Bloggin fae the 'Burn: Ulster-Scots thoughts

Burns' Night on the Oder, 1945 (from the Edinburgh Books blog)

2012-01-25T09:55:00.001Z

A lovely story of how Andrew Winton from Woolfords near Lanark found himself behind enemy lines in Germany in 1945 - where mutual admiration for the poems of Robert Burns created common ground between friend and foe. Click here.

World-class events in Northern Ireland

2012-01-24T23:00:00.001Z

The story goes that, shortly after Northern Ireland was established in 1921, the engineer and inventor Harry Ferguson approached the new Prime Minister, James Craig. Ferguson is said to have told Craig that to really put the new Northern Ireland on the map, what the country needed were glamourous world-class events.

"... British racing owes a great debt to Harry Ferguson, who was the moving spirit behind the revival of the Tourist Trophy. It was he who came to Brooklands one day in 1927 and approached Captain Phillips, Competitions Manager of the R.A.C. and later Clerk of the Course at all the Ards races. If the Ulster Government, Ferguson enquired of Captain Phillips, were to approach the R.A.C. with an invitation to run a race similar to Le Mans over closed roads in Ulster, how would they react? Ferguson was soon assured that they would warmly welcome the suggestion, and returned to Belfast to set the machinery in motion. It was originally intended that the race, like the French classic, should be a twenty-four hour affair, but this the Ulster Government would not permit..."

- from Tourist Trophy, the History of Britain's Greatest Motor Race by Richard Hough (1957)

The 1927 Le Mans 24 hour race was won by Bentley, and their driver Sammy Davis came over to look at the proposed Ulster circuit; he said it was 'fascinating, with every sort of curve a man could devise". And so the Ards TT race was born in 1928 (the same year that Ferguson invented the three-point linkage) and for 12 years glamourous Italian megastar drivers came to County Down to take part. The race carried on until 1936 when eight spectators were killed - it was then moved off-road to the track at Donington in England; but at its peak 500,000 people lined the roads to watch the Ards TT. Here's a pic of the Aston Martin Ulster from 1934:

Nowadays, the programme of world-class events for 2012 are different than they were back then. And I know some folk who get worked up about 'flashy events' and suchlike, seeing it all as trivial and definitely as a waste of money, and then harp back to 'the good old days when none of that oul nonsense was aboot'. For those of you who think like that, you'll enjoy this painting of the 1932 Ards TT - especially the advertising banner.

But it's an imagined nostalgia - people back in 1920s and 1930s had big ideas too, and that same thinking applies to the events calendar of today. So c'mon Northern Ireland, c'mon. (who's old enough to remember this ad from 1983?!)

Ulster American Folk Park cottage, November 2011

2012-01-23T10:06:00.000Z

I was pleasantly surprised to see a yard of Ulster tartan fabric inside one of the cottages, spread out on the window table. It wasn't labelled though, so there was no deliberate 'interpretive' contrivance about it. I knew what it was, and it seemed to belong there. Click to enlarge.

Update on the US Ambassador's visit to Belfast in March

2012-01-21T14:07:00.001Z

The recent blog posts on the US Ambassador coming to Belfast seem to have worked - they have attracted attention and a few people have asked if this blog is becoming the Ulster-Scots version of Wikileaks!

The truth of course is that those postings were set exactly 100 years ago in 1912, although I tried to avoid making that too obvious. The launch of the Titanic and the signing of the Ulster Covenant were just two of the big events that year - the newspapers of early 1912 show that the Ambassador's visit to Belfast was another high-profile occasion, and one which further demonstrated the historic and cultural links with Scotland, and also with America.

It seems that he originally planned to be here on 2nd April, the day that Titanic would set sail from the shipyard. Here is the first press release for the event:

It was announced yesterday at a meeting of the Presbyterian Historical Society that the Hon Whitelaw Reid, United States ambassador in London, will deliver a lecture on ‘The Ulster Scot’ under the auspices of the Society in the Assembly Hall, Fisherwick Place, on 2nd or 3rd April next. The Hon Whitelaw Reid has been Ambassador to the Court of St James since 1905, and was Special Ambassador to Great Britain for the Queen’s Jubilee and the Coronation of Edward VII. Being of Scotch Covenanter descent, his remarks on the Ulster-Scot, and the Scotch-Irish pioneers in America, will appeal with special force to an Ulster audience. He is the author of several works on historical and economic subjects. He will be the guest of Sir William Crawford during his stay in Belfast.

- from the Northern Whig, 15 February 1912

Reid had first given the address in Edinburgh in November 1911 (at the Synod Hall) for the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. (this was the same month that Glasgow singer-evangelist William MacEwan was in London making what are said to be the first-ever gospel recordings for Columbia Records). Reid's family roots were in County Tyrone - his grandfather was from near Cookstown and his grandmother from near Omagh. So it was natural that Whitelaw Reid should deliver the same lecture in Ulster.

(PS - I hear that there are now thoughts in some quarters to mark the centenary of Reid's visit).

Below is a graphic from Reid's unsuccessful Presidential campaign of 1893, when he ran for Vice-President alongside Benjamin Harrison, who was also of Ulster-Scots descent:

With thanks to Ralph Erskine from Dunfermline

2012-01-19T12:25:00.001Z

"...The law could promise life to me,
If my obedience perfect be;
But grace does promise life upon
My Lord’s obedience alone.
The law says, Do, and life you’ll win;
But grace says, Live, for all is done;
The former cannot ease my grief,
The latter yields me full relief.."

- from Gospel Sonnets by Ralph Erskine (1745). There is a statue of him in Dunfermline today; he was buried at the Abbey, where most of King Robert the Bruce is also buried.

"a triumph of small over large, right over might and local over global"

2012-01-19T08:58:00.001Z

Excellent article here by Michael Hance on Scottish Review. And, to be fair, the initial article by David McVey here also rings true.

More about the Ambassador's visit...

2012-01-18T14:55:00.001Z

So Ulster groans with day after day of RMS Titanic coverage in the press, looking toward the much-talked about date in April when the action finally gets underway down at the old shipyard in Belfast. The pressure is now mounting to ensure that the investment of millions of pounds results in a scramble of ticket sales, and of course the long term 'sustainability' which will justify the money spent.

Meanwhile the future of the United Kingdom looks shaky, with prominent voices clamouring for independence and 'secession'. Ulster simmers with political discontent, affecting the economy, with strong rumours that massive public gatherings will be called in the Autumn. News coming out of Continental Europe just reinforces the climate of uncertainty.

Yet in the midst of all of this the US Ambassador sees an opportunity to change the story, to come to Belfast to remind us all of our cultural heritage and connections with Scotland. High profile politicians seem to be finally 'getting' the importance of our historic Ulster-Scots identity.

Publicity is embargoed until 15 February, but I may well leak some here later on...

US Ambassador coming to Belfast...

2012-01-16T11:09:00.001Z

... to give landmark speech on the Ulster-Scots to the Presbyterian Historical Society in Church House, Belfast. Date is 28th March, at 8.00pm. Subject 'The Ulster Scot'. Forget about the Titanic activities on April 10th, or the Ulster Covenant activities on September 28th, this is the event of the year. More to follow later.

The Black Crowes

2012-01-14T12:15:00.001Z

The Black Crowes (from Atlanta, Georgia USA) were one of the bands I discovered when in my late teens and early 20s. I've seen them in concert in Belfast at least once (maybe twice, memory's a bit rough nowadays). I remember reading an early interview with the core of the band, brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, in Kerrang! magazine in which they described their parents as 'Scotch Irish mountain folks'. Here are some clips from YouTube that some of you might enjoy. The Black Crowes are currently on a 'hiatus'.

"...Corporate sponsorship is just representative of the enemy, in the eyes of Robinson. "We are a band that has a problem with authority," he said. "For whatever reason - Scotch-Irish descent or Southern.." (full interview from 1993 here)

And here is Chris Robinson talking about the connection between the Scotch-Irish and alcohol:

"...My family are, like, Scotch-Irish mountain people, from Tennessee. It's sort of like a thing in the South when you're a kid - you want a drink? Then here. Hah! And you ******' drink, man, and then you throw up. It's like a dumb macho thing..." (from this 1994 article)

Scotland 2012

2012-01-13T20:44:00.001Z

Ulster 1912 was the setting for the Ulster Solemn League & Covenant, which was signed by over 470,000 people. Over 14,000 signed in Scotland, mainly in the west (through Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire) and along the central belt from Glasgow to Edinburgh, with a smattering in Fife and around Stirling. And Ireland was where the threat to the United Kingdom lay.

100 years on, the constitutional debate has shifted across the water to Scotland. Will the people of Scotland vote for independence from the rest of the UK? Will the terms of the referendum be fair and clear? I have friends in Scotland on both sides of the debate. I know some who vote SNP regularly (because they find the SNP to be a capable political party who get things done) but who wouldn't want independence.

Regardless of what happens politically, the historical connections between Ulster and Scotland will be unchanged and the cultural ties will still remain. Portpatrick will not float further away from Donaghadee. Kintyre will not drift further away from Antrim. We will continue to share a cultural inheritance across the narrow sea, a separation so small that it's often called The Sheugh (ie a field-drain) with the other side visible with the naked eye. In 1912 there were over 14,000 Ulster folk in Scotland who signed the Ulster Covenant. No doubt there were thousands more who didn't. But how many Ulster people live there today? Personally speaking, I would like to see the results of a future Scottish census which would ask the people there if their parents, grandparents or great grandparents were Ulster people, and/or Irish people. Now that's a statistic that would be really interesting.

(some readers will be interested in the story of the Scottish Covenant Association of the 1940s and 50s - click here for the Wikipedia entry)

(Ps - I will here admit to having a letter published in the News Letter when I was about 13, proposing that Northern Ireland and Scotland should get together and both go independent. I might have been mad... but maybe it just set a pattern which has stuck with me! If you are in the Newspaper Library in Belfast you'll find it if you scour through the letters pages covering the years 1985 - 1987)

"The Hillsborough By-Pass: a Conversation between the A1 and the Hillsborough By-Pass at the time of the opening of the latter" - Patric Stevenson, 1974

2012-01-09T18:05:00.001Z

I came across this again recently, I have a pamphlet version of it dated 1974. It was written by the artist Patric Stevenson, who was inspired by the Scottish poet Robert Fergusson:

"Whilst a' ye dae is makin' Sunday
Jist like a Saturday or Monday,
Encouragin' the non-devout
Till mitch frae kirk an' gad about
Neglectin' a' religious duties
Fer picnic sites an' scenic beauties..."

For the full poem, click here.

1798 and The Ulster Covenant

2012-01-04T10:32:00.001Z

2012 will be a year of important events - in Northern Ireland the centenary of the launch of the Titanic looks like the biggest event here, but later in the year there will also be the centenary of The Ulster Covenant. Below is an old photo I came across recently, which shows Lord Templetown signing the Covenant (presumably in Belfast) on a military drum from 1798, thereby invoking the ghosts of a century before. The family's Wikipedia entry says that the next Lord Templetown also had a role in Scotland - he was a member of the county council of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.

Today, 1798 is a story that still needs to be told, to preserve it from propagandists and also from over-simplification. Over the past few weeks I've been reading "Ireland and Scotland in the Age of Revolution" by Elaine McFarland - an excellent "east-west" telling of the links between Ulster and Scotland in the run-up to 1798, and its aftermath. I'm not sure if it is still in print, but if you are interested in the story I can highly recommend it as a refreshing break from the usual Hibernocentric viewpoint that is so dominant. This book - Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798 by Tom Dunne - is another perspective, telling of how the bicentenary of 1798 was deliberately skewed and mishandled. I haven't read it, but might be worth picking up. [The three point summary at the bottom of the article is particularly apt].

UPDATE: Thanks to Robert, who has done some more digging and has pointed out that on the PRONI website you can see that Templetown signed at the family seat of Castle Upton near Templepatrick, not in Belfast as incorrectly stated in the publication I scanned the photo from. The 36th Ulster Division trained on the estate there, and it is also of course where a man of an earlier generation of people bound together by a Covenant, Rev Josias Welsh (John Knox's grandson) was buried. On the same sheet you'll see the signature of an Alexander Peden! 1301 people signed at Castle Upton, which was one of 20 signing locations in East Antrim alone.

NB: I wonder if a fuller, uncropped, version of the photograph might reveal that the long wooden shaft lying across the table in front of the drum was a 1798 Battle of Antrim pike - thereby uniting the people of both drum and pike, implacable opponents in 1798, in common cause in 1912? Now that would be an interesting bit of symbolism.

"...In speech, in character, in looks, the people become Scotch..."

2011-12-29T01:06:00.001Z

I have some clients here in Northern Ireland who find that doing business in the Republic of Ireland can be difficult. Maybe because of the economic downturn there's an upsurge in people in the Republic choosing to buy goods and products which are made down there. There's a new Guaranteed Irish logo which many companies there now brand themselves with, to reinforce their provenance. What these clients find is that when some ROI customers take the time to read the small print, and they spot Northern Ireland addresses, they regard the client and their products as not really Irish at all, not 'proper Irish'. I've seen some pretty hostile emails which have been sent by angry customers - simply because the product they have bought says 'Irish' on the front of the packet, but on the back there's a Northern Ireland address.

You'd hope that in this day and age neighbourly relations and co-operation are the direction we're all heading in. And I support 100% the simple idea of buying local, wherever in the world you live. The regional cultural differences here are maybe less nowadays than they once were - we're all, to some extent, Westernised consumers now. But here are some significant quotes from a tourism book by prolific Dublin-born writer Katharine Tynan, published just over 100 years ago, in 1909:

"... that north-east corner of Ireland which no Celt looks upon as Ireland at all. In speech, in character, in looks, the people become Scotch and not Irish. One has crossed the border* and Celtic Ireland is left behind...

...there is nothing Irish about north-east Ulster except the country itself...

...like his Scotch progenitors, he stands by the Bible. There is as much Bible-reading in the fine red-brick mansions of Belfast as there is in Scotland...

...the Belfast man has the Scottish love of education. He has many of the homespun Scottish virtues, and much less than the Scottish love of money...

...Finn, the Irish giant, invited a Scotch giant over to fight him... I believe that the Scottish giant came and stayed. You see his children all over North-East Ulster..."

However she does acknowledge some positive traits - "... I have known exiles of Dublin who went to Belfast in tears... when however, they came to know the man of the North - he takes a good deal of knowing - nothing would induce them to return to Dublin..."

* bear in mind there wasn't a political border in Ireland when this was written, but there must have been an evident cultural border to the writer.

From Peeps at Many Lands: Ireland by Katharine Tynan (London, 1909). Excerpts from Chapter VI, 'The North' (click here to read in full on Archive.org)

Spurgeon and Cranmer on Christmas

2011-12-24T11:16:00.001Z

Thanks to Wallace for this quote from Spurgeon:

"...This is the season of the year when, whether we wish it or not, we are compelled to think of the birth of Christ. I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas Day. There are no probabilities whatever that our Saviour Jesus Christ was born on that day and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin; doubtless those who are Catholics have a right to hallow it, but I do not see how consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred.

However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas Days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt labouring people. Christmas Day is really a boon to us, particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once more. Still, although we do not fall exactly in the track of other people, I see no harm in thinking of the incarnation and birth of the Lord Jesus..."

...........

And I'm re-posting this from the blogger Archibishop Cranmer:

"...The birth of the Son of God was heralded by the Angel of the Lord, accompanied by the Shekinah, the Glory of God, followed by a multitude of the Heavenly Host singing praises. Hallelujah!

And for whose benefit was this magnificent display?

Kings? Presidents? Politicians? Religious leaders?

No, it was all for a few lowly shepherds – humble, poor, obscure and unnamed rustics of whom nothing more is heard in Scripture thereafter. While today’s puffed-up prelates court the wealthy, famous and influential, so today’s wealthy, famous and powerful seek out the privileged counsel, private chapels and cathedral pulpits of those same prelates for their displays of religiosity.

But not these shepherds. No, the Lord deemed them worthy because they were lowly. They were not body-beautiful celebrities, gifted orators, powerful decision makers or authoritative opinion formers; they were simply ordinary men, and the Lord chose them to be among the first to know that the Christ was born; that the Messiah had entered history; that the Son of God had come to redeem mankind - Immanuel.

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

The real deliverer and the real fulfilment of the needs of humanity is human, one of us, flesh of our flesh. He is born to rule, born to be a king, conceived of the house and lineage of David. His name is Wonderful – a mystery of divinity in humanity; Counsellor – the oracle of wisdom; the mighty God – the Word was not just with God, but was God; the Everlasting Father – not the same person as the Father, but of one substance with the Father; the Prince of Peace – bringing a peace that passes understanding..."

...........

Thanks to all of you for visiting here at "The Burn" this year, and for those who have got in touch by email to encourage, to help, to improve, to share. But in picking through the wide range of stuff I post here, what matters most is Christ. Faith is not to be placed in a denomination, or an organised religion, or a system of morality, and not to be used to build a high horse from which to judge others. No-one deserves, or can earn, Amazing Grace. There is no "nice list" or "naughty list" with God. There's just sinful people... and then there's Christ in a category all of His own. My grandmother, long passed on, had these two verses hanging as a single text on her wall, from Matthew and the Song of Solomon:

"What think ye of Christ? He is altogether lovely".

Joy to the World. Merry Christmas.

