Map highlighting the areas where the different Scots language/ dialects are spoken.

Today is a historic day when, on behalf of the Ullans Academy, the Dalaradia Historical group and Pretani Associates bring the first ever Bible in Plain Scots to the community at Reidvale Housing Association in Glasgow, Scotland….Please see the Dalaradia Facebook page….

Until this time the Bible has not been completely translated into Plain Scots. The Bible in Plain Scots uses core Scots words so that it does not favour one Scots dialect over another and all who speak Scots can understand it. In Scotland prior to the Reformation Parliament of 1560, church services were usually conducted in Latin. The Vulgate version used was also a Latin translation because using the vernacular languages was regarded as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, particularly so after Martin Luther’s attack on the Papacy from 1517.

In 1513-39, Murdoch Nisbet from Ayrshire, who was associated with a group of Lollards, produced a Scots translation of the New Testament, working from John Purvey’s 1520s revision of the famous John Wycliffe version of the fourteenth century. However, that work remained an unpublished manuscript known only to his family and Bible scholars until it was edited and printed by the Scottish Texts Society in 1901-5. The Scottish Parliament briefly enacted in 1543 that it was permissible to own a Bible in Scots or English, but that dispensation was repealed soon after, and it was not until 1560 when Scotland became Calvinist that a vernacular Bible became legal.

The new Scottish Church adopted the English Geneva Bible because it was the only full translation available which was ideologically acceptable — and that in a language close enough to the vernacular. Nisbet’s Bible would probably not have been acceptable to Calvinists, and that is the reason why it remained unknown outside his family. In 1579 the Scottish Parliament enacted that every substantial householder should own a Bible in the vernacular, and the English Bible, with a preface in Scots, was printed again.

In 1601 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met at Burntisland, and discussion took place regarding a new version of the Bible being produced in the vernacular of Lowland Scotland. However, that came to nothing because in 1603 King James VI succeeded to the British throne as James I. James was keen to bring about conformity in culture, language and religion across his kingdoms, based on court practice in London, and instead he commissioned the King James (Authorised) Version (KJV), in English. That is not to say, of course, that Scottish sermons and preaching were conducted solely in English from 1560. Indeed, there is evidence that Scottish Presbyterian ministers commonly preached in Scots well into the nineteenth century.

On occasion, there were complaints about the drawbacks of using English texts. In the 1630s the Church of Scotland wrote to Charles I about his new Prayer Book. Objections were made to many of the terms which were unknown to the common people. For example, in 1703 the Reverend James Kirkwood commented “Does not everybody know that in our English Bibles there are several hundred words and phrases not vulgarly used nor understood by a great many in Scotland, who have no other Translation?”. However, because Scottish ministers paraphrased texts, and because of the drive towards Anglo-Scottish political union, the idea of a Scottish Bible did not seem a pressing issue, especially among the aristocracy.

Indeed, by the 1750s the so-called Moderate Party had risen to dominance within the Scottish Church, and the Moderates chose to preach in English. Certainly, by 1800 the idea of a Scots Bible would have seemed irrelevant to many among the upper classes. Despite that, academics and others continued to take an interest in Scots translations. For example, Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813-91), nephew of the former French Emperor, was a keen linguist who commissioned translations of parts of the Bible into various languages, including Scots, during the 1850s and 1860s. However, those translations were made from English rather than Greek, and the translators, largely literary writers, often chose to retain many non-Scottish features.

It was William Laughton Lorimer (1885-1967), a native of Angus and celebrated classical scholar, who finally translated the New Testament from the original koine Greek (and other sources) into Scots during the 1950s and 1960s (though when Satan speaks, he is quoted in Standard English). Lorimer’s son completed revisions, and the result was finally published in 1983, when it became an instant success. It has justly been recognised as one of the great works of literature in Scots in the modern era, during which time the beautiful language of the KJV has become increasingly archaic.

Most Scots Bible translations have traditionally taken English texts as their source. A translation of Old Testament texts from the original Hebrew would require a substantial investment of money, time and expertise over as long as a generation, probably involving generous state backing and the expertise of one or more university departments. It is a distinct possibility that no such translation will ever be completed, and it was to plug the resulting gap that the present project was conceived.

