Fowk O Ulster
Ane Auldrife Kin-Richt
Nae buiks haes ris mair threap nor Ian Adamson’s yins anent the Pechts o Ulster — no raicent-like oniehoo — an yit his hinnermaist yin “The Ulster People"” (Fowk o Ulster) is owre ocht salerife gat. We hae tuk the stairt o chaipter yin (An Ancient Heritage), an owreset it fae Inglis til Ulster-Scotch.
Thaim at cum til Airlann first
We hae nae wittins at mon leevt in Airlann afore tha enn o tha Bäg Snaw at yinst smuirit the hail islann, tae it aa mouten an tuk aff for guid. Doon-sitters flittit at thà stairt roon 6,500 A.C. in thà times we caa the Mesolithic or Middlin Stane Age. Mair nor like the cum fae ither Galloway in sooth-west Scotlann or Cumbria in thà north o Inglann, gangin bi quhat thà archyólogie men haes us toult. Thir doon-sitters made uise o flänts an wus aa hunters an fäshers an mate-gaitherers at leevt maist alang the shore or up rivers like thà Bann-wattèr. In thà time efther 4000 A.C. bot, th’ou the days the caa’t thà Neolithic or New Stane Age, the stairtit labourin thà laun. Craps wus raisit, baists kep, an aa soarts o new graith wus begun. An the stairit tae redd oot thà wuids o tha bak kintra for thà first.
The auld buryin-stanes daen bi thir Neolithic fairmers is caa’t ‘Megalithic’ (ie daen wi bäg stanes), sic like as thà Coort Cairns an Dolmens. Airlann is hiven wi sic oulstanes, wi mair nor 1,200 here the-day yit. Tha Coort-Cairns ats maist foon in thà north o tha islann, is foon in thà sooth-west o Scotlann forbye, an Séan O Ríodáin quos:
The tombs and the finds from this form a continuous province joined rather than divided by the narrow waters of the North Channel.
(Tha auldrife stane biggins an quhat wus foon in thaim maks for thà ae leid cleekit mair nor divid bi tha narra wattèrs o the Dalriadae Sey). This cleek wi Scotlann is wittins o tha auldrife link-up ats bin richt th’ou historie, atweesh quhat W.C. Mackenzie caa’t “two great and intimately associated peoples” (twa bäg an aye greát wi ithèr fowks).
Graun Megalith Sichts
A wheen o tha maist bäg an awesome biggins daen bi the Neolithic menfowk is foon fornenst the Boyne Wattèr, tha best-kent o aa bein thà bäg tunnel-tuim o Newgrange, anent quhilk Michael Herity screivit:
Newgrange is the most famous of a group of over 300 pasasage graves built in centuries throughout Ireland [which] are monuments to the most capable organisers, architects and artists ever to have entered and influenced Ireland in the whole of prehistory.
(Newgrange wud be tha maist faur-kent o a paircel of mair nor 300 tunnel-tuims biggit in buryin groons th’ou Airlann at is moniments til thà maist fit heich-heidyins, archytecs an artysts ats ivir cum tae hae an infit wi Airlann richt th’ou tha days wi nae screivit historie).
New roáds the hae noo for ettlin quhit age thängs micht be, haes Newgrange made oot tae be biggit roon 3350 AC, makin it yin o tha maist auldrife stane biggins in thà yird. Tha tocher o Airlann’s megalithic biggers wud be a bäg thäng wi us the-day, for like Fleure ses
The megaliths are not a matter of a vanished people and a forgotten civilisation; they belong to the core of our heritage as western Europeans.
(The megaliths binnae anent fowks ats awa nor civil gates ats mindit nae mair ava; the belang thà vera hairt o wor kin-richt as fowk o west Euraip). P A O Síocháin writ forbye:
No longer can we look on these as cold stones from a long dead era. Warm hands once held and gave them meaning and purpose; touch them and you touch your past
(We cannae tak thir nae mair for tae be caul stanes fae a time lang deid. Wairm hauns yinst hoult thaim an gien thaim mint; fingr thaim an ye haul yer historie in yer haun.)
O tha Neolithic times Peter Woodman writ:
This part of Ireland’s prehistory lasted nearly two thousand years and in that period some remarkable changes took place, changes which probably do more than any others to create the Ireland which enters history several thousand years later.
(This bät o the auldrife historie o Airlann lastit near twa thoosan yeir an in thaim days a whean o unco shäfts cum aboot, shäfts at likelie daes mair nor ocht tae mak thà Airlann at cums intil historie twa th’ie thoosan yeir efther). Tha tocher o thae auldrife doon-sitters o Airlann bis oor kin-richt, for, tho its a muckle lang age at haes us divid fae thaim, tha richt wey o it is at we bis jist thà new generation ats grew fae a gey auldrife fowk. Like Peter Harbison thà archyologist quos:
We can say in all probability that [they] represent the basic human stock onto whose blood-gene pool all subsequent peoples were ‘grafted’, so that they may truly be described as the first Irish men and women, the ancestors of the Irish people of today.
(Mair nor like we can houl at the wud staun for the main ruit an taupin o a fowk intae quhase bluid aa fowks at cum efther wus ‘graiftit’, sae the can be caa’t bi richt thà first Airisch menfowk an weeminfowk, thà forebears o aa Airisch fowk the-day.)
Next: Tha Guid Buik
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Contents: Ullans: The Magazine for Ulster-Scots, Nummer 3 Spring 1995