Scottish independence comes to Northern Ireland

2011-12-21T18:58:00.001Z

One country stands firm in opposing the global domination of Coca-Cola. That country is Scotland, where Irn Bru is the best-selling soft drink, with Coca-Cola second - everywhere else on the planet Coke is the top seller. The marketing people at Coca-Cola have even tried many ideas over the years to win this battle - including an attempt to invoke the spirit of Rabbie Burns.

Irn Bru are currently raising their profile in Northern Ireland and were recently announced as the new sponsors for football's Irish League Cup. Irn-Bru already sponsor the lower football leagues in Scotland and Super League rugby.

Here's Irn Bru's brilliant parody of the dire The Snowman nonsense which pollutes tv here in the UK every Christmas.

Part Ten: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-12-17T20:37:00.001Z

Part Nine: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-12-17T14:13:00.001Z

Part Eight: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-12-17T08:57:00.001Z

Part Seven: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-12-15T18:02:00.001Z

“…Mr William McEwan, of Long Island, N.Y., who is the evangelistic singer at the Methodist Church during the special meetings being held, entertained by a number of Scotch stories and also with some of his songs. Mr McEwan is a Scotchman, being born at Glasgow, Scotland, and he can tell a Scotch story…”
- ‘Five Visitors Attend Mt Union Rotary Club’; The Daily News, Huntingdon, 27.01.1930

“… he is now a gospel singer and has sung all over the world. He has sung in a large portion of the world with Chapman, Torrey, Beiderwolf, Gypsy Smith and Billie Sunday. He is an exclusive Columbia artist and his gospel song records may be bought at Laird’s drug store…”
- ‘Meeting Success in Evangelistic Work in Mt. Union”; The Daily News, Huntingdon, 28.01.1930

“…William McEwan of Long Island, N.Y., who is the evangelistic singer at the First Methodist Church during the special meetings in progress last week and this entertained with a number of Scotch stories and also with several Scotch songs. Mr McEwan is a Scotchman, being born in Glasgow, Scotland, and he is adept at telling stories of his mother country…”
- 1930, Jan 29, The Altoona Mirror (Pennsylvania)

The Seventh Recording Session, New York, Feb 1930
His seventh recording session came in February 1930, just two months after his sixth session, when he recorded three pieces with a harmonium and violin:

• Sunrise
(words by William C Poole, music by B D Ackley, published 1924)

• Throw out the Lifeline
(words by Edwin S Ufford, music by George C Stebbins, published 1890)

• Pull for the Shore
(words and music by Philip Bliss)

As with his sixth session, a fourth piece was recorded as well, but its title is unknown as it was never released as a record. For what it's worth, I think that "Pull For the Shore" is one of his strongest recordings, a popular hymn written in a sea shanty style by Philip Bliss (see here for background information on Cyberhymnal.com). I have digitised it below for you to listen:

Light in the darkness, sailor, day is at hand!
See o’er the foaming billows fair haven’s land,
Drear was the voyage, sailor, now almost o’er,
Safe within the life boat, sailor, pull for the shore.

Refrain:
Pull for the shore, sailor, pull for the shore!
Heed not the rolling waves, but bend to the oar;
Safe in the life boat, sailor, cling to self no more!
Leave the poor old stranded wreck, and pull for the shore.

Trust in the life boat, sailor, all else will fail,
Stronger the surges dash and fiercer the gale,
Heed not the stormy winds, though loudly they roar;
Watch the “bright and morning Star,” and pull for the shore!

Bright gleams the morning, sailor, uplift the eye;
Clouds and darkness disappearing, glory is nigh!
Safe in the life boat, sailor, sing evermore;
“Glory, glory, hallelujah!” pull for the shore.

Philip Bliss's tragic death in 1876, trying to save his wife from a burning train wreck, had become world-famous in evangelical circles; here is a present-day video production about him:

The 1930 US Census
On 1st April 1930, the US Census recorded these details about the MacEwan household (who were living at no. 40, 3728 Brooklyn, New York) :
• William McEwan aged 59, first married at age 20, a "WW" veteran
• Mabel McEwan, born New York, first married at 18, now aged 36 (Mabel was his second wife)
• Charles McEwan, son, aged 19, born Scotland
• Clayton McEwan, son, aged 17, born Scotland.

The Eighth Recording Session, New York, Jan 1931
In January 1931 he completed eighth recording session, which were to be his last American recordings. Now aged 60, and accompanied with a harmonium and violin he recorded:

• God Is With Us
(words and music by Lewis E Jones, published 1923)

• Merrily Sing
(words by Haldor Lillenas, published circa 1921)

• I Would Be Like Jesus
(words by James Rowe, music by B D Ackley, published 1911)

• What A Day of Victory
(words and music by James Rowe, published 1917)

• Pardoning Grace
(words by A H Ackley, music by B D Ackley, published 1914)

• Sweetest Song
(words and music by A H Ackley, published 1913)

To be continued...

Hirsel / hirsle

2011-12-13T16:09:00.001Z

It's that time of year when folk get a few sneezes and sniffles. Earlier today my mother said that she had a hirsel. It's a word I hadn't heard in donkeys years, but according to The Concise Scots Dictionary it's "a wheeze or catarrhal sound in the chest la19-". and is "a wheezing cough" in The Hamely Tongue, where it is spelled as hirsle. A big mug of ginger cordial with boiling water is required. These folk in Bangor make a tasty, a bit sweeter than normal, version.

Ann Tree, the East Grinstead Martyr, 1556

2011-12-12T19:34:00.001Z

Whilst in England visiting family over the summer I found a local Sussex magazine with an article about the martyrdom of Ann Tree, Thomas Dungate and John Foreman who were burned at the stake in East Grinstead in July 1556. East Grinstead is about 25 miles south of London, and is today an affluent part of the commuter belt. I tracked down their memorial in St Swithun's Churchyard which is just off the high street - however due to budget cuts the town museum was closed when I visited and so didn't get to buy the booklet which a local author has written about their story. The inscription which runs across the three stones read:

“Beneath these stones are interred (as is believed) the ashes of Thomas Dungate, Anne Tree, and John Forman, who were burned to death in High St, East Grinstead, in 1556 for adherence to the Reformed Faith. FIDELES USQUE AD MORTEM”.

• the East Grinstead martyrs are mentioned here on the Lewes Bonfire Celebrations website (if you think Northern Ireland does bonfires well, you should see Lewes in November.)

• the local Council records their story on its website here

• a good summary here at the Tudor Stuff blog

Here's a version of the old hymn "Where the Soul of Man Never Dies" by English folk singer Kate Rusby. (Thanks to Bob Kelim for sending this to me a while ago). It seems apt to have an English female voice singing this song for this posting.

(NB: the brass plaque shown at the bottom is inside the parish church of nearby West Hoathly, and was installed in 1940. It is about a foot tall, and is a beautiful, simple depiction)

So here it is, merry Christmas

2011-12-10T10:32:00.001Z

Something to get you in the mood; a new arrangement of the original tune of Away in a Manger by (I think Scotsman) James Murray, and a fresh take on 'O Come All Ye Faithful" - both by The Lower Lights.

Away In A Manger by The Lower Lights

Oh Come All Ye Faithful by The Lower Lights

The Lower Lights: Come Let Us Adore Him from The Lower Lights on Vimeo.

Living, breathing, singing - authentic tradition.

2011-12-08T13:44:00.001Z

Within the past few days I've had contact with some significant people. Significant in that they are just plain ordinary folk, who are the living examples of the things I've been blogging about here over the years.

Firstly a man in his 80s who I met on Sunday night at the Iron Hall, who is a big William MacEwan fan and who still sings solos of MacEwan's recordings around the wee halls of Belfast. Another man at the Iron Hall spoken to me enthusiastically about going to see Seth and Bessie Sykes in Belfast during the 1940s and early 1950s. A phone call yesterday from a lady who lives near Hillsborough, who as a girl attended every single night of a Sykes mission in a rural mission hall in the vicinity and who was trying to trace more copies of "McEwan's Mission Songs" and found my blog thanks to Mr Google. She then found my phone number and we had a great conversation yesterday for about 25 minutes. And last night I had a call from a lady whose parents and older siblings were all Ards people, but she was born where they settled in Corby in England (Corby has a huge Scottish community even today). She was trying to fill in some family tree gaps.

You can make up entertainment, but you can't invent authentic tradition. If it doesn't exist in the lives or memories of the older generation then it's probably rubbish. If the older generation are ignored, then honest tradition is on the scrapheap. Plenty of folk have told me over the years that I was born about 100 years too late - I take that as a compliment! I'll be 40 in January, but learn more from older people, and am more enthused by older people, all the time.

Part Six: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-12-08T12:20:00.001Z

Farewell to Wm MacEwan

During the special Easter season services held at Trinity Methodist Church, the pastor, Dr E R Heckman was assisted by Mr William MacEwan, the Scottish Gospel tenor. He conducted the singing and introduced many catchy hymns from the hymnal ‘Faith Inspiring Songs’. Mr MacEwan enjoys a wide reputation having toured the British Isles and the Continent and America with all the great evangelists for the last twenty years. His solo work was most favorably received too.

Last evening the service took the nature of a farewell to this noted singer and the church was filled to express its appreciation of his work and its admiration for him. He sang two solos with much feeling and expression – 'My Ain Countree' and 'Annie Laurie'. He accompanied one of his own records on the Victrola, 'My Mother’s Prayers', and had the audience weeping. Mr Albert Adams rendered two very beautiful solos on the violin, which were very heartily received. The Booster Chorus, a band of boys and girls of the Sunday school, whom Mr MacEwan trained during his stay, sang two of his popular choruses. The children’s work met with great appreciation and showed the effect of the director’s good training.

To add colour to the evening, Mr MacEwan was dressed in his native Scotch kilts and he certainly looked the Scotchman that he was.

He leaves today for Richmond, Virginia, and then after his engagement in that southern city will make a tour of Scotland and Wales. Come again Mr MacEwan, Clearfield will always extend to you the welcome hand.

The Fourth Recording Session, August 1927
On 3rd June 1927 he boarded the SS Caronia in New York, bound for Plymouth. Presumably he completed his intended tour of Scotland and Wales during the summer before going back into the studio in London in August. The list of 18 hymns he recorded was:

• Tell it Wherever You Go
(words by Johnson Oatman Jr, music by William Edie Marks, published 1907)

• Will the Circle be Unbroken? (remake)
(Habershon / Gabriel - written 1907)

• God Will Take Care of You (remake)
(Martin / Martin - written 1905)

• My Father Knows
(words and music by Sarepta M I Henry, published 1909)

• Softly and Tenderly (remake)
(Will L Thompson - written 1880)

• Carry Your Cross with a Smile
(words by Ina D Ogdon, music by C H Gabriel, published 1916)

• Gospel Bells (remake)
(Martin / Sankey - written 1895)

• Mother’s Prayers have Followed Me
(words by Lizzie De Armond, music by Bentley D Ackley, published 1912)

• Only a Sinner (remake)
(Gray / Towner - written 1905)

• Angels Song (labeled “a Christmas number”)
(words and music by Robert Lowry; date of publication unknown)

• My Mother’s Prayer (remake)
(J.W. Van de Venter - written 1895)

• Crown Him King of Kings (labeled “a Christmas number”)
(words and music by Eben E Rexford, published 1912)

• Thou Remainest (remake)
(Whittle / McGranahan - written 1884)

• His Eye is On the Sparrow (remake)
(Martin / Gabriel - written 1905)

• He Lifted Me (remake)
(Gabriel - written 1905)

• Broken Heart (remake)
(Dennis / McKinney - written early 1900s)

• Sweeter as the Years Go By
(words and music by Leila N Morris, published 1912)

• All Hail Immanuel
(words by D R Van Sickle, music by C H Gabriel, published 1910)

The Fifth Recording Session, October 1928
Just over a year later he was back in London. In October 1928 he completed his fifth recording session - this time in a church rather than a recording studio - at Christ Church, Lambeth (shown left). It was then a Congregational chapel, but just 12 years later it would be very badly damaged during the blitz of WW2; today only the spire remains. Accompanied by a pipe organ and violin he recorded this selection of hymns, two of which were remakes:

• By and By
(words by Fanny Crosby, music by Bentley D Ackley, published 1915)

• I Need Jesus
(words by George Webster, music by CH Gabriel, published 1924)

• Behold I Stand at the Door
(author and date unknown)

• Your Best Friend is Always Near (remake)
(words by Isabel Allam, music by Edwin Excell, published 1916)

• In My Heart there Rings a Melody
(words and music by Elton Roth, published 1924)

• I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
(words by Horatius Bonar, published 1846)

• Satisfied
(words and music by Alfred H Ackley, published 1910)

• Lead Me to Calvary
(words by Jennie Hussey, music by W J Kirkpatrick, published 1921)

• Sail On
(words and music by C H Gabriel, published 1908)

• Wonderful Story (remake)
(words and music by C H Gabriel, published 1897)

William McEwan, now aged 56, headed back to his family in America. He sailed onboard the SS Leviathan from Southampton on 14 December 1928 and arrived in New York on 20 December, just in time for Christmas. The passenger records give his address as 938 East 31st Street Brooklyn.

His Atlantic-hopping continued; he made a quick return to Britain, and on June 19th 1929 William MacEwan once again sailed back to America, from Southampton to New York on the SS Olympic, arriving on June 25th. The passenger list gives his address as 119 Schermerham St Brooklyn NY.

The Sixth Recording Session, December 1929
His sixth recording session was just six months later, in December 1929 in New York, accompanied by a harmonium and violin:

• He Must Reign
(words and music by C Austin Miles, published 1926)

• March On
(words by Elsie D Yale, music by J Lincoln Hall, published 1917)

• I Walk With the King
(words by James Rowe, music by Bentley D Ackley, published 1913)

A fourth piece was recorded, but its title is unknown as it was never released as a record. As the 1920s drew to a close, William MacEwan was approaching 60 years of age. He was at the prime of his career and was one of the world’s most accomplished recording artists.

Part Five: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-12-05T20:16:00.001Z

“…William McEwan, chorister, wasn’t there. He was in Newark, N.J., his home city, yesterday, completing his naturalization as an American citizen…”

The next day the same paper reported:

“ It was American night at the Arena last night. William McEwan, Gipsy Smith’s choir leader, returned yesterday from Newark N.J. where he received his final papers as an American citizen on Monday. As he entered the building last night, the choir, led by Prof. Hugh M Tilroe (?), arose to sing ‘America’. The audience stood and sang also. When Gipsy Smith had announced the benediction at the close of the meeting, the choir sang ‘The Star Spangled Banner”. With the exception of three persons in the east balcony, everybody arose again. This time Mr McEwan was leading. “Stand up” he shouted to those three persons, as loud as the cold he had contracted at Newark would permit him. “Whenever you hear that tune you stand.”

“Oh but America is a great country,” announced McEwan as he reached the platform.

“Yes, but you can’t sing like you could when you were a Britisher” returned Gipsy Smith.

The 20 April 1922 edition of the Syracuse Herald records that MacEwan and Smith held a “patriotic night” at the Arena aimed at war veterans – Smith told the story of his own military service during WW1 (his 1918 book "Your Boys" is available here on Archive.org) at a special evening entitled ‘Three and One-Half Years in the Trenches'. He and fellow veteran MacEwan sang the parting solos.

The second recording session – London, June 1922
Shortly after the campaign was finished, William headed back to Britain. He recorded a selection of six pieces, accompanied by what sounds like a very good Salvation Army band, or perhaps a small orchestra, for Columbia in London in June 1922. The songs were:

• Jesus, Blessed Jesus
(words and music by C H Gabriel, published 1906)

• Oh it is wonderful
(words and music by C H Gabriel, published 1898)

• Wonderful Story
(words and music by C H Gabriel, published 1897)

• Your best friend is always near
(words by Isabel C Allam, music Edwin O Excell, published 1916)

• Wonderful peace
(words and music by Haldor Lillenas, published 1914)

• Little bit of love
(words and music by Edwin O Excell, published 1904)

He returned to America, alone, onboard the SS Berengaria which sailed from Southampton to New York on 8th July 1922. And in October of the same year, the MacEwans returned to Scotland. The passenger list for the SS Algeria, sailing from New York to Glasgow via Moville in Donegal and arriving on 2 October 1922, includes this list:

William McEwan, 3 Glencairn Drive, Pollokshields, Glasgow (singer) aged 50
Mabel A McEwan housewife aged 29
Mary Miller McEwan student aged 21
Charles P McEwan student aged 10
Clayton McEwan student aged 8

I’m not sure when William and Mabel got married, but it seems that she already had a daughter, Mary. Other records say that Mabel Alice McEwan was born in New York on 6th July 1893.

William remained in Scotland until April 1923. The passenger list for the SS Aquitania, dated 6 April 1923, and sailing from Southampton to New York includes Mabel Alice McEwan was born in New York on 6th July 1893 ; a 21 year old daughter, Mary M McEwan ; Charles Parker was 12 years old, born 11 Feb 1912 in New York ; Clayton Edward was 9 years old, born 23 October 1914 in New York.

'McEwan's Mission Songs' published
Around this time, MacEwan's name was ascribed to another hymnbook. "McEwan's Mission Songs - a Choice Collection of Solo, Duet, Quartet and Choir Numbers" was a selection of 54 hymns. It was published by R.L. Allan & Son in Glasgow, and Oliphants in London. It had a foreword written by Rev Samuel MacAuley Lindsay the Pastor of First Baptist Church in Brookline, Massachussetts.