The source text for the current translation is the Bible in Basic English (BBE), which first became available in the 1940s. Published without any copyright notice, it immediately and irretrievably fell into the public domain and is today freely available to download from the Internet.

In this translation, the word order has in many cases been changed, and the core 1,000-word vocabulary used in the BBE greatly expanded. Circumlocutions used to reduce the number of distinct lexemes (for example, using phrasal verbs or combinations of verb and noun) have been replaced with fewer words but employing a larger vocabulary (for example, a single less common or higher-register verb). For those reasons, the text now being published bears only limited relation to the BBE and may stylistically be regarded as a translation in its own right.

The Ullans Academy was formed prior to the Ulster-Scots Language Society in July 1992, following a meeting between the linguist Professor Robert Gregg and myself in Vancouver, British Columbia. One of its prime objects was the undertaking of a Bible translation into Scots supportive of and appropriate to the other language development work of the company. I have outlined the history of our movement in three articles, viz.: “The Ullans Academy” in Legislation, Literature and Sociolinguistics: Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland, edited by John Kirk and Dónall P. Ó Baoill (Belfast: Cló Ollscoil na Banríona 2005) ISBN 0-85389-874-X; “The Ulster-Scots Movement. A Personal Account” in Language Issues: Ireland, France, Spain, edited by Wesley Hutchinson and Clíona Ní Ríordáin ( Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang 2010) ISBN 978-90-5201-649-8; and “Common Identity” in Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland Today: Language, Culture Community / L’Ulster-Scots en Irelande du Nord aujourd’hui: langue, culture, communauté, compiled by Wesley Hutchinson (Rennes, Presses Universitaires 2014) ISBN 978-2-7535-2887-1.

We are highly honoured that Gavin Falconer and Ross G. Arthur have chosen us to act as publishers of their superlative and historic translation of the Bible in Plain Scots. There could be none better than they for the task of bringing to the Scottish people such an inspirational work during this time of modern cultural expression. We are grateful to the Ministerial Advisory Group on the Ulster-Scots Academy of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure for their financial support, to my friends and colleagues in the Ullans Academy, to Professor Wesley Hutchinson of the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, and to Helen Brooker of Pretani Associates, Consultants in Common Identity, for their invaluable assistance.

Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murdering pattle.

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth born companion
An’ fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
‘S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t.

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s win’s ensuin,
Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.

That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turned out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld.

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Still thou are blest, compared wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!

Who were The Cruthin? That’s a question I was asked once upon a time by Van Morrison and I hadn’t a clue, but I was able to point Van (and myself) to an absorbing book by academic Dr Ian Adamson on the subject of these, the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and Britain.

And today I can tell you that to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original release, an updated edition of The Cruthin tome (Colourpoint £9.99) has just been published.

The re-appearance of such an influential book is fully justified because over those four decades, Ian’s writings and research have never ceased to provoke debate.

And this author has been hard at work bringing these ancient peoples bang up-to-date, if you follow my drift.

Van, like myself, will be delighted to find out any fresh information about what is claimed to be a contentious and controversial history of the first Irish folk even if, until Ian came along, the Cruthin identity was being deliberately ignored.

He will tell readers of the new Cruthin that the fact that not enough is still not known about these ancients is a tragic consequence of Irish history itself.

And he should know – a retired medical doctor, Ian is a member of the UUP and a former lord mayor of Belfast. He was also High Sheriff a few years back.

Belfast Telegraph 13/12/2014

This month of November marks the 50th anniversary of the publication in 1964 of the discovery of the famous Belfast scientist, John Stewart Bell that any hidden variables theory whose predictions agree with those of Quantum Mechanics must be non-local. Known as Bell’s Inequality, it derives limits on the degree of correlation of the quantum spins of entangled pairs of particles which have to be satisfied by any local hidden variables theory. Bell then demonstrated conclusively in the Review of Modern Physics at the end of 1964  that von Neumann’s proof ruling out hidden variables theories, published in 1932 in his book The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics is flawed. However rigorous testings over the following years have shown that Bell’s Inequality is violated. Nevertheless we do not yet have a quantum theory of Gravity although I do have my own theory of Convovulation , which is a theory beyond the quantum.

