Wee Sunday School songs

These come back to me every now and again, learned at Carrowdore Sunday School over 30 years ago.

Look them out, get them gone
All the little rabbits in the fields of corn
Envy, jealousy, malice and pride
These must never in my heart abide

It's a moral lesson from Mark ch 7 rather than clear gospel theology - but there are some folk who could do with looking in the mirror and learning from its wisdom.

A forgotten Ulster author - Richard Cuninghame Esq. of Castle Cooley, Donegal (c. 1832 – 1908)

Over the centuries, some writers have published popular novels to bring Ulster-Scots history to the general reader. Richard Cuninghame is one I have recently discovered.

In Bonds but Fetterless (1875)
This two volume novel is set in 1660s County Down during the time of Captain Thomas Blood's plot to storm Dublin Castle and kidnap the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Many Ulster Presbyterian Covenanters were involved in this attempt, and more were seized and arrested on suspicion of involvement. A description of the novel reads as follows:

'... Historical fiction set in Ulster in the time of Charles II. The novel's introduction mentions details of the plantation of the Scots in Ulster under King James I. The story opens in 1661 in a farmhouse of Scottish Presbyterians in Co. Down and deals mainly with relations between the Afton family of Ellerslie and survivors of the O'Neills, who still inhabit their ancient castle, some of whom have become Protestants. The book presents the reactions of the Ulster Presbyterians to the persecution started by the 'Prelatic Church' under Charles II. A conspiracy by the Covenant is begun by two dubious characters, Blood and Lecky, but Ulster Presbyterians hold aloof. Many personages of the day are introduced and the plot moves between Belfast ('Plekopolis') and Dublin...'

A quick Google search shows it among the collection of Brisbane Circulating Library, Australia, being advertised in the Brisbane Courier on Monday 3 December 1877.

The Broken Sword of Ulster (1904)
This is a popular account of events in Ulster from the late 1500s through the Nine Years War, the death of Elizabeth I, the escape of Con O'Neill, O'Doherty's rebellion and the Plantation. The scattered footnotes show that Cuninghame's story drew heavily from the accounts of Andrew Stewart, Rev George Hill and Rev James Seaton Reid. The book is now available online here. It was probably published after Cuninghame had died.

Biography
Richard Cuninghame is believed to have been born around 1832, the son of Dr Hugh Cuninghame (1794-1878) of Castlecooley, near Burt, in Donegal (Dr Cuninghame is said to have been at St. Helena while Napoloen was exiled there from 1815–1821).

On 29 November 1860 Richard married Mary Henry from Tassagh, Armagh, at Tassagh Presbyterian Church - and in the 1869 Hill edition of the Montgomery Manuscripts, 'Richard Cunningham, esq., Castle Cooley, County Donegal' is listed in the Preface as one of those who assisted with the footnotes research. The National Library of Ireland has his genealogical research (see here) compiled in 1898. A collection of his papers and manuscripts may still exist.

He died on 2nd May 1908 at his home at 3 Salisbury Terrace, Portrush, in his 77th year.

His son was Rev Hugh Harvey Cuninghame who graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1890 and became a Church of Ireland rector at Ballywillan, Magherafelt and Arboe.

Scottish origins
The History of the counties of Ayr and Wigtown (1866) contains these details about the family:

'... Not a few Ayrshire families are represented by branches in Ireland. This originated chiefly in the colonisation of Ulster by the Scots, under Montgomerie, in the hitter end of the reign of James I., and by subsequent emigration. Amongst other still existing Scoto-Irish families are the Cuninghames of Castle Cooley, near Londonderry. The first of them was the Rev. Hugh Cuninghame, who went to Ireland in 1642, as chaplain to a regiment commanded by the Earl of Glencairn. About that period, an army of ten thousand men, chiefly from the west coast, were sent over by the Scots Government to protect the colonists there during the rebellion. The Rev Hugh Cuninghame did not return with his regiment when the army was withdrawn, but settled as minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Ray, county Donegal, about 1G46. He was ejected by the Bishop of Raphoe in 1662. From this reverend gentleman the Castle Cooley family are descended ; but to which of the Scottish houses he belonged it is difficult, or perhaps impossible, to discover. He would be appointed chaplain by the Presbytery of Irvine : but, unfortunately, their records go no farther back than 1646, and not one of the parish registers exists at so early a period. The register of the University of Glasgow shows that a Hugh Cuninghame matriculated 1st March 1630, and graduated in 1634. This is no doubt the same party, but he is not designed. He was probably connected with the Cuninghames of Glengarnock, who sold that property, and went to Ireland about 1600. Their place, Castle Cuninghame, is near to Ray (Donegal) ...'

