The Last Folk Bards of Ulster

Joshua Burnside
Date
Saturday 25th October 2025
Time
16:00 to 17:00
Age group
All
Price
£12

Please note this event has now passed.

If Joshua Burnside was around 150 years ago, he would have been known as one of the great folk bards of Ulster... just like the Bard of Moneyrea, Robert Huddleston!

We commissioned Joshua Burnside to explore the Huddleston archive and write two new works based on his research, building a bridge and uniting these two bards through music. 

Through this collaboration, we hope to bring Huddleston's legacy to life - because our archives are more than historic documents. They're resources that continue to move us and help us learn from the past – inspiring creativity in modern artists and thinkers, but also teaching us about language, cultural identity and our place in a fast-paced modern world.

Watch this intimate performance by Joshua Burnside on Saturday 25th October in the Ulster Folk Museum, alongside readings by Anne McMaster and performances of Huddleston's writings. 

About our Bards

Robert Huddleston was a farmer, poet and songwriter from Moneyrea, County Down. Thousands of manuscript pages written by Huddleston including poems, songs, letters and even an unpublished novel, are held in our National Museums NI Library and Archives. Huddleston’s prolific works touched on the religious, ethical, political and social matters of his era, with his reams of writings serving almost as an historical diary of rural north Down in the Victorian era. John Hewitt called Huddleston ‘The Last Folk Bard of Ulster’.

Joshua Burnside is an acclaimed experimental folk singer, songwriter, producer and performer from Comber, County Down, just a few miles down the road from Moneyrea. His music incorporates elements of Irish folk and Scottish folk with influences of americana, world music, sound collage and electronica. Burnside is known for his considered and honest song writing, which, like Huddleston, touches on subjects pertinent to the time we live in:, sectarianism, technological anxiety, climate change and fatherhood.

 

Growing up around the same sort of area, I didn’t realise there was this rich, cultural heritage just at my feet, on my doorstep. I moved away as a teenager […] and you kind of have to go away to realise what’s at home. It’s been really fascinating for me to learn all this.

Joshua Burnside

Ards North Down Borough Council Logo

This event is part of Ards and North Down Borough Council’s Leid and Lairn Festival, a celebration of the rich language, culture and history of the Ulster-Scots tradition.

 

Performances

These intimate performances by Joshua Burnside were filmed during the event held in October 2025 at the Ulster Folk Museum. Produced by NIGHTSTAFF, funded by NI Screen's Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund. Take a look back at the event below. 

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Languages of Ulster

Our wider Languages of Ulster project demonstrates how languages - namely, Hiberno-English, Irish and Ulster Scots – offer an important lens of looking at the history of this place, building shared understanding and mutual respect. By sharing the stories of the people and places around us, Languages of Ulster challenges the assumptions that can be made about local languages, dialects and those who use them.