The first in an occasional series looking at some of the more interesting characters in Northern Ireland throughout the years. These mini biographies will illustrate the vast array of talent at many levels—highlighting those individuals that we can call “ Our Own “.
Rev. W.F.Marshall
The Bard Of Tyrone
William Forbes Marshall was born on 8 May 1888 in Sixmilecross, County Tyrone—his father was the principal teacher in Sixmilecross National School and this is where William was first educated. From there he moved to Royal School Dungannon and eventually to Queens College Galway. It was while he attended Royal School, Marshall had the distinction of writing the school song.
From Queens College he graduated with a BA in Arts and began a theological course at the Presbyterian College in Botanic Avenue Belfast in 1908. Two years later he graduated in Law from Royal University of Ireland and two years after that he set out on a path within the Presbyterian Church that would last the remainder of his life. He served as a Minister in many churches over the next few years—Aughnacloy—Sixmilecross—Castlerock. Outside of the Church he had a lifelong interest in language and dialect and wrote plays and poetry in both the Ulster and Scots dialect. Indeed in the mid thirties he recorded a series of talks for the BBC which was broadcast in 1935 where he spoke extensively on the Ulster dialect. His ambition was to create an Ulster Dialect Dictionary and he spent many years building up a huge compilation which sadly was destroyed when a pet dog mauled the manuscripts. As a poet he earned the nickname—The Bard of Tyrone—and he produced many poems throughout his life. Those he will particularly be remembered for are, Drumlister , The Blue Banner and Hi! Uncle Sam.
From the 1920’s until the mid 40’s Marshall produced 4 collections of poems mostly on themes inspired by his native County Tyrone. Also in 1943 he produced a book called Ulster Sails West—which outlined the importance of the parts played by Ulstermen in building the United States. He showed the expertise applied by Ulstermen in many fields—religious—educational—agricultural—legal and of course political. This was clearly a pioneering work and was much copied in later years. As a playwright he wrote an Ulster Dialect version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a three act comedy entitled The Corduroy Bag. As a novelist he was responsible for only one book—Planted By A River—a novel set during the reign of Queen Anne—1702-1714 and similar in style to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped. WF stood apart from his contemporaries because he was someone who could relate to his fellow man as an equal but had an extraordinary range of gifts and talents that made him different. He almost singlehandedly created a culture and heritage for the Ulsterman. He was certainly one of the most influential and significant figures in Ulster’s cultural life for a great deal of the twentieth century. Reverend Marshall died in January 1959—aged 70 and in the 46th year of his ministry. He was buried close to where he was born in Tullyneil, Sixmilecross.
