The people of Rathlin or “Ragheries” interestingly referred to Rathlin as “an tir seo” or “this country” while the mainland was called “Eirinn” or “Ireland”. They were therefore conscious of an older autonomy. Of their language itself Holmer has written: “According to Prof. O’Rahilly (Irish Dialects, p.191), the dialect is ‘essentially a Scottish dialect.’ This will, no doubt, be the opinion of any reader who peruses the preceding pages, especially those dealing with the accidence. If it be admitted that this is a characteristic specimen of Gaelic of the Scottish type, it must not, however, be thought that the difference between the Rathlin dialect and, for instance, that of Kintyre or Arran is approximately the same as between the latter and that of Islay or Skye. Though the distance between Rathlin and the Mull of Kintyre is only about one tenth of the distance between the latter and Skye, the differences are far greater. And, though historically the Rathlin dialect shows closer affinities with Scottish than with Irish Gaelic, the external similarities with the neighbouring Irish dialects are more prominent. This means that a person from Tirconnel would not have very great difficulty in understanding a Rathlin man, while a native speaker from the opposite part of Antrim speaks practically the same language.
The apparent contradiction can be explained in several ways. First of all, the fact that relations with Scotland have been interrupted for over a century must have left its traces in the language. Further, it must be taken into consideration about the Gaelic spoken in opposite parts of Scotland about three hundred years ago (when according to popular tradition the first Scottish settlers arrived) was very different from the present-day dialects of Islay, Kintyre and Arran, and that the Rathlin dialect might be expected to show a number of archaisms. A third very interesting point is whether the Scottish settlers actually came from any of the places mentioned here. There may be some truth in the tradition that the Rathlin people came by the Glens of Antrim. This would mean that the colonization of Rathlin might have been part of the migration westward from Ayrshire and Galloway (which also reached the Isle of Man, cf. O’Rahilly, Irish Dialects, p.117). Some facts which actually point to Ayrshire were mentioned above. In addition, the great difference between the Rathlin dialect and the living Gaelic dialects in Scotland might be more easily explained if it could be assumed that the colonists spoke the Ayrshire dialect of Gaelic, which is now extinct.”
Phonetic texts of East Ulster Gaelic have been published in Heinrich Wagner’s Linguistic Atlas and Survey of Irish Dialects (Dublin 1969) from material selected from 65 texts which he edited as an M.A. thesis, presented at Queen’s University, Belfast in 1962. generous grants towards the work had been made by the Ministry of Education for Northern Ireland and by Queen’s University. The source of his texts was the series of recordings made in 1931 by Professor Wilhelm Dögen in East Ulster (including Irishowen, Co. Donegal and Omeath, Co. Louth). Dögen was then Director of the Lautabteilung of the Preussische Staastsbibliothek in Berlin so that copies of his Ulster recordings are now held in both Queen’s University, Belfast and at the institute fur Phonetik of the Homboldt University in East Berlin. McAdam’s 19th century manuscript dictionary based on Ulster Gaelic is also held for posterity in Queen’s University Belfast.
It has proven highly advantageous to the Ulster people that in Working Documents drawn up between 1979 and 1980 the European Parliament, “Noting that in various regions of Europe movements of ethnic and linguistic minorities are emerging which at times assume forms of frustrated protest and set themselves goals of separation from the national community to which they belong; convinced that such movements reflect legitimate concern for the defences of the heritage, cultural traditions and values which are an integral part of European civilisation,” considered that it was time to draw up a Charter of Rights of Ethnic Minorities which within the European context would satisfy the demands for autonomy which inspire such movements and invited the governments to take appropriate action. The recognition of Ulster-Scots (Ullans) as the purest form of Scots and a language in its own right, and its promotion by the Ullans Academy (The Academy of Ulster-Scots) has allowed a more complete access to all information regarding our language, history and culture. This will encourage the development of that sense of belonging to Ulster which will help us to cross the religious divide.
To be concluded