Ulster Connections

'Highland' connections to North Carolina

2012-02-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Another reminder of the Scottish and Ulster-Scots ancestry of large numbers of Southerners can be found in a small brewing company in Asheville, North Carolina. The Appalachians are historically the area of the South which has the highest concentration of Celtic Southerners and where the influence of the Ulster-Scots has been the greatest. It's appropriate then that a local brewing company would pay homage to this legacy. The Highland brand is sold in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. It features a Scotsman in traditional dress on the front of its beers and uses the trademark 'Just a wee bit different' on its products. Being a big fan of tasty, dark beers, I decided to pick up a few of their Black Mocha Stouts. Here is the description of this beverage from their website:

Highland’s most robust beer, having a very malty body with a large, roasted chocolate flavor, all achieved solely through the use of special roasted barley grains. It is black in color with a very clean finish and moderate hop flavor.

While the porter style was developing, some brewers produced a stout porter and over time generated a new style known simply as stout. These beers traditionally contain a distinct roasted malt flavor and can run the gamut from a dry stout, such as Guinness to a sweet stout such as Watney’s Cream Stout. Our Black Mocha falls in the sweet stout range and derives its chocolate and coffee tones from the use of appropriate roasted malt grains and is very often used as an after dinner libation or an accompaniment to dessert.

Anger As Scots-Irish Is Dropped From US Census

2012-01-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Unionist MP's anger as US drops 'Scots-Irish' term from census listDUP MP Gregory Campbell has written to the US Ambassador to object to the removal of Scots-Irish as a distinct ancestry by the USA Census Bureau. Individuals in the USA who report themselves as Scots-Irish in the American Community Survey will now be included in the 'other groups' category.The census data will retain distinct categories for Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh.

The Scots-Irish, referred to in the British Isles as Ulster-Scots, are the descendants of those who came to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. Mr Campbell said: "I have written to the US Ambassador in London, Mr Louis Susman, requesting that the US government reverse this decision and continue to have Scots-Irish available in US census data. "I have also informed Scotland's Westminster Members of Parliament about this matter." "I indicated to the US Ambassador that it is an historical fact that immigrants of Scottish descent from the Ulster region of Ireland settled and helped to establish and build the United States of America.

"Scots-Irish descendents have made a significant contribution to society since the foundation of the USA in areas such as music, film, military and political life of the nation. There have been numerous famous Scots-Irish among 17 US Presidents." The East Londonderry MP also indicated that the tourism industry in Northern Ireland might suffer as a result of the decision. "Much of the tourism between the USA and Northern Ireland has been aimed at the Scots-Irish because of the ancestry links. "People from a Scots-Irish descent in the USA are a separate ancestry as distinct from an Irish descent."
It is estimated that at least 200,000 Scots-Irish emigrated to North America, primarily during the colonial era. Many figures in US history have come from the Scots-Irish, including three Presidents whose parents were born in Ulster. Andrew Jackson's parents emigrated from Boneybefore in Co Antrim; James Buchanan's parents were from near Omagh, and the father of Chester Alan Arthur emigrated from Cullybackey, Co Antrim. Read more:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/unionist-mps-anger-as-us-drops-scotsirish-term-from-census-list-16104086.html#ixzz1jcSKOrUx

Robert Campbell...God's Frontiersmen

2012-01-11T09:04:00.001-08:00

Woodrow Wilson..The Ulster Connection

2012-01-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

The Wilson House, near Strabane, County Tyrone, was the home of James Wilson, grandfather of President Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States of America. This house, owned by the Ulster American Folk Park, is maintained in its original setting in the townland of Dergalt, two miles out of Strabane on the Plumbridge Road. It is open to the public from 2pm to 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday inclusive, during July, August and the beginning of September (get closer by clicking the images).

James Wilson was a printer by trade. In 1807 he emigrated to America from the port of Londonderry, landing at Philadelphia. In time he became a prominent newspaperman, working on the Democratic newspaper the ‘Aurora’, the ‘Western Herald and Steubenville Gazette’, before founding the ‘Pennsylvania Advocate’.By 1816, James was involved in politics and served in the Ohio Legislature from 1816 to 1817. Although not a lawyer, he was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and because of this, he was known in later life as ‘Judge Wilson’.

James Wilson married Ann Adams in Philadelphia in 1808. She is reputed to have come from Sion Mills, County Tyrone. They had ten children, the youngest of whom, Joseph Ruggles, was born in Steubenville in 1822. He became a Presbyterian minister and married Jessie Woodrow from Carlisle, England. Their third child grew up to become President Woodrow Wilson.

America and Ulster

2011-12-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

Some poetry,Ulster speaks to America

REMEMBER ME

My sculptured glens where crystal rivers ran
My purple mountains misty in the sun
My coastline little changed since time began
I gave you birth

I watched you go,
You saw me fade into the distant sky,
You sailed away from me with your tear-filled eye
You said you'd ner forget though years passed by,
But time rolled on

Your young land grew,
And new sons fought to keep their country fair,
And at the Alamo and Shiloh they were there
And with pride they filled the Presidential chair,
My Ulstermen

Remember me
Though battle-scarred and weary I abide,
Though Americans their heritage denied,
When you speak of history say my name with pride
Iam Ulster.

HI UNCLE SAM

Hi Uncle Sam
When freedom was denied you
And imperial might defied you,
Who was it stood beside you?
At Quebec and Brandywine?
And dared retreats and dangers,
Redcoats and Hessian strangers,
In the new lean long rifiled Rangers
And the Pennsylvania line.

Hi Uncle Sam
Wherever there was fighting,
Or wrong that needed righting,
An Ulsterman was sighting
His Kentucky gun with care,
All the road to Yorktown.
From Lexington to Yorktown
From the Valley Forge to Yorktown
That Ulsterman was there

Hi Uncle Sam
Virginia sent her brave men,
The north paraded grave men,
That they might not be slave men
The first to face the Tory
And the first to lift Old Glory
Made your war an Ulster story
Think it over Uncle Sam

Boys To Step Out For Lundy Event

2011-12-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/boys_to_step_out_for_lundy_event_1_3302519

Ulster & Dixie

2011-11-26T15:20:00.001-08:00

As a Southerner with Ulster-Scots roots I found this video to be particularly inspiring! They begin playing "Dixie" about half way through the video.

Conference medal

2011-11-21T13:17:00.000-08:00

A meeting of the Scotch-Irish Society was held in Columbia Tenneessee in 1889. This medal commemerates the event.

Early Ulster-Scots in America

2011-11-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

The early Ulster-Scots on the frontier

James McCullough left Belfast in 1745 and landed at Newcastle on the Delaware. He was a weaver by trade but then....'I began to plow corn June ye 23'. Then the first clouds began to gather: 'July ye 12 was put to flight by a fals Alarm from ye Ingens'. The Indian raiding parties were now coming across the Appalachians into the Cumberland Valley. At first their attacks were by night,then they became bolder and struck even in the middle of the long summer days.Behind McCullough's terse entries lies a story of offical blundering and cowardice and of terrible suffering endured by the people of the Cumberland Valley. The British commander General Braddock had been killed and the headlong flight of his troops left the frontier settlers without protection,and for the next two years McCullough records with monotonous regularity the murder and kidnapping of friends and neighbours: 'Robert Clogston his son and Betty Ramsey her son was killed.....Nov ye 9th John Wood and his wife and mother in law and John Archer's wife was killed and 4 children carried off....Alexander Miller killed and 2 of his children taken.' The diarist leaves to the imagination the gruesome details of these events.
McCullough's intelligence,humour and his stocial acceptance of the situation comes though his laconic prose. But then on 26 July 1756 came McCullough's personal tragedy: 'John and James McCologh was taken Captive by ye ingens.' These were his two sons,aged eight and five. ( McCullough was inconsisent in the spelling of even his own name) The boys were snatched while playing in a ravine close to their home. Beside the date of the capture McCullough transcribed a quotation from the Book of Jeremiah: 'Weep not for the dead....but weep sore for him that goeth away,for he shall return no more,nor see his native country.'
In the case of the younger boy the words were prophetic; James disappeared comepletely. But,after years of agonizing search,the father found John at an Indian camp. The boy could no longer speak English and wept bitterly when he was taken from his Indian family. He had to be tied up for the journey home.

This happened with other families too, and as mentioned some were never seen again The movie The Light In The Forest is loosely based on James McCullough's son

My Most Priceless Heritage

2011-10-16T05:09:00.000-07:00

From their earliest arrival in America 350 years ago the Scots-Irish left a lasting legacy, a heritage that was firmly grounded in freedom and democracy. The pioneering instinct of this proud race from Ulster and Scotland opened up America from the Atlantic coastline to the Pacific shore---"Sea to Shining Sea." The history of the United States is interwoven with the outstanding personalities from the Scots-Irish diaspora and the distinctive characteristics of a people who pushed the frontiers to new horizons. This comprehensive study of the Scots-Irish in America by Northern Ireland author Billy Kennedy has created a much greater awareness of the accomplishments and the durability of the hardy settlers and their families who moved to the 'New World' during the 18th century and created a civilization out of a wilderness. President James Buchanan, son of a Co. Tyrone man, said: "My Ulster blood is my most priceless heritage." This is a sentiment echoed by many, many people in the United States today!

