in 1908 in which he pointed out that an ancient urn, with human ashes, had been found near the pillar stone of Ballyrusley, said to be those of 'some Cuchullin warrior' who had been 'Chief of Tara'. Locals will know that Tara Hill on the Ards Peninsula is near Millin Bay, just south of Kearney village.

Shanks refers to 'Ferdoman, the Bloody-weaponed King of the Ards' who was involved in the Battle of Moira in AD637 and who is said to have escaped uninjured. Shanks believed that Ferdoman was King of Tara:

'... Is now held up by Congal. The standard of Suibhne, a yellow banner, The renowned King of Dal Araidhe, Yellow satin, over that mild man of hosts, The white- fingered stripling himself in the middle of them. The standard of Ferdoman of banquets, The red-weaponed King of the Ards of Ulster, White satin to the sun and wind displayed Over that mighty man without blemish ...'

– from Congal by Sir Samuel Ferguson

Ireland's history is far more divided and splintered than most people today are allowed to know. Just like in Scotland there have been multiple regional kings and clans and tribes and chieftains and kingdoms through the centuries, fighting with one another long before anyone from England got involved. Narrow nationalism, designed to inflame, aggrieve and 'radicalise' recent generations, is nonsense. The full story needs to be told and understood.

• Click here for some brilliant information about Tara Hill / Tara Fort including a 360˚ panorama of the view from the top. (from the Voices of the Dawn - The Folklore of Ireland's Ancient Monuments website)

"A tyranny of Like-mindedness ... a culture of forgetting, of wilful ingnorance"

 From Howard Jacobson in Spiked:

"... I’m not worried about a tyranny of the state like Nineteen Eighty-Four - I don’t think that will happen. But we’ve got the tyranny of like-mindedness. We’re living it.’

The creeping conformism of the present clearly bothers Jacobson. He frequently peppers our conversation with entertaining criticisms of today’s cultural recession, the absence of different voices, be they past or present. ‘Like-mindedness is the killer. Where ever three people agree, what they’re agreeing about will almost certainly be wrong. Agreement is terrifying.’ The reasons for this tyranny of like-mindedness are manifold for Jacobson, drawing as it does on the unifying nature of social media – ‘what happened, if it happened’ was partly facilitated by something he calls ‘Twitternacht’ – and a culture of forgetting, of wilful ignorance, of historical amnesia, of presentism. The past is a foreign country that more and more view with disdain.

‘I’m a visiting professor at AC Grayling’s New College of Humanities, and I was telling the students there about the programme I was making about Robert Hughes, Germaine Greer, Clive James and Barry Humphries, all of whom arrived in England at the time I went to Australia. And some of the girls had heard of Germaine Greer. But that was it. Major cultural figures. Forgotten. No one’s made them forget. There is a culture of forgetting to do with an absorption in now, a throwaway sense of now ..."

 Interview here

Wexford 1798 numberplate

Photographed in Belfast the other day. 

'Yin Christmas Day', from Robin's Readings (1880)

Of Ulster: shamrock, rose and thistle

Glam Psalm - 'Lay Down' by The Strawbs

Back in 6th form (that's the early 1990s) some one of my friends introduced me to 'Lay Down' by The Strawbs, recorded in 1972. It has been in my head all week for some reason, a great tune but I was never able to work out the words. Google has supplied these, which it seems are based on Psalm 23.

By still waters I lay down with the lambs
In pastures green I made peace with my soul
And I cared not for the night
While my guiding star shone bright
By still waters I lay down
I lay down.

Lay down, I lay me down
Lay down, I lay me down
Lay down, I lay me down
For my soul.

At the roadside I took toll of my times
In dirty streets I found peace for my soul
May the merciful be right
Are you ready for the night
At the roadside I lay down
I lay down.

Lay down, I lay me down
Lay down, I lay me down
Lay down, I lay me down
For my soul.

In deep sorrow I took flight with the sun
From mountains high I gained strength for my soul
I proved stronger than the test
When my spirit came to rest
In deep sorrow I lay down
I lay down.

Lay down, I lay me down
Lay down, I lay me down
Lay down, I lay me down
For my soul.

The first single (that's a 45rpm vinyl record) I ever bought was Boney M's Brown Girl in the Ring with Rivers of Babylon on the B-side – bought at a stall in Newtownards Market one Saturday morning when I was about 9. Rivers of Babylon is based on verses 1 - 4 Psalm 137, the great Psalm of exile. Most people forget about the rest of that Psalm.

Steve Earle's acoustic version is great, but it uses the Rastafarian term 'King Alpha' rather than the Biblical term 'LORD'.

Gramovox

From a Kickstarter project last year.