Covers of the first and revised editions:

Advert inside the revised edition:

But William was back in Scotland again in 1924; his passport application of 4th August 1924 states his reason for traveling was “visit father” James MacEwan in Glasgow. He sailed from Montreal to Southampton onboard the SS Majestic on 12 September. He returned to New York just a month later – the passenger list for the SS Lancastria which sailed on October 15th from Southampton to New York includes a 52 year old William McEwan from Brooklyn.

The Third Recording Session, New York 1926
William’s next recording session was in New York in May 1926. These are said to be the first recordings in the world to use an electrical microphone. By now aged 54, he was accompanied by a simple harmonium and violin. The six pieces were:

• We will talk it o’er together bye and bye
(words and music by Mrs C H Morris, published c. 1914)

• Song in the heart (Wonderful Wonderful Jesus)
(words by Anna B Russell, music by Ernest O Sellers, published 1921)

• In the Garden
(words and music by C Austin Miles, published 1912)

• When they ring the golden bells
(words and music by Daniel de Marbelle, published 1887)

• The Old Rugged Cross
(words and music by George Bennard, published 1913)

• I’m going through Jesus
(words and music by Herbert Buffum, published 1914)

The Voice of "The Old Rugged Cross"
It was MacEwan's recording of “The Old Rugged Cross” that really captured the public imagination. Many years later, in the October 1940 edition of The Gramophone, Herbert C Ridout, the former publicity manager of the Columbia Graphophone Company (London), wrote this glowing retrospective:

“…A Scots-American singing evangelist named William MacEwan had persuaded Sterling that there was a large public here interested in his gospel songs to such an extent that it would be worth while recording twenty-four titles and putting up the twelve records in an album. It was a bold thing to do, for sacred records had only represented a modest, if steady, share of the total sales.

But we had an agreeable surprise, for the MacEwan records not only sold handsomely all round, but there was one title that stood out as a tremendous favourite. Yet to the average man, who, whether religiously-minded or not, knows most of the well-known hymns, it was completely unknown. This was a hymn called "The Old Rugged Cross," written by the Rev. George Bennard. It had been largely used in the revival campaigns in this country and America.

Hundreds of thousands of "The Old Rugged Cross" records must have been sold, and until recently William MacEwan was the only record-exponent of it. You'll find this, and a number of others, in addition to the original dozen in this MacEwan series made in 1911 (since rerecorded electrically, of course), still in the catalogue serving its public.

In my experience I have never known any other hymn record to equal "The Old Rugged Cross" in sales — that's why I mention it as a landmark of its kind…”

Quite some accolade, and gives us an insight into the enormous impact of William MacEwan. This website says that "...Within thirty years of its initial publication in 1913, more than twenty million copies of "The Old Rugged Cross" had been sold, outselling every other musical composition of any kind published to that date...". Some research is definitely needed to confirm these statistics.

[ Note - it was around this time, in April 1927, that a New York record company executive called Ralph Peer travelled into the Appalachian Mountains to set up an impromptu recording studio in Bristol, Tennessee. The "Bristol Sessions" as they became known included obscure hillbilly performers who would become world-famous, such as The Carter Family, who later recorded countryfied, acoustic, three-part harmony versions of some of the hymns William MacEwan had recorded and popularised, including "The Old Rugged Cross". Johnny Cash would later marry one of the Carters - here is a video of Cash and June Carter singing "The Old Rugged Cross" at a packed football stadium in the 1970s/80s, possibly part of a Billy Graham campaign. Cash introduces it as being "the biggest selling sheet music in the last 100 years":

]

The Fourth Recording Session – London, August 1927
Perhaps the meteoric success of The Old Rugged Cross inspired Columbia to dust-down the MacEwan back catalogue. In August 1927 he recorded 18 songs, 12 of which were remakes of songs he had recorded before.

{ To be continued }

The three cultural traditions of Ulster

2011-12-05T00:12:00.001Z

"I do not wonder the Gospel runs so swiftly in these parts. The people in general have the finest natural tempers which I ever knew; they have the softness and courtesy of the Irish, the seriousness of the Scots and the openness of the English" - John Wesley, from The Journal of the Rev John Wesley, April 1767

We can dispute the characteristics he describes, but it's clear from this excerpt that John Wesley fully understood the triple cultural blend (of Irish, English and Scottish) which makes up the people of Ulster. If only our present-day beloved media and public institutions would take a leaf out of his book - get rid of their 'Troubles-tinged' * political glasses and stop perpetuating the "two tribes" political stereotype as if it is the only viewpoint. More about this in a future posting.

* 'Troubles-tinged' is great expression I heard first from a friend recently, whose identity I will keep anonymous. I don't want him to think I am claiming it as my own.

"Our quarrel is with the Government alone" - Edward Carson, February 1914

2011-11-24T01:23:00.001Z

With 2012 being the centenary of the Ulster Covenant, I thought that this poster would be of interest to some readers. Edward Carson raised the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, which became the 36th Ulster Division of the British Army on the outbreak of World War One in July 1914. Earlier that year, on 24th February, Edward Carson felt the need to issue this poster, the message of which seems to be to reassure Catholics and Nationalists of the objectives of the (Protestant and Unionist) Volunteers:

"As rumours have been sedulously circulated to the effect that the Ulster Volunteer Force has been organized with an object hostile to those of our fellow-countrymen in Ulster who differ from us, I desire that it should be made plain on all occasions that the sole object of the ULSTER VOLUNTEER FORCE is to make it impossible for the Government to compel us to submit to a Home Rule Parliament in Dublin. Our quarrel is with the Government alone, and we desire that the RELIGIOUS and POLITICAL views of our opponents should be everywhere respected. We fight for equal justice for all under the Government of the United Kingdom.

(signed)

EDWARD CARSON
24th February 1914"

You can decide for yourself, and with the benefit of 100 years of hindsight, whether his sentiment was sincere. Regardless, it makes for interesting reading.

BBC Northern Ireland - Plandáil - 1. Settlement to Covenant

2011-11-22T01:21:00.001Z

(Thanks to Geoff!) I was sent a BBC iPlayer link to this new Irish language series earlier this evening, telling the story of the early Scots settlements in Ulster in the 1600s. Some nuancing here and there could have been improved (the description of Hamilton & Montgomery as 'thugs' is bizarre to the point of being almost laughable) but in the main I must give credit to the producers. They've taken time to understand the stories and have put them across with far more sensitivity and respect than most other programmes (and organisations) tend to.

You can watch the programme by clicking here - as it's in Irish, be prepared for 40 minutes of caption reading, apart from some contributions from non-Irish speakers. I would be interested in readers' comments. And yes, my name is mentioned in the credits at the end, because I supplied a few still images to the production company a while ago. It is perhaps a wee bit dry and slow in places for some viewers, but overall I definitely prefer accuracy and quiet respect over entertainment any day.

I am glad that Hamilton & Montgomery, and the early Presbyterian ministers, are increasingly an accepted part of Ulster's cultural narrative. Just six years ago, in 2005, hardly anybody outside of devotees had a baldy notion about them. 2006 was the 400th anniversary of the start of their settlement here, and I am thankful to everyone who helped me to tell that story during my first full year as Chair of the Ulster-Scots Agency, and also those who worked hard with me on 'The Covenanters in Ulster' project during 2008. I am also glad that through this new programme, the Irish language community has had an opportunity to better understand the first generation Scots' experience in 1600s Ulster.

I'm looking forward to seeing future episodes of this series - I hope they are as strong as this first one.

(ps - shame about the mistaken 'Robert Hamilton' reference, which should of course have been Rev James Hamilton)

William MacEwan in 2011

2011-11-19T22:47:00.001Z

Another man who has been a big help and inspiration to me over recent years is Joe from near Beith in Ayrshire. Earlier this year, and after about 18 months of emailing each other back and forth, I met up with Joe, his wife Jean, and their two grandchildren in Lisburn - they were en route to the west of Ireland to meet up with one of their sons. Joe was kind enough to bring me a load of Ayrshire bricks - and ALL of his William MacEwan 78s. I digitised them all, and on my visit to Scotland in June I returned them all to Joe, and gave him a CD of the digitised versions, and enjoyed the best part of a Saturday with him and Jean. Joe's grandfather used to cycle to Glasgow to listen to William MacEwan sing. So Joe is another man whose influence has driven me to try to tell William MacEwan's story.

Just the other day, Joe sent me an email to tell me about another singer, a Canadian called Henry Burr, who recorded a version of 'My Ain Countrie' in 1911 (the same year MacEwan had recorded it). Here is a link to the Burr recording. Burr went on to join the Peerless Quartet, another group whose gospel 78s I have seen in a few collections here in Ulster. Burr was reared in New Brunswick in Canada, and a quick look at his biography shows that it's very likely he and William MacEwan would have known of each other. Burr recorded 159 cylinders for various record companies between 1904 - 1919. You can listen to them all here.

Back to more MacEwan soon.

Seth Sykes "Scotch Evangelists, Composers and Singers" and the Ulster link

2011-11-19T10:37:00.001Z

Every now and again you meet people who are inspirational. One of these is a retired man from Shotts in Lanarkshire (I'll keep him anonymous) who shares all of my interests in old Scottish evangelists and their connections with Ulster. Earlier this year he sent me a box packed with records, books and home-made CDs of old 78s he has digitised, a brilliant collection. One of the things he sent me was a book entitled 'A Great Little Man - A biography of evangelist Seth Sykes', published in 1958. I have met people over the years who remember Seth and Bessie Sykes on their many trips to Ulster, especially to the Shankill Mission and other parts of urban Belfast. They were from Springburn in Glasgow; the famed Jeremiah Meneely of Kells in County Antrim held a tent mission in Springburn in 1884, the aftermath of which saw a number of gospel halls being established in Springburn. Some of the Sykes' songs still resonate with folk of my vintage and mission hall upbringing:

In the sweet bye and bye, in the sweet bye and bye
I have a mansion so bright and so fair
Won't it be lovely when I get there?
In the sweet bye and bye, in the sweet bye and bye
When the battle is done and we hear the 'Well done'
In the sweet bye and bye

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

"...The Evangelists Seth & Bessie Sykes were well-known in Springburn, the U.K, and even in the United States. In 1929 Seth, who was a tram conductor, resigned in 1929, and both of them travelled to mission churches throughout the length an breadth of Britain with a barrel organ, singing, preaching the gospel and retelling stories from the Bible with lantern slides.

As far away as the USA, the Sykes are remembered for their songs, some of which have been adopted by Evangelical churches. The choruses of which many Glasgow families learned whilst sitting on the seaside sands, "doon the Clyde" at seaside missions, sung with appropriate hand and arm movements. Some of these were:-

"Running over, running over, my heart's full and running over,
Since the Lord saved me, I'm as happy as I can be,
My hearts full and running over."

and,

"Wide, wide as the ocean, high as the heavens above,
Deep, deep as the deepest sea, is my Saviour's love."..."

quoted from this source

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

Their chorus 'Thank You Lord for Saving My Soul' became world-famous. Their hymn book 'Songs of Salvation' includes the brilliant 'My Sins are A' Awa'. I am told there was a display of some of the Sykes' artefacts, including Bessie's portable pump organ, at the now sadly-closed Springburn Museum in Glasgow.

'A Great Little Man - A biography of evangelist Seth Sykes' has a marvellous photograph of the Sykes' in action at Largs in 1949, and also features two songs they composed specifically for their Ulster missions: 'He's My All in All' for the Shankill Mission, and 'Just Look Up (The Lisburn Chorus)'. It was getting this package from Shotts which drove me to start work on a similar biography of William MacEwan which I've been publishing here.

I have a fair amount of old items about the Skyes' - like the invitation below, showing that the old 'magic lantern' technology was a big part of their work. I think Derg Street was just off the Crumlin Road. Maybe when I get MacEwan out of my system I'll move on to the Sykes next!

Gillian Kyle - Scottish giftware

2011-11-16T23:06:00.001Z

I have mentioned Gillian Kyle here before. Her website has been overhauled and new products have been added. I can't think of a better example of someone using heritage-based imagery in a creative way for today's world. Visit here.

It is old but it is beautiful...

2011-11-15T17:46:00.000Z

I found this trio of pics today, taken on my trip around Scotland back in June. These are on a doorway on George VI Bridge in Edinburgh. Beautiful layering of lettering, peeling back the years. Click the photos to enlarge.

Part Four: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-11-11T11:59:00.001Z

“…The program was opened with ‘All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name’ by the choir. After a prayer by the Rev W. A. Wylie and the scripture reading by the Rev A.W. Jamieson, the choir sang ‘All Hail Immanuel’. McEwan sang ‘God Will Take Care of You’ and then ‘Shadows’ both of which were loudly applauded. The duet which McEwan sang with himself was the big hit of the evening. He sang with a record of his own voice on a Victrola, and the similarity between the two was very noticeable. After the choir sang again, McEwan played ‘My Ain Countree’ on the Victrola, and the resemblance of the record to the way McEwan has sung it here was very pronounced. McEwan thanked Robert A. Innis for the use of the Victrola and George C. Wyatt & Co. for the use of some extra records he played…”

The same newspaper, just 2 days earlier, recounted a conversation where McEwan said that his family roots were in Ayrshire. His star was rising fast, and he was selected to join what became known as the National Male Quartette, alongside James Heaton, E.C. Miller and LL Kemper. On Friday 29 November 1912 the newspaper The Republican News (of Hamilton, Ohio) printed a large article about the four men, along with a group photograph. They also included a large portrait of William McEwan surrounded by a graphical frame of thistles.

The article includes this short autobiographical piece ‘A Song that Helped, by Wm McEwan’:

“…Several years ago a great spirit of disappointment came over me as in looking over my Gospel Singing career I could not possibly call to my remembrance a single person what had been won to Christ through my singing. The more I thought of it the more miserable I got, until I waited on God to give me a sign that some one had been blest through my ministry of song. The answer came in a very unexpected way. The evangelist I was with (Rev H D Sheldon) that night for some reason or another asked those who had been won for Christ in the meetings to tell what had awakened them to a consciousness of their need of a Saviour. One young man stood up and with tears in his eyes said that he was awakened through Mr McEwan’s singing of ‘He Died of a Broken Heart’. I almost felt like shouting for joy when I realised that I had an answer to my prayer. I learned the lesson then to go on and sing with grace in my heart unto the Lord knowing that he will use the song if sung to His glory…”

Jeanie and the four children had stayed at home in Scotland since the summer, and they travelled to America to join William just before Christmas, sailing from Glasgow to New York on the SS Columbia, arriving on 18 December 1912.

"Nervous Breakdown"
However, the strain of constant travel, evangelism and fame seems to have taken its toll on William. The Binghamton Press of 18 June 1913 recorded that he had suffered what it termed a ‘nervous breakdown’:

“… M’Ewan is Greatly Improved in Health : William McEwan, choirmaster of the Dr W E Biederwolf evangelistic party, who has been on a vacation in the Adirondack Mountains for three weeks returned home on Sunday much improved in health. Mr McEwan has been suffering from a nervous breakdown and heamorrhage of the lung, brought about by the strain of constant singing…”

Just a few weeks later, he was back on stage, but this time it was to perform in a benefit concert to raise money to enable him to go back to Scotland. The Gazette and Bulletin (Williamsport, Pennsylvania) of 25 July 1913 included this article, showing that McEwan wasn't just a singer, he was an imaginative 'multi-media' communicator:

“…Sings Duet with himself – William McEwen introduces this feature in his benefit concert tonight: William McEwen the Scotch tenor who conducted the music of the recent Biederwolf campaign arrived in Williamsport yesterday morning to complete arrangements for his concert in the Airdome tonight. The Biederwolf chorus will assist. Those who have heard Mr McEwen sing his many sacred songs will be more than pleased to have this opportunity to hear him sing some of the folks songs of 'his ain countrie'.

Several of his songs will be sung with steroptican illustrations, and those who have seen Mr McEwan's slides at the rehearsals declare that they are extraordinary in beauty and in breadth of collection. Mr McEwan has brought his own operator and there can be no difficulty in showing the slides to the best advantage.

The feature of the evening will be the strikingly unique performance of hearing a man sing a duet with himself. Mr McEwen sings a duet with himself and one or two intimates in this city have heard him do it, and they take oath that it is one of the most interesting and melodious bits of singing they have ever heard. Those who recall the hit Mr McEwen made during the campaign when he told the vast crowd that his chorus was so familiar with a certain song that they could sign it backward, and straightaway had them do so, are prepared to believe that the little man has more than ordinary powers to perform astounding feats.

Some of Mr McEwen's songs will be sung with an accompaniment of humming by the chorus that is very effective. To vary the concert some of the tenor's records of his own songs sung by himself will be played on the grafanola.

The concert to be given tonight by Mr McEwen and the Biederwolf chorus is for the benefit of the singer himself, the proceeds to be used to defray his expenses to Scotland, where he hopes to regain his health. It was stated yesterday that F W Vandersloot would accompany him on the journey. W.E. Biederwolf will also be one of the party. The concert in the Airdome tonight will begin at 8 o'clock. Following is the complete program:

"Steadily Marching On" - Williamsport Chorus Choir
"Clinging" - Williamsport Chorus Choir
Solo - "My Ain Countrie" - William McEwan
"Sextette from Lucia"- Williamsport Chorus Choir
Duet - "I've Tried In Vain" - McEwan with himself
Solo illustrated - "Memories of Mother" - William McEwan
"Master the Tempest" - Williamsport Chorus Choir
"The Old and New Home" - Rev and Mrs Dorsey N Miller
"Gospel Bells" - Grafanola selections
"Some Day" - William McEwan
Solo obligato - "From Every Stormy Wind" - William McEwan and Choir
"His Word Shall Stand" - Williamsport Chorus Choir
Solo illustrated - "The Broken Heart" - William McEwan
"Lead Me Gently" - Williamsport Chorus Choir
"The Bridal Procession" - Rev and Mrs Dorsey N Miller
Solo illustrated - "I Wonder How the Old Folks are at Home" - William McEwan
"All Hail Immanuel" - Chorus Choir
"Auld Lang Syne" - William McEwan ..."

