A 360° video series immersing you in the world of Ulster’s Rhyming Weavers – Ulster-Scots poets who flourished over the 18th & 19th Centuries. In this episode we hear about Samuel Thomson, a poet from County Antrim, born in 1766 and known both as the ‘Father of the Rhyming Weavers’ and ‘The Bard of Carngranny’. He was a teacher, rather than a weaver, but the term embraces vernacular poets who lived, worked and wrote at a time when the linen industry was booming in Ulster. Filmed in Belfast’s Linen Hall, the library (the oldest library in Belfast) has an important collection of Ulster-Scots texts, including some of the earliest printed poetry in Ulster-Scots. It holds the Gibson Collection…one of the largest collections of material relating to the poet Robert Burns outside of Scotland. Samuel Thomson corresponded with and visited the Ayrshire Poet. Six years after Robert Burns brought out his first volume of poetry, Samuel Thomson published his own volume, “Poems on Different Subjects”, partly in the Scottish dialect and dedicated the volume to Robert Burns. Enjoy a reading of Samuel Thomson’s “The Hawk and Weazle”. This lyrical poem is an allegory and tells the story of a girl called Lizzie making her way to market one day when she spots a weasel playing in a meadow. Suddenly a hawk swoops down and seizes the weasel but as it flies up into the sky with its prey, the weasel bites the bird’s throat, causing it to land again, at which point the weasel escapes and the bird dies! The poem suggests that people who, like the hawk, try to cause harm to others, may pay a heavy price. Produced with the support of Northern Ireland Screen’s Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund, the series has been filmed using a 360° camera. You can use your mouse (or a VR headset) to look all around you. For best experience, watch using a desktop, laptop, tablet or VR headset.