Mary M. Drymon, Ph.D., lives in Winslow.

I have been an avid supporter of Troy Jackson since I first heard him speak at the 2016 Maine State Democratic Party Convention. I believe strongly in the message that he has been  articulating for years: support for Medicare for all, defending Social Security and protecting working-class values.

I not only support what he is saying, I love the way he says it.

What some see as not being “polished” enough, and speaking haltingly, I see as authenticity. As a historian specifically focused on the Scottish and Irish diaspora, I appreciate his “Allagash accent” and consider his patterns of speech unique. I couldn’t resist a bit of research into where it originates by looking at some of the surnames in his family.

Troy Jackson’s mother is a McBreairty. That surname may have origins on the islands of Arran and Bute in Western Scotland. The surname comes from the Gaelic Mac Muircheartaigh, which translates roughly  to “son of the navigator or mariner.” This highlights their early history as skilled sea captains and sailors. 

One branch of the McBreairtys migrated across the Irish Sea into the Ulster Plantations in Ireland. They concentrated in the seaport of Killybegs in the precinct of Boylagh and Bannagh in County Donegal, where they became deeply integrated into local Irish culture. During the early 1600s time period, the British fortified and planned the port town of Killybegs to prevent invasion by Spanish forces.

In around 1618, King James I also granted vast territories — which included the town of Killybegs as well as Kilcar, Ardara, the island of Inishkeel and Killymard — to John Murray. The McBreairtys were likely tenants of Murray. 

By  the mid-1700s, some McBreairtys were part of a group that migrated from Ireland to Nova Scotia, where they met and  intermarried with people of French Canadian descent, creating an early fusion culture. Eventually some McBreairtys  moved into Maine — lured by the abundantly available wood resources of the Allagash Valley. The residents of Allagash lived in deep geographical isolation at the edge of the Maine North Woods. This isolation created a linguistic time capsule. They retained a Donegal cadence of speech.

The Donegal accent belongs to the northern province of Ulster, which is heavily influenced by Scottish rhythms and vocabulary. The Allagash brogue mirrors this, sounding noticeably different from both the classic nasal “Boston/coastal Maine” accent and the neighboring Acadian French inflections. Listeners often note that the Allagash dialect features a distinct rhythmic “lilt,” clipped vowel sounds and subtle sentence-ending pitch changes reminiscent of the Ulster-Scots speech patterns found across County Donegal. 

The speech pattern that is found deep within the Allagash Valley stands out as a unique, highly localized linguistic pocket that retains the speech patterns of its original settlers. Modern connectivity and standardized education have softened the accent.

Troy Jackson uses his accented speech to describe how we can navigate a better future together — not from the left or right but from the bottom up. He articulates  new ideas with a very old way of speaking that unmistakably echoes history. It’s worth a listen.