Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

What world is Nelson McCausland living in? He thinks that, in the midst of a recession, wasting £25 million on minority language broadcast funds represents "good news for unionists"! Ulster Scots is getting £5 million you see. What percentage of pro-Union voters have even a semblance of interest in this so-called language, accepted by most leading authorities as a dialect of Scots, which for political reasons has been pursued as a rival to Irish? Here are a few reactions from a non-politics website frequented by sports fans in Northern Ireland. I heard a dupe-r on earlier saying that the money for Ulster Scots was good for unionism...can anyone explain why? Selfish f**king hateful self serving scum. They've closed a ward in the dementia unit at Holywell hospital due to lack of funds. What a scandalous waste of money at any time never mind in the middle of a recession. Disgraceful Absolute disgrace how they can justify this is beyond me How exactly are they going to...

I’d intended to leave Jason Walsh’s Comment is Free piece about Ulster unionism’s ‘identity crisis’ alone, particularly after Bobballs subjected it to a scathing, though elegant, critique . The article appeared to me to comprise an inchoate analysis, which did little more than hang a few unsubstantiated clichés upon a rickety frame, constructed by rather overestimating the importance to unionists of ‘Ulster Scots’. Yes, it drew attention to Robert Ramsay’s book, ‘Ringside Seats’, which apparently recommends that ‘unionists’ (by which the former civil servant means Northern Irish Protestants) stress their ‘regional identity’ within the European Union. Certainly, it alluded to the particularist cultural emphasis of the DUP’s ‘unionism’, whereby the civic character of the modern British state is neglected. But, Bobballs is correct to infer, that these casual references read as if they were intended to substantiate the “moribund unionism, ‘glories’ of Empire , unloved by the ‘British’...

On its website and on official paperwork the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure carries translations of its name in the Irish Language and in ‘Ulster Scots’. The latter is formulated ‘Mannystrie o Fowkgates, Airts and Aisedon’. I shit you not! Recently a selection of ‘native speakers’ were surveyed as to whether this compendium of guttural sounds actually meant anything comprehensible to them. Not one respondent understood the translation (supposedly into their language). When asked which language was being spoken suggestions ranged from Irish to Polish. This gem was related on Talk Back today to Ulster Scots devotee (although he claims not to speak the language himself) Nelson McCauseland. In the usual pompous timbre of irritation assumed by DUP representatives whose idiocy has been exposed, Nelson ranted self-righteously about new words being imported into languages, English included, every day. Which might be true, although introducing a handful of new words to cover ...