Celebrating St Patrick's Day - Ullans style in Ballymoney!

Among the guest speakers were BBC broadcaster Liam Logan and Irish language activist Linda Ervine,

A Kist O Wurds is a BBC Radio Ulster programme which began in 2002 and has been BBC Northern Ireland’s longest-running Ulster-Scots radio programme.

Each week the presenters bring the listeneres a selection of music, poetry, news and crack from all over the country. Tune into BBC Radio Ulster and find out more about the language, culture, literary traditions and history of Ulster-Scots - and to hear Liam!

Linda Ervine is a language rights activist from East Belfast. She is a supporter of the Gaelic Irish language and Ulster-Scots.

She was part of a women’s group in the East Belfast Mission’s Skainos Centre on Belfast Newtownards Road when she did a six-week taster course in Gaelic, Ulster-Scots, Scots Gaelic.

Linda said she had always been interested in the Irish language, and just “took on to it”.

She says that her aim is to make the Irish language accessible to everybody, to dilute the power of those who would use it for political purposes.

The organisers of the pre-St Patrick’s Day event at the Ullans Centre said that the aim of the day was to bring the people of the community into the centre to learn about both Ulster Scots and Gaelic and how both languages affect people.

The music, language and poetry on the day was programmed to show that neither Ulster Scots nor Gaelic is exclusive to nationalists or unionists.

As well as the traditional lunch of Irish stew, there was music from Cllr Ian Stevenon and Louise Morrow and poetry from Ivor Wallace.

Want to find out more about Ulster Scots?

The Ullans Centre is based at 65 Main Street, Ballymoney.