The BBC Launches New Ulster Scots site

It has just opened today and well worth a visit.

James Webb Video On The Ulster-Scots

James Webb speaks about his book Born Fighting.

Ulster Scots/Ullans Vocabulary

Some audio clips.

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

'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

'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

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

US Consul unveils Ulster Scots Mural

Some State Governers From Ulster Stock

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

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

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

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

Concern Back In Ulster

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