Allsopp's Pale Ale

Information about the company available online here.

When Northern Ireland spoke for Britain - a 1956 advertisement for the British Travel Association

This ad is from the US magazine 'Holiday', for the British Travel Association. The main image is of Greencastle, County Down, on the shore of Carlingford Lough. It's an area with both Viking and Anglo-Norman heritage. It was captured by Edward Bruce in 1316, and is also recorded that his brother King Robert the Bruce of Scotland offered to broker a peace agreement with the King of England - with Greencastle as the proposed venue for the negotiations - around 1326. Edward Bruce was of course killed nearby in a battle in 1318 and his body (or bits of it at least) are buried in an ancient graveyard there.

Greencastle was used as an English garrison in the late Elizabethan period in the 1590s - and it's still an impressive building and location today. Northern Ireland is seldom, if ever, used to promote the wider 'nation' (however you choose to define that), we tend to get pushed to the periphery. How different it was 50 odd years ago. I still believe that our multi-cultural mix makes Northern Ireland one of the most interesting heritage locations in the UK / Ireland. My English relatives were surprised to see so many Anglo-Norman castles in our small area of east Down on a visit last year.

I was fishing for tope on Carlingford just over a year ago with some friends and took the photos below from the boat.





Below: The view from the Irish Sea into the mouth of Carlingford Lough - Co Louth to the left and Co Down to the right.There is some talk about building a bridge across the Lough.

Robert Burns Centenary Celebrations - the Music Hall and the Corn Exchange, Belfast - 25 January 1859

At Belfast Music Hall a festival was held (and in other towns in Ireland too). Professor George Lillie Craik (who just 2 years later published 'History of English Literature and the English Language') of Queens College gave a rousing speech which included these remarks:

'... this is not Edinburgh or Glasgow, but Belfast. It is true that Burns belongs to Scotland, and not to Ireland; but besides that, many of us now present are Scotchmen by birth, and can only claim the honour of being Irish by adoption, or by sufferance; it might also be made a matter of question whether this Ulster of ours be not really more a part of Scotland than a part of Ireland ... we have come over and set up another Scotland here - an Irish or Little Scotland, as it may be called. We have made this Province of Ulster - this Black North - half Scotch, or more than half Scotch, in almost everything – in blood, in language, in religion, even in mind and character ...'

Hugh McCall of Lisburn said that '... not even in his own Ayrshire is the poetry of Burns held in higher estimation than it is in the counties of Down and Antrim ... Had the poet Burns, when on his deathbed in Dumfries, been able to look through the vista of years, and see that, at the end of a century from the date of his birth, the people of Belfast would have met in such glorious assembly as I see in this room, it would have given comfort and no doubt considerable happiness ...'

Burns' daughter and granddaughter were among the crowd that night. At the same time as the Music Hall banquet, a soiree was held at the Corn Exchange (pictured above) with about 400 in attendance 'composed principally of the more respectable of the working orders', with prominent figures such as Rev Dr M'Cosh, Rev Hugh Hanna, Rev George Cron, Rev Mackey and Mr John Ritchie all in attendance. The Oldpark Band were there and played a selection of Burns' airs throughout the night, and Ritchie sang a rendition of 'Rantin Rovin Robin'.

Detailed accounts of the events in both places are readily available.

Belfast-Glasgow Wine Jug

One from the collection which came up in conversation the other day, probably made for a firm called John Grant Wines & Foods Ltd who owned various hotels and restaurants on both sides of the water. The curved message reads 'A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine'; the four venues are the Grand Central in Belfast, Rogano Restaurant & Sea Food Bar in Glasgow, the Royal Restaurant in Glasgow and the Buchanan Arms Hotel in Drymen, north of Glasgow. Made by J Abrahams & Sons Ltd, no date marked on it but must be around 1927 when Grant took over the Grand Central. It was demolished in the 1990s and CastleCourt shopping mall is on the original site. See article here on CultureNorthernIreland.org









There is a similar example online here.

George Francis Savage Armstrong (1845–1906)

Some of you will know how much I enjoy this man's work (see this previous post) both his poetry, some of which is Ulster-Scots, and also his epic family histories. I was pleased to help Rosemary Raughter from County Wicklow earlier this year who has published this online article about his time in Wicklow. Over the summer I went looking for his grave up at Ardkeen Church - it is thought to be among the thick overgrowth below the ivy on the wall of the building. It has been described as a 'monumental altar-shaped tomb outside, and close to, the south wall of the ruined Church'.















