The kirks and braes o' Killyleagh (and the media and museums of course)

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, you can read this post in full on my blog)

Whilst Northern Ireland's suburban media élite have once again spent their day ridiculing Ulster-Scots, I was in Killinchy and Killyleagh, visiting some local, historically-important, churches. I'll not mention the people by name (just in case the thought police go and hunt them down) but I had a marvellous afternoon talking with local folk, born and bred on the other side of Strangford Lough, about local history and fast-disappearing vocabulary. One of them gave me her personal collection of old yellowed newspaper cuttings of Ulster vocabulary, dating back to the late 1800s - a real treasure trove of information.

They also told me of old Ulster-Scots street names in Killyleagh which have been replaced by bland alternatives within their lifetimes - Braeside which led to Breakey's Brae, Barracks Brae (which was changed to Shrigley Road), Sabbath Brae (changed to Castle Lane) - and up near Raffrey, Bratchey's Brae (probably Bradshaw's Brae, just like in Newtownards - but still spelled as "Bratchey's" on a nearby house), which joins the Temple Burn Road.

Not that any of these things would interest the opponents of Ulster-Scots. The dominant attitude of the establishment in NI towards Ulster-Scots has always been hostility of one kind or another. That antagonism can be traced back in various forms for centuries. In more recent decades that has included the trivialisation of tradition, the wiping out of old place names and the exclusion of our story from the classroom, or - dare I say it - most museums. I've blogged about that before.

The smug, constructed world that today's media and cultural élite lives in is one where they can talk down their noses about 'reinforcing elderly rural protestant stereotypes', and get away with it. Their airbrushed world bears little resemblance to the lives and interests of ordinary Ulster folk. As I've said manys a time, the closest many of these "experts" get to rural life is the car park at Marks and Spencer.

(See the recent post on GF Savage-Armstrong's clashes with the literary élite of a century ago - click here)

The missing Montgomery portraits and memoir - an open message to art collectors, libraries and museums in New Zealand and Australia

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, you can read this post in full on my blog)

I'm posting this in the hope that, one day, these items might surface and perhaps copies of them could be sent back to Ulster in the interests of history and cultural heritage.

1. THE MISSING PORTRAITS
The Montgomery Manuscripts were written by William Montgomery in the late 1600s and early 1700s. They were first printed in Belfast in 1830, and then again in 1869 with the addition of magnificent footnotes by Rev George Hill. Hill's portrait hangs in the Great Hall of Queens University in Belfast, in which he is holding a copy of the manuscripts. Because of the limitations of printing at the time, there are very few illustrations in the book. Tantalisingly, Hill does refer to two then-extant original portraits - of Sir Hugh Montgomery, the First Viscount of the Great Ardes (1560 - 1636) which is said to have been a life-size portrait - and also one of his second son Sir James Montgomery of Rosemount (1600 - 1651). Here is Hill's description: -

"...An oil painting of the first viscount is in the possession of Mrs. Sinclair, formerly of the Falls, near Belfast, who is seventh in lineal descent from him. The same lady also possesses a portrait in slate of sir James Montgomery of Rosemount, and miniature likenesses of col. Wm. Montgomery of Killough, and his wife, Isabella Campbell of Mamore. Col. William Montgomery was grandson of the author, and great-grandfather of Mrs. Sinclair..." (The Montgomery Manuscripts, footnote, page 117)

No-one alive in Ulster today has ever seen these portraits - they are thought to have been taken to Australia or New Zealand by emigrants.

2. THE MISSING MEMOIR
In the Preface, Rev George Hill refers to a biography of Hugh Montgomery II (1597 - 1642) - "...The memoir of the second viscount is unfortunately lost, at least for the present, having been probably carried away to Australia by the author's lineal descendant, captain Frederick Campbell Montgomery, who settled in that colony about the year 1835..."

