James Orr (1770 – 24 April 1816), known as the ''Bard of Ballycarry'', was a poet or '' rhyming weaver'' from Ballycarry, Co. Antrim in the province of Ulster in Ireland, who wrote in English and

Ulster Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect Ulster Scots or Ulster-Scots (', ga, Albainis Uladh), also known as Ulster Scotch and Ullans, is the dialect of Scots language, Scots spoken in parts of Ulster in North ...

. His most famous poem wa
The Irishman
He was the foremost of the Ulster Weaver Poets, and was writing contemporaneously with Robert Burns. Orr joined the Irish nationalist

Society of United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional reform, ...

in 1791 and took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The United Army of Ulster, of which he was a part, was defeated at the

Battle of Antrim The Battle of Antrim was fought on 7 June 1798, in County Antrim, Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 between British troops and Irish insurgents led by Henry Joy McCracken. The British won the battle, beating off a rebel attack on Antri ...

and after a time hiding from the authorities, he fled to America. He remained there for a short time, earning a living by working for a newspaper, but returned to Ballycarry in 1802 under an amnesty. He died in Ballycarry in 1816 at the age of 46. An imposing monument to Orr, erected by local

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

in 1831, is sited in the Templecorran cemetery near Ballycarry, in memory of the great Mason and Ulster Weaver Poet. Orr had been a charter member of the Lodge. The version of the Irish passport issued in 2013 has lines of poetry in Irish, English and Ulster Scots. The Ulster Scots lines are from Orr's poem ''Written in Winter'' and appear on page 28 of the document.

Poems

James Orr (1770–1816) writes from his experience of the story of the exiles from Ballycarry after the ill-fated 1798 Rebellion.Ballycarry – Co Antrim – Home of Poet James Orr http://www.weavers-trail.co.uk/poems-of-orr-passengers The Passengers

References

External links

SEARC's webguideLarne Borough CouncilArticle on James OrrIrish Freemasons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orr, James 1770 births 1816 deaths 18th-century Irish poets 19th-century Irish poets Irish Freemasons People from County Antrim Ulster Scots people United Irishmen Ulster Weaver Poets Ulster Scots-language poets

Poems

See also

References

External links