He lived in his latter years at Strangford, in the house which overlooks the village, shown here just behind the old castle. A selection of his work, Poems National and International, was published in 1917 as a memorial to his eldest son, the Dublin-born Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Savage Nesbitt Savage-Armstrong, who was killed at Arras on 23rd April 1917 whilst serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, aged 36.

Duffin Marine, east Belfast boatbuilder

Duffin Marine from DAVID ALLEN on Vimeo.

An Ulster-Scottish-Viking-Pictish artefact

Coming up for auction in England soon is this artefact. It had the following remarkable - truly multicultural - description:

8th-10th century AD. A Hiberno-Norse discoid weight with domed upper face with inset decorative panels comprising two quadrants with three spirals each, two quadrants with T-shaped keys executed in niello; between these interstitial bands of s-scrolled wire; central millefiori panel with chequerboard design; to the underside a discoid panel. 86 grams, 36 mm (1 1/2"). Found Northern Ireland, UK. The decoration of the quadrants is of Pictish workmanship. The same motifs are carved on the 8th century AD Hilton of Cadboll Stone (from Ross and Cromarty; now in the National Museum of Scotland) and elsewhere. These elements must be considered as loot or traded items which were embedded into a lead matrix in order to embellish the weight.

Auction listing is here.

(This artefact will get no media coverage as it's not political. And if a museum here purchases it, they will probably interpet it as merely geographically Irish thereby losing the nuanced and important cultural complexity)

...and a bit of Guns N Roses on an ancient Chinese guzheng

... and while we're at it, why not Jimi Hendrix on a mandolin?

AC/DC bagpipes 1976

Something a bit different from the norm!

George Wishart, the second Scottish martyr, 1546

Following on from the previous post about Patrick Hamilton, the second martyr in Scotland was George Wishart, who like Hamilton was burned at the stake in St Andrews. Earlier this year, the University of St Andrews hosted a conference to mark the 500th anniversary of Wishart's birth in 1513. Some details are online here and also here. Another link with recent blogs posts here is that Samuel Rutherford was buried at St Andrews. Here is a pic of his gravestone. There is an impressive martyrs monument in St Andrews.

Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish martyr, 1528

I've been reading a bit about Patrick Hamilton again. He was a follower of Martin Luther and visited him in Germany. Hamilton's only known writings, later titled Patrick's Places - are online here. And here is a simple biography of the man from 1918. Luther once wrote that '... Virtually the whole of the scriptures and the understanding of the whole of theology–the entire Christian life, even–depends upon the true understanding of the law and the gospel...' . Patrick Hamilton wrote this:

A DISPUTATION BETWIXT THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.

The Law saith,
Pay thy debt.
Thou art a sinner desperate.
And thou shalt die.

The Gospel saith,
Christ hath paid it.
Thy sins are forgiven thee.
Be of good comfort, thou shalt be saved.

The Law saith,
Make amends for thy sin.
The Father of Heaven is wrath with thee.
Where is thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction?
Thou art bound and obliged unto me, to the devil, and to hell.

The Gospel saith,
Christ hath made it for thee.
Christ hath pacified him with his blood.
Christ is thy righteousness, thy goodness, and satisfaction.
Christ hath delivered thee from them all.

Bad religion is a long list of rules for people try to keep. True religion is a long list of rules which demand perfection - and which you therefore know you can never keep - but which Someone else has kept on your behalf.

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

King James V was king of Scotland when Patrick Hamilton was martyred on 29 February 1528 - Hamilton himself was of Royal descent through both of his parents. In fact, King James II of Scotland was a great-grandfather of both King James V and Patrick Hamilton too.

Over in Ayrshire, another branch of the family was led at this time by Archibald Hamilton of Raploch (1504-1559), who is described on a gravestone in Dunlop as being 'a servant of King James the Fift'. Photos below are from one of my visits to Dunlop.





There is no doubt that Archibald Hamilton would have been aware of the burning of his relative Patrick. Archibald died on the cusp of the Scottish Reformation and his son Hans Hamilton became the first Protestant (Presbyterian) minister of Dunlop, Ayrshire - and Hans' son would later become Sir James Hamilton, one of the 'Founding Fathers' of the Ulster-Scots.