Patricia M Byrne writes for the Royal Irish Academy:

John Stewart Bell (1928–90), physicist, was born 28 July 1928 in Belfast, second child among one daughter and three sons of John Bell and Annie Bell (née Brownlee) of Tate’s Avenue, Belfast. Both families were of Scottish protestant extraction. Although his father had left school at 12, his mother saw education as a route to a fulfilling life and encouraged her children. However, means were limited and only John was able to stay at school over 14 years of age. He was educated at Old Ulsterville elementary school and Fane St. secondary school before attending the Belfast Technical College, where an academic curriculum, combined with practical courses, provided a sound basis for his future interests in practical and fundamental aspects of science. His interest in books and science from an early age earned him the nickname ‘the prof.’ at home. At the age of 16 (1944) he began working as a junior laboratory assistant in the physics department of QUB under its professors Karl Emelaus and Robert Sloane. Recognising his ability, they encouraged him to attend first-year lectures. The following year, with money saved from his job and some extra support, he enrolled for a degree course. A scholarship was later awarded and he graduated with a first-class degree in experimental physics (1948), staying on to achieve a second degree in mathematical physics (1949). He was particularly interested in quantum mechanics, and encouraged by the crystallographer Paul Peter Ewald (qv), who taught him in his last year at QUB, he applied for a position at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, near Oxford (1949). There he worked under Klaus Fuchs (later arrested for espionage, 1950) on reactor physics before moving to Malvern to work on accelerator design. Here he met Mary Ross, a member of the design group, and they began a collaboration that lasted his lifetime, marrying in 1954.

In 1951 he was given leave of absence to work with Rudolf Peirls in the department of mathematical physics at Birmingham University, where he developed his version of the CPT theorem of quantum field theory (‘Time reversal in field theory’, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. (1955), A 231, 479–95) for which, with some additional work, he later gained his Ph.D. (1956). Unfortunately, the same theorem was published simultaneously by the renowned physicists Gerhard Lüders and Wolfgang Paulii, who received all the credit. Bell returned (1954) to Harwell to a newly set-up group to study elementary particle physics. Unhappy with the gradually more applied nature of the group’s work, he and Mary moved (1960) to the Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, where they could both continue pursuing their research interests; she on accelerator design and he on high energy physics, accelerator physics, and what he called his ‘hobby’, quantum measurement theory.

He published around eighty papers in high-energy physics and quantum field theory. In 1964 he published his greatest contribution to quantum theory, ‘On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox’ (Physics, 1, 195–200), what he called his ‘non-locality theory’, which showed the potential for detecting instantaneous communication between sub-atomic particles that are far apart. This deviates from Einstein’s relativity theory, where nothing travels faster than the speed of light. Although his paper was at first ignored, it was taken on board by the physics community. The theory was experimentally tested and came to be known as ‘Bell’s inequality’ or ‘Bell’s theorem’, a proof of quantum theory that reopened to experiment the fundamental basis of physics. Henry Stapp of the Lawrence National Berkeley Laboratory, California, called his result ‘the most profound discovery of science’ (H. Stapp, ‘Are superluminal connections necessary?’, Nuova Cimento (1977), xl B, 191–205). Another of Bell’s papers discredited an earlier ‘proof’ by von Neumann of the impossibility of adding hidden variables to the theory of quantum mechanics.

Bell’s pioneering work had an enormous influence on subsequent developments in quantum theory, quantum experiments, and quantum technology. A collection of his own views on quantum philosophy was published in Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics (1987) and presented with humorous illustrations. A list of his publications is found in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1999).

He received many honours in his life, mostly at the latter end of his career; FRS (1972), Reality Foundation Prize (1982), honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1987), the Dirac medal of the Institute of Physics (1988), honorary D.Sc. from QUB (1988) and TCD (1988), the Heinman prize of the American Physical Society, and the Hughes medal of the Royal Society (1989).

