"Shane" [Shain] Meaning: Soon
Blue Plaque to The Bard of Kilwaughter
29 November 2024
A Fermanagh man who spent 30 years in London but became renowned as The Bard of Kilwaughter has been commemorated with an Ulster History Circle Blue Plaque at Larne Museum and Arts Centre.
John Clifford was born in Enniskillen in 1900. He moved to East Antrim when he was eight and later worked on a number of farms in the area before going to London. Initially, he was invited to go by his friend Richard Hayward, also brought up in Larne. Clifford went in search of acting work, realised he needed more education, went to evening classes for five years and joined the civil service. While educating himself he worked for around 50 hours a week as a wireman in the London Telephone Exchange. He joined the pioneering Unity Theatre and toured with them throughout the UK, presenting drama on social and political issues.
He wrote numerous poems in Ulster-Scots about his adopted home-place, East Antrim. One of the best known is “The Hirin’ Fair”, which Clifford wrote on the south coast of England, sitting on Beachy Head one day in the 1940s when Nazi invasion seemed a real possibility. At the start of the war he’d joined the Air Raid Precaution Service and was awarded a medal for his services.
As well as being a place for socialising, entertainment and the traditional buying and selling of horses and cattle, a hiring fair in Ulster, the historian Eugene Kielt has written, was “an outdoor employment exchange, where men, women and children made themselves available for service. People went to be hired because of poverty or limited employment at home.”
Clifford didn’t let nostalgia blind him to the opportunities for exploitation:
Frae ivery fairm for miles aroon
The lads an’ lasses mak’ the toon,
Wi’ shiney boots an’ shiney faces,
They seek mair wages an’ fresh places.
The past six months they’ve worked like mad,
For maisters, middlin’, guid or bad:
Some weel-fed, happy and respected,
But ither craiters, starved, neglected.
- from “The Hirin’ Fair” by John Clifford.
When Clifford came back to Larne after 30 years in London, he was one of the founders of the Larne and District Folklore Society. They brought the tradition back to life, recreating the flavour of an old Hirin’ Fair with local musicians, people dressed in turn-of-the century costume and a horse-trading re-enactment. John Clifford was in the midst of it all, sporting a stage moustache, putting his acting skills to good use and speaking in the local language he loved.
He also helped set up a museum in what became known as the Larne Historical Centre, of which he was the first curator. It’s now the Larne Museum and Arts Centre. The John Clifford Gallery there is named in his honour, recognising how active he was in preserving artefacts that would otherwise have been lost.
He was one of the most prominent folklorists of his day in Larne and East Antrim. He played fiddle and accordion, sang and wrote and performed in plays. He helped revive Mounthill Fair in Larne, one of the oldest horse fairs in Ireland.
John Clifford died on 8 October, 1983. In paying tribute, Sam Cross, co-founder of Larne and District Folklore Society wrote: “Those of us who were privileged to know him were ever conscious that we were in the presence of a living legend. We never ceased to wonder at his boundless energy, his youthful enthusiasm, his marvellous poetic gifts… John had a deep rooted love of his native soil, its people and its language, which thirty years in London left undimmed.”
Lolly Spence, who organised a series of events at Larne Museum and Arts Centre last year for the 40th anniversary of Clifford’s death, says: “John Clifford was exceptional- hardworking, talented, civic-minded, with a broad range of interests. He recognised that he was living through changing times so he recorded folklore, language and history to leave us a valuable record. His legacy is of interest to scholars and local folk, to linguists and historians.”
Chris Spurr, Chairman, Ulster History Circle, says: “John Clifford recognised it was important to remember and celebrate the speech and the history of the people in East Antrim. The Ulster History Circle is delighted to commemorate this renowned folklorist, actor and poet with a blue plaque on the building where he was the first curator of the Larne Historical Centre. The Circle is grateful to the Ulster-Scots Agency for their financial support towards the plaque, and to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council for their kind assistance.”
The plaque to John Clifford is located at Larne Museum and Arts Centre, 2 Victoria Road, Larne, BT40 1RN.
Video: John Clifford at a Larne Hirin' Fair
Bringing the tradition back to life, Larne Folklore Society recreates the flavour of an old Hiring Fair, with traditional music played by local musicians, people dressed in turn-of-the century costume and a horse-trading re-enactment. Local poet, John Clifford, reads from his poem: 'Larne Hirin' Fair'. (Broadcast: 27/06/1977)