End of Year Statement 2024

27 January 2025

The Ulster-Scots Agency has today published its End of Year Statement 2024.

The document provides an overview of some of the Agency’s major projects and achievements over the period, as well as plans for the incoming 2025 year.  

2024 has been a strong year with positive change for the Ulster-Scots Agency and the wider Ulster-Scots community, despite the budgetary pressures faced.  This is evidenced in all the new events offered during 2024, such as our inaugural Tartan Dander Day which had 2,000 in attendance.  

A range of projects, with the aim to safeguard or promote Ulster-Scots heritage, were supported including Monaghan Peace Campus and the trilingual “Three Folk” exhibition in Bailieborough Plantation Museum. We also continued to build on our relationships with the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, and the Gamble Library at Union Theological College, both repositories of major Ulster-Scots collections. 

Ulster-Scots heritage was made more visible in the public realm through Blue Plaques in conjunction with the Ulster-History Circle, significant growth and engaging content on social media, where our followers on Facebook have grown to over 20,000, and through the Ulster-Scots Writing Competition where we continue to engage with fresh, local talent. 

Within the Education sector we experienced strong interest in the Agency’s school programmes. This was complemented by capacity building support to the Ulster-Scots community through core funding to the Ulster-Scots Community Network and annual funding to three Ulster-Scots Community Impact Projects in West Tyrone, Mourne and North/West Belfast. Music and Dance in the community continues to be one of our largest grants areas. 

In addition, the Agency worked in partnership with the Boys Brigade, the Girls Brigade, Scouts, and Girlguiding Ulster to deliver Ulster-Scots resources and badges. 

As part of our Leid Week celebrations in November 2024, the Ulster-Scots Agency hosted the Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster (FRLSU). It was the first time the forum had been held since 2000, and we were delighted to be able to facilitate.  

Looking forward to 2025 

2025 will be a year of significant financial challenge for the Ulster-Scots Agency, but we are committed to working as best we can to balance the pressures, we face by trying to secure additional funding and maximising the value of every penny. 

Planned projects for the incoming period include a roll out of new events in conjunction with Belfast City Council; development of the Belfast Ulster-Scots Hub; enrichment of the curriculum in schools with complementary learning resources; support of our regular grant programmes to underpin our capacity building work in the community – especially in music and dance, summer schools and festivals; development of a Transition Year (TY) Programme for use in schools in Ireland; building relationships with other cultural minority communities; building relationships with our American diaspora to promote Ulster-Scots; and attendance at large-scale events promoting Ulster-Scots heritage and developing new events to promote tourism opportunities, contributing to economic growth in Ulster and the Ulster-Scots community.

To view a PDF of the Agency's End of Year Statement, click here.