{"id":327955,"date":"2025-12-21T10:12:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T10:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327955\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T10:12:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T10:12:05","slug":"fair-fa-ye-from-the-airwaves-in-mourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327955\/","title":{"rendered":"“Fair Fa Ye” from the airwaves in Mourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julie McCulloughBBC News NI<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Saying Fair fa ye – Sharon Hutchinson has been presenting on the Kilkeel based station for the last 10 Christmases<\/p>\n

It is a sure sign that Christmas is on the way when Fuse FM Mourne, an Ulster-Scots community radio station, hits the airwaves.<\/p>\n

With Fuse being an acronym For Ulster Scots Enthusiasts – the station has been broadcasting from Reivers House in Kilkeel, County Down for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

During that time the mid-morning slot has been filled by married couple Sharon and David Hutchinson.<\/p>\n

David says people “love to hear the station come on” even if it’s only for two weeks<\/p>\n

“It promotes the Ulster-Scots thing big time, I believe, because it gets it out there to everybody.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David and Sharon Hutchinson are better known as “Double Trouble”<\/p>\n

Although the show is officially called “Cool and Canny” it’s better known as “The Double Trouble Show” .<\/p>\n

Sharon Hutchinson is passionate about all things Ulster-Scots.<\/p>\n

“I just love the language and learning about all our culture and heritage,” she explains.<\/p>\n

“We talk about blether (talk nonsense), we talk about a drooth (thirst) on us, we talk about taking a wee dander (walk) or you’re a bit crabbit (grumpy) or you’re an aul’ gurn (moan), or maybe having a wee hoke (dig around) in the cupboard for something and they are all Ulster-Scots words that we don’t realise we are using every day.”<\/p>\n

Weather forecast in Ulster-Scots<\/p>\n

The pair don’t always agree about everything on the show and readily admit that “we do fall out sometimes”.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to Ulster-Scots they are in complete agreement.<\/p>\n

“We do Ulster-Scots words competitions, we do daily weather forecast in Ulster-Scots. We’ll also pick an artist of the day, usually a Scottish singer or someone with connections to Ulster-Scots,” Sharon explains. <\/p>\n

They even have an Ulster-Scots recipe of the day and feature local poets. <\/p>\n

Listeners all around the world <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David Hutchinson loves to get into the studio to “blether”<\/p>\n

David Hutchinson says he is always surprised by how many people are out there listening.<\/p>\n

“You throw something on the air, just a casual remark, and all of a sudden the screen lights up and you have all these people commenting on what you just said.”<\/p>\n

He says there is “no escape from FuseFM”.<\/p>\n

“You can get it on the app, you can get it on the internet. I have people who listen in from Canada,” he says.<\/p>\n

And indeed, walking down the street in Kilkeel, the station is playing from a loudspeaker outside Reivers House. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Roberta Heaney from The Schomberg Society says it takes a lot of work to get the show on air<\/p>\n

Roberta Heaney, the Community Development Officer for The Schomberg Society in Kilkeel, says “there’s months of preparations” that goes into getting to this stage. <\/p>\n

“Getting the licenses in place, the funding in place, and obviously training our presenters so they’re confident in what they’re doing.”<\/p>\n

But she says they are very “blessed” to have such a great team of volunteers who help make the whole thing work.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Gareth Crozier is the chairman of The Schomberg Society in Kilkeel and a presenter on the station<\/p>\n

For chairman, Gareth Crozier, the radio station is “a great tool in promoting the ethos of The Schomberg Society”<\/p>\n

He is also presents a show on the schedule and has found he’s got “used to it” over the years.<\/p>\n

“It’s ok for ‘Double Trouble. They’ve each other to talk to, I’ve no one, so I’m sitting there talking to myself.”<\/p>\n

The term Ulster-Scots refers to people who migrated from the Lowlands of Scotland to Ulster in the 17th Century.<\/p>\n

Now, it can refer to their heritage and cultural traditions including language, music, and dance.<\/p>\n

FuseFM Mourne runs for two weeks in July and for the two weeks leading up to Christmas.<\/p>\n

A separate Ulster-Scots station FUSE FM Ballymoney also broadcasts year round from the County Antrim town. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julie McCulloughBBC News NI BBC Saying Fair fa ye – Sharon Hutchinson has been presenting on the Kilkeel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-327955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}