Unassuming and modest about his own work, he is remembered for his intellectual precision, integrity, and generosity, as well as a keen Ulster sense of humour. An incisive critic, he could be irritated by those less rigorous in their views of quantum physics than himself. He was a frequent visitor to Belfast, where his family remained. His younger brother David, after studying at night, qualified as an electrical engineer and became a professor at Lambton College, Canada, where he wrote several textbooks.

John Bell died of a stroke at his home 1 October 1990 in Geneva, aged 62. The proceedings of a conference to commemorate his life’s work were published in Quantum [Un]speakables from Bell to quantum information (2002). The Institute of Physics, who had described him as one of the top ten physicists of the twentieth century, mounted a plaque commemorating his pioneering work and contribution to science on the old physics building of QUB (2002). According to Andrew Whitaker (1998), biographer of Bell, his work has ‘changed our perception of physical reality and the nature of the universe’.

Biographical encyclopaedia of scientists (1992); Andrew Whitaker, ‘John Bell and the most profound discovery of science’, Physics World, xi, no. 12 (1998), 29–34; P. G. Burke and I. C. Percival, ‘John Stewart Bell’, Biographical memoirs of fellows of the Royal Society, xlv (1999), 45, 3–17; John Bradbury, Celebrated citizens of Belfast (2002), 10–11; Charles Mollan and Brendan Finucane, Irish innovators in science and technology (2002); QUB communications office media release, 7 May 2002; Andrew Whitaker, ‘John Stewart Bell 1928–1990’, Physicists of Ireland (2003) 273–81; www.history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Bell_John.html (accessed 5 Feb. 2003).

NewBelfast.com

Blog of Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

The Rev Margaret Ferguson and unionist community leader Jackie McDonald (right) welcome Comptroller DiNapoli of New York State and his chief advisor Pat Doherty to the Skainos community hub in East Belfast. Big, committed hearts It was a great week for Belfast, capped by the presentation of the Person of the Year accolade to the Knox family at the Aisling Awards in the Europa Hotel on Thursday night. Wee Oscar — their impish, inspirational, irrepressible son — united Belfast like no-one else during his short life and his death from cancer this May broke countless hearts. But for the gift of Fearless Oscar Knox and to acknowledge the loss but also the generosity of his parents, the Aisling Person of the Year statuette — he highest honour Belfast can bestow — went this year to Belfast’s First Family: Leona, Stephen and little Izzie Knox (pictured, right). Addressing the sold-out Aisling gathering, our special guest New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli — returned to office in November with over two million votes (more even that Governor Cuomo) — pledged to continue his efforts to build the peace with job-spinning investments. During an intense four-day schedule, he met community leaders in the Skainos Centre in East Belfast, joined community leaders in St Mary’s University College in west Belfast, heard the stories of families bereaved in the Ballymurphy Massacre of 1971, was briefed on the growth plans of start-ups funded by his recent $15m investment, and walked the burgeoning Titanic Quarter. In his speech, the Comptroller said those he saw across the city shared an ambition to resolve issues of the past so that they could move forward together. There were many magical moments at Aisling — not least the presentation of the Arts Award to the barnstorming Belfast Community Gospel Choir — but my highlight were comments in English and Irish by the former unionist Lord Mayor and former UUP MLA Ian Adamson who had some healing words for our Irish speaking community. “Ulster Gaelic is our finest inheritance and our greatest joy,” he said. Those sentiments were repeated the following morning when Ian and his colleagues in the Ullans Academy launched their plans to mark the 1400th anniversary of the death of Bangor’s Saint Columbanus in 2015. Columbanus’ convoluted path from Bangor to Bobbio — where he died sipping wine from his own vineyard — is our very own Camino and will stir hearts and attract tourists in the time ahead. Finally, I took on the voluntary post of Digital Champion for South Belfast this week, meaning I will work with the South Belfast Partnership to ensure our young people have the skills to seize the opportunities of the 21st century and that our many new tech businesses — and Invest NI has made 64 new job announcements since May — have the talent on hand to ensure Belfast maintains its title as the fastest-growing knowledge economy in Europe.

