Broken String Band

This is a clip of them on the famous Derry's Walls with the Guildhall in the background. They are a local group from around the Co Down area...i think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgVfw4H7I28&feature=relmfu

Buchanan Ulster Home and Mural

'Highland' connections to North Carolina

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

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

Woodrow Wilson..The Ulster Connection

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

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