THE Belfast of 200 years ago was a town of 20,000 souls. In 1808 it had yet to develop the linen and ship-building industries that would make it a major industrial city, writes Paul Clements.
But that year saw the birth of a remarkable figure who was to establish a reputation, not only as a businessman of repute, but as a noted figure in Irish-language circles and as a legendary antiquarian.
Robert Shipboy MacAdam was born into a middle-class Presbyterian community. His mother, Jane Shipboy, came from Coleraine. Robert went to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, known as "Inst", which was established in 1810, just two years after his birth. He had an older brother, James, who also attended "Inst" and went onto become a keen geologist, publishing papers in the Journal of the Geological Society in Dublin.
The young Robert was attracted to culture, literature and music. He had a knowledge of 13 languages. At an early age, he developed an interest in Irish, partly through the influence of an uncle who knew the language. He became active in the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, founded in 1821, and was later appointed its vice-president. On the business front, together with James, he established the Soho Foundry, a company producing iron products including steam engines, waterwheels, pumps and turbine engines, and which built up a good reputation in the engineering industry.
In his spare time, he explored the Glens of Antrim and travelled widely in the west of Ireland as well as visiting France, Switzerland and Belgium. In the summer of 1851 he attended the Gaelic scholar John O'Donovan's lectures at Queen's College, as the university in Belfast was then called. O'Donovan was the first person appointed to the chair of Celtic Studies at the college.
Between 1853 and 1862 MacAdam edited the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, which he had established. He collected folklore, songs and stories about ghosts and fairies from throughout Ulster, and was fond of witticisms and aphorisms. But it is for his Gaelic proverbs - collected from the mouths of the people and stretching to 600 - that he is best known. They cover every topic from love and marriage through family life and friendship to weather and animal lore; many are rich in symbolism and imagery and others show a humorous side as well a belief in fate and predestination. A few examples illustrate the range of subjects he recorded: "Cows far from home have long horns" ("Biann adharca mòra air bhà a bh-fad ò bhaile"); "Early rising is better than sitting up late" ("Is fearr éirí moch ná suí mall"); "A story that three people hear is no secret" ("Chan sgèul rùin a chluinneas triùir").
MacAdam compiled an English-Irish Dictionary of Ulster Irishand although it was never published the manuscript survives in the Special Collections department of Queen's University library. It comprises 23 remarkably well-reserved portfolios containing 1,388 pages. Bound in brown foolscap boards, the proverbs are arranged alphabetically under subject letters and are meticulously handwritten in black ink.
Some of the proverbs that he collected have fallen out of linguistic fashion or are no longer commonly used, but others live on. They are evocative of a bygone era and many are filled with the wisdom of the people.
MacAdam remained a bachelor, devoting his life to his business and his knowledge of Irish, which he used as a living language. But he died in obscurity in Belfast on January 3rd, 1895 and is buried in Knockbreda churchyard. In an obituary, the Belfast News Letterpaid tribute to his "apparent inexhaustible store of information".
Professor A.J. Hughes has written a life of MacAdam and concludes his excellent study by saying he deserves to be remembered "for his monumental accomplishments, not merely as an industrialist and businessman, as an archaeologist and antiquarian, but also as a champion of the cultivation of the Gaelic language and its broader culture, old and modern".
Although many people today may never have heard of one of Belfast's most notable citizens, his name has not been forgotten. It lives on in Cultúrlann MacAdam Ó Fiaich, a former Presbyterian Church, and now a busy arts centre on the Falls Road that celebrates the Irish language with exhibitions, book launches, classes, céilis, plays and poetry readings. The centre houses a tourist information point, the Gerard Dillon art gallery, and a café and bookshop.
Search around the well-stocked shop and you may find some of the proverbs MacAdam collected on postcards, calendars or posters; sit in the bustling café and you may even read them on the Gem sugar sachets in the bowl on your table. They are certain to enrich not only your coffee or tea, but also the rest of your day.
The final gem of wisdom should rest with Robert Shipboy MacAdam himself, and one of his proverbs which summarised "useless talking", and which is still as relevant today as when he first collected it in the mid-19th century: Mar mhadadh ag tafann in aghaidh na gealaí: "Like a dog barking at the moon."