The Scotch-Eerish
Author: R De Bruce Trotter
Date: 1993
Source: Ullans: The Magazine for Ulster-Scots: Nummer 1 Spring 1993
(An extract from Gallawa Gossip, by R De Bruce Trotter, Dumfries, 1901).
Scotch-Eerish is really no Eerish ava.
They’r the descendants o’ the Scotch Colonists yt James the Sixt got tae gae ower an coloneese Ulster aboot three hunner years sin.
They maistly speak verra gude Scotch wi a kin o’ Eerish accent; we think sae at ony rate, but the aul’ folk in Stirlinshire an Pearthshire speaks wi the verra same accent yet: sae likely they speak better Scotch nor us.
They hae a kin o’ foreign look whun they come ower first; but the young yins o’ them, efter thev ‘ae been ower a while, an a’ their weans — ye wudna ken them frae natives.
They hae the same kin o’ names too, but that’s no tae be wunner’t at consitherin whaur they cam frae originally, an a lot o’ their names is common yins in Gallawa too. Ye see the feck o’ the colonists gaed frae Carrick an Gallawa an Dumfries, an whun ye look at it that wey, they’r joost wur ain folk come back again. Wheens o’ them cam fae Kintyre else.
They’r maist a’ Presbyterians, an a gey wheen o’ them’s Cameronians.
They maistly come ower tae work.
