Poetry and the Forerunners of Rap

by Tom Carty (Thomas O’ Carthaigh),
Tullamore (Tullach Mhor), Ireland, 2008

n a more puritan age, when all frivolities were forbidden among the Scots of Ulster, the youth used to entertain themselves with song contests, created in the vernacular.

One would sing a verse, another would add a verse and so on, as long as they could last, in a similar fashion to modern-day rap slams as profiled in the Eminem film “8 Mile.”

However, the Scots ones were without the proliferation of the references to alleged incestuous relations of the opposition with their mothers and suchlike.

Alas, to the best of my knowledge, little or nothing of this was written down, and if there is I will post it.