Sir James Hamilton and Sir Hugh Montgomery have been called "The Founding Fathers of the Ulster-Scots". Hamilton's original portrait hangs at Castle Ward, the National Trust property near Strangford. It is a tragedy that 150 years ago, an equivalent original portrait of Sir Hugh Montgomery was in a private collection in Belfast but has since been lost, probably taken to the other side of the world.

If you know where these two Montgomery portraits might be - PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!! There may even be a reward for the person who uncovers them, and who helps to return copies of them to the people of Northern Ireland.

(NB - The portrait of Sir Hugh Montgomery shown here is the one which has been used in recent years. It is from a copy indenture from Fraser's "Memorials of the Montgomeries", which is a poor facsimile of an original 1630 indenture. I was recently given a digital copy of the original indenture, and the portrait looks much better than the one shown above - but as I don't own the copyright for it I won't post it here)

........

Who was Mrs Sinclair? A few months ago a local historian was good enough to send me this background info:

"...There were several wealthy families with the name Sinclair resident in mid 19th century Belfast. The most prominent were the owners of J&T Sinclair, Merchants and Ship owners, they owned two of the largest mansions in the North of the city, the Grove and Hopefield. Another family were the owners of S Sinclair and Company Linen Merchants who lived in College Gardens and other houses in the South of the city. The only connection of a Sinclair family to the Falls would be in the late 18th and early 19th Century. William Sinclair, a very successful Linen manufacturer, is described as the Falls Bleacher. The family house and business premises were in Mill Street, where Castle Street and Divis street now are. Their very substantial house faced the entrance to King Street. He built Fortwilliam House at the end of the 18th Century but the bleaching business was still carried on at the Mill Street site and they presumably retained their house there. William Sinclair died in 1807 and left three daughters but no sons. Fortwilliam was sold soon after his death but his wife survived him until 1854. She lived mainly in Donegal Place but she would always have been associated with the Falls. To my mind she is the only possible candidate among the Belfast merchant classes of that time. As is not unusual at that time the name appears as both Sinclaire and Sinclair. I hope this is helpful, incidentally William Sinclaire was quite a character with wide interests which included being Chairman of the Society of United Irishmen..."

Global warming at the Ulster Folk Museum?

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, the original post is from my blog). I took this pic on my Blackberry a few weeks ago. Looks like the sea levels have risen and the Ards Peninsula has sunk into the sea... Lough Swilly and Inishowen look like they're in trouble too!



(from the Coalisland Spade Mill)

Feedback from the Radio Ulster / Ulster Museum interview

Thanks to all of you who have contacted me today about the short piece on the radio broadcast this morning about the lack of Ulster Scots historical content in the new Ulster Museum. I've had emails, phone calls and at an event this evening 7 people came to talk to me about it - three of whom were strangers but recognised me. It is interesting that you're all "normal people" (ie sensible middle-of-the-road folk who can't be glibly dismissed as Ulster Scots "activists" or "lobbyists") and you feel as disappointed as I do that your story has been left out. All of us thought that Northern Ireland had moved on from the old broken "two tribes" past. Sadly it seems that the heritage sector is lagging far behind the people!

NOTE - Remember that "A History of Scotland" begins again on Sunday evening on BBC Scotland. For Northern Ireland viewers it's on the Sky digital channels away around 971. This Sunday night is "God's Chosen People" - the Covenanters!

Belfast and the "Scotch"

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is full of great stuff. I was there for most of the afternoon. I found some correspondence between two of Ulster's great Victorian antiquarians - William Pinkerton (1809 - 1871, whose father was from Paisley in Scotland) and George Benn (1801 - 1882, author of A History of the Town of Belfast). While Benn was working on the later edition of the book in the 1870s, Pinkerton wrote to him to advise:


"...Belfast was founded by the English, but the Scotch element gaining the mastery, it became little more than a Scotch trading station in Ireland, the sole aim of the inhabitants being to make money and go back to Scotland again..."