'Stonewall' Plaque in Ulster

2011-10-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

2011-10-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Battle of King's Mountain

Who were these men whose courage and fighting skill won a key battle in the fight for independence? They were an unique group of the first and second generation Americans. Although their numbers were made up of Englishmen, Welshmen, Irishmen, Germans, Scots, and French Huguenots, the vast majority were Ulster Scots, or Scots-Irish as they referred to today. Their history is the story of a people molded by oppression, poverty and religious fevor into hardened patriots undaunted by adversity.
The story begins in the lowlands of western Scotland in 1610 when James 1 of England offered land to Scots willing to relocate to northern Ireland and take the Oath of Supremacy recognizing James as head of the Church of England, a royal plot to dilute the influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland by moving the protestant Scots to the area. The relocation plan was known as the Plantation. James found many willing pawns and six counties of northern Ireland were settled by the people known from that time forward as Ulster Scots.
From the outset, Ulster Scots were a distinct and separate part of the population. They were set apart by their language, dress and, most of all, by their fervent adherence to Calvinistic Presbyterianism. They believed wholeheartedly in the worth and equality of each individual. The discrimination they encountered in Ireland solidified their clannish ways, their sense of personal honor and their fierce distrust of the governmental authority.
In 1703, a law was passed which required any office holder in Ireland to accept the sacraments of the Church of England. Although the Catholic Church was recognized as a legitimate religion, the Presbyterian faith had no such standings and ministers were expelled from their pulpits, forbidden to preach, marry or bury parishioners, or teach the faith. The alienation of the Ulster Scots was profound.
Life in Ireland gradually became untenable. Years of drought devastated the economy, wiping out businesses and farmers. The land the Ulster Scots had settled on belonged to Anglican English and Irish landlords. The farmers paid rent to the “lairds” who capriciously raised rents in bad times as well as good. The finial insult to the devout Presbyterians was the legal obligation to tithe to despised Church of England.
Drought was the final straw. Beginning in 1717 and continuing until 1775, five separate waves of emigration carried Ulster Scots to the shores of the American colonies. The arrivals who emigrated between 1740-41 left Ireland to escape a famine that killed nearly 40,000 of their countrymen. These emigrants, in particular, were the people who arrived in Pennsylvania, and kept moving through the Valley of Virginia to the western borders of Virginia and the Carolinas. In all, by the early 1780’s, two hundred and fifty thousand Ulster Scots had crossed the Atlantic to America.
They came in family groups and individually. In several instances, entire congregations came together. Some, too poor to afford passage, indentured themselves as servants to new world masters for seven years.
They were among the first people to settle the western frontier of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas. They arrived on the east coast with few resources, but a terrible hunger for land to call their own. They were willing to risk their meager resources and their very lives for a better place to live.
They brought with them a deep distrust of authority, a thorough dislike of the British and a passion for a life where they could freely worship as they wished, own their own property and be free of the hated tithe to the Church of England. For this freedom, they were willing to risk the hardship of making a home in the wilderness, fending off hostile Indians and the isolation of frontier living.
The Ulster Scots influence on the frontier culture touched every facet of the new society. Their independence and their strict Calvinistic morals were the foundation of their “a man’s word is his bond” code of honor. Their language melted in to American English so completely that, to this day, especially in the southern states, we use Ulster Scots phrases every day. When you hear “y’all”, “younguns”, “nekkid”, “might could”, “wider women”, “I’m fixin to”, “critter”, “in ya go”, or a stranger calls you “Honey”, you are hearing the echos of Ulster Scots.
They brought the beautiful, haunting melodies of Scotland and Ireland with them, changing the lyrics to fit new occasions. They also brought the ancient skill of whisky distilling to the new world.
The Border Scot term for Presbyterians was “redneck” ,and it didn’t take long in the colonies for the meaning to morph into a hardworking, fiercely proud individual who was easily drawn into fight.
The Ulster Scots settlers lives were hard and filled with privation. Their homes were constantly in jeopardy from attacks by the Indian tribes the British incited against them during the Revolution, and, yet, time after time, they responded to the call to fight for independence.
It is no wonder that these proud and hardy people were quick to see the advantages of America becoming an independent nation. They had experienced the tyranny of kings and the loss of religious liberty. They instinctively understood the value of freedom. And they were willing to fight for it. General George Washington said: “If defeated everywhere I will make my stand for liberty among the Scots-Irish in my native Virginia”.
Major Ferguson might have lived to old age if he had not dismissed the Over-mountain Men as “barbarians …. and mongrels”. His contempt for them as adversaries was not only his undoing, it proved to be the catalyst that set the American patriots on the track for victory and independence.
Note: The Battle of King’s Mountain was the only battle in the American Revolution where no roster was kept of the participants. The Over-mountain Men joined the fight, fought the battle and most went home afterward.. It is almost certain that there were men among those patriots who had descendants in Giles County today. If any reader knows of an ancestor who fought in this battle on October 7, 1780, please send the information to the Research Office of Thursday afternoons from 12 noon to 5:00p.m. so that another piece of our history can be preserved.

Ulster Day

2011-10-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

A belated happy Ulster Day to everyone

The Ulster Covenant

2011-09-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

No surrender!

Will marching bans impact Ulster?

2011-09-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

The central government in London has banned marches in large parts of the city, reportedly with an eye towards banning marches and demonstrations in other cities. There is also ominous talk about the government shutting down social networking sites as it seeks to clamp down on public discontent. Will this draconian action which puts London at odds with the long tradition of British civil liberties be extended to Ulster? As reported by RT:

The UK government has granted police the right to prevent far-right groups from marching through five London boroughs for 30 days, prompting concerns that a dangerous precedent has been set in terms of police power and freedom of expression.
Scotland Yard says it applied for the ban over fears of violence and disorder planned by the English Defence League earlier this month.
The view of workers’ rights activists on the Home Office ban on marching is quite clear. “It is an attack on the basic democratic rights of working people in this country,” says Patrick O’Regan from the Workers’ Revolutionary Party.
Through September, in six areas of London, anyone marching as thousands of people did last winter is liable to be arrested and fined, or even imprisoned.
The ban was prompted by plans by the anti-Muslim English Defence League to repeat their February protest in Luton by marching through Tower Hamlets, the area with the highest concentration of Muslims in the country.
But instead of banning one march on one day, the Home Office banned all marches in six boroughs for an entire month. Activist Richard Seymour sees a wider motive.

Pat Buchanan discusses Ulster ties

2011-09-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

US media personality and former presidential candidate Patrick J Buchanan discusses his Ulster roots in an interview on Al Jazeera. He says that his family came from Scotland "all the way over to the plantation in Northern Ireland... and then they left there... and they arrived in North Carolina... around 1790 to 1820... and they went straight there to Mississippi and they immediately began to agitate for secession."

Dalriada connections old and new

2011-09-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

The 17th Century migration of Lowland Scots and Border Reivers to Ulster was preceded by many far more ancients connections across the North Channel. One of the most interesting connections was the Kingdom of Dalriada (also known as Dál Riata) in the late 6th and early 7th century which encompassed roughly what is now Argyll and Bute and Lochaber in Scotland and also County Antrim in Ulster.

The name has been adopted by an Ulster-Scots cultural society which is offering piping classes in Ballymoney.

Southern flags in Ulster skies

2011-08-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine and Southern sympathiser from Belfast sent in the following picture taken outside his home there. I thought our readers might enjoy it. It is always nice to see folks, especially from closely related cultures, embracing our symbols and promoting connections between our peoples. Seen in the picture are (left to right) the South Carolina/Confederate flag, the Northern Ireland flag and the Ulster-Scots flag.

Protestants blamed for Belfast violence in US media

2011-06-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

Despite admitting that it was unclear which side started the violence in Belfast yesterday, The Washington Post (a pro-Establishment media outlet which in the US as regards Ulster translates as anti-Protestant) ran as its headline: "Protestant rioters attack Catholic homes as sectarian unrest flares on streets of Belfast." The headline makes it seems as though the majority culture is aggressive and oppressive while the minority culture is the victim of oppression (those of us in Dixie are quiet familiar with this media tactic). Of course, the reality of the situation is not nearly as clear.

Click here for the article

Flying the colours... around the world!

2011-05-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here are two pictures showing the flags I've currently got flying in front of my home in South Carolina: the SC Secession Flag and the Ulster Nationalist Flag.

Red Hand Defenders march with Confederate flag in Newtownstewart

2011-05-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Proud sons of Ulster took to the streets of Newtownstewart in County Tyrone on 6 May, 2011 to show the colours and their loyalty to their country. For this son of Dixie it was especially stirring to see that they marched with the Confederate and Bonnie Blue flags, symbolising the many connections and close relationship between the Ulster-Scots and the people of Dixie. Check out the video below!

Note: Also see "Uniforms Impress in Dunmyrry and Lurgan" and "Crowds Come out for Bands Bonanza"

Scotch-Irish/Ulster-Scots settlement

2011-04-25T04:44:00.000-07:00

Ulster-Scots settlement in America.

The Hands of Ulster & Abkhazia

2011-04-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

The people of Ulster are not the only folks on earth to use the hand as their national symbol. The people of Abkhazia (who recently gained their independence from Georgia) also employ the symbol on their flag and other national emblems. In the attached picture, notice the white hand on the Abkhazian lady's dress, which has her national colours on it. The stars around the hand represent the historic regions of the country.

British Army defuses 500 pound bomb in Ulster

2011-04-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

South Carolina's The State newspaper covers recent events in Ulster.

Libya Rebels Apologise

2011-04-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

This mentions also the Lockerbie plane attack in which Americans lost their lives.

Libya rebels apologise to families of IRA victims
By Lesley-Anne Henry
B.T. Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Rebels in Libya have apologised to the families of people killed or injured by IRA bombs boosted by Semtex supplied by Colonel Gaddafi.

The Government of Free Libya, an interim authority which has its headquarters in the embattled town of Benghazi, made the historic announcement to lawyers representing almost 160 victims last night.

The apology came as the former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa faces a possible private prosecution over claims he sanctioned the move to supply Semtex to republican terrorists during the 1980s and 90s.

Jason McCue from London-based H2O Law, the firm which successfully sued four men over the 1998 Omagh bomb, is currently in Benghazi negotiating with rebels to secure more evidence against Mr Koussa.