But even though William McEwan was heading back to Scotland, his voice could still be enjoyed in the USA thanks to the latest technology of the 10" 78rpm record which could be played on a 'talking machine' gramophone. The advert below offers what must have been the 1913 equivalent of an iPod and an iTunes voucher - a McEwan-endorsed Victrola and 12 songs - in a newspaper dated 14 November 1913.

'M'Ewan's Song Evangel' is published
William recuperated and returned to America, sailing on the SS Cameronia from Glasgow on 6th September 1913 and arriving in New York on the 14th. The following year, 1914, saw William McEwan’s first publication. ‘McEwan’s Song Evangel – a Choice Selection of the very latest Gospel songs, specially adapted for solo singers, choirs, etc.’ contained 236 hymns and gospel songs. The collection, which was a music edition with full notation for every piece, was compiled by Wm McEwan and edited by E O Excell, with William Biederwolf providing a short foreword. The copy I have seen was published in Glasgow by the Scottish Bible & Book Society (R.L. Allan & Son) and in London by The London Book and Bible Saloon (Alfred Holness), with no American publisher stated.

‘McEwan’s Song Evangel’ featured hundreds of standard pieces, but also a selection which McEwan had either written or co-written. These were: The Glad New Song, Keep on Praising, To The Field, Still Wave the Gospel Flag, I Believe, He First Loved Me, My Mother’s Songs, One By One We’re Passing Over and With You Always. None of these are widely known today.

'My Mothers Songs' is no 138 in the book, and was written by McEwan as a medley of three older famous hymns - Abide With Me, Jesus Lover of My Soul, and Safe In The Arms of Jesus - connected by a sentimental narrative which was "Dedicated to Evangelist W.E. Biederwolf's Sainted Mother". It is available to listen here, courtesy of Archive.org

For the Gospel, not the Money: McEwan turns down $350 and accepts $20
The family continued to expand - Clayton Edward McEwan was born in New York on on 23rd October 1914. And William’s audiences expanded too. His talent and popularity had not gone unnoticed in the secular entertainment world. Big-money offers came in. The Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, Illinois) of 1 Feb 1915 reported that William Sauvage, the owner of three theatres in Alton, had publicly offered the National Male Quartette residency in his Hippodrome theatre for a fee of $350 per week (this roughly equates to $8000 / £5000 a week in today’s money!!) and that William McEwan had been made an additional ‘special offer’ of an unspecified amount. McEwan turned it down flat:

"...Sauvage would hire male quartette; makes good proposition to members which has not been accepted... the members of the party do all their vocal work in connection with evangelistic meetings. Their voices are of high quality and their work as singers is such as would command very high prices if they were travelling about the country appearing in theatres. Mr McEwan, as a soloist, has a wide reputation, and but for the fact that he never sings anything but such songs as would be popular in a revival, he too would be starring in the amusement world..."

McEwan was not interested in 'amusement', fame, wealth or celebrity. What little fame he had was only as a result of his first love and conviction, singing the message of Jesus Christ.

Just nine days later, the same newspaper in its 10 Feb 1915 edition gave an insight into William McEwan’s talents and astonishing popularity (and therefore his commercial potential which had led to Sauvage's offer). In terms of public popularity, the article's headline said that McEwan was second only to former US President Theodore Roosevelt! :

"Mac's Night F-I-N-E; send off G-R-E-A-T: Was big joy party: Tabernacle crowded beyond capacity and only Teddy Roosevelt skinned Mac's crowd at station: "All ready - Sing!" "F-I-N-E!, F-I-N-E!" Right in these words you get the sentiment of Mac's big choir concert up at the tabernacle, everybody had sing in their hearts and fine, fine in their minds and Mac's farewell party was altogether one of the happiest affairs ever held in Alton.

By six o'clock the tabernacle was half full and before seven o'clock the seats were almost gone and shortly after that hour standing room was at a premium.

The choir presented a beautiful appearance, the lady singers all dressed in white and the male singers all being dressed in black and they were arranged on the platform so that it looked like one mass of black and white so regular were the lines. It was an inspiring sight and Mac was more tickled about it than anybody and was as proud of his choir when he got them all seated as a boy could be of a new baseball.

Mac bragged on his choir and said that it was a wonderful choir and then he had them sing the 'Awakening Chorus' that was sung when the meetings first opened. After this, Director William McEwan, for Mac was up and full of business now, mounted a chair and directed the choir in singing 'When We All Get to Heaven'. He had them sing it again and keep time clapping their hands, presenting a beautiful sight. Then he announced they would sing it backwards, they knew it so well, and the choir members turned backs on the audience and sang it backwards. The choir sung 'The Victory Song', 'All Hail Immanuel', 'The Awakening Chorus' and 'All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name'. McEwan sung a duet with himself sitting alongside the phonograph and singing with one of his own records. Mrs Abbott Blair sand a sweet song to the air of 'Last Night the Nightingale' and for an encore sang 'Just as I Am' and her audience was wonderfully well pleased.

At this point Prof R C Richardson came from the choir to the stage and McEwan, somewhat perturbed and anxious, thought he had a mutiny on his hands and tried to push Prof Richardson. But he pressed on and took the floor. Mr Richardson said he represented the choir whom Mac had berated and jumped on and yelled 'Sing!' and 'Fine!' and that they would now get even and he handed the jovial little choir director a box. Prof Richardson said that when the great choir was formed in Heaven, when all the thousands of singers McEwan has directed on both continents were gathered there that he expected, when he arose to sing in that great chorus, to see a little rotund good natured director mount a chair, raise his baton and looking over the great heavenly chorus shout 'Sing!'.

Mac didn't say much right then, there were some tears in his eyes and his voice wouldn't work right so he unwrapped the box which was a watch box. In it was a picture of a gold watch that didn't have a picture of a chain to it but under the picture was a twenty dollar gold piece of pure golden yellow, and expression of esteem of the members of the choir for their director. When Mac got his voice back he told the choir members that he would look on that gold piece every time he was hard up and that whatever he bought with it he would always keep in remembrance of one of the best choirs he had ever handled, the one in Alton...

... Mac announced that a solo would be sung by Mr William McEwan and coming forward he sang 'The Holy City', this being the last solo thousands of friends of the tabernacle meetings heard the choir leader sing. Mac told his story, the story of his life, and you could have heard a pin drop... Mac says he loves to sing; he loves to sing the gospel hymns; he loves the work of Jesus Christ and that his work is a joy and fun for him. Then the audience sang the Doxology, everybody raised their clasped hands into the air as a farewell handshake to Mac. The little singer got his bass drum, pulled his cap down over his eyes and the procession started off for the train to see Mac off, and the tabernacle meetings were over. And the great throng was not glad; they were sorry and many tears were seen trickling down cheeks of strong men and women. It was distinctly Mac's own night.

The little singer who is such a big man was sent out of town Tuesday night by such a large delegation of people that the stranger passing through the town might have thought it was a mob, but for the fact that everybody appeared happy and smiling and was singing religious songs. From the tabernacle they followed Little Mac as the sometimes dignified, always efficient, William McEwan, tenor soloist, gospel evangelist, is popularly known. They lined up in great parade - somewhere in the neighbourhood of four thousand of his devoted admirers. They escorted him down the streets singing songs they had learned to sing under Mr McEwan's tuition. It was a great night for Mac. The hero of the hour wore a smile that extended from the rising to the setting sun, so to speak of his facial sphere. He was in high fettle. The drum corps led the way and played to keep the marchers in step. And down the street swept the throng filling the street almost from curb to curb and blocking street car traffic which the procession was moving. At Union Depot, the destination, they flocked around the station, blocked the platform, and they cheered for Mac and they sand and between songs and cheers everybody smiled broadly and chuckled. Never did a man get such a send off in leaving the city of Alton, and never was there more happiness in a throng that in that gospel singing, cheer-giving, surging crowd.

After McEwan had procured his tickets and was already to take the train there was still some time and there was an impromptu program. Four big stout men seized the short statured choir leader and raised him to their shoulders. There on the improvised platform McEwan gave the word and with his had waved the time while the throng sang various songs that had been so powerful in giving 'the invitation' in the tabernacle. The crowd sang in unison, and in harmony, following the wave of their leader. The four stout men never complained about the weight they bore and the continued to hold McEwan aloft until the train came in. Then McEwan made a run to get aboard. The crowd did not cease singing then. The long train of sleepers had many roused passengers in it as it pulled through the station and curtains were raised by people in their right clothes who peered out to see what was going on.

It was when Mac left that the guiding hand was missed. The singing kept on, just as it was going before, with the important difference that it was choppy. The wave of McEwan's hand was always sufficient to prevent little waves of song detaching themselves from other song waves and beating against each other. When William McEwan climbed on the train the songs travelled in waves. But the finale was when the train pulled through and McEwan was standing on the rear platform. He was the duplicate of the old and original, blown in the bottle 'Sunny Jim'. He could not have had a happier expression on his face as the still singing crowd caught sight of him and as he ran through them on the rear platform, he waved to them and they broke into a cheer of farewell. It was a remarkable exhibition of attachment for the little-big man who had worked his way into the hearts of Alton people."

Later that year, news of a tragic loss reached William. War was raging in Europe and his nephew, John McEwan, was serving with the 9th Service Battalion of the Black Watch Royal Highlanders. The Gazette and Bulletin (Williamsport Pennsylvania) of 26 November 1915 reported that:

“…Prof. William McEwan… received a letter Wednesday from his native home in Glasgow, Scotland, stating that his nephew, John McEwan, also of Glasgow, had been instantly killed in the battle of Loos in the department of Nord, France, while fighting with the ‘Black Watch’ regiment of the British Army. The letter was written by ‘Mac’s brother, Thomas McEwan who writes that his nephew was one of the first to mount the parapet of the trenches and was first shot in the wrist. It was while this wound was being bandaged the Scotchman writes, that a shrapnel shell from the German lines burst, striking his nephew in the head and instantly killed him…”

William McEwan enlists
Details are scant, but sometime after April 1916 (the New Brunswick Times says McEwan was assisting with a Biederwolf mission there that month, leading a 1000 voice choir and incorporating a solo piper, Major Peter McInnon) William McEwan swapped the stage and auditorium for the khaki uniform and trenches - he enlisted with the army and served in World War One. Maybe this was inspired by the death of his nephew, or just through a sense of patriotic duty. His entry in the 1930 US Census, and also his death certificate of 1943, state that he was a veteran of WW1. At this point I have no further details, and don’t know if he joined the British Army or if he was with the US Army (the US entered WW1 on 6th April 1917.) While he was fighting in Europe, his records were still selling in the USA, as shown by the detail from the 1916/1917 Columbia Records catalogue below:

(NB - I have two of the 'fine art albums' mentioned in the catalogue description)

Death of Jeanie McEwan
Another mystery is that the last traces I can find of William’s wife, Jeanie McEwan, are onboard the SS Columbia, arriving in the USA on 18 December 1912, and of course at the birth of Clayton McEwan on 23 October 1914. But by 1920 she had died. In the 1920 US Census William McEwan is recorded as being a 48 year old widower, living with his children Geanie aged 27, William Jr. aged 21, Mary aged 18 and Charles P aged 8 (no mention of Clayton). I do not know if Jeanie McEwan died in the USA or one of the family's many trips back to Scotland.

The Second Recording Session
It was now the “Roaring Twenties”. More than a decade after his first (and so far only) recordings, the 50 year old William McEwan was still in great demand. The advert below is from an Ohio newspaper dated 30th April 1920 – McEwan’s name features here alongside Rodeheaver as well as Al Jolson (once described as ‘The World’s Greatest Entertainer’) and the French Symphony Orchestra.

Columbia arranged for new recording sessions to take place, back in London, in June 1922. But William McEwan would arrive back in Britain as a naturalised US citizen.

The Highland bog body of Loughries (1824) and the Scrabo elk's head (1832)

2011-11-10T10:34:00.002Z

A trawl through the local newspapers of 1824 might give more detail than this short excerpt. Drowning in a bog sounds like a very unpleasant way to go. I wonder what happened to the costume? Finding an elk's head sounds a bit grisly too - like a scene from The Godfather! Both very interesting artefacts though - and surely culturally significant that the elk head ended up in Glasgow Museum. Click to enlarge:

Comber whiskey label

2011-11-09T16:28:00.001Z

Working away on the next instalment of the McEwan story; meanwhile here's a local gem:

Part Three: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-11-03T22:45:00.001Z

Introduction: The story below has been assembled from a variety of online sources - newspapers, censuses, marriage certificates and ships passenger lists. If any readers know of errors here I would be pleased to hear from you. This is one of a series of posts to coincide with the 100th anniversary of William McEwan's first recording session in London in November 1911.

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PART THREE: Conversion, Evangelism, America and the historic 1911 London recording sessions

Now back in Glasgow, alcohol was still playing a major role in William’s life, much to the concern of his father. It must have been a shock for the devout Covenanters James and Margaret McEwan (both now around 70 years old) to see what had become of their son during his time in America. Here is the only account I have found of William’s condition, and conversion, as reported by a writer with The Daily Republican newspaper of Rushville, Indiana, on 30 October 1912:

“…His father then lived in Scotland, and on one Saturday night he was to appear in a show there, and all his old friends were to turn out to give him a reception. After the show, he said, they all went out for a time. He said he was under the influence of drink when he got home that night and his father was very much put out about it. That night his father extracted a promise from him to attend church the next day.

He started, and met a crowd of his former friends singing on a street corner to attract people to the house of worship. He followed them to the church, but when the invitation was extended he didn’t have the nerve to go forward, he said, because he realized that he would have to break off with all his old life and associates. When the minister said the man who would not hold up his hand signifying that he wanted to be prayed for was a coward, he would not take that and held up his hand. He joined the church, and that night there was great rejoicing in his father’s house.

McEwan said he cancelled all engagements and became an evangelistic singer, and since that time offers had been coming to him and he did not have to seek them…”

The writer, or editor, seems to not understand the nuances of a conversion (conviction of sin > need of a Saviour > Christ as the only answer) and so the account above is a bit disjointed. However, after William’s conversion to Christ, he cancelled all of his musical engagements and took an ordinary job in a carpet factory, on what he later said was just “one tenth of his vaudeville salary”. The famous singer with a blue collar job among ordinary Glasgow folk? Yes. But (as all Christians will know full well) conversion does not mean perfection, and the ‘old nature’ wasn’t too far under the surface. Another newspaper reported that William’s workmates:

“… jollied ‘Mac’ about his religion in the factory and finally he soaked Fisher, one of the foremen, in the face and laid him out, and decided to go back to vaudeville… ”

However,

“…there he believes God intervened, when he was about to slip and instead of going back to vaudeville he drifted into evangelistic singing work and has been at it ever since… ”

A BBC Radio Scotland programme in 2007 said this of MacEwan’s early gospel career on the streets of Glasgow:

“…William MacEwan who used his high penetrating tenor voice to gather a crowd on noisy Glasgow city streets, without the aid of any microphone. They can’t sing like that these days… ”

Frank Wappat wrote that:

"...he worked on the premise that 'more people can be reached by singing the gospel than by preaching it'. It is said that his voice could still an angry crowd - and the shrill piercing tenor could certainly penetrate a crowd. To the Saturday night drunks, he would sing 'My mother's prayers have followed me' - often reducing them to tears. Penitents would be led back to his religious Meeting Hall and many there were who professed to having been saved. Indeed, crowds would gather just to hear him sing. His singing style was moulded by appearing in the streets singing to vast crowds before microphones were invented..." My friend Joe in Ayrshire has told me that his father used to cycle up to Glasgow to listen to William McEwan sing.

The Return to America
The first decade of the 20th century was a formative one for William McEwan. I can find no more details just now of these early post-conversion years in Glasgow, but on 21 November 1908 the ship SS Hesperian left Glasgow carrying a 36 year old evangelist called William McEwan, whose race was stated as ‘Scotch’. The ship docked at Moville in Donegal before arriving in Boston on 4th December 1908. Having spent Christmas in America, in January and February 1909 William McEwan was in Boston with two of the world’s most famous evangelists, John Wilbur Chapman (of Indiana) and Charles McCallon Alexander (of east Tennessee).

