Dalry Burns Club have once again taken home the honours at a prestigious national Burns recital competition.

John Hodgart, past chairman of the club, won first prize in the Tom McIlwraith Competition held earlier this month at Liberton Masonic Club in Edinburgh. 

Edinburgh and District Burns Club Association (EDBCA) have been running this event for a number of years, but due to the pandemic and other challenges, the competition was last held in 2019.

That year, the competition was won by Alister Sim, secretary of the Dalry club, with his recitation of The Epistle to the Rev John McMath.

This year John Hodgart won the Tom McIlwraith Quaich with his performance the Address of Beelzebub, one of Burn's darkest and most biting satires which uses the persona of the devil to congratulate and encourage the Highland gentry of the time on their fine work in keeping their tenants enslaved to their masters.

The poem was written in 1786 and addressed to the Highland Society of London with its wealthy lords and earls, but wasn’t published until long after the bard was dead. 

The competition, held in honour of the late Tom McIlwraith (a former President of the Burns World Federation and President of the EDBCA), was part of a day-long celebration of Burns’ work.

It included a morning concert featuring Ayrshire’s Angus Middleton (also a past President of the World Federation) and Martin Cassidy, President of the Ayrshire Association, as well as various performers from across Scotland.

Angus and Martin also judged the afternoon competition for the trophy along with Jim Shields, chairman of the Edinburgh Association.