One aspect of the Northern problem that rarely raises its head - not surprising given its fringe status - is the question of the Ulster Scots language. But the subject had an airing at Westminster, this week. Lord Laird, (former unionist MP John Laird) is chairman of the Ulster-Scots Agency, and at a press conference in the House of Commons on Monday, he cut loose at what he called Dublin bigots.
The noble lord's outburst came in advance of Tuesday's a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality to discuss the Human Rights Bill in Dublin.
Austen Morgan, an aide to David Trimble, told Sean Ardagh's committee that, as an Irish speaker was being appointed to the extended Human Rights Commission, there should also, if the Belfast Agreement was to mean anything, be an Ulster Scots speaker.
Laird got his views out the day before. Many politicians supported attempts to promote the heritage and culture of Ireland's 25,000 Ulster Scots, he said, but, "the hardcore people with whom that we have problems are actually people who are based in Dublin, who are simply bigoted ...We have got to change the entire atmosphere which is anti-British, anti-Unionist, anti-Protestant, anti-Ulster Scots in the Irish Republic so the kind of hatred you get in the Irish Republic does not manifest itself in 20 years time and come back to haunt us."
So now you know. Meanwhile, the colourful and educational mural in the UDA-controlled heartland of East Belfast is still there.
It comprises a map displaying Northern Ireland and Scotland with the banner: "Ulster and Scotland - 4,000 years of Shared Language, Shared Literature, Shared Culture". At the bottom are the following phrases in Ulster-Scots: "Dinnae houl yer wheest - houl yer ain", which translates roughly as "don't shut up and no surrender".
Quidnunc has always understood that the Gaelic language has been the common denominator between Ireland and Scotland for many centuries (if not millenniaums). She is not quite sure, however, what language or literature the inhabitants of Ulster and Scotland may have been sharing 4,000 years ago - but it wasn't Ulster-Scots.