Ulster Scots poem ‘Covid-19 Advice’ and world’s tallest peak in lockdown

Roamer welcomed his most recent book ‘Nine Rhymes’ published last October as “a very enjoyable read, a masterpiece of mirth, with the occasional word that doesn’t quite make sense but even the most unfamiliar, curiously spelt and seemingly opaque expressions buzz with colour and character!”

Liam has now turned his poetic pen to the Covid-19 pandemic, with a ringing endorsement, in characteristically vivid Ulster Scots, of the crucial social-distancing rules.

There’s a lively performance of the poem by the author at the web address on the bottom of this page.

It’s title is ‘Covid-19 Advice - Ulster Scots Style.’

“Stay at hame

Keep yersel tae yersel

Young yins daenae be near oul yins

Nae kaelyin

Nae rinnin roon the country scungin

Nae kissin, cuddlin or coortin (whether yer single or merrit)

Daenae be shappin for onythin only meat, drink an medicine…

…an daenae be daein that if yer naw weel

An jist buy whit ye need, nae hoardin

Wash yer hans wae soap

Wash them again properly, ye hallion, an mine water disnae weaken ye

If ye cut up newspaper intae squares, ye hae toilet paper

Wash aal surfaces in the hame

Naebody nearer than six or mair feet, even folk ye laik

Nae pubs, clubs, cafes, pictures or dances

Dae exercise yersel

Watch the TV an listen tae the wireless for news

Stay safe.”

Along with tracking the daily tally of human tragedy worldwide and calculating Covid-19’s crippling effect on the global economy, one of last month’s many headlines showed that it’s not just continents, countries, cities and local communities that are in lockdown.

I had to pause and think for a moment when I heard a radio newsreader announce, “Mount Everest has shut down!” China and Nepal, ‘co-owners’ of the world’s highest mountain, have cancelled all expeditions, climbing permits and tourist visas.

Contrasting completely with his harrowing and heroic experiences during the Great War, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury from County Offaly was an accomplished naturalist, fluent in 27 languages, and a much-respected explorer of the Himalayas. He was also a brilliant writer, and though Roamer has never visited it, Howard-Bury’s descriptions of Everest are undoubtedly as stunning as the soaring summit itself. He was a leading member of the first British reconnaissance expedition in 1921.

Recounting the morning of September 17, at 2 am and at a height of 21,000 feet, here’s his description the world’s highest mountain and it would be a sin to interrupt his flow!

“Except for the distant roar of the stream far away below in the valley, there was no other sound, only an intense stillness. Never anywhere have I seen the moon or the stars shine so brightly. To the South, far away from us, there were constant flashes of lightning - the valleys in Tibet, the great gorges of the Arun, the wooded valleys of Nepal, all lay buried under a white sea of clouds, out of which emerged the higher mountains like islands out of a fairy sea.

To the West, and close at hand, towered up Mount Everest, still over 8,000 feet above us; at first showing up cold, grey and dead against a sky of deep purple. All of a sudden a ray of sunshine touched the summit, and soon flooded the higher snows and ridges with golden light, while behind, the deep purple of the sky changed to orange.

“Then the white sea of clouds was struck by the gleaming rays of the sun, and all aglow with colour rose slowly and seemed to break against the island peaks in great billows of fleecy white. Such a sunrise has seldom been the privilege of man to see, and once seen can never be forgotten.”

Howard-Bury’s expedition team included other expert- climbers: Harold Raeburn (mountaineering leader), George Mallory, Guy Bullock and Edward Oliver Wheeler.

Apart from the hazards of the previously unconquered terrain, their primary task was mapping and looking for a route to the summit along the dangerous snow-clad peaks, deep valleys and icy precipices on the north side of the mountain.

They hired 50 coolies and 100 mules for an expedition that attracted significant public interest, not least because a wolf’s footprints in the snow were misinterpreted by the media as evidence of the ‘Abominable Snowman’.

“The tracks which caused so much comment,” Howard-Bury wrote in his account of the expedition “were probably caused by a large ‘loping’ grey wolf, which in the soft snow formed double tracks rather like those of a barefooted man.”

Amongst his many other animal encounters was a pet bear called ‘Agu’ which he purchased in a market in 1913 in the Tian Shan Mountains, between China and Kyrgyzstan.

He brought it back to Ireland and kept fit with regular bouts of bear-wrestling!

And in 1905 in India he shot and killed a man-eating tiger that was reputed to have eaten 21 fakirs, or holy men.

The Everest expedition of 1921 made Howard-Bury a celebrity and in 1922 he was elected to parliament as the Conservative member for Bilston, West Midlands.

He died on 20 September 1963, aged 82.

Watch Liam Logan performing ‘Covid-19 Advice - Ulster Scots Style’ at http://www.nvtv.co.uk/shows/covid-19-advice-ulster-scots-style/

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