These were men of what has been described as "the first Golden Age of historians of Belfast". When you add to the list men like Robert Magill Young, William Reeves, James O'Laverty, Classon Porter, W D Killen and Rev George Hill, you find that those great historians of 150 years ago were utterly convinced of the profound cultural and historic connections between Ulster and Scotland, and devoted large portions of their lives to researching and publishing these connections.

It is a shame that so many of today's professional historians and educators in Northern Ireland have made it their business to ignore their predecessors' monumental achievements and seek to airbrush Scotland out of our story; in doing so they perpetuate the failed and divisive political "two tribes" narrative, and hide from us our full cultural heritage.

Radio Ulster again

I was interviewed this evening, it might be broadcast on Good Morning Ulster some time soon. BBC NI phoned me this afternoon, having seen the blog post below about the Ulster Museum. So, once again, I end up on the radio unintentionally. Just hope it comes across sensibly - there's a huge Scottish dimension to the heritage of Ulster that is being ignored by not just the Ulster Museum, but by almost the entire heritage sector. It's funny that this blog has such a wide reach!

On a more constructive note, thanks to everyone who has been so positive about the Covenanters in Ulster programme which was broadcast on Sunday. You can still listen to it on BBC iPlayer by clicking here.

The Ulster Museum - Part Two - Ulster Tartan

(Let's take the issues one at a time, my response to what I saw at the Ulster Museum on Saturday.)

In his excellent book Intimate Strangers - Political and Cultural Interaction between Ulster and Scotland in Modern Times - Graham Walker begins by quoting ATQ Stewart: "At the core of the Ulster problem is the problem of the Scots".

The new Ulster Museum exhibition galleries and interpretation clearly have a problem with the Scots. Example One is the Ulster Tartan. As you know from previous posts, I'm not really into tartan. But it is a solidly Scottish cultural phenomenon. And as this article by Matthew Newsome FSA Scot says, "... The only Irish district tartan that is truly historic is the Ulster tartan...".

In the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1961/62, there's a 23 page academic paper about the Ulster tartan. It was discovered, preserved intact, in 1956 near Dungiven. It was peat-stained and discoloured but was taken to (guess where) the Ulster Museum for examination. A textile specialist, Audrey Henshall, carried out a detailed examination and even produced samples of the original colours - a vibrant green and red with fine details in black and yellow. The clothing was displayed at the Ulster Museum in 1958 as part of the big Elizabethan Ulster exhibition. It was an Ulster icon and graced the catwalks of swinging sixties London. Then in the early 1970s the Scottish Tartan Authority acknowledged its importance and authenticity by registering it as Ulster Tartan.

Initially I was pleased the see the garments back on display, in a glass cabinet. The leggings of the mannequin are of the reconstructed red/green/black/yellow. But then I read the small interpretive plaque, which reads as follows:

Dungiven costume
The reconstruction is based on the remains of clothing (in front) that was found in 1958 one mile north of Dungiven, County Londonderry. The find included a cloak, coat, trews and shoes of the sort that would have been worn by a male member of a Gaelic Irish family in the first half of the seventeenth century.

- No mention of tartan.
- No mention of Scotland.
- No mention of the early 1600s Ulster-Scots settlements of County Down or the tartan industry that sprang up near Newtownards.
- The only cultural reference is "Gaelic Irish".

With an artefact with such an obvious, non-contentious, credible and already thoroughly researched Ulster-Scots story to tell, the Ulster Museum has chosen to apply cultural exclusion, and you might argue cultural displacement, asserting a "Gaelic Irish" cultural connection and removing the solidly Ulster Scots.

I am both disappointed and angry. More to follow through the week...

......

Postscript: Ulster tartan is now produced commercially and available in these three colour schemes:

Ulster Modern Red (click to enlarge)


Ulster District (click to enlarge)


Ulster Weathered (click to enlarge)

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