He warned that large amounts of Libyan supplied Semtex which was unaccounted for after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 may have fallen into the hands of dissident republicans and may have been used to in the bomb that killed Constable Ronan Kerr last Saturday.

“I would not be surprised if Omagh was Libyan Semtex. The IRA connection with Libya goes back to the 1970s when Irish paramilitaries were trained in the Libyan desert. Gaddafi started

sending shipments of Semtex, originating from then Czechoslovakia, in the mid-1980s, McCue said.

“There were tonnes of Semtex. Gaddafi was waging war on the United Kingdom in this way.”

The human rights lawyer also claimed Mr Koussa — who defected to the UK last week — was the direct link between Tripoli and the IRA army council when he worked as a diplomat in the Libyan embassy in London.

Mr McCue said: “His role in this is unequivocal.”

He described last night’s apology as a step forward.

“It’s a clear turning point,” he said.

Victims — including campaigner Willie Frazer and Michelle Williams, who lost her parents in the Shankill Road bomb — are expected to launch a private civil or criminal action against Moussa Koussa within weeks. Their legal teams have already amassed a cache of 10 boxes of evidence.

A civil prosecution would be relatively straightforward, with the lawyers seeking damages from Koussa on behalf of victims for loss, wrongful death and “trespass to the person”. Under a private criminal prosecution, Mr Koussa would face multiple charges for murder, conspiracy to cause murder and offences under the counter-terrorism laws.

Libyan-supplied Semtex is believed to have been used in bombings such as Enniskillen Warrington and Manchester and Canary Wharf.

Manya Dickinson from Kilkeel, whose father was killed by the IRA because he supplied building materials to the British Army, said she cannot move on until justice has been done.

She said: “He might as well have planted the bomb that killed my father. That’s the man who supplied the IRA. And the British Government are welcoming him. We seem to have been forgotten about and we are expected to be quiet.

“How are we supposed to move on?”

”They have to be held accountable in some way. This is the only way at the minute that we see that we can.”

Lawyers representing families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing also want to speak to Mr Koussa.

The British Government said he has not been granted immunity from prosecution.

Terrorists kill Catholic policeman in Omagh

2011-04-03T06:44:00.000-07:00

Tragedy has struck Ulster, as I'm sure our readers know. Terrorists have a killed a young policeman. IRA dissidents have long targeted Cathlics who join the NI police force. Our hearts go out to the family of the young man who was murdered.

End Of An Era 1899.. American View

2011-03-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

This is an extract taken from a book 'The End of an Era' by John Sergeant Wise. Published by Houghton,Mifflin and Company Boston and New York 1899.

Shortly prior to 1732, an immense number of Scotch-Irish[Ulster-Scots] and Germans poured into Pennsylvania and the Jerseys. Within thirty years, the population of Pennsylvania increased from about thirty thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand. The Scotsmen, who, for religious liberty, had originally sought the north of Ireland, were the people who saved Ireland to William and Mary from Catholic James. Their loyalty was rewarded by new persecutions for non- conformity, until they resolved to seek asylum in America. So, also, about the same time came to America a great migration of German Lutherans, who were induced to settle in Pennsylvania. The Scotsmen occupied the regions about Princeton, New Jersey, Easton, Carlisle, and Washington. The Germans settled about York, Lancaster, Columbia, and Harrisburg. Governor Logan, himself a Scotch-Irishman,[Ulster-Scot] enforced some laws about 1730 which were so offensive to the Presbyterians and Lutherans that great numbers of them left the Pennsylvania colony, crossed the Potomac west of the Blue Ridge, in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, entered Virginia, and settled the Blue Ridge valley.

As if by agreement, the two bands separated. The lethargic Germans, as soon as they escaped the Pennsylvania jurisdiction, occupied the lower valley from Harper's Ferry to Harrisonburg. The aggressive Scotch Irish pressed on to the upper valley, then called West Augusta, now divided into the counties of Augusta Rockbridge, Botetourt, Roanoke, and Montgomery. From then until now, the two races have retained possession of and dominated their respective settlements.

And a very striking race of men are these Scotch-Irish so called yet with nothing Irish about them save them for a little while they tarried in Ireland. Hated by Irish because they were Protestants, persecuted by the English because they were Presbyterians, they in turn cordially detested both, and, in our Revolutionary struggles were among the earliest and most intense rebels against the king. For liberty, as they conceived it, whether it was liberty of conscience or liberty of the person, the Scotch-Irishmen and their descendants have never hesitated to sacrifice comfort, fortune, or life. Their mountain origin has always manifested itself by the places they have chosen in their migrations. The few who went to the Puritan settlements of New England soon moved from among them and sought the inhospitable highlands of New Hampshire, where they bestowed on their new settlement the name of Londonderry. The little band who found asylum among the Dutch of New York pressed onward from uncongenial associates to the mountainous frontier, and named the county where they settled Ulster, in memory of their Irish home. Those who wearied of Pennsylvania and went to Virginia avoided the light society of the Cavaliers in Tidewater and Piedmont, preferring the mountain wilds of West Augusta.

Wherever they appeared, they seemed to be seeking for some secluded spot, where, undisturbed by any other sect, they might enjoy liberty unrestrained, and worship God after their own fashion.

And great have they been as pioneers. They populated western New England, northern New York, western Pennsylvania, and the Virginia valley. Then they pressed onward through western North Carolina, even to northern South Carolina. Then they spread westward through Cumberland Gap to the settlement of Kentucky. In later days, their Lewis and their Clarke were the explorers of the Northwest; another Lewis was the first to view Pike's Peak, and even the territory of Texas was in part reclaimed by Sam Houston, son of a Rockbridge County Presbyterian. The pioneer work of the Scotch- Irish has been greater than that of all other races in America combined.

Great also have they been as fighters. John Lewis, their first leader in the Virginia valley, was the terror of the frontier Indians from the day of his arrival. Never after his coming did the Indians come east of the Blue Ridge. Another Scotch- Irishman, Patrick Henry, uttered the immortal sentence, "Give me liberty or give me death."

General Henry Knox, of Revolutionary fame, the only New England representative in Washington's cabinet, was a Scotch-Irishman.

It was the Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, who framed the first resolutions embodying the principles of the Declaration of Independence. It was of the Scotch-Irish and their valley home that Washington was speaking when, in the darkest hours of the Revolution, he declared that, if the worst came to the worst, he would retire to the mountain fastnesses of West Augusta, and there, with a few of his brave followers about him, defy forever the power of Great Britain. It was from the same spot that Stonewall Jackson, another of the stock, went forth in our great civil war, followed by his brave men of Scotch-Irish ancestry recruited here, to revive, by his grim prowess and their unshaken valor, the mentors of Old Ironsides and his Presbyterians.

And great have they been as disseminators of learning. They founded the ancient college of New Jersey now known as Princeton University. To their efforts are we indebted for the colleges of La Fayette at Easton and Washington Jefferson College at Washington in Pennsylvania and Liberty Hall Academy, now called Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Virginia; and Chapel Hill in North Carolina.

And successful politicians and statesmen have they been; for Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley were all rich in this Scotch-Irish blood.

In his great work upon the Puritans, Douglass Campbell has admirably sketched the Scotch-Irish. Much has been written of them of late years by writers less distinguished and just now Professor John Fiske, under the title of "Old Virginia and her Neighbors," has published a most interesting account of the great Scotch-Irish migration and its influences on our American civilization.

At Lexington, Virginia, these folk were and are, as their ancestors have been for centuries, men of earnest, thoughtful, and religious natures; simple in their lives to the point of severity, sometimes severe to the point of simplicity; intense in their religious fervor, yet strangely lacking, as it seems to us, in that quality of mercy which is the greatest attribute of religion; loving and possessing education, yet often narrow-minded, in spite of thorough training; almost ascetics in their wants, not bountifully hospitable, but reasonably courteous and considerate towards strangers, and methodically charitable; regarding revelry and dissipation of body or mind as worthy of supreme contempt; of dogged obstinacy, pertinacity, and courage; dominant forces in all things wherein they take a part.

I had heard of their race, and heard them described, long before I went there; and now I was among them, - those old McDowells, and McLaughlins, and McClungs and Jacksons, and Paxtons, and Rosses, and Grahams and Andersons, and Campbells, and Prestons, and Moores and Houstons, and Barclays, and Comptons, and all the tribe of Presbyterians of the valley. All they possessed, and what they were, I curiously scrutinized as a type of humanity wholly new to me.

From God's Frontiersmen

2011-03-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from the book God's Frontiersmen 1989

The popular image of the Ulster Protestant purveyed by much of the world's press and television and by the authors of instant studies of the Irish question is that of a red-faced man, his features contorted,beating a large drum. This simple visual clich'e has been used repeatedly to convey violence,intransigence and bigotry,neat labels under which,in the high speed information world of to-day,a busy journalist can package an entire people. Each television documentary or book on the Ulster troubles offers a history of the so-called native or Catholic Irish but usually nothing on the background of the Protestant people. It is almost as if they were destitue of features,emotions or even intelligent life,without existence in time,a monolith whose only purpose is to be the granite against which the national aspirations of an Irish people are dashed. The intention of this book is to explode that myth.

The ancestors of the Protestant population of Ulster arrived there in a series of immigrations during the seventeenth century,coming from the Scottish Lowlands and Borders and to a lesser extent from various parts of England,as far apart as Lancashire Norfolk and Devon. Within a hundred years they had transformed the north of Ireland from a land composed largely of woods and swamps,interspersed with small areas of modest culivation,into a province with roads,market towns and ports,supported by an increasingly arable system of farming,a thriving cattle trade and a domestic textile industry. Into a country where Catholic medieval values and an indolent pastoral economy pervaded, they brought Calvinastic Protestantism and a stern work ethic.

