Looking forward to America 250, building dulcimers and hunting for gold

Available for 29 days

Helen Mark MBE presents BBC Radio Ulster’s weekly Ulster-Scots magazine show, this week alongside Rab Lennox, Willie Hill and Jonnie Crawford. The team kickstart a year expected to be full of stories and features building up to America 250 - when the US will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Helen visited St Ninians Church in the village of Convoy for a tree planting ceremony to mark the 250th Anniversary of the death, in the battle of Quebec, of Major General Richard Montgomery. He was one of George Washington’s Commanders and Convoy is the ancestral home of the Montgomery family. There’s also a story from the 1860s when 12 young men from North County Down were lured by dreams of making their fortune in the gold fields of British Columbia - in the far North West Pacific. Meanwhile, Willie gets chatting to a man who has been designing and building his own dulcimers, while Jonnie catches up with fellow Ballymoney native Stacie Dickie who’s making huge waves in the world of TV production. As always, listeners are invited to contact the programme with a good Ulster-Scots yarn or event to talk about. The easiest way to do that is by email – [email protected]