Quote (Slappataig)
thats a class bit of history
Yeah Slappa it was news to me. First I'd heard of that.
I knew when they came to Ulster,that they had to stick together. One thing I remember reading was ''on a cold dark night with the wolves howling on the hills and the kerne lurking in the woods,you didn't ask whether your nearest neighbour was Scots or English. You had to stick together''. Of course it was the same at Londonderry,the two peoples together.
This is a wee piece from a Tourist Book,and then Marshall's poem....'The Twain'
A great Ulster asset is the remarkable network of small well matained side roads....an esotoric researcher once declared that Ulster had more good little roads leading nowhere in particular than any country except Japan. This is a legacy of the plantation,in the 17th centry,when English and Scottish settlers linked themselves closely by tracks from farm to farm and village to village. The Scots were by far the most numerous and to day Ulster has an overall Scottish look and sound about it. The early settlers left their distinctive mark in towns like Londonderry and Armagh
Ward Lock Tourist Guide.
THE TWAIN
They were twain when they crossed the sea,
And often their folk had warred
But side by side on the ramparts wide,
They cheered as the gates were barred
And they cheered as they passed their king
To the ford that daunted none
For,field or ford it was each for all
When the Lord had made them one.
Thistle and Rose,he twined them close
When their fathers crossed the sea,
And they dyed them red the live and the dead
In the land where the lint grows free
Where the blue-starred lint grows free
Here in the northern sun,
Till his way was plain,he led the Twain
And he forged them into one.
They were One when they crossed the sea
To the land of hope and dreams.
Salute them now,whom none could cow
Nor hold in light esteem!
Whose footsteps far in peace and war
Still sought the setting sun!
With a dauntless word and long bright sword -
The Twain whom God made one!
And they grew in strength as the years went by,
And the travail of Empire came
And they went then forth to the ends of the earth
With the flag of ancient fame
Till round the world that flag unfurled
Pursued the circling sun
While foremost still when the day went ill
Were the Twain whom God made one.
Up-lifted high,that flag will fly
Above the Ulster-Born
They'll hold it dear,and guard it here
Unmoved by threat or scorn,
And keep the gate,despite dictate,
As did the Twain made one
And undismayed at the last parade,
Fall in and hear..''Well Done''