Although they came into what was an English colony and many of them were originally part of the official settlement of Ulster by the English Crown,the Scots so predominated in numbers,in the toughness of their culture and in the determination with which they acquired land, that the whole Plantation enterprise took on Scottish characteristics and the name 'Ulster Scots' came in time to be applied to the entire non-Irish population of the province which included large numbers of English, much smaller numbers of Welsh and some refugee French Protestants. In America the term 'Scotch-Irish',which had originally been used by Ulster students training for the Presbyterian ministry at Scottish universities,was applied to the Protestant immigrants from Ulster to distinguish them from the Catholic Irish who arrived later. For the purposes of this book,the terms Ulster Scots-or Scotch-Irish are regarded as interchangeable; they are also applied for the sake of identification in chapters dealing with Canada,Australia and New Zealand, lands where these terms would not have been known.

Cowpens & the Presbyterians

2011-03-23T00:52:00.000-07:00

Whitelaw Reid, in his 1912 book The Scot in America and the Ulster Scot, writes about Colonial South Carolina and the Scots and Ulster-Scots people who fought for independence:

Two of the most noted battles in South Carolina, where half the population was Uster-Scottish, were those of King’s Mountain and Cowpens. At the first, five of the Colonels were Presbyterian ruling elders, and their troops were mainly recruited from Presbyterian settlements. At the Cowpens, General Morgan, who commanded, and General Pickens were both Presbyterian elders, and most of their troops were Presbyterians. Several other Presbyterian elders held high commands in the same State throughought the war.

Grandpa worked for the railroad

2011-03-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

Walter McClain (born in 1927 near Waycross, GA) tells his story about working for the railroad in southern Georgia. He is of Ulster-Scots ancestry.

Click here for the audio (Warning: contains a few curse words)

Fort St Andrew & the Scots in Colonial North America

2011-03-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Many Scots and Ulster-Scots migrated to British North America in the 1700s, following the Puritan and Cavalier migrations. The early stage of this migration is described at this link in Whitelaw Reid's 1912 book The Scot in America and the Ulster Scot.

Happy Birthday Mr President

2011-03-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Mr President!

Tuesday 15 March has been declared Andrew Jackson Day in Carrickfergus
as the Borough prepares to step back in time to mark the birthday of
the 7th President of the United States with a day of American and
Ulster-Scots themed activities and entertainment.

President Jackson’s family lived in Boneybefore, just outside
Carrickfergus, before they emigrated to Carolina where Andrew was
born. Today The Andrew Jackson Cottage visitors’ centre at Carrick
cements that historic association.

From 2pm – 4pm on Andrew Jackson Day it will be the atmospheric venue
for a series of interpretive tours and re-enactments and the cottage
will ring to the sounds of bluegrass music. From 6.pm – 8.30pm the
free family entertainment will move to the Castle Green in the heart
of Carrickfergus for live music from The Broken String Band and the
Transatlantic Hillbilly Band plus themed arts and crafts activities
for children and a finale fireworks display courtesy of the Army
Benevolent Fund.

The great man himself (a.k.a. actor/ re-enactor Ronald Kane from The
Living History Company) will visit both events.

Looking forward to the day of celebrations, the Mayor Alderman Jim
McClurg said, “All of us in Carrickfergus are of course extremely
proud of the ancestry of the 7th President of the United States, but I
suspect there are still a great many people out there who know very
little about this historic figure – and we’d like to help put that
right.

“Thousands of visitors from right around the world have already passed
though The Andrew Jackson Cottage, enjoying both its authentic
ambience and the opportunity to brush up on a fascinating period of
history. Andrew Jackson’s birthday gives us a great excuse to add
another layer of entertainment and fun to the discovery process and we
are looking forward to a birthday party with a difference – and on a
grand scale.

“We are particularly pleased to have secured the support of The United
States Consulate for this venture and I am sure that the combination
of American and Ulster-Scots traditions will make for a fantastic
day-long party!”

Disagreement at US Post Office over Ulster

2011-03-09T09:57:00.001-08:00

I had an interesting experience at my local post office yesterday with a man who isn't from the South and who displayed a bit of hostility towards Ulster identity.

Click here for the mp3 audio of me telling the story

Junior Orange Trip to America

2011-03-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

County Tyrone Juniors on memorable trip to USA

Members of a County Tyrone Junior Orange recently returned after a memorable trip to the States,during which they visited places with Ulster-Scots links. Three officers and seven boys belonging to Glengeeragh Junior LOL No 257 visited South Carolina,and the trip was made possible by a generous 50 per cent grant from the McCrea Memorial Fund. The party flew from Dublin to Philadelphia and from the 'City of Brotherly Love' to Greenville, South Carolina.

In Greenville, the Ulster party were taken on a historical tour of the city,and this included a museum which had a large section dealing with the immigration of huge numbers of Ulster-Scots families to what were then the British colonies of North America. These hardy settlers,known in America as the Scotch-Irish, settled in the Carolinas, and played a leading role in the American War of Independence, and the early development of the United States.

The Ulster Junior Orangemen were able to attend a baseball match,and on the Sunday,attended Faith Free Presbyterian Church in Greenville, where the minister,the Rev Mercer,is an Ulsterman. The boys and their officers were guests of Mr and Mrs Mercer for dinner following the morning service. The boys were able to take part in water sports in the city's river.

One of the highlights was the visit to several parts of South Carolina which were settled by Ulster-Scots,and they had the opportunity of meeting members of two families,the McMullans and McGarritys, who could trace their links to N.I. Another high point of the visit was a tour of the historic city of Charleston,with many historic buildings, and modern facilities, including swimming pools and beaches. The officers and boys were overwhelmed by the hospitality of the people they met, and said their bus driver who was called Barney, a born-again Christian, was a great help.

On their return to Ulster, the party were the centre of attraction at an event held in Glenageeragh Orange Hall. The boys were interviewed, and a short tape of the trip was shown.

Statue for Ulster immigrants unveiled

2011-03-07T07:02:00.001-08:00

This statue at Larne Co Antrim to the Ulster immigrants was unveiled by Professor Bobby Moss of South Carolina:

Ulster and the White House

2011-03-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

Quite a lot of people from Ulster stock became Presidents of America. This programme was about just two of them.

Virginia, Ulster and the Reivers

2011-03-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

From a booklet about the Elliott Clan and the Border Reivers... with thanks to my daughter.

Dispersal

The death of Queen Elizabeth 1 set the Borders alight. Both Scots and English tried to do as much damage as possible to each other without fear of retribution. Robert Ellot, 17th Chief, invaded England with almost 400 horseman carrying battle flags. Several other clans followed their example. Unfortunately James succeeded to the united throne much faster than anticipated and declared the Borders were no longer the extremities of the two kingdoms but the middle of one United Kingdom. All laws and usage of the Borders were declared finished and the peculiar justiciary system that had existed for over 400 years was swept away. James V1, that ungainly, unlikely King,succeeded in pacifying the Borders as he had the Highlands where his predecessors had failed.

The King's authority was stamped on the Borders and the first crop of executions resulted in thirty two Elliots, Armstrongs,and Johnstons going to the gallows. Iron gates were orderd removed from the old peel towers and turned into plough shares,arms were banned, and horses forbidden to have saddles. Forcible emigration to Ulster began, as did transportation overseas for the King declared, ''the most notorious and lewd persons on the Middle March are to be sent to Virginia.

The Elliots had fought in more than their fair share of all the Border battles. They were to suffer most in the forcible pacification that followed. Thirty of their towers in Liddlesdale were destroyed. One third of all the Borderers banished from Scotland were Elliots and over 3,500 of the name were living in Ulster in 1900. Many were transported to the Virginian plantations. The last major hanging of Border reivers took place in 1609,and when the Elliots made a final raid against the Robsons in Tynedale in 1611 this really marked the end of a traditional way of life.

Click here to visit the Ulster Virginia website

Francis Hutcheson: Teacher of Adam Smith (early Ulster-Scots philosopher & economist)

2011-02-24T18:42:00.000-08:00

Francis Hutcheson (August 8, 1694 – August 8, 1746) was a philosopher and economist born in Drumalig in County Down to a family of Ulster-Scots Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment.

(mp3 audio) Francis Hutcheson: Teacher of Adam Smith

Ulster Plantation... who got what

2011-02-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

The Ulster plantation (or homecoming) was said to be a forerunner for the settlement of Virginia.

American War of Independence and Ulster-Scots

2011-02-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

Dr David Hume gives a talk on Ulster's contribution to the WOI.

Ulster + Dixie + Eagle

2011-02-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

This is a picture I took today of multiple flags laying upon each other with a light behind them. It turned out pretty cool, I thought.

North Carolina

2011-02-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

Sketches of North Carolina,by Rev William Foote

Rev William Foote (1794-1869) was of English descent. In 1822 he married Eliza Glass a minister's daughter of Ulster-Scots descent whose grandparents had come from Banbridge in Co Down

'SKETCHES OF NORTH CAROLINA' (1846)
His writings are full of admiration for the Ulster-Scots who came to America and who made up the Scotch-Irish communities and congregations with whom he shared spiritual conviction and cultural values, and among whom he spent his life. The notes he collected in North Carolina formed the core of his 600 page epic Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical, Illustrative of the Principles of a Portion of Her Early Settlers which was published in 1846. It's freely available online. The first four chapters are about American history, but chapters 5 - 9 are a detailed retelling of Ulster-Scots history and seem to be largely based on James Seaton Reid's account. Chapter 5 is entitled "Origin of the Scotch-Irish": –

"...Ulster began to send out swarms to America; shipload after shipload of men trained to labor and habits of independence, sought the American shores; year after year the tide rolled on without once ebbing; and many thousands of these descendants of the emigrants from Scotland, disdaining to be called Irish, filled the upper country of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas. Ulster, in Ireland, has been an exhaustless hive, a perennial spring..."