The Shackleton Banjo - 'A British-made Banjo for the People ' - 'Vital Mental Medicine'

Check it out on Kickstarter here.

Buy Ailsa Craig - now for sale at £1.5m

Even if you don't have the money (I'm going to have a rummage in the biscuit tin later just to see) the slideshow is worth looking at - click here.

Samuel Rutherford's connection with the Ulster-Scots Montgomeries of County Down

In Edinburgh on 24 March 1640 the famous Scottish Presbyterian minister Samuel Rutherford married Joan/Jean Montgomery. She was the daughter of an Edinburgh merchant and widow of a Hugh Montgomery who is described as 'sometime of Balharie in the country of Doune'. Joan's surname had been Mackmath/MacMath/McMath before she married Montgomery. I have discovered the connection in a legal document during Cromwell's occupation of Scotland, written in Edinburgh on 26 July 1653, seemingly granting a large amount of formerly Montgomery lands in Wigtownshire to John Shaw of Greenock. The Shaws and Montgomeries were also intermarried; the Shaws too had land in Ulster, initially near Ganaway between Millisle and Ballywalter, and later at Ballygally Castle.

As I've blogged here before, Rutherford was a close associate of many of the early Ulster Presbyterian ministers such as John Livingstone, Robert Blair, Robert Cunningham and John MacLellan. In 1640 he, Livingstone and Maclellan were reported to the church authorities for encouraging people to organise communal Bible studies and prayer meetings in their homes at evening time, outwith the formal church services. Anyway, here is the text of the document -

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

REGISTER OF THE GREAT SEAL of SCOTLAND (RMS) Under the Commonwealth (Cromwell).
Vol. X, pages 81 & 82, #164....
July 26 1653. (short extract)

The Keepers grant to Johne SHAW of Grenocke / Greenock (m. to.................?)
the 10 pound land of PORTRIE, (Wigtownshire, Scotland) viz : -
MARROK (Marroch / Marrock) with the castle, tower and fortalice of DUNSKEY situate thereupon ;
corn-mill of PORTRIE, with the 3 mills and mill-lands, etc. viz :-
10 pound land of PORTRIE,
5 pound land of KINGHILT,
3 merk land of DUNTOUNE,
port called PORTPATRICK ;
lands of MAROK and DUNTOUNE,
with several crofts of the said port ;
3 merk land of ENOCH ;
2 merk land of MEKEL PIGMANOCH;
3 merk land of CRAIGOCH ;
town or burgh of MONGRUMIE (MONTGOMERIE)
sea port of old called PORT PATRICK and now PORT MONGRUMIE,
with the whole anchorages, tolls, customs, and other privileges, &c., pertaining thereto, -
with the castles, towers, fortalices, manor-places, &c., of the foresaid lands,
all lying within the sheriffdom of WIGTON (Wigtownshire, Scotland) ; -

which lands pertained to HEW (MONTGOMERY), now Viscount of Airds / Ards,
his father, and were apprised from him on 1st August 1650,
at the instance of JOANE MONTGRUMIE (Montgomerie) alias MACKMATH,
relict (widow) of the deceased HEW MONTGRUMIE (Montgomery) sometime of BALHARIE in the country of Doune,(co.Down, N. Ireland) gentleman, and of (Rev.) SAMUELL RUTHFUIRD , professor of divinity, University of Saint Andrews,
now spouse of JOANE (widow of) MONTGRUMIE (Montgomerie) alias (nee) MACKMATH,
for his interest, which decree of apprising was assigned by the said JOANE MACKMATH
with consent of the said SAMUELL RUTHFUIRD to
Andrew WARDLAW, merchant burgess of Edinburgh,
by assignation dated 15th June 1653,
and was assigned by the said Andrew WARDLAW
to the said Johne SHAW
by translation dated 22nd July 1653 :-
With precept of sasine.
P.R. vii. 82.

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

It's hard to believe that such a legal document would make a mistake on the identities of the people involved.

• This shows that the Hugh Montgomery who had been Joan's husband, was one of the Montgomeries of the Ards. That's the only reason she would have been involved in the issue involving Dunskey Castle and the surrounding lands.

• Depending upon how you read it, perhaps she was a hitherto-unknown third wife of Sir Hugh Montgomery, the first Viscount of the Great Ards? He died in 1636, his second wife Sara (nee Maxwell) died on 29 March 1636, and he himself died in May of the same year. But did he marry Jean MacMath within these last few weeks of his life?!