Many Hands: Rebuilding Appalachia

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/114107581?byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/114107581">Many Hands: Rebuilding Appalachia</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/citygatefilms">Citygate Films</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

The New Jack the Giant Killer, by Mrs Dorothea Lamont of Belfast

Mrs Lamont kept a 'juvenile school' at Donegall Street at the corner of Commercial Court. She was described by one of her pupils. Thomas McTear. as 'a remarkably fine lady, and a great favourite with children. She wrote amusing books for the young, such as Jack the Giant-killer, etc., and was very entertaining'. Her edition was advertised in the 1842 edition of The Edinburgh Review, and in the 1839 edition of the London Catalogue of Books, 

Who was Mrs Lamont?  It is likely that she was Dorothea Lamont, the wife of noted United Irishman and Belfast intellectual Aeneas Lamont. Aeneas Lamont had been the typesetter of The Northern Star, and corresponded with George Washington. Aeneas died in 1803 and his widow corresponded with Samuel Thomson, the 'Father of Ulster-Scots Poetry'. A Mrs Lamont of Belfast was a subscriber to Ulster-Scots poet Andrew M'Kenzie's 1810 collection of poems, and in 1818 a volume entitled Poems and Tales in Verse by Mrs Aeneas Lamont was published in London (link here). 

With a bit of research and untangling there could be a brilliant story here - linked to one of the most famous children's books ever written.

'Thousands have been hacked to pieces'

A report from the Washington Times, 23 November 1894. I cam acros this while looking for something else. Given recent and ongoing atrocities commited by ISIS against Christian communities in the Middle East it is shocking to read of exactly the same things happening 120 years ago.

Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson (1867–1947) - now rests in Israel

Pic above from SmithsonianMag.com

John Henry Patterson was born in Forgney, Ballymahon, County Meath (now Longford), and is sometimes credited with giving the name 'Operation Lion' to the Ulster Gunrunning of 1914. In November Patterson's ashes, and those of his wife, were moved from Los Angeles and were buried by the Israeli government in an official state ceremony near Tel Aviv. Here is Patterson's entry on the Longford At War website.

Described in this article in The Independent as 'The Godfather of the Israeli Army' he had seen service in east Africa, and wrote a book of his adventure there entitled Man Eaters of Tsavo which was published in 1907. In 1996 a movie of the book, entitled The Ghost and the Darkness, starred Val Kilmer as Patterson. Here is a clip, ropey accent and all:

As Quincey Dougan writes here, Patterson (by now a celebrity soldier and author) was head of the West Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force from 1913 onwards - arousing suspicion in the House of Commons that there had been attempts to supply guns to the Ulster Volunteers for at least a year before the eventual Gunrunning night of 24/25 April 1914.

It was 1917 when he took control of a five-battalion Jewish volunteer force called the Jewish Legion within the British Army. As he said himself:

It was a complete change from the command of an Irish Battalion, but the Irishman and the Jew have much in common – temperament, generosity, love of children, devotion to parents, readiness to help those down on their luck, and , be it noted, great personal bravery. These qualities will probably not appear out of place to my readers so far as the Irishman is concerned, but I imagine many will be surprised to hear that they also apply to the Jew.

 

CHILDHOOD AND PATERNAL ANCESTRY Little is known of Patterson's childhood. It has been suggested that he was born to a maid who worked in the family home. It is said that his father, Henry Patterson, was an Irish Protestant clergyman (presumably Church of Ireland) who had 'intrigued him with Old Testament tales'.

MARRIAGE AND WIFE'S ANCESTRY In 1895 John Henry Patterson married a Belfast woman called Frances Helena Gray, whom he met in India. Her father was William Gray of 6 Mount Charles, Belfast – he was an architect, a member of the Royal Irish Academy and President of the Belfast Field Naturalists' Club. The Grays were Church of Ireland, and Frances had a degree in law - a portrait and biography can be found here. It was also reported in a newspaper of the time that '... the only other woman in Great Britain entitled to add "LL D." to her name is also a native of Belfast. Mrs. Lily Thompson who has applied for a place on the police force of Washington city, is a dress reformer and an athlete'. Late 1800s Belfast as a hotbed of female emancipation is an interesting thought.

In the 2008 biographyThe Seven Lives of Colonel Patterson it says this – '... He had the gift of the gab, a lively sense of humour, a friendly and optimistic nature, and an air of command, reinforced perhaps by the Bible he sometimes carried in one hand and no doubt by the gun he held in the other'. Sadly there is no mention of his time in Ulster in this book.

BURIAL AND REINTERMENT
Patterson was buried in Los Angeles in 1947, and his wife just 6 weeks later -  but he had wanted to be laid to rest with his soldiers in Israel. On 10th November, his birthday, he had his wish fulfilled in a ceremony which was overseen by Benjamin Netanyahu, whose late brother had been named after Patterson.

The surnames Patterson and Gray indicate Scottish ancestry for both John Henry and his wife Frances. This celebrity Ulster Volunteer Force leader, and his Belfast wife, now repose in the land of the original Covenants. Perhaps this is a story which deserves further research.