The book is free on Google Books online.

The Ulster-Scots come to the North American frontier

2011-02-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

The following two videos are part of a series from a while back. This particular part of the series (videos 4 and 5) is about the Ulster-Scots, their migration to North America, their travels down the Appalachian trail and their influence on the culture and speech of the people of the American South.

Born Fighting 2

2011-02-01T05:44:00.000-08:00

Part of a preview from the Record newspaper.

Senator Webb, author of Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish Shaped America, is a direct descendant of the Scots whose centuries-long journey to the US via Northern Ireland was propelled by the reformation of the church in the 1500s
The series, Born Fighting, delivers a fascinating historical account of the Scots-Irish exodus.

Webb, a democrat who represents Virginia, said: "The Scots-Irish culture has had incredible impact in the US. And yet the most incredible thing about it is how little today's Scotland, Ireland and America know about them. The culture, values and fighting spirit of the Scots-Irish have shaped America. It's vital we know more about these people."

Webb said: "I have many ancestors who endured the Siege of Derry and left Ireland for America.
"In the early years, the siege burned in their memories as evidenced in the letters which I still keep. As the generations passed, those memories faded, but not the motivations which had compelled them to resist. This has been in the Scots-Irish DNA since the time of Hadrian's Wall.
"It was there before Derry, it would sustain them on the American frontier and it is with us still."

Soon after the Siege of Derry in 1689. Queen Anne's penal laws slowed the Scottish surge into Ulster, decreeing that all office holders must be Episcopalian.
Presbyterian Scots-Irish leaders lost their jobs and prospects, and turned their attention to the promised land across the sea.
"If the English government wasn't going to let them live freely in Ulster, then they would take their labour and values elsewhere. And they'd all heard of the promised land across the sea.
"The early exodus also represented economic opportunity and the chance to look after both body and soul.
"Some were motivated by religion, some by money, others had had enough of the turmoil. But all were carrying their Ulster Scots tradition with them. And each had agreed to take a one-way trip to the wilderness of America."

The first settlers endured horrific conditions, crossing the Atlantic for three months in returning cargo ships which had carried flax seed to Ulster. They arrived in New Hampshire, naming the town Londonderry, the first Scots-Irish community in America. Hundreds of thousands followed throughout the 18th century.

"They must have wanted it pretty badly," said Webb, "considering the conditions they endured. But their arrival made America the land it is today.
"Their willingness to fight helped America win the War of Independence, their daring spirit helped open up the frontiers, and the music, drinks and prayers they carried became the life-blood of America.
"They transformed it. Everywhere I look I see the impact of the Scots-Irish on modern American life - our military, our churches, our music."

The earliest Scots-Irish settlers to the east-coast colonies were used as "buffers" between the Amish folk of Pennsylvania and the native Americans "over the hill", where their combative spirit, farming skills and freedom to exercise their religious beliefs were well-placed.
Webb said: "The Ulster Scots believed God wanted them to work hard to improve their lot."
Scots-Irish brought whisky and the roots of folk music, a tradition continued in the country sound of Nashville and singers like Johnny Cash, who had Scots ancestors.

But they weren't the only key imports brought by the Scots-Irish.
Having spread south from the eastern seaboard, the lack of Presbyterian ministers forced them to seek spiritual comfort from Baptist and Methodist preachers.
Webb said: "They led to the foundation of what we know as the Bible Belt. The Scots-Irish attitudes have helped shape America. But this is a competitive culture and many of its members have reached the very top.

"The traits of individualism and ambition have sent no less than 17 men to the White House."
These include Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Senator Webb added: "Neil Armstrong's progress to the Moon began many centuries ago when his ancestors left Scotland for Ireland.
"The Scots-Irish are the core at the centre of the spirit of America.
"They helped build this country from the bottom up."

Born Fighting

2011-01-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

Is on TV here. Its being produced by both Scottish Television and Ulster Television. Smithsonian Television (America) is also involved so it will probably be seen in America too.

The term Ulster Scots

2011-01-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

1640: The first use of the term “Ulster Scots”

Wentworth’s adviser in Ireland was Sir George Radcliffe. He was deeply concerned that the Covenanter Army, under the command of the Earl of Argyle, might come to Ulster. On 8th October 1640 Radcliffe wrote (citing the famous assassination which had caused Robert the Bruce to flee to Rathlin Island over 300 years before):

“...Many thousands in the North never took the oath... they will shortly return, to any that dares question them, such an answer as Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, made to Sir John Comyn, who, charging him with breach of oath, taken at Westminster to King Edward, replies, with cleaving his head in two. None is so dim-sighted, but sees the general inclination of the Ulster Scots to the covenant: and God forbid they should tarry there till the Earl of Argyll brings them arms to cut our throats...”

Radcliffe was the first to use the term “Ulster Scots”.

From Texas to Carrickfergus

2011-01-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

Depending on your location in the world you may or may not be able to watch this video from the BBC about the Ulster-Scots connections of one man's roots in the Texas panhandle.

Americans visit Ulster

2011-01-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

Recieved this in my email. Maybe one of the American channels will get it.

Dear All,

Please see below, details of a new 3 part documentary following a group of Ulster-Scots from the US as they visit Northern Ireland to trace their roots and discover a little more about their Ulster heritage.

I know this will be of interest to a lot of you - so don’t forget - “We’r Fur Hame” starts Monday 17th January 2011 at 19.00hrs on BBC2 - the series runs for 3 weeks.

Regards,

Iain

Stonewall Jackson's ancestral home near Belfast, Ulster

2011-01-13T21:42:00.000-08:00

Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson is widely considered one of the greatest military geniuses in all of history. Jackson was both a devout Christian and a fierce warrior. His ancestral home is a just a short drive south from Belfast and its remains is pictured here.

Ulster has powerful enemy in Congressman Peter King

2011-01-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

In the person of Peter King, the incoming Chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, the people of Ulster have a confirmed enemy. In fact, Congressman King has cheered for terrorists who have killed and wounded innocent people in Northern Ireland. It's frightening that such a man has as much power as he now does. Columnist and libertarian author Williams Norman Grigg writes:

After spending decades canvassing his fellow Irish-American Catholics to raise money for terrorists in Northern Ireland, King has promised to conduct a wide-ranging investigation of American Muslim congregations and cultural organizations in search of people providing "material support" for Islamic terrorism.... King, whose Long Island district has a large and well-organized Irish-American constituency, was one of the group's most effective fundraisers and one of the IRA's staunchest supporters.

"We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry," King declared during a 1982 rally on behalf of the IRA in Nassau County. The "Provos" heartily reciprocated King's affection.

"During his visits to Ireland, Mr. King would often stay with well-known leaders of the IRA, and he socialized in IRA drinking haunts," recalled Irish journalist Ed Moloney, author of the definitive work A Secret History of the IRA, in a 2005 New York Sun profile written after King's tardy and reluctant break with the group. "At one of such clubs, the Felons, membership was limited to IRA veterans who had served time in jail."
Granted, many honorable and decent men – from Northern Ireland and elsewhere – have become familiar with the inside of a prison cell. But the ex-convicts with whom King socialized during his visits to Ireland generally weren't innocent political prisoners.

1892 John C.Calhoun speaks

2011-01-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

Not so sure about the 'yankee' bit! lol

At the 1892 convention of the Scotch-Irish Society of America in Atlanta, Georgia lawyer Patrick Calhoun, grandson of Scotch-Irish-descended John C. Calhoun had the following to say about the Scotch-Irish in Georgia:

The Scotch-Irish have stamped an imperishable impression upon Georgia. For those homely virtues of thrift, industry and economy which have caused the people of this State to be termed the Yankees of the South; for that dauntless and invincible courage which has immortalized the conduct of her soldiers upon the field of battle; for all those splendid qualities which enabled her people to erect the fabric of pure and honest government out of the corrupting chaos of Reconstruction, and to move forward so rapidly and successfully in the march of progress as to justly win for her the proud rank of the "Empire State of the South," Georgia is deeply indebted to that noble race in whose history, traced through their career here and their earlier settlements in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania back to old Ulster, and further still to the lowlands and craggy highlands of Scotland, the electric search light of the nineteenth century discloses not a single page blurred by servile submission to native wrong or foreigh yoke. (Quoted in: "The Georgia Scotch-Irish," Orville A. Park, The Georgia Historical Quarterly, June 1928, pp. 115-135)

J. E. B. Stuart pictured on Ulster mural

2010-12-31T23:27:00.001-08:00

Here's a mural I took a picture of in Belfast in 2007 ( I believe). JEB Stuart is pictured here, a cavalary general in the C. S. A. military.

Ulster audio recordings added to blog

2010-12-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

We have gone ahead and added the various audio recordings we have put together over the last couple years to our blog. They are located at the top right-hand side beneath the spinning Northern Ireland flag. Just click to listen or you can click and save them to your computer. They're free for you to enjoy. More will be coming!

Ulster-Scots/Dixie flag

2010-12-26T12:52:00.001-08:00

A Facebook friend of mine sent me this picture combining the Ulster nationalist flag and the Confederate flag of Dixie.

The 18th of December

2010-12-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the 18th of December the actual date the Apprentice Boys closed the gates in 1688. The snow has been falling all last night and today and is lying pretty thick but the parade of the Broadway and Shankill Clubs will go ahead as planned. Both Clubs have the effigy's of Lundy made ready to set alight tomorrow night.

We may be having it bad,but nothing I'm sure to the experience of the Brave Thirteen who closed the gates on that winter day so long ago. We will remember them.

