Schools Competition

The Editor

Early in 2002, Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch, through its administrative arm the Ulster-Scots Agency, invited applicants for sponsorship funding to be applied to specific standalone projects. In response, the Ulster-Scots Language Society applied for funding for a pilot schools competition in the North Antrim area. This was to be modelled on the long-running schools competition organised by the Scots Language Society, and it was hoped that through this initiative, children in the primary 5 to primary 7 age group would be encouraged to think about and write in the language.

The Society was successful in obtaining the sponsorship. However, between the application and the grant, Lee Reynolds, who had worked on the proposal and had been vital to its success, had moved on. The decision was made to continue with the competition, and towards the end of the year the Society was fortunate to obtain for a limited period the services of Marty McNeely, who, with his wide experience of promotional work, was ideally suited to the job of organising it.

In January 2003, all primary schools within the North-Eastern Board area were notified about the competition, the theme of which was “Ate up, ye’r at yer Grannie’s!” Entries were sought in any format, with a content based on food, cooking or the kitchen. Schools would be competing for substantial cash prizes in two categories. The McCulloch Prize, so named in recognition of the contribution to the language revival of Isobel McCulloch, a founder member and dedicated first Secretary of the Society, was designated for the best class effort, while the Gregg Memorial Prize, in memory of Professor RJ Gregg, the Society’s first President and pioneer of the academic study of the Ulster-Scots language, was to be awarded for individual entries.

On arrival of the entries, the judging panel, which was looking primarily for two things — “creativity and originality” and “Ulster-Scots content” — settled to its task. The adjudicators were impressed by the quality of the entries and delighted by the range, inventiveness, creativity and variety of the work submitted by each school. After much discussion, the judges concluded that joint prizes were unavoidable in view of the high standard displayed.

The list of prizewinners was as follows:

Joint first prize:

Balnamore Primary School
(with special commendation for drama and video production) and

Buick Memorial Primary School, Cullybackey
(with special commendation for community involvement)

Second prize:

Glynn Primary School
(with special commendation for the use of local Ulster-Scots)

Joint third prize:

Damhead Primary School
(with special commendation for drama and pupil involvement) and

Longstone Primary School
(with special commendation for song and the involvement of a wide age-range of pupils).

Over two hectic weeks at the end of the summer term, members of the Ulster-Scots Language Society committee were able to re-live their childhood and go back to school. They attended prize-givings and special assemblies, giving a word of praise and encouragement to the pupils and handing over the prizes. All those who did so would like to take this opportunity to thank the schools for their hospitality (which was calorie-loaded but delicious!) and to say how much they enjoyed meeting board members, teachers, parents and pupils at these events. The Society also wishes to reiterate its congratulations to all the prizewinners and hopes that they and many others will enter our next schools competition, which we intend to extend further than simply the North-Eastern Board area. We would also like to thank Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch, whose sponsorship met a large proportion of the costs, and Marty McNeely, who “went the second mile” and not only contacted schools and organised the competition, but also assisted in arranging the handing over of prizes.

In this issue of Ullans, we reproduce extracts from the winning entries that are in paper format.

Balnamore Primary School’s entry — a drama entitled:

“Ate up, ye’r at yer Grannie’s”

Balnamore pupils also included recipes for Big Fish and Mealacrochie, the dishes that were cooked in the drama, which was filmed and supplied on video tape.

Buick Memorial Primary School’s entry —

A Wheen o’ Staughies frae Cullybackey

Chosen and edited by the Primary 7 pupils of Buick Memorial Primary School

Buick Memorial is situated close to the ancestral home of President Chester Alan Arthur, and the children dressed in period costume for a visit to the homestead. There, with the Arthur Cottage staff, the pupils had the experience of cooking old Ulster-Scots recipes over an open fire.

They also tried their hand at the ‘readyin’ with Jenny Bristow, the local celebrity cook. Another useful activity was collecting recipes from the parents, grandparents and friends of the school, all of which went into the recipe book, together with some recipes contributed by Jenny Bristow.

The resulting book was sold by the pupils for school funds, and achieved something like ‘bestseller’ status, not only at home but overseas. Below, we give something of the flavour of the recipe book, with the poem that begins the book, a snatch of the Foreword by Jenny Bristow, and a selection of the recipes that have been rendered in Ulster-Scots. We wouldn’t want to spoil their market!

