Abstract
The above quotation from Mr Robertson was considered in Chap. 5 for what it suggests about the relationship between Ulster-Scots and social class. Clearly, however, it also contains a gender dimension. As the quote suggests, Ulster-Scots is an identity of and for the working-class male. He is the worker, the soldier, the ordinary hero. Importantly, the quote speaks not just of Ulster-Scots’ inherent masculinity; there is also a sense of ownership. Ulster-Scots belongs to the working man.
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- 1.
Have a good purse to her arse.
- 2.
Long ago when I was young and wages weren’t big, Six pounds ten for fifty hours looking after old Moore’s pigs, When I got my first week’s wages I was in a kind of trance, I looked at my two-or-three shillings and, says I, I’m going for a dance.
- 3.
I surveyed the hall and occupants with a very casual glance, They were huddled up in corners, well says I, I’m here to dance, Oh as nice a bunch of girls as ye’d ever hope to meet, But the only one that would dance with me, had abnormally large feet (powerful size of feet).
- 4.
She was six foot three and sixteen stone with shoulders like a horse, The only thing that helped her was her friend was even worse.
- 5.
The big one rose and I looked up at the stubble on her chin, And the hair below her armpits would have reminded you of gorse, Well she grabbed me like a wrestler I heard my wee ribs cracking.
- 6.
I waited for a minute until she went to the loo, Says I if I’m to escape from her I better do it now, I ran while I was able to where the bicycle was hidden, For I was glad and thankful to be rid of that big maiden.
- 7.
They say she owned her own wee farm but even had she two, The thought of that big woman makes me tremble even now. Imagine her going into bed it would make your blood run cold, With here glass eye in a jampot and her false teeth in a bowl.
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Gardner, P. (2020). Muscular Ethnicity and Masculine Dignity. In: Ethnic Dignity and the Ulster-Scots Movement in Northern Ireland. Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34859-5_7
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