Odd Player

Border-Crossing is a series of fifteen papers based on the proceedings of an international conference entitled “Mumming in Cross-Border and Cross-Community Contexts” held at the University of Ulster’s Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages in Derry, in 2003.

Three of the papers are directly concerned with mumming and rhyming in and around the border areas between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Taken together, these three papers build up a very vivid picture of how the mummers or rhymers of this area operated in the past and how the traditions have developed. In the 1930s and 1940s the mummers were not seen as a Catholic tradition. The houses of both Catholics and Protestants would be visited, and in some cases Protestants took part. The whole event would culminate in a mummers’ ball to which the whole community was invited, regardless of political and religious affiliations. After a decline during the troubles, there was a period when the mummers became a nationalistic expression. More recently, there has been an increase in groups of mummers in the area, and performances have moved from houses to community centres and pubs. Collections are made for charities, and the mummers’ dance has become a fundraiser. These performances may be in Catholic or Protestant venues, and cross-cultural charities are chosen to appeal to both sides of the community.

A fourth paper covers much of the same ground, but goes on to examine the apparent lack of texts in the Irish language. The author believes that although the main texts are of English origin, there are remnants of an Irish tradition within the ancillary characters. For instance, the doctor’s speech from the Antrim/West Tyrone/Armagh area has a series of impossible ingredients in the doctor’s cure. These can be closely matched to Irish texts of riddles for a cure for whooping cough. The author also hypothesises that the characters of Jack Straw and the Green Knight are actually two characters from an eighteenth-century Irish play (Sir Sopin and the Irish Chieftain, respectively). He surmises that an original Irish play has been supplanted by the English play, but that these independent characters have been retained.

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