In this episode, filmed at The Ulster Folk Museum, we hear about David Herbison – known as ‘The Bard of Dunclug’. Born in Ballymena on October 1800, at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to the loom as a weaver, a very desirable career, especially during the 18th and 19th centuries when Ulster’s linen trade was booming.
David had a lifelong love of poetry and books and was inspired to write his own poetry using the Ulster-Scots tongue of Mid Antrim. David lived in an age when industrialisation was bringing massive societal and cultural change. Several of Herbison’s poems, written around this time, lament this shifting world and the loss of people and skills.