Flag display in Ulster pub

2010-12-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

I added the picture of the flag display featuring the NI, UK, Confederate, Rhodesian and South African flags to the bottom of the SNN website.

The BBC Launches New Ulster Scots site

2010-11-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

It has just opened today and well worth a visit.

James Webb Video On The Ulster-Scots

2010-11-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

James Webb speaks about his book Born Fighting.

Ulster Scots/Ullans Vocabulary

2010-11-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

Some audio clips.

Rabbi Schiller: Twelfth is 'last legitimate folk festival in the West'

2010-11-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

'On several occasions, the Rabbi [Mayer Schiller] visited Ulster where he attended the Twelfth Of July Unionist parade ("the last legitimate folk festival in the West and the only one without corporate sponsorship") and met with Reverend Ian Paisley. The Rabbi jokes that his affinity for both traditionalist Catholicism and Ulster unionism presents a big dilemma during Celtic-Rangers soccer games.'

Click here for entire article

Not Irish

2010-11-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

'Moreover, it is interesting to note that they did nor regard themselves as Irish. In fact, nothing infuriated them more than to be classed as Irish. ''It made my blood boil.'' said William Smith, ''to hear ourselves called a parcel of Irish.''

They protested violently when American people and American officials described them in this way. There were, they said with great indignation people of the Scottish nation in Ulster''.

After a while and because of this protest and others they began to be known as Scotch-Irish. While this was still not satisfactory, in the end they settled for it as it did make some distinction between them and the Irish.'

Santer

2010-11-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

Don't know if this link will work alright. It's a BBC Ulster-Scots series which as well as being out and about in Ulster visits America with Mark Wilson following the trail of the Ulster-Scots down the Great Wagon Road and meeting up with a group called "The Hillbilly Gipsies."

US Consul unveils Ulster-Scots Mural

2010-11-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

US Consul unveils Ulster Scots Mural

Some State Governers From Ulster Stock

2010-11-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

up untill 1900 at least forty eight state governors claimed Ulster Scot heritage.
here are a few...

with thanks to H.D.

Alabama---Robert Miller Patton (1809-85 ) 17th Governor

Colorado---Edward Moody Mc Cook (1869-73, 1874-75 )

Delaware ---Charles Polk (1788-1857)
John P Cochrane (1809-98)

IDAHO
ILLINOIS
IOWA
KANSAS
MINNESOTA
MISSOURI
NEBRASKA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
OHIO
OREGON
PENNSYLVANIA
SOUTH CAROLINA
SOUTH DAKOTA
TENNESSEE
TEXAS
VERMONT
WEST VIRGINA
WISCONSIN
all the above had at least one Governor of Ulster scot Heritage.
info taken from LEGACY by ALISTER JOHN Mc REYNOLDS

Ulster-Scots Everywhere

2010-11-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

Letter to Wittens magazine of the Ulster Scots Heritage Council from Ronnie Thompson Edenbrooke Primary School Belfast.

Whilst on holiday recently in Los Angeles,my niece Jennifer and her husband Jose suggested that we travel down to San Diego and visit the Aircraft Carrier USS Midway. After a two hour drive down and then a most enjoyable four hour tour of this magnificent ship we decided it was time to head back up home to LA.

On the way back up the coast,Jennifer's husband Jose suggested that we should finish our day with a quiet drink and of course it is bad manners to refuse! A few miles on down the road we spotted a pub called 'The Field' and being a loyal Ulsterman I agreed ''this will do for me''. Upon entering the pub we discovered it was a themed Irish bar and the barman was Dominic! We had barely finished our first drink when the door opened and to my amazement or astonishment in walked about 100 or more men and women wearing kilts. As there wern't enough seats for them all we offered some of them seats beside us. I asked them ''why the kilts?'' and to my susprise the answer was this ''Sir,we are the Ulster-Scots of North Carolina''. After at least two hours crack and a few pints to ease the vocal chords,we bid each other goodbye. ''Ye all come to North Carolina'' was the invitation and ''You'll be mighty welcome,but if you are of the clan Campbell you cannae sleep the night!

The Ulster-Scots are everywhere these days!

Ronnie Thompson

God's Frontiersmen

2010-11-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

This book was published in 1989. This is from the flyleaf

GOD'S FRONTIERSMEN...tells the dramatic story of the Ulster-Scots,or Scots-Irish as they are also known - Scottish Presbyterians who came to the north of ireland in the seventeenth century and who constitue the dominant strain among Ulster Protestants to-day. Aptly called the 'Frontiersmen of God',they brought with them their Cavlinist beliefs, a stern work ethic and a fiercely independent spirit. Econmic hardship and religious discrimination led thousands to cross the Atlantic where they formed the vanguard of the great army of pioneers who pushed the frontier west.

Many of the famous names in American history came from Ulster stock: the frontiersmen Davy Crockett and Kit Carson,the Civil War generals Stonewall Jackson and Ulysses S Grant,and,in the world of business,the millionaire dynasties of the Gettys and the Mellons. The Scots-Irish played a leading role in drafting the Declaration of Independence. At least ten United States Presidents were of Scots-Irish origin,including Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson.

In the developing lands of Canada,Australia and New Zealand the Ulster-Scots sent farmers and engineers,doctors and clergymen,who played a major role in forging these new societies.

In Ulster the book charts Belfast's rapid growth in the nineteenth century,due largely to the entrepreneurial skills and energy of the Ulster-Scots,and the deepening religious and political divisions leading to the partition of Ireland in 1922. A companion volume to the major Channel Four television series of the same name,the book offers a greater understanding of an often misrepresented people who have helped shape Western society and who now in their Ulster homeland face the greatest crisis of their existence.

The Ulster-Scots sailed west

2010-11-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

As it says, there are not all the American towns with Ulster names.

Concern Back In Ulster

2010-11-01T05:58:00.000-07:00

In April 1773, the Londonderry Journal expressed alarm at the high rate of emigration, estimating that some 17,500 persons had gone to America from Ulster ports since 1771: ''The great part of these emigrants paid their passage, which at 3 pounds 10 shillings each amounted to 60,725 pounds, most of them people employed in the linen manufacture, or farmers, and some of property which they turned into money and carried with them.... This removal is sensibly felt in this country.

''This prevalent humour of industrious Protestants withdrawing from this once flourishing corner of the kingdom, seems to be increasing: and it is thought the number will be considerably larger this year than ever.

The north of Ireland has been occasionally used to emigration, for which the American settlements have been much beholden: - But till now, it was chiefly the very meanest of people who went off, mostly in the station of indentured servants and such as had become obnoxious to their mother country. In short, it is computed from many concurrent circumstances, that the north of Ireland has in the last five or six years been drained of one fourth of its trading class, and the like proportion of the manfacturing people. Where the evil will end, remains only in the womb of time to discover.

The S.I. in the Carolinas

Second National Ulster Flag

2010-10-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

The 2nd National Flag still flying today (30/10/2010) in East Belfast.

Callaway Baptist preachers in Georgia

2010-10-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

Over this past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the Southern Heritage Festival in Washington, Georgia. It was held on the old Callaway Plantation just outside of town. While in the old home, I took this picture which showcased the many men from the family who have been Baptist preachers over the years. I thought it was an interesting testament to the spiritual and cultural nature of the Ulster settlers of Dixie.

Graeme & Rory show their Ulster pride!

2010-10-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

Not 'rubbing it in' to our American friends lol But couldn't resist showing this photo of Graeme and Rory with the Ulster flag after Graeme had won it for Europe.

Well done lads and to our American friends... theres always the next one.

'Celtic Confederate' music

2010-09-28T18:50:00.000-07:00

Check out Celtic Confederate, a Facebook friend of mine of who happens to make excellent music. Pick up one of his albums and support a young Southern heritage activist... you won't regret it after listening to some of his music!

'The title "Celtic Confederate" is in respect of the typical, poor Southern soldier, majority of whom were of recent Celtic descent and who did not own slaves, yet fought for their own liberty against the invading Federal army which first setout to preserve a "voluntary" union that the Federal North contributed in its dismantling by the strangulation of, and profiteering from, the Southern economy.'

Alabama Christian Music

2010-09-26T05:25:00.000-07:00

Seen this on Mark Thompson's site. Scrolling down it was interesting that even in the midst of war in 1944 there was an awareness of the Ulster-Scots people and of who and what they were.

Americans visit Ulster

2010-09-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

Think this place is in N.C. Couple of wee things they seemed to have got mixed up a bit, but overall a good report and good to see the interest.

The Highlander

2010-09-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

'The Highlander is open Monday through Friday from 3PM until 2AM and on Saturday from 5PM until Midnight. Come enjoy good food and drink, games and hang out with friends!'

Patriotic flags

2010-09-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

The flags of the United Kingdom, Ulster, Dixie, former Rhodesia and former South Africa....

From Belfast to America

2010-09-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

BELFAST AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY by Jonathan Bardon

'for the next sixty years there was a spectacular out-pouring of ‘Scotch-Irish’ to America. By the middle of the eigthteenth century it was reckoned that 12,000 were leaving Ulster every year.

Belfast was the most important port of departure,even though the most distressed areas were in the west of Ulster. Between 1750 and 1775 at least 143 emigrant vessels left Belfast for America,65 of them with Philadelphia as their destination. For many,America was indeed,as one advertisement put it, ‘the Land of Promise’; a notice in the ‘Belfast News Letter’ in 1766 informing the public that the ‘Falls’ was shortly to sail from Belfast and called on readers to embrace ‘such a favourable opportunity by settling themselves to advantage by removal to that country,a removal which cannot fail to give freedom,peace,and plenty to those who now wish to enjoy those blessings’. America was a land of limitless opportunity to Ulster Scots,where their skills in taming a wild country would be highly valued,and where the Presbyterian work-ethic would receive its just reward,as de Crevecoeur wrote invitingly in 1782:

Welcome to my shores….bless the hour thou didst see my verdant fields,my navigable rivers,and my green mountains!- if thou wilt work,I have bread for thee;if thou wilt be honest,sober,and industrious,I have greater rewards to confer on thee – ease and independence. I willl give thee fields and clothe thee; a comfortable fireside to sit by,and tell thy children by what means thy has prospered…

‘The humour has spread like a contagious distemper,and the people will hardly bear anybody that tries to cure them of their madness,’ Boulter observed. He continued: ‘The worst is,that it affects only Protestants and reigns chiefly in the north,which is the seat of our linen manfacture.’ Catholics had not the inclination to go to the colonies which were still overwhelmingly Protestant.

