South Carolina and Ulster

The bonds between South Carolina and Ulster go back a couple of hundred years plus.

Newry, in the north-west of South Carolina was founded by Newry, Co Down man Captain William Ashmead Courtenay who was born in 1831 and whose father had emigrated from Ireland in 1791.

Courtenay was the Mayor of Charleston in South Carolina between 1879 and 1887. He and others formed the Courtenay Manufacturing Company in 1893 and built a mill on the Little River in Oconee County along with a village of around 50 cottages. On June 14,1894, the mill began to manufacture cotton cloth. In time, the settlement grew to around 85 houses, two churches and a post office and company store. Although there is little detail about Captain Courtenay's father, it is believed that he named the area Newry in honour of the town his father had left in Co Down.

The mill owner died in 1908 and his sons continued to manage the mill until around 1920. Operations continued at Newry until July 1975, while the houses were sold to the residents in 1959. The closure of the mill had not a unexpected impact on the community, many moving away for work to other towns where the company operated cotton mills. In 1980, Newry had a population of just 250 and in the 1990s a deputation from Newry and Mourne District Council visited the South Carolina township to develop a civic link.

As urbanisation and industrial production progressed in the United States, much of the trail of the Ulster settlers was lost.

Long Canes in South Carolina had townships originally named Londonderry, Hillsborough and Belfast. There is an Antrim Lane outside Clover in South Carolina. In more recent times a business park Antrim Business Park was built and is located at Rock Hill. The business park took its name largely due to the connection between the area and Larne in Co Antrim, which is twinned with nearby York County in South Carolina.