[Note: Chapman and Alexander organised revival missions in Britain from February - June 1903, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Belfast. See here for a full account. They may well have met William McEwan during this time. Certainly there must have been some connection for William to be whisked across the Atlantic to take part in their US campaigns of 1909]

During the Chapman-Alexander revival campaign William’s role was to lead the singing in ‘Group Five – Roxbury North’ and at Dudley Street Baptist Church. In April McEwan was in Florence, Alabama, and was greeted by The Florence Times report of April 16th with considerable enthusiasm:

“…William McEwan, the noted Gospel soloist who will lead the music in the series of union services to be commenced in the Presbyterian church in this city on the 27th, has had a remarkable career. He was distinguished as an opera singer, and sang in nearly all the large cities of this country and England. He became converted at a gospel meeting in his old home, Glasgow, Scotland, and since then has devoted his rare talents to the work of his Master. A Massachusetts paper in speaking of him says 'William McEwan sings like an opera singer, and this is what he was before he became an evangelist. It is fair to say, too, that no sweeter gospel singer ever lived than this man.' His coming to Florence will be an event indeed…”

November 1909 saw McEwan in the city of Sault Sainte Marie in Michigan, where he worked with New York evangelist Rev Henry Davidson "H.D." Sheldon, an associate of Chapman. A newspaper report of the time said:

“…Mr McEwan will lead the big choir, and will also tell the story of his conversion. This story has interested many in the past, and will doubtless be one of the features to cause the auditorium to be packed on Saturday night… ”

The Evening News of 13 November 1909 reported that:

"...Previous to his conversion Mr McEwan was for seven years an opera singer in the old country... Mr McEwan came to this country a year ago this month after singing the gospel for 12 years in all the principal cities of England, Scotland and Wales. He arrived in Boston in time to assist Dr Chapman in the great campaign in January when he created a wonderful sensation and at once sang his way into the hearts of the people of that city..."

As the Sheldon revival campaign continued, The Decatur Daily Review (Illinois) of 13th February 1910 said that:

“…Mr McEwan is known in many places as ‘The Scotch Sankey’. He has no superior in his line. His voice is a clear tenor, with an unusual range. He sings with a feeling that often brings tears to the eyes of those who hear him. His is listened to with rapt attention…”

Just a few days later, on 19th February, the same paper gave a review of the campaign:

“… the leader of the music, Mr McEwan, won his way with both choir and people. He has a delightful Scotch accent and a warm heart with plenty of the Scotch variety of wit. The people did not sing heartily enough to suit him at first so he admonished them with ‘I am just a common Scotchman; sing, don’t look at me.’ He pleaded that the singing should be full of worship. Mr McEwan has been called the Scotch Sankey. Mr Chapman says that his work is second to none in the field of the singing evangelist…”

In March 1910 he was still in Decatur, Illinois. The Daily Review of March 4 1910 reported that:

“…The service will be conducted by William McEwan who is directing the choir at that church. … by request Mr McEwan will repeat ‘My Ain Country’. As the closing feature of this service, and not the least interesting Mr McEwan will tell the story of his conversion, how he was persuaded to abandon his profession as a singer of light opera and take up religious work as a gospel singer…”

Alongside the article was the notation of McEwan’s self-written hymn “Keep On Praising”. While he was travelling, the family seems to have stayed in Brooklyn, New York City. The 1910 US Census for Brooklyn (dated April 15th) records a traveling evangelist called William McEwan, aged 38, who first came to USA in 1890; his wife Jeanie, aged 38, born Scotland, who first came to USA in 1890; a daughter Jeanie S, aged 17, born in Massachussetts; a son William Jr, aged 11, born in Scotland; and a daughter Mary M, aged 8, born in Scotland.

As the year went on, his popularity soared. On 24th October 1910 The Paducah Evening Sun of Kentucky headlined an article as “Greatest Crowd Attends Revival on Sunday Night - Mr William McEwan sang two songs”.

In December 1910 McEwan was with famous evangelist Dr Reuben Torrey (a colleague of DL Moody, and who had been in Britain with Chapman & Alexander back in 1903), assisting with the music in a revival campaign at Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada. Thousands attended the campaign. They then moved to a three week mission in January 1911 in Windsor, Nova Scotia – crowds as large as 1200 people flocked to the meetings. The Boston Daily Globe reported on 6 February 1911: "...he was assisted by William MacEwan , tenor soloist, who was in Boston with Chapman and Alexander two years ago, and is now associated with Rev Dr R A Torrey…”

So from December 1908 – February 1911, William McEwan made an astonishing impact upon the evangelical world in the United States, singing in at least 6 states, and also in Canada. He was now a musical phenomenon, and just the man whose voice should be captured by the latest in audio technology. William McEwan was bound for London to record his singing for the iPod of its day, the new wind-up 'talking machine' gramophone.

The first recording session
In November 1911, while Chapman and Alexander were conducting a revival mission in Bangor, County Down, William McEwan travelled to London.The Columbia Phonograph Company had opened an office in London in 1900, initially in a five storey building at 122 Oxford Street but later moved to larger premises at 89 Great Eastern Street. They built a disc factory at Bendon Valley, Wandsworth in 1906 to manufacture both records and record players.

Louis Sterling became manager of Columbia (London) in 1909; his strategy for the label was that "they got hold of some of the best voices and instrumentalists in the kingdom and their productions had a great vogue..." (from The Talking Machine Industry by Ogilvie Mitchell, 1924). It is said that by 1913 one third of British households owned a gramophone.

The inlay card for the 1994 Lismor CD sampler ‘William MacEwan – the Original Glasgow Street Singer-Evangelist’ tells the story like this:

“…In 1911 he traveled to London to persuade the Columbia-Rena Record Company to record him singing gospel songs for the working class people. Such were his powers of persuasion that the surprised, but convinced, record company signed him up to record 24 gospel songs at his first session shortly afterwards. With only harmonium for accompaniment, this amazing Scotsman made the world’s first set of gospel songs using the primitive recording apparatus of the day. Microphones had not been invented, so the recordings were made by MacEwan singing into a tin horn attached to which was a rubber tube leading to a cutting needle, etching his voice into a 3/4" thick warmed platter of wax. The harmonium was housed on a platform four feet above the ground and placed near the recording horn…”

The 24 songs were as follows:

Will the Circle Be Unbroken
(Habershon / Gabriel - written 1907) Issue No 1842

Memories of Mother
(Morris / Harkness - written 1910) Issue No 1843

He Lifted Me
(Gabriel - written 1905) Issue No 1844

He Died of A Broken Heart
(Dennis / McKinney - written early 1900s) Issue No 1841

God Will Take Care of You
(Martin / Martin - written 1905) Issue No 1852

My Father Knows
(Henry / Martin - written 1897) Issue No 1849

Some Day
(Staley / Gabriel - written 1911) Issue No 1848

My Ain Countrie
(Demarest - written 1861) Issue No 1850

Only A Sinner
(Gray / Towner - written 1905) Issue No 1842

We Shall Shine as Stars
(J.W. Van de Venter - written 1899) Issue No 1851

Somebody (Did a Golden Deed)
(John R Clements / W.S. Weeden - written 1901) Issue No 1843

His Eye is On the Sparrow
(Martin / Gabriel - written 1905) Issue No 1852

Sometime We’ll Understand
(Cornelius/McGranahan - written 1891) Issue No 1850

My Mother’s Prayer
(J.W. Van de Venter - written 1895) Issue No 1849

All Hail Emmanuel
(Van Sickle / Gabriel - written 1910) Issue No 1845

Gospel Bells
(Martin / Sankey - written 1895) Issue No 1841

Nothing Satisfies but Jesus
(Morris - written 1905) Issue No 1848

Thou Remainest
(Whittle / McGranahan - written 1884) Issue No 1845

Softly & Tenderly
(Will L Thompson - written 1880) Issue No 1844

Nor Silver Nor Gold
(Gray / Towner - written 1900) Issue No 1851

He Will Hold Me Fast
(Habershon / Harkness - written 1906) Issue No 1846

Shadows
(Harkness - written 1906) Issue No 1847

In Jesus
(Procter / Harkness - written 1903) Issue No 1846

Christ Returneth
(Turner / McGranahan - written 1906) Issue No 1847

Looking back on this track listing exactly 100 years later, to us these are all old, old songs which many readers here will have been familiar with from childhood - if not from McEwan’s original recordings then certainly from other versions recorded later in the 20th century by other gospel singers, or from popular hymnbooks. But in 1911, most of these were fresh, new pieces, written by people who were the Stuart Townends and Keith Gettys of that era. The oldest by quite some distance is the Scots language hymn ‘My Ain Countrie’, which had become something of a signature piece for William McEwan. It's also important to remember that 'popular hymns' were a relatively recent phenomenon, and not without controversy (as the life of hymnwriter Horatius Bonar demonstrates). It was the 1859 revivals in Scotland, Ulster and America that transformed the world of sacred song.

This set of recordings gave McEwan the title of “The World’s First Great Gospel Singer on Record”, and led Columbia to market him as “The World’s Sweetest Gospel Singer”. With the recording completed the 5' 2" McEwan went back to America, sailing on the SS Baltic from Liverpool on 20th December 1911 and arriving in New York on 7th January. He became a megastar.

“…William McEwan is held to be the first gospel tenor in America. In the advertisement of the Columbia Phonograph Co, who have the exclusive right to the records produced from his voice, he is called the world’s sweetest gospel singer… about four years ago he came to this country, where he has become loved as well as famed, for his quaint Scotch ways, his devout piety and pleasant face, as well as a lovely voice…”
- from The Hamilton Daily Republican (Ohio) 29 November 1912

America was now William McEwan's oyster. But war was coming...

Part Two: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-10-28T00:32:00.001+01:00

Part One: The story of William MacEwan / McEwan of Glasgow (1871 - 1943) the 'World's Sweetest Gospel Singer'

2011-10-26T11:35:00.001+01:00

Introduction: Back in the early 1990s during my student days at the Art College in Belfast, I did a fair bit of hoking in old second hand bookshops and junk shops around Smithfield and other places. This was before the prosperity bubble of the late 90s/early 2000s, and so it was still fairly easy to find remnants of bygone days. Digging through the piles of old 78rpm records, one name appeared over and over again - William McEwan. It seemed that every shop had some of his records, dumped by people who had forgotten him, a once-household name who had been left behind by the 'progress' of advances like the LP, the audio cassette and the CD. Around this time an audio cassette triple box-set of all 82 of McEwan's known recordings came out, on a limited-edition private release by Frank Wappat of BBC North in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. A few years later I learned that McEwan's recording of the Scots language piece 'My Ain Countrie' had been one of my late grandfather's favourite songs.

Yet, despite William McEwan's apparent popularity and commercial success, I have never been able to find a definitive biography of him and so I had no idea of the scale of his musical achievements. Over recent months I have gathered up as much information about him as I could find. These blog posts are my attempt to piece together something of his story and to give him his place back for our generation - coinciding with the 100th anniversary of his first recording session, for Columbia Records in London, in November 1911.

This is the story of how a poor Glasgow boy, of Ayrshire parents, became one of the biggest musical names in the world.

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PART ONE: Ayrshire Roots, Glasgow upbringing and early talent

William McEwan, the man who would be called ‘The World’s Sweetest Gospel Singer’, was born on 11th December 1871, in the Bridgeton area of Glasgow. William later described his upbringing as having been ‘of poor parentage’ and that his father was a hand loom weaver or pattern worker.

His parents were James and Margaret McEwen (maiden name McGhie); they had been married in the thriving fishing port of Girvan in Ayrshire on Hogmanay (31 December) 1858, aged 22 and 17 respectively and moved into a house in Wilson Street. James had been born in Girvan in 1837; James's father, also called James, had been born in Ireland (no precise location that I know of) in 1801. In an interview in the USA in 1912, William McEwan said that his family roots were in Ayrshire.

Some time between 1858 and 1871 (during the time of the society-transforming 1859 evangelical revivals in both Scotland and Ulster) the McEwen / McEwan family moved to Glasgow, where they attended First Reformed Presbyterian Church in Great Hamilton Street, a congregation which proudly traced its origins to the times of the Covenanters. William McEwan confirmed in later life that he had been raised in the ‘Reformed Presbyterian church’ and that “…he never knew what it was to sing a Gospel hymn in his boyhood days because the church to which he went always sang the Psalms…” (This is a distinction which is a factor in present-day growth of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland over the past few months).

However, his parents recognised that young William had great singing talent:

“…In early life his parents discovered that he had a sweet voice and his father’s ambition for him to succeed was so great that he contrived to arrange for him to study under one of Scotland’s great music masters. He learned fast, became a concert singer and won instantaneous success… ”

“… he studied music at an early age under the famous Baillie (George) Taggart of Glasgow and later received a certificate from the Royal Academy of Music in London. He traveled for years on the Keith-Proctor Circuit and later in Scotland where he traveled in Vaudeville…”

George Taggart was a shrewd choice by William's father - Taggart was the conductor of the Glasgow Select Choir, and also of Glasgow Glee and Catch Club. His daughter, Jenny Taggart, went on to become a famous soprano; another daughter, Rena, was a violinist. George Taggart is known to have taken Glaswegian artists to tour in North America and he may well have recommended the poor but brilliantly talented young McEwan to some of his contacts on the other side of the Atlantic.

Sometime around the years 1887 - 1890 the teenage William McEwan, a hand-loom warper from Bridgeton, was bound for the stages and concert halls of America.

..

The Latimers: A Tale of the Western Insurrection of 1794 by Rev. Dr. Henry McCook (Philadelphia, 1898)

2011-10-24T12:11:00.001+01:00

This post is for Jenny in Alaska. Here are more examples of that Scotch-Irish symbol from the late 1800s. Here's a biography of Henry McCook, and here's a free online edition of the book.

Scotch-Irish Society of America: Commemorative Medal - Columbia, Tennessee 1889

2011-10-23T22:43:00.001+01:00

Westbourne Presbyterian Community Church, Newtownards Road, Belfast

2011-10-20T19:11:00.001+01:00

Blond wood, upholstered seats and mood lighting have their place, but there's nothing to beat the beauty of plain and simple.

Scotland's William MacEwan (or McEwan), the World's Sweetest Gospel Singer

2011-10-12T21:11:00.001+01:00

I'm currently doing some research into the life of the tenor gospel singer William MacEwan (also spelled McEwan) from Glasgow. He was referred to as 'the world's first great gospel singer on record', issuing over 40 old 78rpms during his career. His first recording session was for the Columbia record company in London in November 1911, so exactly 100 years ago next month - this was the session which included my grandfather's favourite hymn, 'My Ain Countrie'.

I have a lot of information about McEwan's musical career, and of hymn books he published, but very little about his personal life - for example I've got conflicting birth dates (1870, 1872 or 1877) and death dates (1943 or 1949) for him, and no conclusive information if he was born in Bridegton in Glasgow or just outside the city. He certainly lived in Bridgeton in later life, but I have also seen a 1922 document with his address given as 90 Mevia Street, Glasgow (but can't find any other record of a street of that name ever having existed at all). I also have a reference to him dying and being buried in Los Angeles (in 1949) So this post is just to see if anyone out there knows much about him and would be interested in helping.

I will post what musical information I have in November. Maybe someone out there knows of a fuller biography? A man of his calibre and influence deserves to be remembered in the year of his centenary.

For those of you familiar with Twitter...

2011-10-11T00:04:00.001+01:00

Wasted Years

2011-10-10T09:42:00.001+01:00

When I was 14, this Iron Maiden song blew me away:

With me now on the brink of 40, Ryan Adams has somehow extracted this beautiful acoustic version from the bombast of the original. It's a masterful reworking, seemingly recorded for a Dutch radio programme called GI:EL. His new album, Ashes & Fire, is currently streaming free here; official release date is tomorrow. It sounds like a sparking return to the form he was in about a decade ago on his first two releases Heartbreaker (2000) and Gold (2001). A recent interview with him is available here.

My kind of Apple Store

2011-10-09T23:07:00.001+01:00

Not a shiny glass and steel place which sells over-priced gadgets, but a real handmade wooden storage system to put actual apples in. This is the 4 drawer version, the 10 drawer one is even better. Both are available here at GardenTrading.co.uk

Scrabo this afternoon

2011-10-07T14:47:00.002+01:00

Computer screens just aren't big enough to show you the scale of this view. Ulster is a beautiful place... when the sun shines. (Click to enlarge.. and then put your nose against your screen.)

"...but that's the price we have to pay..." - The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, new CD release

2011-10-06T17:49:00.001+01:00

> Buy it here on Amazon.co.uk
> Review here

Gillian Welch, Belfast Waterfront Hall, Friday 18th November 2011

2011-10-05T21:10:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Billy Kerr fae Irvine in Ayrshire for alerting me to this! Tickets are £27.50 which is far from cheap, but as all those shampoo adverts say, it's "because she's worth it". (Now if she changed her surname to 'Scotch-Irish' then we'd be getting somewhere!). The surname is similar to this great Ulster-Scots minister of Templepatrick. Just listen to this...

The greatest Lutheran bar band ever - The Jayhawks "Mockingbird Time"

2011-10-04T19:27:00.001+01:00

So says theology & culture website Mockingbird about the wonderful Jayhawks. Or what about "jangly God-haunted Midwestern country-folk with fuzz guitars and harmonies that redefine the words “sandpaper-and-honey.” Mockingbird Time is The Jayhawks' new album. I remember around 1993 driving a carload of friends to Dublin one night to see them play, and I think we drove straight back home again after the show was over, getting back to Belfast as the sun was rising around 5am. Back then it was a hairy enough trip... Not many men can get away with wearing a cardigan over a checked waistcoat, but Mark Olson does. The vocal harmonies of Olson and Gary Louris can be beautiful - imperfect perfection.

One new video below of Mark Olson and Gary Louris playing live and simple for RollingStone.com, posted there just yesterday with five other clips and a short interview. Enjoy.