A prolonged depression – as in the 1770s – could lead to a sudden increase in emigration. Ulster Protestants deeply resented the commercial restrictions designed to protect the mother country’s interests when they had done so much to defeat the Irish Jacobites. Besides,earnings from linen were not enough to compensate for rent increases:

For the rents are getting higher,and I can no longer stay,
So fare well unto ye bonny,bonny Slieve Gallon Braes.
For these days are now all over,for Iam far away,
So fare well unto ye bonny,bonny,Slieve Gallon Braes.

The journey from Belfast across the Atlantic could be perilous,especially when fever broke out on board,or when ships were delayed by calms and contrary winds. In 1729,175 people died on board two vessels from Belfast during the crossing. In 1741 the ‘Seaflower’ sprang her mast en route from Belfast to Philadelphia; forty-six passengers died and six of their corpses were eaten in desperation by the survivors. A fortnight of storms drove the ‘Sally’ off her course from Belfast to Philadelphia in 1762,and sixty-four passengers died. John Smilie survived this voyage and wrote an account of it for his father:

……Hunger and Thirst had now reduced our Crew to the last Extremity; nothing was now to be heard aboard our Ship but the Cries of distressed children,and their distressed Mothers,unable to relieve them. Our Ship now was truly a real Spectacle of Horror! Never a day passed without one of our Crew put over Board; many kill’d themselves by drinking Salt Water; and their own Urine was a common Drink; yet in the midst of alll our Miseries,our Captain shewed not the least Remorse or pity…..

A distinguished list of Ulster-Scots from Londonderry who helped make America

2010-09-10T04:01:00.000-07:00

'Londonderry has had a long and chequered history with the Siege there in 1688-89 a highly significant landmark in the annals of these islands and, through the centuries from the origins of the Scottish Plantation, Ulster-Scots have made a meaningful contribution to life in the Maiden City and in the wider North West. Londonderry was a main port for the emigration of Ulster-Scots Presbyterians from the north of Ireland to America and many from this diaspora were prominently involved in the establishment of the United States as the bedrock of global democracy and independence. The list of US luminaries is impressive.'

Scots-Irish festival coming up in Tennessee

2010-09-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

'The only Scots-Irish Festival in the United States will be held on Sept. 25 starting at 8:30 a.m. in downtown Dandridge, Tennessee. The music festival honors the town’s earliest settlers. You and your family will enjoy this old-time Main Street Music Festival on the shores of Douglas Loch (Lake) in the foothills of the beautiful Smokey Mountains. The festival starts at 8:30 a.m. with a Piping and Highland Dance competition. At 10 a.m. the Street Festival opens with vendors selling Scottish and Irish merchandise and a variety of food. There is a Children’s Play Area and many Clans will have booths explaining their origins and history. Starting at 12:00 noon there will be continuous stage entertainment featuring our Ceilidh (Concert) entertainers including Sevier County’s own Cutthroat Shamrock. '

Excellent version of 'Scotland the Brave'

2010-09-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a very good version of 'Scotland the Brave' that I ran across on YouTube preformed on bagpipes.

Thousands experience Ulster-Scots culture

2010-09-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

This is the cover of the June 2010 publication from the Ulster-Scots Agency. Check out their excellent website at this link.

Thumbs up for Ulster!

2010-09-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

A special thanks to my friend 'DixieRedHand' over in Ulster for sending a package here with a couple Ulster flags and several newspapers with stories on pro-Ulster events going on. You're the best, man! You can't get that stuff over here so it's extra special.

Ulster-Scots tribute to 'Oor Alex'

2010-08-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

'A Londonderry poet is set to pay homage to the late snooker genius Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins in a unique way. Ulster Scots scribe, Wilson Burgess, an established and published exponent of the 'hamely tongue' has been commissioned by the Ulster Scots Agency to put pen to paper in honour of the legendary cueman. And, the poem 'Oor Alex' will find a permanent home in the favourite south Belfast watering hole of Higgins, The Royal Bar on Sandy Row, where a resplendent mural has been painted on the outside of the premises in memory of its most renowned patron.

Minister encouraged by Ulster-Scots survey findings

2010-08-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

'Survey results published today on 'Public Views on Ulster-Scots Culture, Heritage and Language in Northern Ireland' have been welcomed by Culture Minister Nelson McCausland..... The Minister said: "These results show that Ulster-Scots continues to be widely recognised, across both sections of our community, as an integral part of the cultural fabric of Northern Ireland. As such, and as part of a shared future, it is only right and proper that we continue to support and promote this important aspect of our culture."'

Survey highlights Ulster-Scots

2010-08-31T15:32:00.000-07:00

'One in five people in Northern Ireland see themselves as Ulster/Scots, it has been revealed. Pensioners and Protestants were more likely to adopt the traditional identity, with Co Antrim boasting the most enthusiasts, the Northern Ireland Omnibus Survey added.... Democratic Unionist Strangford MP Jim Shannon delivered his Westminster maiden speech earlier this year in Ulster/Scots. He said: "People are more aware of their historical background, if you take an interest in your history and where you come from you find that there is Ulster/Scots descent there."

Discussing the Ulster-Scots at college

2010-08-25T13:40:00.001-07:00

Today, we discussed the Ulster-Scots in one of my graduate history classes at university. The professor, who I rarely agree with on much considering she is a rather statist Yankee, was actually rather fair to the people of Ulster. She started with a couple comments against them but then said that when people say "Why don't they just all go back to Scotland and England?" that this is like asking all the people in America of European and African descent to go back to Europe and Africa. She pointed out that Ulster was settled by the Scots in a big way about the same time that North America was settled by Europeans. And she also did use the terms "Ulster" and "Ulster-Scots" when talking about the place and people rather than the more ambiguous "Northern Ireland" and "Scots-Irish" terms often used in America.

The Ulster-Scots in America

2010-08-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

Good to hear PP that you are taking a bit of our common history to those who may not be aware of it.

I bought a book recently 'The Scot in America and the Ulster Scot'. It was first published in 1912, and is an account of two speeches given by Whitelaw Reid, American Ambassador to Britain. A few lines from his speech...

'But it is now time to take into account another stream of Scottish immigration - the Ulster Scot. This term is preferred to the familar ''Scotch-Irish,'' constantly used in America, because it does not confuse the race with the accident of birth, and because the early immigrants preferred it themselves.

'And, in fact, if these Scottish and Presbyterian colonists must be called Irish because they had been one or two generations in the North of Ireland, then the Pilgrim Fathers, who had been one generation in Holland, must by the same reasoning be called Dutch, or at the very least English-Dutch.'

'After a time they began to suffer from unfriendly legislation,from Church persecution,and from the hostility of the expelled British monarch,James 2nd,which among other things forced them to their long and heroic defence of Londonderry. These experiences turned their eyes after the Scotsmen already prospering in the American colonies, and presently a great movement began among the Ulster Scots. In 1718 five small ships arrived at Boston with about 750 of them,who ultimately settled, some at Londonderry, New Hampshire,'

'A few months later came the Declaration of Independence,summing up the conclusions to which for years the Scots and Ulster Scots had been leading. Out of the fifty-six members who composed the Congress,eleven were of Scottish descent; and among them were such conspicious leaders as John Witherspoon, of New Jersey, James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, Philip Livingston of New York, and Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina.... the Declaration was signed. We guard it now, sacredly preserved in the handwriting of the Ulster Scot who was Secretary of the Congress; it was first publicly read to the people by an Ulster Scot, and first printed by an Ulster Scot.'

To add, those 750 in 1718 who came,were later followed by thousands of others over that century. Estimates vary, but 250,000 - 300,000 is the usually agreed amount.

Standing up for our Ulster roots

2010-08-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

I often wear my Ulster shirt (which is blue and has the red hand of Ulster on it and says "Ulster" under the symbol) around town and especially to my university classes. I also do my best to speak out for the Ulster-Scots and our heritage when the subject comes up. More people are doing this, I have noticed. There is a growing awareness of Ulster ancestry and heritage. There are still many millions of people to reach though who are our kinsmen and yet don't know it. I urge folks to stand up for our heritage and let's make some in-roads in reaching those people.

Gen McCausland, CSA

2010-08-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

Another Confederate General of Ulster-Scots stock...

'Life of Brigadier General John McCausland

By James Earl Brown

Volume 4, Number 4 (July 1943), pp. 239-293

EARLY LIFE

Brigadier General John McCausland, famous as the savior of Lynchburg and as the alleged incendiary of Chambersburg, was born in St. Louis, September 13, 1836. His grandparents, Alexander and Elizabeth Kyle McCausland, had lived at Six Mile Cross, Tyrone County, Ireland. Alexander was the direct descendant of Colonel Robert McCausland of Fruithill, near Newton Limavidy, County Londonderry, who died in 1734.

The name McCausland or McAuslane, as it was called in an early day, is not unknown in ancient Scotch and Irish history. In the days of Wallace and Bruce the McAuslanes lived on the shores of beautiful Loch Lomond in the highlands of Scotland, where they flourished and acted well their part in the bloody local wars of the times. They fought for Malcolm II, who gave them lands and a coat of arms as well.