Written by William Livingstone (Our School Caretaker)

Foreword

…The final result is an excellent cookbook based on Ulster-Scots, combined with a living language, which is the result of our own local history; it gives us all an opportunity to expand our knowledge a little further on this subject, and to celebrate diversity.

Well done to everyone involved in this excellent Ulster-Scots Cook Book.

Jenny Bristow

Ould Fashioned Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

a wheen o’ prootas an carrots, a taste o’ celery an a leek

knob o’ butter

a muckle o’ flure

a guid amount o’ stock

a nick o’ mixed herbs

sahlt an pepper

Method:

Creesh vegetables in butter fer 3 minutes approximately.

Mix in flure an’ add stock.

Bring tae boil, season an’ add herbs.

Soddle fer 1½ hours in a pan or twa hours in oor wee fire.

Champ

Ingredients:

Wadge o’ prootas, peeled and quartered

A wheen o’ scallions, trimmed but retaining their green tops

A taste o’ creamy milk

Shalt an’ black pepper

Muckle o’ melted creesh

Method:

Boil the prootas in lightly sahlted watter an drain wile weel. Cover wie a clean tayclot tae absorb the steam and keep warm. Chop the scallions finely; add tae the milk an boil thegither in a pan fer a few minutes. Mash the prootas an season well, poor in the milk an’ scallions and beat well thegither. Divide the mashed prootas between four warm bowls, make a well in the centre o’ each and pour in melted creesh tae mak’ a pool. Traditionally champ is eten wie a spoon, each spoonfu’ o’ mashed prootas being first dipped in the creesh.

Champ is minded in the rhyme, “There was an oul unman who lived in a lamp; who had no room to beetle her champ”; a beetle being a pestle once used to mash potatoes. It is also known as Cally, Pandy or poundies and in Ulster, young nettle tops, parsley or peas were sometimes added to the mixture.

Left-overs Broth

Ingredients:

12 oz cooked turkey

3 oz o’ creesh

wan pook o’ lythenin

wan and a half pints o’ stock

half a pint o’ craimy milk

wan onion, wan wile big proota and celery

parsley, sahlt and pepper

Method:

Melt creesh, add a muckle o’ chopped vegetables.

Soddle fur a wheen o’ minutes an’ melder in yir milk.

Add a wee bit at a time whilst yir adding herbs and meat.

Soddle gentle for 40-50 minutes.

Add a taste o’ buttermilk, an soddle for a wheen o’ minutes.

Griddle Soda Bread

Ingredients:

a gopin o’ flour

a melder o’ buttermilk

a taste o’ these three: baking soda, cream of tartar and salht

Method:

Heat the griddle wile slow.

Lift up al o’ the ingredients ta put in plenty o’ air, melder the buttermilk tae mak a dough.

Mak inta farls.

Rowl oot on yer bakeboord.

Cook on a het griddle for a wheen o’ minutes.

Dinny eat it till it’s cowl.

The book ends with the following advice, which the children obviously took to heart, going by the expressions on the faces!

If these recipes have whetted your appetite, you can get “the lave o’t” by handing over £2.50. Ye cudnae be bad tae that!

Glynn Primary School’s Entry —

Text of PowerPoint presentation of a short play by the P6 & P7 pupils

(Wains go oot) (Shout frae outside )
All wains: Mammy is it near taytim?

Damhead Primary School’s entry —

Drama on video by P6 and P7 pupils

[Only two of the pupils actually appeared in the drama, but all the children were involved in its preparation and presentation. The entry also contained research notes on the recipes, which included a series of very creative things to do with dulse!]

Longstone Primary School’s entry —

Research notes, activity (cooking stirabout), Illustrations, Photographs, Wall Display and Song by P4 to P7 Pupils

In common with most of the other schools, Longstone’s pupils were being introduced by the competition to a language they really had not thought about before. One P7 girl speaks for all: “We’ve had great fun doing this project and it was an interesting experience to know that we used this new language without even knowing”. Longstone also has the distinction of having composed the only song that was entered in the competition.

Tune: She’ll be coming round the mountain