"Ireland requireth rather lasting and warm clothes than gorgeous and dear garments"

2011-10-02T21:35:00.001+01:00

So wrote Sir Thomas Smith in 1572, and it was a prophetic statement for our rain-drenched tour of the Upper Ards on Saturday morning! We had called the tour "A Forenoon Doon the Upper Ards", but with the weather forecast we joked about re-naming it "A Forenoon gettin' droont in the Upper Ards!". And by about 10am the forecast came true.

The tour included a visit to Newcastle to see the location where the Smith colony set up their first base-camp headquarters in their failed effort to establish an English community in the Ards which would oust the Clandeboye O'Neills. There were 31 people in total, drawn from four local historical societies (Ards, Loughries, Bangor and Comber), with various friends and other folk as well. We started at 9.00am in Newtownards and made numerous stops the whole way down the Strangford Lough shore to Portaferry and back up the other coast as far as Millisle, before heading back to Ards for 1pm. Plenty of crack and banter, a very welcome tea and scones stop, and great support from Ards Borough Council and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

I hope that the commentary was interesting for folk - we covered over 800 years of history, from the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in 1177 which brought the Savage family to Ulster, and of their tangles with the Clandeboye O'Neills, with the English Smith colonists and their later interconnections with the Scottish Hamiltons and Montgomeries, and also of 1798. The rendition of the poem 'Betty MacBlaine' went down well! We didn't bother making a few of the stops just because of the weather, but the stories were told and the places can be re-visited some day. Here's a pic of half of the group up in the lecture room building at Kirkistown Castle - the rest were in the castle tower! And Mr Balmoral was generous enough to foot the bill at Knott's Coffee Shop for a light lunch! So it was a wet day, but a good day - local folk visiting local places hearing local stories which can be shared with friends and family. And as usual, I learned as much from the group as they did from me. Great stuff!

Throughout the day quite a few people spoke to me of their frustration at shallow, narrow portrayals of Ulster-Scots heritage, as distinct from the deeply-rooted real stuff. This seems to be quite a widely held view among us plain folk.

Royal Ulster Rifles original recruitment poster, 1920s

2011-10-01T00:44:00.001+01:00

Currently available at Chisholm Larsson Gallery in New York for $400 (£250), size 30" x 20". Click here for full details.

100 years ago this month...

2011-09-30T12:47:00.001+01:00

...the mighty Bill Monroe was born. He invented bluegrass music in the 1940s, which was (and still is) a high-octane fusion of a variety of styles including the Scotch-Irish ballads of his rural Kentucky upbringing, the (often dark and quaint) old hymns of the wee country Baptist churches he attended on Sundays, and of the 'brother duets' tradition which he and his brother Charlie had made famous as The Monroe Brothers, with Charlie on guitar and Bill on mandolin. NPR.org has posted this article and tribute online, along with an 8 minute audio clip. There's a brilliant 2.34 discussion about the Monroe Brothers, by Chris Thile and Michael Daves, further down the same page - click here to listen.

Bill Monroe often spoke of his Scotch-Irish cultural roots. I hope that this important musical centenary will be acknowledged on our side of the Atlantic in some way, by more than just this casual blog post.

"It taks langer tae clim the loanen whun the blackberry's on the bush..."

2011-09-28T17:57:00.001+01:00

It's that time of year again; the hedges have been loaded with blackberries for the past few weeks. However, Harvest Fair day (23 September) was the deadline that the older folk round here had for picking blackberries, none were ever picked after that date. And of course there's the old tradition that Ulster-Scots Presbyterians were/are nicknamed 'Blackmouths' because of the quantity of blackberries they had to eat (the juice stained their mouths - there's an interesting piece on the BBC Ulster-Scots website with a fuller study of the term - click here and scroll down). And here you see the term being used on official government census forms in 1911. The great Scottish Presbyterian minister, Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), uses the term 'black mouth' in at least two of his renowned Letters, but these might just be poetic references rather than cultural. A great wee fruit and seriously under-rated. It definitely does 'tak langer tae clim the loanen whun the blackberry's on the bush'.

The Auld Hoose, Donaghadee

2011-09-27T17:14:00.001+01:00

Not sure of the date of this photograph, but would guess early 1900s. Men and boys hanging about outside James McDowell's billiards hall, with two women folk waiting for their workshy husbands? It was at the top of New Street, opposite Grace Neill's.

And here's the same building today:

The Harvest Fair and the Battle of the Somme

2011-09-26T20:42:00.001+01:00

From Quintin Point to Carrowdore
Full many a lad will come no more;
In fields of France he sleeps serene
Nor heeds if fields of Ards be green

No more shall he behold with joy
The wooded heights of Clandeboye
Nor see, 'gainst burnished sunset skies
The bastioned bulk of Scrabo rise.

He does not hear the plover cry,
At daybreak, as his team goes by;
Now, on those wide and fertile lands,
His plough is steered by other hands

No more he loads, with ready art,
The soil's rich produce on the cart;
He goes no longer to the Fair;
Stilled is his voice in Newtown Square.

And many a maid, while drag the days
Broods upon bygone happier ways
And deep within her bosom guards
The memory of a Son of Ards

from Songs of a Port by W.H.F. (Belfast, 1920), a collection of poems written from Donaghadee and about many people and places of the Ards and north Down.

"On September 23..." The Harvest Fair in Newtownards

2011-09-22T22:42:00.001+01:00

Yes, tomorrow is Harvest Fair day in the Square in Newtownards. What was once the big event of the year is nowadays not much different than the regular Saturday morning market. There are some great photos of it here from the 1950s and 1960s - I can remember we used to take the afternoon off primary school in the late 1970s to go up to it, and my uncle William had a candy floss and toffee apples stand at it for a few years.

Its origins are hard to trace. Unlike the other towns in Ulster which had been granted a Royal Charter in 1613, the charter granted to Hugh Montgomery's Newtownards did not specify a particular date for the annual fair. Maybe King James I was happy to let Montgomery run Newtownards his own way with minimum interference.

By the time that the Newtownards Chronicle and County Down Observer was first published in 1873, the Harvest Fair was embedded in local culture. The report of that year's fair is entitled "The Rowdies at the Harvest Fair" and tells the story of a group of drunken townies from Belfast creating disturbances after the Fair was over, including fist fights at the bus station and a few arrests - as well as a wee Ards woman who rolled her sleeves up and gave them a taste of their own medicine.

There's an interesting reference to the Fair in the famous local poem The Man from God Knows Where by Bangor poet(ess) Florence Mary Wilson, which is set in the years before and after the 1798 Rebellion:

"Well 'twas gettin' on past the heat o' the year
When I rode to Newtown fair;
I sold as I could (the dealers were near -
Only three-pound-eight for the Innish steer,
An' nothin' at all for the mare!)
I met M'Kee in the throng o' the street,
Says he, 'The grass has grown under our feet
Since they hanged young Warwick here."

It's hard to know how much creative license the writer used, but this implies a harvest fair existed in Newtownards around 1798. But let's be honest, there have been harvest fairs worldwide ever since harvesting began. And, as ever, the major commercial harvests in the Ards go back to the Scottish settlers of 1606 and 1607. The Montgomery Manuscripts record that:

"Now the harvests 1606 and 1607 had stocked the people with grain, for the lands were never so naturally productive since that time... to the degree that they had to spare and to sell to the succeeding new coming planters, who came over the more in number and the faster... the millers also prevented the necessity of bringing meal from Scotland"

A great local song, written sometime in the mid 20th century, tells the story of the Harvest Fair's heyday, but a heyday which even back then some regarded as a comedown from former glories:

On September 23 will you come alang wi me
And we’ll go and pay a visit to the Square
Everybody gathers in – tall and short and fat and thin
To join in the fun and see the Harvest Fair

Chorus:
There’ll be William James from Scrabo Hill and Hugh from Ballyhay
Mary Jane from Carrowdore and Sam from Drumawhey
Margaret Ann’ll leave the hens, she disnae seem tae care
For there’s none would take a pension for to miss the Harvest Fair

There’ll be piles of Yellow Man and we’ll buy some if we can
For the childer nearly ate the stall and all
Candy floss stuck on a stick, candy apples you can lick
We’ll enjoy ourselves beside the Oul Town Hall

You can buy a pound of pears or some second-handed chairs
You can listen to the preacher give the word
You can have your fortune toul by a gypsy brown and oul
You can pay 3d to see a four legged bird

If we talk to Farmer Fred he’ll say “The Fair is dead”
He’ll puff his pipe and nod his head and sigh
But he’s talking through his hat, aye I’m certain sure of that
For we’ll mind the Fair until the day we die

I don't think I'll be able to go to it tomorrow, but I know many folk of the older generation who still make a point of going. In our age of local produce, food miles and 'artisan' producers, there's a job for somebody to give the Harvest Fair its special status back again. Meanwhile here's a video clip of me playing the song's melody on the mandolin.

"Tam's New Boots" - an oul poem aboot shoon fae Newtown.

2011-09-21T12:03:00.001+01:00

'Scotch brick', a sink and 'plenty mair'

2011-09-20T22:49:00.002+01:00

Some photos below of my growing collection of bricks from Scottish brickworks, mainly along the west coast of course. About half of them I've picked up here on the Ards Peninsula of Northern Ireland, and the rest have been collected in the west of Scotland (thanks again to Joe and Billy for gathering a brave wheen of these up for me.)

I've been cleaning at them today (a wee bit of vinegar is great for dissolving mortar, so be careful when you're eating chips and don't sit too near the wall). You'll see that many of these are marked 'Bourtreehill, Irvine' - well today I found the sink pictured below in a salvage yard near Newtownards, and as you can see from the maker's stamp it was also made at Bourtreehill, but this time Dreghorn, Kilmarnock. The man who owns the yard told me that he gets a lot of folk from Scotland buying things to 'repatriate' them back to the country where they had been made.

I then went over to Saintfield and found a wee matchbox holder in an antique shop there, with the message 'Help yersel' there's plenty mair' printed on it. Got it for just £3! As ever, you dinnae hiddae go terble far tae fin connections wi' Scotland roon aboot oor pairt o' County Down. Click to enlarge:

Newtownards: Tesco, CastleBawn and Walker's Oul Horn

2011-09-19T19:01:00.002+01:00

Quite a few folk have contacted me about the song 'The Big Stane' which I posted here last week. Aside from the general story of a shotgun wedding, there are two interesting references in its words:

1) One is 'John Barleycorn', a name often used for whiskey. The story there is that the neck of a whiskey bottle was the perfect size to fit the rubber teat of a baby's bottle, and so empty whiskey bottles were sometimes used as an alternative.

2) The other reference is to 'Walker's Oul Horn' - this was the horn at the former George Walker & Company Linen Mill. The photo below has been taken from Derek Beattie's excellent website about Newtownards. I've added the yellow arrow to point out Newtownards Priory (one of the ruined churches which was restored by Sir Hugh Montgomery in 1606-07, where he lived for a time, and beside which he built an enormous 'bawn' wall). The four white arrows mark the corners of the 'bawn' wall, two of which have circular 'flankers'. Regular readers here will be all too aware of the history of the Priory and the Bawn wall. Click to enlarge:

Today, there is a massive new Tesco superstore being built nearby, said to be the biggest in Northern Ireland, close to the proposed 'CastleBawn' shopping centre. At one stage the Castlebawn property developers said they were going to build a 'Museum of the Wall' to tell the story of the bawn and the history of Newtownards.

Will Tesco, and the developers, acknowledge the history of the site, or will they just suck money out of local people's pockets without putting something back?

> Castlebawn website
> 'Museum of the Wall' plans (scroll to bottom of the page)

'A Forenoon Aroon the Ards' - on the Sir Hugh Montgomery 1606 Tourist Trail

2011-09-17T18:09:00.001+01:00

This photo is from today's bus tour which I led for Ards Borough Council, focussing on the life of Sir Hugh Montgomery (1560-1636), one of the men who the esteemed local historian the late Ted Griffith described as a 'Founding Father of the Ulster-Scots'. We had 18 people, just an ideal size for a group day-long tour. Most were local people from the greater Belfast area, with one man from Australia and a couple from San Francisco. The pic here was taken at Rosemount Estate, Greyabbey, the home of today's Montgomery family. The weather was perfect all day, and the crack was good.

•ps - if you were on the tour, please remember to email Alastair at the Council with your feedback, and if you want to, you can also leave a comment here (just click the blue "Comments" text below, which is beside today's date.)

Ards Historical Society: an evening of Ulster-English history, with a wee taste of Ulster-Scots poetry and song

2011-09-16T09:05:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned here that I would be giving an illustrated talk for Ards Historical Society, in the old Town Hall, on the story of Sir Thomas Smith's attempt in 1572 to establish an English colony here. On the night it turned out that some of the members are familiar with this blog, so I feel the need to give a short report! I spoke for about 50 minutes, showing a variety of maps, photographs, documents and other artefacts, and tried to tell the story in as interesting a way as I could. Thankfully everyone who spoke to me at the end was very complimentary, and all of the audience went away with at least one copy of the booklet which I had published last year, through Loughries Historical Society (with funding to cover the printing costs from Ards Borough Council, North Down Borough Council and the Ulster-Scots Community Network).

For me, the best parts of the evening were when one lady (who I'll not name here) gave me a copy of an Ulster-Scots poem she had found in her attic, entitled 'Tam's New Boots'. Many of the folk there were also aware of the song 'The Big Stane' and so a number of them have gone away to try to trace its origin for me - there are a few theories and potential sources appearing already. I've been invited to bring my mandolin along to a local music session by one man, who had brought with him his set of jaw harps (also called 'Jew's Harps), an instrument that my granda also played.

I can happily encourage anyone, whether speaker or listener, to get involved with Ards Historical Society. There is more to our area than new Tesco shopping centres. Plenty of people care about heritage, tradition and local cultural identity. We have special stories here which deserve to be better known.

Here's a photo of the happy gathering!

A 65th birthday, Ballyfrenis, and the Scotch tongue doon oor road

2011-09-14T00:47:00.001+01:00

My mother is 65 today. Sadly she will be 'celebrating' it in the Ulster Hospital where she has been encamped since early May almost uninterrupted, except for a few days out at the 12th of July and the odd day out every few weekends.

She was rared at Ballyfrenis, one of a batch of nine, the same place as my oul school freen Darren Gibson (who blogs here as the Low Country Lad). Writer, poet, accordion player and singer Wilbert Magill also grew up brave an nearhaun - he tells me that the specific part of Ballyfrenis where our folk lived - Islandhill townland - was also called Blacktoun or Blackstown, a name which was brought from Ayrshire in 1606 by one of the Montgomeries (Blackstown was said to have been a small estate adjacent to Sir Hugh Montgomery's Braidstane).

Wilbert once told me a great story about a relative of mine from nearby Ballyraer / Ballyrawer who I'll not name, who became a preacher and was invited to London to speak. When he came back home to tell stories of his trip he gathered Wilbert and co together and advised them - 'young men, there are two words you must never EVER use on the platform... fornenst and oxter.' Wilbert's two books - his self-published family history story Blood Ties of Craigboy (2007) and his poems collection Aboot tha Airds (2009) are worth getting hold of. Wilbert was good enough to ask Graeme and I to play a wee bit of music at the launch of his second book, so we asked him to recite a poem on our Thompson Brothers CD 'Soda Farls and Redemption Songs'.

Not far from here is Ballyhay, where writer, storyteller and broadcaster Hugh Robinson grew up. I designed the cover of his book Across the Fields of Yesterday (1999) which he dedicated as being 'For My Ain Folk'. It's a great book with yet more Ballyfrenis references in it, including twa mair far oot freens o' mine who were the local pig-killers. Darren knows them well! You can listen to a wide range of clips of Hugh on the BBC Ulster-Scots web portal.

It would be a mistake to assume that these Ulster-Scots language writers and bloggers are a new phenomenon in this wee corner of the Ards; remember this is the landscape which inspired W.G. Lyttle's Ulster-Scots kailyard classic 'Sons of the Sod' which he published in 1886. Ballyfrenis Presbyterian Church was where our folk all went on a Sabbath, it was once a United Free Church of Scotland congregation, connected to an Ayrshire presbytery up until the 1940s. It was at Ballyfrenis where my mother remembers that the visiting Rev Moses Thompson would explain the gospel by using the wee rhyme "Three in Yin and Yin in three, but the middle Yin, He dee'd for me!", which I put a tune to a few years ago.

Just outside Carrowdore is the former Ballyboley National School, now an outpost for the local further education college, where Philip Robinson held a successful Ulster-Scots OCN-accredited course for some years, a school where Sheena McCullough had been principal for more years than she will probably admit!

I still pick up wee stories and expressions from family who live around Carrowdore and Ballyfrenis - and Darren's blog is a great example of just how rich it still is in our generation. In just this one wee pocket of the Ards there's a midden of vocabulary, language, literature, history and talent.

Name that Tune?

2011-09-13T22:25:00.001+01:00

MetroPCS is a US-based provider of 4G telecom services (website here). This advert has been emailed to me - Ulster readers will be as bemused, and amused, as me I suspect. Imagine the uproar...

'The Big Stane' - an old song of the Ards

2011-09-12T01:04:00.001+01:00

I was born in oul Newton', not far from the Bowtown,
The first sound I heard was Walker's oul horn
Me ma rocked the cradle, me da played the fiddle
And I sucked a bottle of John Barleycorn

I can still hear the laughter of the girl I ran after
I still feel delight at the sound of her name
At the first kiss she gave me, nothin could save me
She kissed me at the bottom of the oul Dummy's Lane*

When walkin for pleasure one fine summer's evenin'
I met with my true love down by the big stane
We fell into courtin' while gatherin' cockles
Now cockles and courtin' can be a rough game

As the shadows of sunlight began to get dimmer
I felt a bit rough round by the big stane
Now sand's good for buildin; but it's no good for courtin
So stay on the grass when you're at the big stane

The days they got shorter and my love got bigger
Her da got crosser and I got the blame
A shotgun was loaded and nearly exploded
"You'll pay for your coortin' doon by the big stane!"

