Lifting the lid on Burns’ imitators
President John Mitchell welcomed Ian Reid to Kilbryde Burns Club’s most recent meeting.
Ian, a resident of Airdrie, studied at Glasgow and Strathclyde universities before becoming a teacher who plied his trade in Motherwell, Wishaw and East Kilbride.
He is a previous assistant head teacher of Claremont High School, a member of Airdrie Probus and a past president of Airdrie Burns Club.
John also welcomed a number of visitors to the Kilbryde club and continued by quoting lines from the Burns’ poem Winter, A Dirge.
Ian’s talk highlighted some of Robert Burns’ “imitators” who lived during his lifetime.
He was particularly interested in William Yeats of Airdrie whose best-known poem is The Airdrie Fair, a poem in the Scottish dialect.
Ian used Burns’ poem The Holy Fair as a comparison to the Yeats poem, although he made the point that the Airdrie Fair is a trades fair rather than the social gathering that the Holy Fair poem describes.
Ian also spoke of the “rustic poetess” Janet Little who was born in 1759 (the same year as Burns) and whose work was championed by her employer Mrs Frances Dunlop, a friend and correspondent of Robert Burns.
Although it is believed that Burns did not particularly rate Little’s poetry, he did eventually assist Mrs Dunlop in publishing her poetry and was one of the subscribers of the book, along with Mrs Dunlop, and biographer and diarist James Boswell.
Ian also commented on Burns’ fellow radicals Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine, and their respective works, A Vindication of the Rights of Women and the Rights of Man and, of course, Robert Burns’ poem the Rights of Woman.
Following the conclusion of Ian’s presentation, committee member Allan Nicol proposed a sincere vote of thanks on behalf of the club members.
The second half of the evening was given over to the members of the club to provide the entertainment.
Jim King kicked off with a selection of Scottish melodies played on the accordion which soon had the assembled company singing along.
Willie Anderson then spoke about the Darien Scheme as a preamble to him reciting “Sic a Parcel of Rogues”, before Denys Docherty took up his guitar and sang “An old maid in the garrett”.
Vice-president John Haining rounded the entertainment off with more humorous tales of his days as a policeman in Paisley’s Ferguslie Park.
President John ensured the smooth running of the night in his usual inimitable style. Mr King then led the company in singing “Auld Lang Syne” to bring an enjoyable and informative evening to an end.
People interested in coming along to any of the meetings and learning more about our National Bard’s life and times should contact club secretary Patricia Leslie on (01355) 235189.