Sir, - Seamus O'Direain (October 25th) of the Department of Modern Irish at UCC claims to be annoyed by Frank Millar's report "Ulster Scots maybe part of all things Irish" (The Irish Times, Oct. 19th).
Mr O'Direain must be living in cloud cuckoo land or in a Celtic mist if he gives credence to "Ulster Scots'. A large portion of the population in Northern Ireland, including Irish speakers, are killing themselves laughing at the mere suggestion that "Ulster Scots" has even the merest semblance to any language. Apart from a few Ballymena-isms there is no "Ulster Scots" language spoken in Northern Ireland.
Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic are languages, but "Ulster Scots" is merely a feeble ploy by Ulster Unionist politicians to retaliate against and annoy their Irish nationalist cohorts in the Assembly at Stormont.
Frank Millar is quite right insofar as "Ulster Scots" is concerned and Lord Laird's document is a joke, not to be taken seriously by anyone. Hopefully the Assembly will get down to the serious matter of the governance of N. Ireland and forget about such antics. Some hope! - Yours, etc.,
George Gilliland, Kirkliston Park, Belfast 5.