Most of the McCauslands of Tyrone and Londonderry are descended from Baron McAuslane, who with his two sons, migrated to Ireland from the parish of Luss in the latter part of the reign of King James I. The elder son of Baron McAuslane was the father of Colonel Robert McCausland who had estates in the parish of Cappagh in Tyrone County.

Alexander McCausland, one of the descendants of Colonel Robert, married his cousin Elizabeth Kyle, the daughter of William Kyle who was knighted Sir William the Belt for gallantry and rewarded by land grants in Tyrone, Ireland.

Because of threats of Catholic enemies, Alexander, a Protestant, sold his lands about 1800 for $1,400. He then embarked with his family for America. With his wife and eleven children he landed at Baltimore; then proceeding by wagon to Staunton, Virginia, he joined his relatives, the Kyles. One of Alexander's sons, John, married a cousin, Harriet Kyle Price, a widow who was the daughter of William Kyle and Sarah Stevens Kyle.'

Dr Heny Cooke and Jefferson College

2010-08-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

The struggle for the truth in the Synod of Ulster had been watched by thousands in the United States of America. The Presbyterian Church in that country was founded by a Presbyterian minister from Ulster. A large proportion of its members were of Ulster by birth or descent. They felt a deep interest, therefore, in the controversy waged in the land and Church of their fathers. Mr Cooke's name became a household word. When he triumphed, his American brethren were not slow to tender their congratulations, and convey a tribute of esteem to the victor. At a meeting of the Board of Jefferson College, in April 1829, it was resolved that the degree of Doctor in Divinity should be conferred upon the Rev. Henry Cooke.

The letter communicating the intelligence of this unsolicited and unexpected honour is dated October 21st, 1829. It states that the degree was conferred on account of high attainments in literature and science, and zealous earnestness in the promotion of evangelical truth.

During his whole life, even when other honours were showered upon him, Dr Cooke prized perhaps, more highly than all, this recognition of his services on the part of the great American nation. Even until within a few years of his death he fondly cherished the hope of visiting America, and tendering to its noble people his thanks for their sympathy with him in his work, and for the reward they bestowed.

Maiden City Festival

2010-08-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

A bit late in posting this...

Maiden City Festival

General Lee lauds Ulster

2010-08-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

No, not THE General Lee of the C.S.A. but his namesake some eighty years later...

US ARMY SAYS FAREWELL TO ULSTER AS LAST AIRFIELD IS HANDED OVER TO RAF
August 7, 1945

Lieutenant-General J C H Lee, Commanding US Forces European Theatre, had sent a message which was read to a dinner given in the American Red Cross Club in Belfast to mark the completion of US Army operations in the province. He had been unable to attend personally as he had met with an accident while returning to England from Potsdam. His message declared: ''America's contribution to the defence of freedom was largely inspired by Ulstermen in response to their clear conscience and in keeping with the highest British tradition.'' The dinner was attended by several notable Ulster citizens including the Northern Ireland Premier and members of the cabinet, five US generals and the chiefs of the British Services, and saw the keys of Langford Lodge, the last US base in the province, handed over to a representative of the RAF. The message continued: ''It has been so fittingly appropriate for so many of the American Forces to be staged though Northern Ireland and to have landed first in Ulster for the crusade against Nazism and its intended enslavement of the world ''Countless families, including my own, left Ulster for America, fearlessly seeking the freedoms they were being denied but which soon followed them and has developed wherever the mother tongue was spoken.'' The connection between Ulster and America has been further strengthened, though our living together, training together,and fighting on to victory in a common cause.''

Sir Basil Brooke said that the men of the US Army would be welcomed back to Northern Ireland with open arms. He said: ''The greatest compliment you can pay is to come back with your wives and children as soon as transport will allow, not merely because you served here, but because you will be coming back to shake hands with your friends.''

News Letter, Saturday, August 7, 2010

As a footnote, the local Ulster TV produced a programme a year or so ago dealing with the closure of Langford Lodge and it showed how some Americans who had served in Ulster did indeed return to Ulster now and again. The programme took us to Florida to meet one of these men and he had the Ulster flag flying from his front porch.

Ulster/Northern Ireland animated avatars

2010-08-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple Ulster flags folks are free to use for pro-Ulster causes...

Northern Ireland flag

Ulster nationalist flag

Presbyterian settlers in the Colonial backcountry

2010-08-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

'It's difficult to determinate the size of the various denominations. In 1710 Calvinists (Presbyterians, Huguenots, and Congregationalists) were the largest group (45 percent)...

The Scots-Irish settlers who migrated down the Great Wagon Road brought with them their Calvinist beliefs. They founded some twenty-one churches in the backcountry, some of which had sizable congregations. The Long Canes Church served five hundred families, which made it arguably the largest in the colony [of South Carolina]. Although successful at building churches, the Presbyterians were not able to obtain clergy to supply them. Only two of the twenty-one churches had ministers. The paucity of clergy hindered the Presbyterians' missionary efforts....'

-South Carolina: A History by Walter Edgar, University of South Carolina Press, 1998, pages 182-183

Click here for a map of Presbyterians in the US in the year 2000.

Origins of the Ulsterfolk

2010-08-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

'Ulster's Celtic heritage is both unique and yet related to the outside influences of the neighbouring island of Britain and Southern Ireland. It was Ulsterfolk, in ancient times, that brought the Gaelic language into Scotland. It is in Scotland were the ancient Britons (Picts, Cruthin), united with their Celtic neighbours to form the nation of the 'Scotti', from whence the last settlers in Ireland the Ulster-Scots returned to Ulster. Making them not so much invaders but those returning to the lands of their ancestors.

Around 7,000 B.C. settlers crossed the narrow channel between Britain and Ulster to become Ireland's first inhabitants. Thirty centuries later they were peaceably joined by new settlers from what is now Scotland, who brought agriculture and commerce.'

Pictures from European Pipe Band Championship

2010-07-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Click here for pics from today's European Pipe Band Championship at Stormont, Belfast 31 July 2010.

European Pipe Band Championship

2010-07-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

'The European Pipe Band Championship will be held on Saturday 31 July 2010 in the grounds of Stormont. Big crowds are expected and the normal 4 competing rings have had to be increased to 5 due to the number of bands taking part.

Belfast is to host the prestigious European Pipe Band Championships for the next three years. The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has confirmed that Belfast City Council's bid to host the championships from 2010 through to 2012 has been successful. It is estimated that the competition will attract around 90 top class international pipe bands from all over the world, bringing with them more than 25,000 competitors and spectators, and generating more than £1.3 million for the Belfast economy each year. “We are delighted to have been successful in bringing this prestigious international competition to the city for the next three years, and we look forward to hosting a series of highly successful championships between now and 2012,” commented Councillor Michael Browne, Chairman of the council`s Development Committee.

George Ussher, President of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, added: “I am thrilled that the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has been invited to hold the European Pipe Band Championships in Belfast 2010 to 2012. “I would congratulate Belfast City Council on the success of their bid and their support for the piping community. I look forward to bringing the very best pipe bands in the world to Belfast for these events, and know they will enjoy a warm welcome and some wonderful hospitality from the city of Belfast.”'

South Carolina and Ulster 2

2010-07-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

Some of the Ulster Scots who settled in South Carolina. One of these families were the Brownlees.

Leading Confederate soldier in South Carolina, Captain John E. Brownlee,was the third generation descendent of Ulsterman James Brownlee who emigrated in 1768, arriving in Charlestown from Belfast on board the sailing ship Brigantine Lord Dungannon. The Brownlees settled in Abbeville in the South Carolina back country and John E's mother Rosa Pettigrew was a member of a family who had originally moved from Co Tyrone. His father John was a prime mover in the separation of South Carolina from the Union at the outset of war.

Captain Brownlee served in Company 1, 14th Regiment, McGowan's Brigade of Infantry, and after the war he remained an unrelenting advocate of the Confederate cause. He became a wealthy farmer and served on the Abbeville board of commissioners. He was prominently involved in the Masonic Order and a leader of the ''Red Shirts'' in opposing the Union occupation force in the years after the war.

Captain Brownlee is buried in the cemetery of Little Mountain Presbyterian Church near Abbeville, which his grandfather William Brownlee helped to build.

The Ulster-Scots: Hospitality, morality & the Southern frontier

2010-07-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

'On the South Carolina frontier, society was a bit rough. The Reverend Charles Woodmason, an itinerant Anglican missionary, found few people with any manners other than Joseph Kershaw of Camden. The "living and Behavior" or the "Irish Presbyterians," he wrote, were "as rude or more so than Savages." His own manners left something to be desired as he was openly contemptuous and disdainful of the people he was supposed to serve. When some offered him what limited hospitality they had, he rejected it out of hand as unworthy. In one of the rare recorded instances of lack of hospitality, a "Presbyterian tavern Keeper refused to sell Woodmason meat or drink. Given the priest's prior conduct, one wonders why he was outraged. In truth, what bothered Woodmason most was what he considered the loose moral of the backcountry folk. He roundly condemned their drinking and fornication. However, neither was confined to those who lived beyond the fall zone.'

-South Carolina: A History by Walter Edgar, University of South Carolina Press, 1998, page 186

New England Ulster-Scots

2010-07-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

'The amount of Scotch-Irish blood in New England is often under estimated. Many times, when we've traced an ancestor to Virginia or Pennsylvania, we may be wrong in assuming our next stop is the old country. Instead... it might be Vermont, Western Massachusetts, or Rhode Island that we are looking for. One reason that these people remain obscure is that those who stayed in New England assimilated into the prevailing culture. People today have forgotten that certain towns in New England were entirely founded by Ulster immigrants.'

Click here and here for more information on Ulster-Scots immigration to the New England area.