• Here is a BBC news story about Patterson's legacy

 

A man can't even go hoking round his ancestors' historic graveyard in peace...

It seems that George Francis Savage-Armstrong's wife, Marie Elizabeth (née Wrixon), accompanied him to ruined Ardkeen Church in the 1880s when he was almost literally digging up his ancestry – and brought her sketchbook with her. When he died he was buried on the other side of the wall with the three arched window openings.

The Ballynahinch Lady who introduced Burns to Ulster?

Men get all of the glory, at least in most histories until fairly recent times. I recently came into posession of a 1787 Edinburgh edition of Burns, the second edition in the world (Belfast was the third edition, later that same year – however, it was a 'bootleg' edition – the London edition formally claimed the title of being the third edition on its own title page). In an early form of 'crowdsourcing', people would place advance orders with the printer, and their names would appear in the eventual book as a subscribers list. In this Edinburgh edition there is just one name which is identifiably from Ireland - the Countess of Moira. Her address is given as 'Montalta, Ireland' - which is of course Montalto House in Ballynahinch.

Elizabeth Rawdon (1731–1808) had been born in England, had multiple titles, but came to Ulster in 1752 when she married John Rawdon, the 1st Earl of Moira, becoming his third wife. She was a literary patron and antiquarian. She ordered 6 copies of Burns' second edition.

11 years later in 1798, the Battle of Ballynahinch took place at Windmill Hill which (from memory) is within the grounds of or certainly very close to Montalto estate. Presumably the Countess watched from the safety of the big house, possibly reading one of her 1787 Burns volumes, probably struggling with unfamiliar vocabulary, while the muskets cracked, pikes clashed and blood flowed a few fields away. Earlier this year the estate hosted a Country Fair which included a re-enactment of the battle.

Others more knowledgable than I will know whether this is the first confirmed link between Burns and Ulster. The subscribers list shows just how much the 'Ploughman Poet' was admired, and supported, by the gentry. In the 1600s, George Rawdon was one of the most notorious opponents and persecutors of the Ulster-Scots Presbyterians.

The last image is of the Country Fair & battle re-enactment publicity, and is from this website.

"a b*****d sort of Scottes"

Above: detail of Baptista Boazio's sideways map of Ulster, c. 1599.

No, I am not referring to Gerry Adams' recent controversy, but this post has been influenced by it.  In his Description of Ulster, A.D. 1586, Henry Bagenal said this of the district of Dufferin (Killyleagh):

"... Diffrin, sometymes th' enheritance of the Mandevilles, and nowe apperteyninge to one White, who is not of power sufficient to defend and manure the same, therefore it is usurped and inhabited for the most parte, by a bastard sort of Scottes, who yield to the said White some small rent at their pleasure. The countrey is for the most parte wooday and lieth uppon the Loghe, which goeth out at the haven of Strangford, There are of these bastarde Scottes dwelling here some sixty bowmen and twenty shot, which lyve most upon the praie and spoile of their neigbours ..."

It seems to be a reference to a community who moved in after the MacDonnells (whose centre of power was mid and north Antrim) had murdered John White of Dufferin near Killyleagh around 1552 –

"... John White was landlord but was deceitfully murdered by M'Ranyll boy his sonne, a Scot; and since that murder he keepeth possession of the said lands, by mean whereof he is able to disturb the countries adjoining, on every side, which shortly by God's grace shall be redressed".

It is hard to know whether the 'B-word' was a reference to their parentage or ancestry, or was just an insult to express how the English overlords regarded them. The leader of this community is described elsewhere as Alexander Macranald Boy. The Whites were an old Anglo-Norman family; they must have reasserted their power in Dufferin, or at least retained the title to their estate, but it was sold to James Hamilton of Bangor in 1610. The map above (drawn in 1599 but showing information from the 1570s) shows 'Rowland Whit' as the landowner, and just below his name is 'Diffren / Killelagh'.

These Co Down MacDonnells seem to disappear as a distinct community from the historical records, and might have either moved back to Antrim, or become culturally absorbed into the incoming Lowland Scots population. In my school days in the 1980s I had a friend from the area whose surname was McDonnell, whose family had lived there for many generations. In the late 1800s a William M'Donnell and James M'Donnell were prominent Presbyterians in Portaferry. I would be interested to find out more if anyone has other references. 

• UJA article 'The Whites of Dufferin and their Connections' by Major R.G. Berry available online here which includes a reference to a 'Walter Whit' who fought in Edward Bruce's army. 

St Andrew in Belfast

I am a day late with this - St Andrew's Day was yesterday. As far as I know this is the only historic depiction of him in Belfast, surrounded by shamrocks, in the beautiful decorative masonry of the former 'Head Line Building' on Victoria Street and Waring Street.