About
Ulla’s Nib is the new quarterly local literary magazine from the Creative Writers Network. We hope in these pages to provide a platform and forum for local writers and writing. We are open to submissions in any genre, and are only concerned with the quality of the writing.
We will also provide news, reviews and articles on Northern Ireland’s literary landscape. Northern Ireland has a vibrant and growing literary community, with new writers’ groups, internet groups, the burgeoning performance scene and better support and training opportunities for writers. Through this magazine and our website and information service, combined with our events, workshops, training and mentoring programmes, CWN is providing a new level of infrastructure to the local
writing community.
Ulla is the ancient name for Ulster, which derives from its Viking name, Ulla Stadr - the country of the Ulla. Ulla is the name of the feminine form of the North European yew deity, the name surviving in Scandinavian place names, and also in Ullswater, Ullapool and others. The cult appears to date from the Bronze Age, when Ulla and Uller were a brother-sister pair, whose evergreen yew nature gave them dominion over the midwinter festival.
In Ireland, the ancient books give special place to the yew in Ulster. The Iron Age culture of mid-Ireland venerated the oak, and was distinguished from the older cultures of the far North and South-west, which still adhered to a Bronze Age outlook, by referring to Ulster and Munster as ‘brothers of the yew’. It is quite possible that our greatest folk hero Cuchullain was originally The Hound of Ulla, rather than the story given in the Tain Bò Cuilgne which bears the hallmarks of a literary gloss. There’s quite a history in the name the Vikings gave this land.
Mark Madden - Creative Writers Network