Letter Fae Bellamena

Congratulations on the first issue of Ullans, which has provoked the following points.

(1) First to that story retailed by Canon Coslett Quinn (page 9) about the deplorably drunk Protestant who requested, out of sheer bigotry, that his Good Samaritan of ‘another persuasion’ put him back into the Mid-Antrim sheugh from whence he had been charitably helped. As your contributor is probably aware, that tale was told exactly one hundred years ago in Lady Ferguson’s biography (1893) of the Rev Dr William Reeves (1815-92), the great antiquary who was incumbent of Ballymena and who later became Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore. Two of his works have lately been reprinted: On the Townland Distribution of Ireland and, hitherto a very scarce commodity, The Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore. Details of both are available from Graham Mawhinney, Orr’s Corner, Labby, Draperstown, Co Londonderry. Reeves, incidentally, as a well-educated native of County Cork, could not but be struck by the accents of North-East Ulster.

(2) It was during Reeves’ time (1841-58) in Ballymena that David Herbison (1800-1880), the Bard of Dunclug, wrote ‘My Ain Native Toun’, a poem whose references to “naethin but bigging an pu’ing wa’s doun” have made new sense to citizens of the late twentieth-century. It was most interesting, therefore, to see the same ‘biggin’ in ‘Bab McKeen’s’ comments (p43) on the laying of the Foundation Stone (1924) of our ‘new’ Town Hall. For more details of that occasion, see Ballymena Town Hall, 1924, available in the Ballymena Borough Research Series from Ardeevin, 80 Galgorm Road, Ballymena, BT42 1AB. As for the Bard of Dunclug, see the article by Ivan Herbison in Mid-Antrim, Part 2, pp99-112, available from the Mid-Antrim Historical Group, c/o 69 Galgorm Road, Ballymena, BT42 1AA; also the publications of the Dunclug Press, c/o 61 Ballymoney Street, Ballymena, BT43 6AN.

(3) From Herbison to Huddleston and the Bard of Moneyrea’s poetic ‘Epistle’ (p28) to one Gawn Orr. There’s a perfect example of distinctive Ulster-Scots nomenclature, the phenomenon also evident recently in the obituary of a Professor Coulter McDowell. A quare and exotic list could be gathered up of such splendid double names, usually perpetuating a mother’s maiden name.

(4) Finally, there are stirrings in our local Council to develop visible links with South-West Scotland — to help many of us to become what we already are. Maybe more of that next time.

Eull Dunlop

(Dr Dunlop is Secretary of the Mid-Antrim Historical Group.)