Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As per my previous response to a parliamentary question, the Ulster-Scots Agency informed my Department that it awarded the sum of £2,359 to a two-day festival of the Ulster-Scots language, heritage and culture, in accordance with the mandate of the Ulster-Scots Agency, which relates to the promotion of greater awareness and use of Ullans and of Ulster-Scots cultural issues, both within Northern Ireland and throughout the island. The programme included a variety of activities which provided opportunities for people of all ages to engage with different aspects of Ulster-Scots language, heritage and culture. As I have previously informed the Deputy, funding was neither sought nor allocated by the Ulster-Scots Agency for the living history component mentioned. The group funded that element from its own resources. To be absolutely clear, the agency funded a singer for a selection from Sam Henry's Songs of the People; a talk on the works of Sam Henry; an arts and crafts workshop; an Ulster-Scots language workshop; traditional Ulster-Scots music, poetry and dancing; and hiring a bandstand and sound system. It is important to factually set out what the agency did or did not fund.

As the Deputy will be aware, we are now in the final and perhaps most challenging period of the Decade of Centenaries. The events of the period now being commemorated, which include the foundation of Northern Ireland, radically altered relationships on this island. We are acutely conscious that the events of this period do not belong exclusively to one tradition or another. I will outline further details in my supplementary reply.

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