Scots-Irish Short Stories by Gardiner M. Weir

        Most of the stories by Gardiner M. Weir are set in the center of County Antrim - that northeastern county of Ireland that faces Scotland and is part of the ancient Province of Ulster.  As with neighboring northern counties it is in some and even many ways, different from the rest of Ireland.  In ancient times the Romans referred to the tribes of that northern area as the Scotti.  Then, for whatever reason, the Scotti crossed the Irish Sea around the 5th and 6th centuries AD and conquered the land of the Picts, known then as Caledonia; at first the western coastline and eventually the whole area.  Today that area is named after those conquerors – Scotland.

        In the 16th century the English overlords in Ireland had problems with the rebellious tribes in that northern province.  King James 1 in the early 17th century attempted to resolve the matter by confiscating their land and driving the tribal leaders away, some fleeing to Europe, especially Spain, an event referred to as the Flight of the Earls.  Their land was consequently resettled with immigrants mostly from Scotland and is usually referred to as the Plantation of Ulster.  In a way these settlers were the descendants of the original Scotti and, despite the passing of a thousand years, ethnically not much different from those whose land had been confiscated.  By that time Scotland had developed its own culture different from England and Ireland.  It had also evolved a much modified version of the English Language.  The poetry of Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) is often recited as an example.

        The Plantation of Ulster brought with it the beginnings of what is often referred to as the Ulster Scots or Scots-Irish culture.  Indeed it is different in many ways from the rest of Ireland, a difference that has been a factor in the political and religious controversy that lingers on from generation to generation and was a factor in the separation of Northern Ireland from the Irish Free State in 1922.  It seems to be forgotten that all the people of Northern Ireland, irrespective of religious persuasion and political outlook, are of the same ethnic origin.

        Weir’s stories do not deal with those problems but prefer to focus on idiosyncrasies that he, as Scots-Irish, observed in the culture of fellow Scots-Irish in County Antrim during his youth in the nineteen forties and the early fifties.  He says that this is not bias on his part but simply a reflection of the limited access he had as a young person to what lay beyond the distance he could walk or ride a bicycle away from the family farm.  Even taking a bus or train was restricted to an infrequent visit to Belfast or a day by the shore on a Sunday School outing limited to once a year.  It is for this reason that his stories tend to focus on the happenings within a limited geographic area in central county Antrim.  Some of course take place in Belfast where he attended university.

        It is inevitable that, growing up in such a restricted environment, certain types of persons would stand out as having greater influence than others; schoolteachers certainly, instructing pupils in not just reading, writing and arithmetic but, being in a Government School System, the history and geography of the British Empire.  Those good people’s role was to help their pupils develop sufficient knowledge to pass exams and gain whatever employment was needed for survival in the outside world, even in the declining Empire.  On the other hand there were the Pastors and Reverends who seemed to condemn many worldly realities as sin and focused on programming the young to prepare for a life after death.  Perhaps the two sides may form a coin in some way and, if so, one that can buy a satisfactory and happy time on earth.  Yet there were then, as now, those few who felt that they and they alone held the key to whatever, be it this life or what might lie beyond.

        As Gardiner Weir reflects on his youth he remembers some wonderful people scattered around the neighboring farms, villages and in town.  Some were survivors of both the First and Second World Wars and, oddly, a few from the Boer War.  Some were well educated and some simply tilled the land; some were religious and some were not, yet they all contributed in their own way to the culture as he observed it.  Then there were the few who had their minds made up as to how things ought to be according to their beliefs and so-called wisdom, a one-sided coin as it were; but then, he says, that can be true of whatever culture in whatever country.

        He recalls how, as a young lad sitting around the hearth, he was often thrilled by the stories that were told, not just of past wars or the war at that time but of events and incidents in everyday life that had left a mark if only in what was to become his story teller’s memory; and that was before television entered everyone’s lives and took over a simple fellow’s role in relating adventure.

        The characters in his stories are not based on actual persons living or dead but on general observations of human behavior at that period of time.  The incidents described result from letting characters loose in his imagination to scamper around, being free to get up to whatever devilment they could contrive, and cause him to chuckle and go write it down.  He has experimented with format in a few stories and hopes that does not cause the reader to hesitate in reading those where that applies; and, it should be mentioned, a couple of stories feature Scots-Irish living outside Ulster in other lands.  One story, The Last Word, is not set in the forties or fifties but in 2008 and features a Scots-Irish couple retired and living in the U.S.A.

        For further information on the Scots-Irish / Ulster-Scots culture and the beautiful scenery of County Antrim and the Glens, check out the sites linked to this website.  There is also much to be found on the Ulster-Scots contribution to the history of the United States and the culture in many areas and states of that country; also in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.