One early spring morning our weddin' was dawnin'
We met at the church on the oul Dummy's Lane
Her ma she was cryin' - her da he was cursin'
And my son was born before we got hame

He was born in oul Newton', not far from the Bowtown,
The first sound he heard was Walker's oul horn
Now she rocks the cradle and I play the fiddle
And he sucks a bottle of John Barleycorn

*'Dummy's Lane' is said to have been near today's Greenwell Street, opposite the former Dominican Priory (which of course Hugh Montgomery restored in 1606-7).
- with thanks to the late George Holmes for giving me this oul song from Newtownards.
- photo of the 'Big Stane' near Cunningburn on the shore of Strangford Lough from this website

375 years ago today...

2011-09-09T20:06:00.001+01:00

on 9th September 1636 the emigrant ship 'Eagle Wing' set sail from Groomsport for America carrying 4 Ulster-Scots ministers from North Down (Bangor, Ards, Ballywalter and Killinchy) and 136 people from their congregations. I am not aware of even a whimper of commemoration for this event. Has anyone else seen anything to mark it?

Another Letter from America: John Moten Freeman, writer of 'What Would the Profit Be"

2011-09-05T23:28:00.001+01:00

(I've just posted this over at our Thompson Brothers Music blog, but thought it would be of interest to some readers here as well). We received the marvellous email below just last weekend, which we are posting here unedited with permission:

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

Hi Lads,

I discovered your music after a Google search for “What Would the Profit Be”, and so very much enjoyed your “brother duets” from Youtube and your website.

I am a lady in her 60s that lives in Georgia, USA. My father is John M. Freeman, one and the same who wrote “What Would the Profit Be”. I was aware of the Bill Monroe recording but didn’t know about yours. I bought it from iTunes but I would like to know if you have any more CD’s as I would so much love to have a “real” CD. My dad would be so proud. He was a deeply religious man and musically talented. He was born in the southern Appalachians in the little town of Gerton, North Carolina in 1879. I was the last of his 14 children by two wives. I was born when he was 68 years old and he passed when I was 14. He was a prolific songwriter.

Here he is in 1903 in front of a blackboard that he had prepared his Sunday School lesson for Henrietta, NC Baptist church. He was descended from the Scotch-Irish that settled in that area in the late 1700s.

Thank you again for a wonderful recording, your voices are heart-stirring.

Best Regards,

Martha Freeman

Rock of Ages

2011-09-04T17:31:00.001+01:00

Over the past week I have had three 'encounters' with the old 1700s hymn Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me. The first was on a local choir recording; the second was an old framed tapestry-style sampler which was in behind the piano in a mission hall; the third is below.

Preview For The Mercy Seat-The War Split EP from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

John McNeill, The Scotch Spurgeon - "A Shaggy Master of Pathos"

2011-09-02T20:24:00.001+01:00

John McNeill (7 July 1854 - 19 April 1933) is someone I have just recently discovered. Through most of his preaching career he was nicknamed 'The Scotch Spurgeon', a name which was used as the subtitle for his 1895 book 'Popular Sermons' (click here to buy from Abebooks.com).

His father, also called John, was born in Lisnagunogue (pronounced Lis-na-gun-yug) between Bushmills and Ballintoy. He was a quarry worker, and left Ulster for Scotland (described as 'the land of his forefathers' in his son's biography). He settled near Houston in Renfrewshire and married Katie McTaggart. A neighbour once said to John Jr. 'Yer faither's the best man o' oor sort I ever kent; but, Johnnie, he has just yae faut. He's far ower ootspoken for a puir man.' No wonder his son became a famous preacher.

Here is a short timeline of his life:

1854: Born in Houston in Renfrewshire.
1866: Family moved to Inverkip
1869: Began working at the local railway
Was promoted and moved to Edinburgh, joined the YMCA. Began to study for the ministry
1886: ordination, became a minister of McCrie-Roxburgh Free Church in a poor district of Edinburgh. Crowds in the church grew so big that he had to hire a circus tent with 3000 seats.
1889: became minister at Regent Square Presbyterian Church, London.
December 1891: McNeill's wife (Susan Spiers Scott) died just 3 weeks after giving birth to their 4th child; he resigned from the church to become a travelling evangelist
January 1892: preached with D.L. Moody in Aberdeen. Moody's assessment of McNeill was that "He is the greatest preacher in the world."
1893: Preached at the World's Fair in Chicago (as assistant to Moody).
1894 - 1908: McNeill spent many years as a travelling evangelist preaching at many US churches inc Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church (where Armagh-born Rev Dr John Hall was minister. Hall was a leading figure in the founding of the Scotch-Irish Society of the USA) and Central Presbyterian Church, New York City, and as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
1908: Became pastor of Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road, London
1910: Became minister of Free St George's Presbyterian Church, Liverpool
1912: Minister of Cooke's Church in Toronto
1914: Minister of Central Presbyterian Church, Denver, Colorado
1916: Takes up a wartime role with the YMCA, serving in France, Egypt and Malta
1919: Back to the USA to become minister of South Highlands Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama
1920: Fort Washington Presbyterian Church (Broadway & 174th St, New York City)
1928: returns to Britain
1933: Died on 19 April, aged 79. Buried at Inverkip old churchyard, alongside his parents.

• "...low-browed, shock-haired, stocky, he would arrest attention anywhere as a man of force and indomitable will. He is nearly six feet tall, and when he stamps his foot the very platform quivers... [he speaks with a] delicious Scottish burr which graces his speech..."

• A quote sometimes attributed to McNeill is "Salvation is perfume, religion smells, hypocrisy stinks."

• James H. Burke (1858-1901) travelled with McNeill around the world, as his musical partner, Burke had been the Minister of Music at the New York Gospel Tabernacle from 1889-1891. Burke wrote the tune for the world famous hymn 'Yesterday, Today, Forever - Jesus is the Same'. (listen here on Hymnpod.com)

• In his published sermon 'Marah Better than Elim', Spurgeon said of McNeill: "I noticed some of the papers writing unkindly of our dear friend, John McNeill, and saying all manner of hard things of him — and I rejoiced in my heart! I hoped that they would go ahead at that work. I remember how they did it to me — all the bitterness they could invent, in years gone by. Every form and fashion of abuse was heaped upon me — and what a wonderful advertisement it was! What a kindness they were doing me without intending it!"

• I know of some folk called McNeill who still live in the Lisnagunogue area, they are more than likely somehow related to the John McNeill who left for Scotland.

Further Reading:
• Rev John McNeill: His Life and Work by Alexander Gammie (Pickering & Inglis, 1934)
• 1897 Article from the New York Times entitled "A Shaggy Master of Pathos"
• His brother Will McNeill was also a preacher (1894 article here about Will's role in the Brooklyn Revival)

.

Exactly 439 years ago, on 31 August 1572...

2011-08-31T19:49:00.001+01:00

... Thomas Smith Jr. arrived at Newcastle on the Ards Peninsula, with 100 men and permission from Queen Elizabeth I to plant an English colony here. Later this year, on Saturday 1st October, I'll be leading a bus tour with Loughries Historical Society of the lower end of the Ards Peninsula (which, paradoxically is called the Upper Ards - some folk are prone to getting that historical distinction very badly mixed up), visiting some of the sites associated with the failed/forgotten Smith English colony, and of course with the later successful Hamilton & Montgomery Scottish settlement which began in May 1606. You can find out more about the Smith scheme in the booklet which I published last year with help from Mark Anderson and Loughries H.S..

• On the evening of Wed 14th September I'll also be giving an illustrated talk about the Smith colony to Ards Historical Society (at the old Town Hall / Ards Arts Centre in the Square) starting at 8pm. As far as I know entry is free and you'll get a cup of tea forbye.

• Mark's blog, A Balmoral Perspective, is always a great insight into his work and interests, you can read it here. There may even be a few spaces left on the tour.

• On Saturday 17 September, I'll be repeating the tour which Mark and I devised last year for Loughries H.S, which we called 'A Forenoon Aroon the Ards'. This time it's for Ards Borough Council, and some places are still available (contact the Ards Tourist Info Centre for details). It runs from 10am - 3pm and has been advertised in the 'Experience Ards 2011' brochure.

I really enjoy being out among local folk who share my interest in our local history. I always end up learning a lot from them, as well as enjoying their company.

In Scotia's Wilds, 1921

2011-08-28T23:09:00.002+01:00

I have over the past while gathered up more old books, some of which are theology and church history from the early 1900s which were printed in Scotland. I will add a few of them here now and again which might be of interest to some readers.

Below is a scan from 'In Scotia's Wilds - the Story of How the Gospel entered the land of the Thistle and wrought its wonders amongst the Ancient Dwellers there', published by the (Plymouth) Brethren publisher John Ritchie of Kilmarnock. (Ritchies still exist today, as Ritchie Christian Media. Their office is close to Dean Castle). The book has a message written on the inside page which is dated 1921, so the book is at least as old as this. It's in short chapters, and gives an overview of pre-Christian history up to the times of Ninian, Columba and Iona, and so is not standard Brethren subject matter! The chapter shown below - 'Patrick and His Preaching' - is yet another example of the Scottish traditions of (Saint) Patrick, traditions which have been almost airbrushed away on this side of the narrow sea. Click to enlarge.

Spilt milk - from Pinterest.com

2011-08-23T22:07:00.001+01:00

"there's no mony fowk bother their heids writin' ocht fur plain country workin men..."

2011-08-22T17:37:00.001+01:00

A recent acquisition, and a real diamond in both rarity and quality.

Preface to the First Edition:
My Dear Freen,
Whun a gied the furst book to Mister Allen he prented sae mony thoosan's that a thocht they wud niver a been sell't, but he tells me he niver did see ocht gaun aff the wae they did, an' there's har'ly a coppy noo left.... a jist write fur my freens aboot hame, an' if ony weel lerned buddy happens fur til see this, a hope they'll beer that in min'. They hae plenty till write gran books fur them, but there's no mony fowk bother their heids writin' ocht fur plain country workin men..."

from Humorous Readings by Robin, Volume II, Second Edition (1886)

"Here's a song about the inherent cuteness and tastiness of rabbits"

2011-08-19T12:22:00.001+01:00

So says Chris Thile (probably the best mandolin player in the world) at around 4.30 in the intro to 'Rabbit in the Log', the second song in the NPR 'Tiny Desk Concert' shown below, with Michael Daves on guitar. Find out more here. The full set list is:

"Sleep With One Eye Open"
"Rabbit In The Log"
"Bury Me Beneath The Willow" (this is beautiful - starts at 7.40)
"Billy In The Lowground"
"It Takes One To Know One"
"Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms"

Their cover of 'You're Running Wild" by The Louvin Brothers (starts at 1.40)

"When Christianity is Idolatry"

2011-08-19T09:04:00.001+01:00

Very powerful post over at TheResurgence.com - click here.

Black Mountain panorama last Saturday

2011-08-18T19:14:00.002+01:00

My two boys are getting bigger. They look like a pair of posers here but it was windy and they were cold - of course they had insisted an hour earlier that they should leave their coats in the car. Location information here - Black Mountain overlooks Belfast and is owned by the National Trust. The view is at the end of a 3 mile walk which is worth every step. Click pics to enlarge.

The visitor centre:

Maybe Slemish?

Old clay pipes which have been found in the area, now on display in a case in the visitor centre:

Music, Emotion and Identity in Ulster Marching Bands - new book by Gordon Ramsey

2011-08-13T21:36:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago I received an email about this new book, written by Gordon Ramsey and published by Peter Lang. I've met Gordon quite a few times over the years at various musical events - not only does he study the bands scene, but he is also a member of a flute band as well. The best projects are always come from people who are within, who belong; mere book-learning by outsiders who are parachuted in is no way to treat folk culture. I'm sure that plenty of readers here will be interested in the book - find out more here.

John M'Dowel, 12th Laird of Garthland (the Galloway MacDowalls)

2011-08-11T17:19:00.002+01:00

Following up on the post below about Colonel David Boyd and Dean Castle in Kilmarnock, another one of Sir Hugh Montgomery's closest associates was John M'Dowel (he died in 1611). The M'Dowel / McDowall / MacDowell family seat was at Garthland, near Lochans in the Mull of Galloway, which they could trace back as far as 1295 having been granted a charter by Robert the Bruce's rival John Balliol. There were other branches of the M'Dowall family nearby at Logan and Freuch.

The family had a colourful history - for example the 'Ruthven Raid' plot in 1582 to kidnap young King James VI of Scotland involved Uchtred MacDowall (1526 - 1593) the 10th Laird of Garthland, but in 1584 MacDowall managed to get a royal pardon and secured a fresh charter for Garthland. Some sources say that he later came to Ulster and died over here.

GARTHLAND CASTLE
Unlike Dean Castle, nothing survives of Garthland Castle today, but in 1875 'Handbook for Travellers in Scotland' recorded in 'Route 10: Dumfries to Portpatrick' that the road to the Mull of Galloway passed by 'Garthland Tower, once the seat of the M'Doualls, Lords of Galloway' (source here). Its location is marked on Bacon's New Survey Map of South Scotland (pub. c. 1880), shown on the scanned detail above, tucked down in the bottom corner. Other references say what was once a 45 foot high tower had been demolished in 1840. Nowadays the tower is gone, but nearby is a farm called Garthland Mains which is said to include the old datestone of 1274 which had once been part of the castle.

SOME OTHER ULSTER CONNECTIONS
• The younger generation of Montgomerys and M'Dowels intermarried: Hugh's third son George Montgomery married John M'Dowel's daughter Grizel M'Dowel in 1633. The newlyweds settled at Ballylesson and also had land at Drumfad just south of Millisle on the Ards Peninsula.

• One of the first burgesses of Bangor, named in the town's Royal Charter of 18 March 1613, was Cothered McDougall. (Even thought the spelling is slightly different, this is probably the same man as the Uchtred McDowell who was Provost of Bangor in 1615; in 1617 Uchtred McDougall also received a grant of denization)

• A gravestone in Bangor Abbey graveyard bears the inscription 'Here lyeth ye body of Oughtred McConnell who lived in Bangor and died ye 11 of Sep 1702 aged 78 years.' Even though the spellings are different, this could well be another member of the same family. (click the photo below to enlarge).

• By the time that the rebellion of 1641 began, and the Scottish army was being mustered to sail to Ulster to protect the early Scottish settlements here, the Laird of Garthland was appointed as one of the 'Commissioners of Supply' and the War Committee included James M'Dowall 14th Laird of Garthland, as was Alexander M'Dowall of Logan and Uthred M'Dowall of Freugh. (source: Galloway and the Covenanters by A S Morton)

• '[around 1650] MacDowall of Garthland followed the popular preachers Rutherford, Livingstone and Maclellan...' (source: A History of Dumfries and Galloway by Sir Herbert Maxwell, 1900). Livingstone and Maclellan had of course been two of the Eagle Wing ministers.

• in 1803 the M'Dowalls sold their estate at Garthland and relocated to Lochwinnoch in Renfrewshire and named their new estate as Garthland.

And on and on it goes. There is a mountain of detailed information available on these early Ulster-Scots. Usually the challenge is knowing when to stop digging.

Dean Castle, Kilmarnock

2011-08-08T17:09:00.001+01:00

Dean Castle, in the middle of the Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock, is superb; we visited it on Saturday (on a day trip over the water to Glasgow to see Rangers playing Chelsea). This is where Sir Hugh Montgomery's close ally, Colonel David Boyd, was born (see previous biographical post here). The Boyds had been granted the land here by King Robert the Bruce in 1316 for their loyalty to him in his victory at Bannockburn. In the early 1500s, the Boyds and Montgomeries were rivals and enemies - the 4th Lord Boyd murdered two Montgomeries in 1523. It was the next Lord, Colonel David Boyd's father, who made peace with the Montgomeries and therefore laid the foundations for the two families' Ulster co-operation which began in 1606. Dean Castle is in a country park, with picnic areas, adventure playground, and entry is FREE! Definitely worth a stop-off for any Ulster folk who are getting the ferry, and are driving northwards through Ayrshire. Visit the website here.

Ulster-Scots drole measurement discussion

2011-08-05T00:29:00.001+01:00

Short exchange overheard last week:

Man A: "Whit size d'ye think I'll hiddae get?"
Man B: (Silent pause then squinted glance at Man A). "Weel, eventually 6 by 2 does for maist folk"...

A window full of sewing machines - All Saints, Spitalfield

2011-08-01T09:43:00.002+01:00

I was in Brighton a few weeks ago and an amazing shopfront stopped me dead in my tracks. All Saints Spitalfield was the shop, with an enormous front window completely filled with old sewing machines. The street was narrow, and the photo above was as much as I could fit into the camera. An amazing sight, and I thought it was an antique shop which had just acquired the contents of an old old clothes factory. (click to enlarge).

I've since found that it is in fact a big clothes brand, with over 70 stores mainly in the UK but also in Europe and the USA. There's apparently one in Victoria Square in Belfast. I must admit I was disappointed to find that the window of sewing machines is part of the brand's corporate identity, rather than just a quirky one-off shop in Brighton. But hats off to Brinkworth, the design company who came up with the idea.