• This was Rutherford's second marriage. He had been minister of Anwoth near Dumfries from 1627-1638.

• Dunskey Castle near Portpatrick, a castle which had been acquired by the Montgomeries in the 1620s (this document in Latin states 8 Feb 1620 as the date Hugh Montgomery bought 'Doneskey')

• So where is 'Balharie'? One online source suggests 'Ballehenrie' or Ballyhenry between Comber and Newtownards, however there is a Ballyharry townland outside Newtownards on the road to Donaghadee - both areas were 100% Montgomery land back in the early 1600s.

Some online descriptions of the Rutherford/Montgomery marriage:

'... In 1640, after ten years as a widower, Samuel Rutherford married Jean McMath, a woman who was evidently fitted for such a husband. She was described as "a woman of great worth and piety". One person who knew them both said, "I never knew any among men exceed him, nor any among women exceed her". Before he went south to the Westminster Assembly, three children were born to them, but two of them died in infancy...'

'... but this marriage also was filled with much grief. Although his wife outlived him, he lost his children through untimely deaths. The first two died while he was away in London attending the Westminster Assembly; only one of the five more children given him lived. God, however, uses even a man's sorrow for the comfort of others. To one who lost a son he wrote: "Your Lord may gather His roses and shake His apples at what season of the year He pleaseth." And to another he wrote: "I know there is a true sorrow that is without tears; and I know there is a real sorrow that is beyond tears."...

'... In the year 1640, he married his second wife, Jean M'Math, "a woman," says one, "of such worth, that I never knew any among men exceed him, nor any among women exceed her. He who heard either of them pray or speak, might have learnt to bemoan his own ignorance. Oh how many times I have been convinced, by observing them, of the evil of unseriousness unto God, and unsavouriness in discourse." They had seven children; but only one survived the father, a little daughter, Agnes, who does not seem to have been a comfort to her godly mother ...'

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

• Jean MacMath outlived Rutherford - he died in 1661 and was buried at St Andrews; she is said to have died on 16 May 1675 and was buried at Greyfriars in Edinburgh.

• Here is a letter Rutherford wrote to Jean's sister Agnes upon the death of one of her children (click here)

• Information about other 17th century McMaths in Edinburgh is available here, from The Abbotsford Club

Churches

In Northern Ireland recently there has been some high profile media coverage of disagreements in a church which are reported to partly be about musical forms. Whatever the specific issues, there can be little doubt that in some quarters there is a general decline in Bible knowledge and literacy, and I would suggest especially within the younger generation. Songbooks for Sunday school classes of 100 or so years ago (such as this one, edited by Robert Lowry and published in 1881) when looked at today, appear to be far more advanced and demanding than today's equivalents. There does appear to be a 'dumbing down' trend.

Here is a hymn by John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, from the late 1700s. I suspect thatconceptually, never mind the particular vocabulary in places, it is alien to most today.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favoured hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

We live in the age of the txt msg, the 140 character tweet, an age where people increasingly don't read much of anything but rather passively consume video content. I don't have the answer but it is a growing problem.

The Belfast outdoor wall light

A new range from John Lewis - so only available mail order in Northern Ireland. Said to have been inspired by the design of the lights on HMS Belfast. Click here. Also available from the Garden Trading Company website.

Jock Troup with a banjo-mandolin - and the Fishermen's Revival of the 1920s

Pictured above is the famous Scottish evangelist Jock Troup (1896 - 1954). Also a singer, he is known to have played the banjo-mandolin occasionally as accompaniment; his brother Harry was a well known fiddle player in the north of Scotland. A summary of Jock's life is available here. He spent much time in Ulster and I know of elderly folk who remember him fondly. At the bottom of this post are two photos of him at Bangor Christian Workers Society at Pickie Pool along the seafront, where the platform still stands today, I think it now says 'Christ Died for the Ungodly'.

These images have been grabbed from an excellent 48 minute documentary DVD of Jock Troup's life, produced by Gary Wilkinson, which is available on his website here for £10.99 plus £1.50 postage. I bought three copies a while back to share with other folk - it is highly recommended. A trailer for the DVD can be seen below:



• Revival Man, the Jock Troup Story is a detailed biography of the man and his work. Available here and on Amazon here.

• For information on Scottish revivals generally, this book, Glory in the Glen, will be of interest.

• I contributed some digitised recordings of Jock singing to the website RareTunes.org back in August 2010. Click here to listen to the recordings.

• See previous blog post here.