The President Dr Ian Adamson OBE

& the Directors of the Ullans Academy 

Invite you to the 

INTER-COMMUNITY COLUMBANUS EVENT

Promoting Common Identity

On Friday 21st November 2014

The purpose of the event was to

Speakers

The Lord Mayor of Belfast Nichola Mallon

Dr Ian Adamson OBE

Dr Ruairí Ó Bléine

RSVP by 17^th November 2014 to

John Laverty – john.laverty@oadi.co.uk or 07880 504742

Venue: Lord Mayor’s Parlour, Belfast City Hall

Dress Code: Smart Casual

Time: 11am – 12md

The Ullans Academy were delighted to meet the Lord Mayor of Belfast along with representatives from the Columbanus Working Group, local bikers (Columbanus is the Patron Saint of bikers) and inter community groups from Belfast, Greater Belfast, North Down and North Antrim in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour in Belfast City Hall on Friday 21^st November 2013.

Photograph below: Helen Brooker, Pretani Associates, Event Organiser, Hazel Francey and Peter Lismore holding presentation, Dr Ian Adamson, Dr Ruairí Ó Bléine.

President Dr Ian Adamson OBE of the Ullans Academy introduced the event by explaining “Columbanus is only one example of someone who represented Common Christianity which lies at the basis of much of our tradition, based as it is on the old Common Church present in the British Isles centuries before Patrick”

Columbanus was born in Ireland in Leinster, was a disciple of Comgall of the Cruthin at Bangor, Co Down. In 589 he left Bangor Monastery for Europe to embark on one of the most remarkable journeys in European history.”

Then Dr Ruairí Ó Bléine highlighted some of their work to date within the community on Columbanus such as the Steps of Columbanus by Farset Youth Group and the “Feast of Columbanus” by the Ullans Academy.

The main events were

• 23rd November 2010 in the Park Avenue Hotel, East Belfast – with speeches by President McAleese and the Lord Bannside,
• 23rd November 2011 in the Clarion Hotel, Carrickfergus – with speeches by HRH the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Bannside
• 21st November 2013 – with speeches by Michael D Higgins and the Lord Bannside
• 21^st November 2014 in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour – to raise awareness that preparations are under way to commemorate the 1400^th anniversary of the death of Columbanus.

A photograph and Booklet which had been presented to the President of Ireland and the late Lord Bannside at the Ullans Academy “Feast of Columbanus event in the City Hall on Thursday 21^st November 2013 were presented to the current Lord Mayor Nichola Mallon.

The Lord Mayor responded by saying “I would like to thank the Ullans Academy for their presentation reflecting their highly successful ‘Feast of Columbanus’ event in the Belfast City Hall on 21^st November 2013. An event at which the President of Ireland said how “the Ullans Academy seeks instead to use identity as an instrument to promote mutual understanding and to explore the many aspects of our history and heritage – such as Columbanus – that we share in common”

It is my hope that by promoting a broader perspective to our rich cultural heritage will continue to grow creating a strong sense of belonging for all communities. It is a testament to Columbanus that in the twenty-first century his vision and memory are still powerful enough to bring people together.

As the Lord Mayor of Belfast I am delighted to launch this year of events concerning the life and work of Columbanus who left Bangor Monastery to re-evangilse Western Europe when Christian virtue had almost disappeared with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

In the words of Pope Pius XI :”The more light that is shed by scholars in the period known as the Middle Ages the clearer it becomes that it was thanks to the initiative and labours of Columbanus that the rebirth of Christian virtue and civilisation over a great part of Gaul (France), Germany and Italy took place.”

I wish the community every success for their planned Columbanus inter-community event which will take place next November 2015 to commemorate the 1400^th anniversary of Columbanus’s death.