> Have a look here for a mountain of photographs of the sewing machine displays on Google Images.
> and this article 'So that's where all the sewing machines went'

"The Lowland hatred of the Celtic bagpipes (declared to be a favourite musical instrument of Satan)"

2011-07-31T21:27:00.001+01:00

The details shown above are from John Derrick's famous 1581 engravings of 'The Image of Irelande' showing scenes and battles between Irish and English forces of the time. A set of them is available to view here on the Edinburgh University Library website. Two of these feature 'pypers' within the Irish 'woodkerne', one of which has been killed and has his pipes lying beside him.

'Many instances of the Lowland hatred of the Celtic bagpipes (declared to be a favourite musical instrument of Satan) imply no more than that the more musical Saxons could not bear the sound of an instrument which brought to their remembrance ruthless foes who, it is said, also played the pipes during the Irish massacres in 1641. In 1641 Lord Lothian [ William Kerr ] had a piper in every company when his regiment lay at Newcastle, and at the same time there was not a sober fiddler in the Scots army there. The Scots loved the harp, the harpsichord, the viol, and the flute, and still more the sweet voices which sang those martial ballads and love lyrics which still charm the dainty ear'. (thanks to Jack for this reference, from Hewison in 1908).

Pipe bands seem to have been popularised by soldiers returning from the First World War (1914-1918), where they saw and heard Highland regiments of the British Army - for example Gilnahirk Pipe Band from East Belfast was formed in 1919. So nowadays we don't have the same reservations about the pipes as our ancestors did. Time moves on and things change. The story of music and the Ulster-Scots is still to be properly researched and written.

> The Highland Bagpipe by W.L. Manson (1901) on Archive.org
> Bagpipes in War from the North East Folklore Archive

European Pipe Band Championships, Belfast, 30 July 2011

2011-07-28T10:04:00.001+01:00

A few years ago I was involved with some efforts to attract major pipe band events to Northern Ireland. We wanted to bring the RSPBA World Pipe Band Championships across the water from Scotland, but were just pipped at the post by Glasgow City Council (who retained the event for the umpteenth year). However, later that same year Belfast City Council did manage to secure the European Pipe Band Championships for three years running from 2010 - 2012. Last year's event at Stormont Estate was a good start to the series, and this year's looks like a much bigger affair.

> Belfast City Council web page about the Championships: click here
> Piping is Class Festival: click here

I can't go this year as I'm leading another Ulster-Scots historical bus tour of the Ards and North Down on the same day, but I'd definitely recommend anyone to go to the Europeans (and any of the pipe band contests), it's a great day out. For those stuck at home but close to a computer, there's always the live online stream being arranged through the multimedia department of Lurgan Junior High School- more info on the RSPBA website here. (school has obviously changed a lot since my day!).

The Worlds is being held on Glasgow Green on Saturday 13th. Let's hope the Ulster bands romp home with a truckload of wins - Worlds website here.

Hugh Porter of Moneyslane

2011-07-28T00:01:00.001+01:00

I am fortunate enough to have an original 1813 edition of the poems of Hugh Porter. His 'country rhymes' are exceptional - clever, humourous, satirical, witty. Here's the intro of one I read the other day, entitled 'To the Most Noble Marquis of Downshire':

My Lord,
While friends an' folk o' fame,
Wi' compliments salute ye,
I maun contented sit at hame
An' barely think about ye

.

Musgrave's Patent, Belfast; (a window spotted in England earlier this week)

2011-07-22T18:39:00.002+01:00

You can read more about the Musgraves of Belfast here. Click pics to enlarge.

Newtownards, 11.30pm tonight.

2011-07-12T00:00:00.002+01:00

Took this photo tonight of the view at the top end of Strangford Lough, towards Newtownards' massive 11th Night bonfire. Click to enlarge.

If you're up at the North Coast this week

2011-07-09T21:43:00.001+01:00

...then the Keswick at Portstewart convention is worth dropping in at. It's been running every year since 1913. Very rooted, down-to-earth, neither full of trendy cool types nor dour suited sorts either, it strikes a great balance with an all-ages approach to good clear Biblical teaching. And as it's in a 1000 seater marquee it's informal - and big enough to slip in and out of without causing a rumpus or being buttonholed by anybody. There's also a bookshop and coffee shop on site as well. I help them with their advertising each year (as you can see from the News Letter pic shown here, this ad appeared both yesterday and today). You can find out more on their blog.

It has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about

2011-07-07T22:44:00.001+01:00

This is a bit American, but still applies. Thanks to The Resurgence.

From Killinchy to Newtownards to Irvine, March 1637

2011-07-07T00:18:00.001+01:00

"...I went by Dean (Castle) and Loudon and Lanerk to Edinburgh, and remained there some space, being at some private meetings every day; and when I returned to the communion at Irvine, which was March 26, I found that my wife having come only ane visit from her mother's house to Newtoun to see the Lady Airds, and finding some of our Killinshie people going by to go to Irvine communion, she presently came along to Scotland with them... (I) sent to Ireland for some of our goods, and stayed in Lanerk till I went to Stranrawer..."

from The Life of Mr John Livingstone, written by Livingstone himself in January 1666

When Worlds Collide: An Encounter with a Public Sector Organisation

2011-07-05T18:46:00.001+01:00

Joke with a jag caveat warning: This isn’t an actual conversation, and isn’t about any specific organisation. It’s a compendium of many conversations which have been relayed to me over the years by deflated, infuriated ordinary folk (known here as ‘Person’) who have attempted to deal with a wide variety of organisations in Northern Ireland’s public sector (known here as ‘Them’). Thankfully some public sector organisations aren’t like the mythical one below. There are also some very capable individuals in the sector, many of whom I have worked with and am still working with. However…

Person: “I have an idea that I’d like to talk to your organisation about. I understand you support this type of project.”

Them (with a look of horror/disdain): “That may be. But we have no-one who could take it forward, we’re already very busy.”

Person: “Okay, but it doesn’t need any of your people to actually do it.”

Them: “But we don’t have any money to pay for someone else to do it either, our budget for this year is already fully allocated.”

Person: “But we're only one month into the current year!”

Them: “Sorry.”

Person: “Well, I’m not looking for money for myself, but it might need some fairly small production costs to make it happen.”

Them: “But because we’re already fully allocated, we’d have to put in an external funding application to Organisation X under their new Funding Programme Y. However that Programme is closing next month.”

Person: “Okay. How long does that application take?”

Them: “Well, we’ll have to check their funding criteria and, if necessary, distort your idea beyond recognition to make it fit with their criteria. And, depending upon summer holidays and other delays by the time that their assessment and shortlisting process takes a final decision it could be about one year. Once we get written confirmation of the funding then we can talk to you. Hopefully we won't have to put your idea out to tender".

Person: “But it's MY idea!”

Silence.

Person: “Well, do you want to hear about the idea anyway?”

Them: “There’s probably little point, we’re already busy doing our own projects which are all aligned with our 3 – 5 year corporate plan.”

Person: “But, properly handled, this idea could really capture the public imagination.”

Them (with another look of horror/disdain): “That would create even more work for our already hard-pressed over-stressed staff.”

Person: “But this office is nearly empty. Where are all of your staff?”

Them: “On a course. Or on flexi-time. Or on leave. Or off sick.”

Silence.

Them: “Well, let’s have a look at your idea anyway.”

Person passes A4 summary document across table, and explains main highlights.

Silence.

Them: “Well, it looks interesting. However your timeline doesn’t dovetail with ours... your psychic powers are weak. And if we supply the paper for this specific aspect of the project (they said while pointing to a subtitle on the A4 sheet) then later on in the process we’ll probably claim copyright ownership of the words you’ve written and which have been printed on that paper, even though they’ve taken you years of voluntary time and expense to research, craft and perfect. But anyway, we can’t do a, b and c as these are technically not within our remit - or at least how we presently interpret our remit (but that interpretation is under review with an external consultant just now) - and d, e and f are mostly the responsibility of other public sector organisations. So you’d have to go and talk to them and get their written permissions and approvals before we’d even consider this project.”

Person: “But THEY told me I had to meet YOU first, and get in-principle support for the idea before THEY would consider the project! Look, I have a full-time job and this project is just something I’ve come up with voluntarily in my spare time with other local people, who like me have full-time jobs. We don’t have the time to spend our lives in meetings with public sector organisations being bounced from pillar to post and never getting an answer. AND IT'S OUR TAXES THAT PAY YOUR WAGES!” (thumps table).

Silence.

Them: “But we have no-one who could liaise with those other public sector bodies, we’re already very busy. And we’re not allowed to assist with specific projects – that could lead to complaints from other project applicants. And maybe even legal challenge.”

Person: “So that’s it then?”

Them: “Well, let’s be optimistic for a moment, let’s say we did manage to find some money”.

Person: “Yes?”

Them: “What we’d then do is make sure our logo was as big as possible on everything produced so it would appear to everyone that we had devised this project through our own genius, expertise and hard work. We’d then arrange a swish launch event for the great and the good. Maybe a Z list celebrity would be paid to come along. But we might forget to invite you - that happens now and again. You’d definitely be left out of publicity photo shoots. And afterwards we’d chop your project up as we see fit and publish it in whatever way we wish, edited by someone who hasn’t any understanding of the subject but who needs to be kept busy at their desk for most of the day. Unless they’re off of course. And we might also give copies of your project to others, without consulting you, so that they can build a new (probably heavily funded) project on the back of your voluntary project and with no acknowledgement that it’s your intellectual property in the first place. Of course we will need lots of freebies for the people on our corporate mailing list who we need to impress – these would be sent out first before the general public actually get any whiff of your project at all.”

Silence.

Them: “Otherwise we have this other small pot of money we could point you towards, to do something else entirely. We have targets to meet for that fund and it’s currently under-performing.”

Silence.

Them: “Would you like a copy of our corporate plan? You can download it from our website or write to request a hard copy edition which will be sent out within 30 days. And if you subscribe to our mailing list we'll keep you informed about all of the other wonderful projects that we are funding.”

Person: “Is there a bathroom on this floor?”

(this was written as a bit of mischief, but a few friends DEMANDED that I post it here!)

A final point about technology

2011-07-04T21:49:00.001+01:00

"Technology of every kind for spreading truth exists, but there are not people to make it work." - JC Ryle (Ryle died in 1900). From John Piper on Twitter.

...but for some projects, letterpress IS coming back

2011-07-03T11:30:00.001+01:00

Here's the companion post for the one immediately below. In some cases, traditional methods can be used beautifully, to make a statement about an ethic, an ethos - with all of the inevitable labour pains of hand-crafted items. This video shows the process of creating the CD packaging for the wonderful Gillian Welch and Dave Rawling's new CD, The Harrow and the Harvest.Sometimes sterile digital perfection, retouched and auto-tuned to death, produces a monstrosity. Doing something the old way makes a virtue of imperfection.

> Gillian Welch website here
> Aardvark Letterpress website here
> A 5 star review of the album at The Guardian here
> for those who are suspicious of The Guardian, here's a 5 star review from The Telegraph.

A different Ulster McIlroy (ie not Rory) - Technology and tradition

2011-07-01T23:17:00.001+01:00

They are strange bed-fellows at first glance, but there is no doubt that today's technology has proven its potential to open up deep rivers of tradition and history. I can't remember how many times I have text-searched the eBook editions of The Hamilton Manuscripts and The Montgomery Manuscripts. Archive.org and GoogleBooks are marvellous online library resources. GPS and satnav have helped me to locate some very obscure historical sites over the last few years. The obvious challenge is that the speed of change makes it impossible to 'future-proof' anything - just remember that 18 months ago the world had never even seen an iPad. And a few years before that telephones were only used for talking to other people. Now a special type of barcode can be included on an interpretive panel, and when photographed by a smartphone it launches a specific webpage which tells you the story of the place you're standing in, in words, pictures or even video. Things like this just weren't possible a few years ago. We are not going back to letterpress printing. Technology isn't the future, it's the present.

In that context, it's great to see that the Ulster-Scots Language Society's new reprint of Archibald M'Ilroy's The Auld-Meetin'-Hoose Green (first published in 1898) is available both as a printed book and also as a Kindle edition. M'Ilroy's The Humour of Druid's Island (published 1902) is one of a very few books which have made me laugh out loud. Well done to Derek for championing M'Ilroy over recent years (at least to anyone who would listen!) and from what I hear there are other voluntary and self-funded projects in the pipeline which will combine to put M'Ilroy back on the map.

The story of Comber Potatoes

2011-06-29T00:28:00.001+01:00

Comber Potatoes are soon to be a local product with 'PGI' (Protected Geographical Indicator) status, much like Champagne wine, Parma ham etc. This report from the Belfast Telegraph almost exactly one year ago gives a fascinating definition:

"...Only potatoes grown in the former Hamilton and Montgomery lands would pass muster — that is Ards Borough Council as far south as Ardkeen on the Ards peninsula and Crossgar and Killyleagh on the western side of Strangford, North Down Borough Council and the parts of Castlereagh, Belfast and Down District Councils that lie to the east of the A7 road between Carryduff and Killyleagh..."

This is a direct quote from the official DEFRA document (PDF here). The document goes on to quote from The Montgomery Manuscripts. And Ayrshire, where Hamilton & Montgomery came from, is of course also famous for potatoes - so it may well have been the early Scots who brought spuds to Comber.

There's an alternative story though, which is that some of the English colonists who came to the Ards with Sir Thomas Smith in 1572-1575 were farmers, and after Smith's 'official' colony collapsed they remained to farm the flat fertile land near Comber. When Sir Walter Raleigh brought the potato from the Americas to Europe (and specifically to Ireland) in the late 1580s, some of the seed crop were brought to the Comber area and were planted there by these English tenants. So maybe the Comber spud is Ulster-English in origin rather than Ulster-Scots.

Comber spuds are in season just now, but if you're driving along the M1 near Moira / Lisburn, keep an eye out for this poster I've just designed for one of my clients, local potato producer Wilson's Country, in a roadside field where they are currently growing a fresh crop. It's had quite a reaction from passing motorists!

(explanation for readers not from Ulster - 'peelers' is a nickname for 'police')

Stane, gress an grun

2011-06-28T23:31:00.001+01:00

Another photo from the Ulster Folk Museum today.

The No. 7 Modern Mistress solid fuel stove, Drumnahunshin Farm, Ulster Folk Museum

2011-06-28T19:04:00.002+01:00

This is the older model, with the hot water tap at the side, exactly as my Granny Wilson had in her wee house at Ballyfrenis. Took this photo today. Click to enlarge.

The Dying Words of David Dickson of Irvine (1583-1663)

2011-06-18T09:33:00.001+01:00

(A brief post as there are other things to attend to just now). I can't thank Billy enough for sending this to me earlier in the week. Last weekend he gave me a tour of a number of important historical sites associated with Dickson. Then this appeared in my inbox on Wednesday.

'...on his death-bed in Edinburgh on December 1662, a friend asked him how he was himself. His reply was 'I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and have cast them together in a heap before the Lord, and have fled from both to Jesus Christ, and in Him I have sweet peace...'

> Wikipedia entry on David Dickson here.

'A Mapp Shewing The Order & Causes of Salvation & Damnation' by John Bunyan

2011-06-16T09:19:00.001+01:00

John Bunyan (1628 - 1688) is best known as the author of Pilgrim's Progress and other books like The Holy War. Here's his Wikipedia biography. He also seems to have been a bit of a graphic designer to, as the image below shows, the first version of which was created by Bunyan in 1644.

You can see a larger PDF version here. It is said to have been based on the earlier works of William Perkins (1558-1602), called 'A Golden Chain' (see example here). Even though the age we live in is highly visual, diagrams like these can look a bit strange and esoteric to us. (Main image above from this Flickr page)

The Ulster Covenant in Ayrshire

2011-06-13T20:15:00.000+01:00

Yesterday when driving from Ayr through Troon up to Irvine, I made a point of stopping at Titchfield Road along Troon seafront. Why? Because my great grandfather was living there when he signed the Ulster Covenant in Troon in 1912. If you click on the document below (from the excellent PRONI website) you'll see five Thompson men - John, James, William, William and William John - were all staying at Titchfield Row when they signed the Covenant. William John was my great grandfather, and he gave his home address as Ballyfrench - the wee townland I'm now back living on again. You'll see that there were Bailies from John St in Newtownards living there with them, as well as other Ards and Belfast men. I expect they were over there working on the 'Scotch Harvest'. (Click to enlarge):

The photo below is of the roadsign for Titchfield Road, with Ailsa Craig directly behind. I wonder how often these men stood on that shore after a hard days work, looked out across the sea and thought of home? (Click to enlarge):

Ayrshire is my favourite part of Scotland - family tradition has it that the first of our Thompsons came across to Ulster from around Troon and Kilmarnock, probably some time in the early 1700s. Thanks to Joe and Jean, to Billy, to William, John and Brian for all of their help and hospitality over the weekend. If Stena Line and P&O would pool their finances and build a massive big bridge I'd probably be over there at least once a month - trawling through graveyards, libraries, museums, bookshops, ruined castles and abbeys... and eating Ayrshire tatties!

A fine year

2011-06-13T00:30:00.001+01:00

...from the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, on the wall beside the John Knox House (now part of the Scottish Storytelling Centre).

Ailsa Craig from Ayr seafront, 9.30pm this evening

2011-06-11T22:09:00.001+01:00