As part of Belfast International Arts Festival the Linen Hall Library launched its Fragments of Scotch Poetry project, a creative encounter between contemporary poets in Scots, Ulster-Scots, Scots Gaelic and English and featuring the Scots Makar (National Poet of Scotland), Pàdraig MacAoidh and former Scots Makar, Kathleen Jamie. (She will be featured in a Linen Hall event on 4th November Kathleen Jamie in conversation with Chris Agee – The Linen Hall, Belfast).
I was one of 10 poets commissioned to respond to a poem from the Library’s Gibson Collection of Burns material and works by other poets of Scotland. ‘Fragments of Scotch Poetry’: the influences of Robert Burns – The Linen Hall, Belfast Via this link you can see some of the major works in the collection. A fascinating resource.
In 1786 The Belfast Newsletter published extracts from three poems under the heading ‘Fragments of Scotch Poetry’. The un-named author was Robert Burns.
I welcome any opportunity to broaden my awareness of my literary heritage and the context in which I write. I have always been aware of the Irish Gaelic tradition, mainly through translation, and the fertile reaches of Irish writing in English. The influence of Scotland has been part of my writing background, and come more to the fore since I have been writing in Ulster-Scots.
The Gibson Collection contains much work of a Scottish sensibility in English. Engaging with it is like opening a window wider, extending the view, breathing more deeply. Since I went to live in Wales as an adult, Welsh writing, in Welsh and English, has been a great gift to me. Scotland has been a part of my atmosphere since birth, I could say, and I welcome any chance to get to know its writing better.
In this project, each commissioned poet was given a poem from the collection to record on soundcloud: mine was Sarah Leech’s ‘Address To A Cricket’. This was published in her collection, ‘Poems, On Various Subjects’ in 1828.
I very much enjoyed the experience of bridging the gap of time through this poem about a hearth companion of the winters’ nights. Sarah was the daughter of a linen weaver in County Donegal who died leaving a family of six children. Sarah overcame many obstacles to write and to see her work in print: Sarah Jayne Leech, Bard of Lettergull
It was great to spend time with Burns too and other writers, such as James Thomson. I particularly liked his work, and I didn’t realise I was already familiar with some of it: he wrote the words to ‘Rule, Britannia!’ He was very well-known in his day. He is referenced by Jane Austen. He and his peers were poets who wrote within the frameworks of strict metre and rhyme.
The commissioned poets offer a short reflection on the experience of encountering and responding to the Gibson collection. Here is mine:
In writing my poem I was influenced by two factors in particular: the impressive facility with metre and rhyme demonstrated by the poets in the Fragments of Scotch Poetry archive, and Robert Burns’s humanitarian angle on politics. His poem assigned to me was ‘Address To A Haggis’, a mock-heroic tribute to that foodstuff as the basis of Scots hardiness.
I have used its verse form, Standard Habbie, in my own poem and, inspired by his perception of the inter-relationship between the individual and collective, I’ve chosen to write on a current political topic from that perspective. It is evident that Burns was drawn to ethical issues of justice and human solidarity and I think it likely that if he were alive today he would be writing about such things.
You can hear my recordings and see the text of my commissioned poem below:
The links with Scotland really come alive in this project, especially via the participation of the Scottish Makar, Pàdraig MacAoidh who followed the event with a conversation with Roise Ni Bhaoill, seen below:
‘S ann à Leòdhas a tha Pàdraig MacAoidh, agus chaidh dà leabhar bàrdachd leis fhoillseachadh le Acair – ‘Gu Leòr’ (2015) agus ‘Nàdur De’ (2020) – agus pamflaid le Clutag Press, ‘From another island’ (2010). Tha e ag obair mar òraidiche aig Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn agus o 2024 tha e air a bhith Makar na h-Alba.
Peter Mackay is a poet, broadcaster, translator and lecturer. He has two collections with Acair – Galore (2015) and Some Kind of (2020) – and a pamphlet, From another island (2010), with Clutag Press. Originally from the Isle of Lewis, he lives in Edinburgh and works in the School of English at the University of St Andrews. In 2024 he was appointed Scottish Makar.
You can listen to all the poets here: https://soundcloud.com/the-linen-hall/sets/test-fragments-jukebox
or on The Poetry Jukebox which is on the ground floor of the Linen Hall Library near the side entrance. Till 30 January 2026.