Wilson Burgess

I’m Wilson Burgess frae Aghadowey an monie o ye will know me frae A Kist O’ Wurds ower the last wheen o’ years. Baen frae Aghadowey I wid alwiz mak’ sure that yin o’ the biggest tounlan’s in Ulster wid get a mention.

I’ve haed twa books o’ Ulster-Scots verse printed: yin is cal’d Dae Ye See an the ither is cal’d Ah Jist Wunner. These book o’ verse recal the days o’ my youth whin A stud listenin’ tae the men who gaithered ivry evenin at Clarehill Diamon’ in the centre o’ Aghadowey tae discuss the day’s happenins. They wud tove aboot hoo mony acres they haed ploughed, stooks o lint pul’t, staks o’ coarn built or bottles o Guiness drunk. They wid tak aboot who left who hame frae the dance in Glenkeen, who ‘wiz worth o’ watchin’, where the water bailiffs wir last seen, whether or no thir wiz a ‘rise’ in the Agivey river; or who wiz gaen tae Derry wae the Apprentice Boys on the 12th August, the langest distance some o these men iver trevelled.

The decision tae write an’ broadcast aboot hamely topics in the Ulster-Scots tongue wiz an aisy yin fir me tae tak fir A’m keen tae promote doon tae earth subjects in ma ain dialect, accent, an’ terminology