President Dr Ian Adamson OBE of the Ullans Academy concluded by saying “This inter-community Columbanus event was very important to highlight to the people of Northern Ireland that preparations are now underway across Europe to commemorate the 1400^th anniversary of the death of Columbanus. A figure who should inspire and make all people on the island of Ireland very proud of their history”

It was confirmed by Dr Ian Adamson OBE that preparations were now underway for an inter-community Columbanus Event for November 2015 in Bangor. Details of the event will be released in the New Year.

The Ullans Academy would like to thank the Lord Mayor of Belfast for her support for the work of the Ullans Academy. It is an Academy that always aims to promote a broader perspective to our rich cultural history.

History of the Academy

The Ullans Academy is a company Ltd by guarantee and Directors work in a voluntary capacity. The board is drawn from the local community and have a wide range of skills and experience in community development, business and academia.

The Ullans name was chosen as it was felt the name was inclusive and neutral. It is a neologism combining Ulaidh, the Irish Gaelic name for Ulster and Lallans, the name used by Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson for the Scotch language. It can also be used as an acronym for Ulster Language, Literature And Native Speech, thus encompassing all languages and traditions in Ulster and the island of Ireland. In essence the Ullans name promotes the common identity of all our people.

The Academy was established in 1992 with the idea that bringing people together through their shared cultural heritage would raise awareness of those things that bind us together rather than divide us and thus foster a sense of mutual tolerance and respect. The Academy recognises that much still needs to be done and that it is essential to continue to develop stronger inter-community relationships.

The Academy hosts two annual events to mark St Patrick’s day and St Columbanus. The Academy has recently successfully completed a short series of lectures on key historical topics in Belmont Tower and an Culturlann.

AislingAwards2014

I was highly honoured as President of the Ullans Academy and Chairman of the Somme Association to announce the winner of the Positive Belfast Award at this year’s Aisling Awards at the Europa Hotel,

The nominees in the Park Centre Positive Belfast category were:

Fáilte Feirste Thiar

Lower Ormeau  Residents’ Action Group

St Vincent de Paul, Antrim Road

Newington Housing Association

And the winner was Newington Housing Association.

Part of my speech was in Ulster Gaelic and I think that this language should be standardised. And, as Pannu Petteri Höglund of Åbo Academi Universty has written, another important question is that of specifically East Ulster (Ulidian) words. Ciarán Ó Duibhin has collected a list of them which can presently be browsed on his web pages. The work of the language movement is not only about preservation, it is also about reanimation and restoration; and although cynical observers might scorn this, it should be noted that the need to understand the work of the old regional poets, such as Art Mac Cumhthaigh, remains a major source of interest in Gaelic among the people of Northern Ireland, including Protestants. There is thus a certain necessity to study and teach their language and its specific words to learners who take an interest in their native district’s Gaelic past; and it is quite possible that features of the language of these poets could find their way into written, maybe even spoken Gaelic as it is cultivated in Northern Ireland. However, such a development should not impede the other important goal of the language movement in Ulster, that of keeping the West Ulster language (Northern Irish) alive in Donegal; on the other hand, many East Ulster (Ulidian) words are shared in Islay and Argyll and could thus make that language more accessible to Ulster Gaelgeoirí.

Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. It gives me the greatest of pleasure to be here at the best of Belfast’s ceremonies As you know Aisling means Dream and it always reminds me of the lines from WB Yeats..”I have spread my dreams under your feet, Tread softly for you tread on my dreams”….So it is with the Ulster Gaelic, which is our finest inheritance and our greatest joy”….

A Chairde agus a dhaoine uaisle. Cuireann sé maise  mór ar mo chroí a bheith anseo in bhur láthair. Agus tá aoibhneas orm a bheith páirteach sa cheiliúradh is fearr i mBéal Feirste. Mar atá fhios agaibh cheana féin, is ionann Aisling agus Brionglóid. Agus cuireann sin i gcuimhne domh go minic, gur scríobh an file mór Éireannach sin, W.B. Yeats, “Chuir mé mo bhrionglóidí á scaipeadh faoi do chosa, Siúil go ciúin mar siúlann tú ar mo bhrionglóidí”. Is mar sin atá sé le Gaeilic Chúige Uladh, ár n-oidhreacht mhilis agus ola ar ár gcroí.