25 March 2014, 18:00, Europa Hotel, Belfast

Ran to 26 March 2014

This Conference was held under the auspices of the Ulster-Scots Academy (MAG) and the Ulster Historical Foundation.  I attended with Helen Brooker (Pretani Associates) Chair of the original Ulster-Scots or Ullans Academy, which I founded in 1992, Liam Logan, member of the Ullans Academy and his BBC colleague Chris Spurr. There was not a single mention of the Cruthin all day, which is not surprising.

9.00-9.30am Tea/coffee registration. View exhibition. 

SPEAKERS TOPICS 

Paul Clark MC and Panel Chair for morning session

Billy Kay: ‘as ithers see us’

Mark Thompson Shared Future? What about our Shared Past?

Martin Dowling: Northern Ireland in the Fabric of Musical Traditions

Aodán Mac Póilin: Antrim and Argyll: Gaelic traditions of the Sea of Moyle

Moore Sinnerton: What’s the Story? Ulster-Scots and the media – Ulster-Scots in the media 

LUNCH 1.00-2.00PM 

William Roulston: Different perspectives on the Ulster-Scots

Roger Blaney: The loom of language

Iain Carlisle: Developing Ulster-Scots in the community

Andrew Holmes: From rebels to loyalists? Presbyterians and politics in the nineteenth century

Linde Lunney: English Presbyterians; forgotten Scots; and bad ‘Scotch eggs’ – no wonder Dublin is different!

Tim McGarry: Tim McGarry’s Ulster-Scots Journey  

CONFERENCE CONCLUDES 5.00PM 

PAUL CLARK: CHAIR, MORNING SESSION 

Paul Clark has been presenting the news on UTV for the past twenty five years. He is passionate about Irish history. Paul is comfortable in the knowledge that one side of his family is Ulster-Scot, and the other, what he calls “native Irish”.

CONFERENCE SPEAKERS 

DR ROGER BLANEY  

Former Head of Department of Community Medicine & Medical Statistics at Queen’s Belfast, currently Co-Chairman of the ULTACH Trust and a Director of the Ullans Academy, Roger Blaney has always been fascinated by and committed to the important role of language in Northern Ireland society. He is author of the ground-breaking, Presbyterians and the Irish Language. 

IAIN CARLISLE 

Iain Carlisle is the Operations Manager of the Ulster-Scots Community Network. He has acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the Ulster-Scots community through close involvement with a wide range of projects and events.  

PROF. MARTIN DOWLING   

Martin Dowling is a fiddle player and historian. He was educated at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he performs and teaches Irish traditional music regularly in Europe and the United States. He was the Traditional Arts Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2004 and subsequently held postdoctoral research fellowships in University College Dublin where he conducted research on traditional music, history, and identity. He is currently Lecturer in Irish Traditional Music at Queen’s University of Belfast. 

DR ANDREW HOLMES

Andrew Holmes is a lecturer in Modern History at Queen’s University Belfast and graduate of QUB and the University of St Andrews. He was a Research Associate at the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, where he also taught Irish history, and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s. He is a committee member of the Ecclesiastical History Society, and the Economic and Social History Society of Ireland. 

BILLY KAY

‘As ithers see us’ – Billy Kay celebrates the historic cultural links across the Irish Sea and looks at the ties that bind and separate Scotland and Ulster today.Billy was born in Galston, Ayrshire. He has won five international awards for his programmes, which have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, RTÉ Ireland, BBC Radio Ulster, ABC Australia, CBC Canada and Radio Netherlands World Service. In 2006, Mainstream Publishing issued a new edition of his classic work Scots: The Mither Tongue while his latest book The Scottish World was launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2006. Growing up in the heart of the Burns country, Billy is steeped in the Burns tradition of poetry, song and language – a definite advantage when it comes to reciting poems like ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ and talking about the local, national and international connections in the bard’s work. Billy has also presented events based on Burns, Scottish culture and history at festivals such as Celtic Connections in Glasgow and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC. A Scotland football fan, he is also convinced that it was the Scots who taught the world to kick a ball. He has never been invited to give this talk in England! Billy Kay is passionate about Scotland and its people’s phenomenal influence around the world, and is able to communicate that passion with humour and love. For more details about Billy, visit www.billykay.co.uk 

DR LINDE LUNNEY 

Linde Lunney was born in Co. Antrim and went to Edinburgh University, and Queen’s University Belfast. Her PhD research was on eighteenth-century Ulster life and language, and she has maintained an interest in that time and place, and in identities and connections, throughout her career as a researcher and writer in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, a project in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. 

AODÁN MAC PÓILIN 

Aodán Mac Póilin is the Director of the ULTACH Trust, a cross-community Irish language organisation, since it was founded in 1990, and has been involved in a number of Scottish-Irish cultural initiatives, such as Colmcille / The Columba Initiative and Leabhar Mór na Gaidhlig / The Great Book of Gaelic. 

TIM Mc GARRY 

Tim McGarry is a former lawyer turned actor, writer, stand-up comedian and broadcaster. Best known as Da from Give my Head Peace he was the taxi driver in Hearts and Minds and is currently the chair of BBCNI’s popular panel show The Blame game. He wrote his own one man stand-up show Tim Mc Garry’s History Lesson. In 2013 he wrote and presented a two-part programme Tim McGarry’s Ulster-Scots Journey. 

DR WILLIAM ROULSTON 

William Roulston is Research Director with the Ulster Historical Foundation and has published a number of titles including, Researching Scots -Irish Ancestors  

MOORE SINNERTON  

Moore is a documentary filmmaker specialising in the arts, history, politics and cultural identity. 

MARK THOMPSON 

Born and still living on the Ards Peninsula, Mark was Chair of the Ulster-Scots Agency from 2005-2009. His background is in the creative industries and he has a wealth of experience in bringing Ulster-Scots heritage to the wider public. 

RECEPTION AND DINNER last night, which we also attended .

THE OTHER TONGUES SHOWCASE 

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM: 

CHRIS AGEE 

Chris Agee was born in San Francisco and grew up in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. He attended Harvard University and since 1979 has lived in Ireland. He is the author of three books of poems, In the New Hampshire Woods (1992), First Light (2003) and Next to Nothing (2009) (shortlisted for the 2010 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry). He is the editor of Irish Pages a journal of contemporary writing based in Belfast. 

DR FRANK FERGUSON  

Frank Ferguson is Director of the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Ulster and is Project Manager of the Ulster-Scots Education Project. 

AONGHAS MACLEÒID  

Aonghas MacLeòid was born in Inverness. He spent his childhood between Inverness, Barra and Edinburgh before commencing postgraduate study at the University of Glasgow. He gained a firstclass honours degree, and completed an MPhil on the work of the Barra writer Donald Sinclair. He is currently researching a PhD, on the long poem in Scottish Gaelic in the twentieth century. He lives in Glasgow. 

CATHAL Ó SEARCAIGH  

Cathal Ó Searcaigh was born and raised in Meenala, near Gortahork, an Irish-speaking district in Co. Donegal. He was Writer-in-Residence in the Irish Language at the University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast. His many poetry collections include Súile Shuibhne (1983), Suibhe (1987) the bilingual An Bealach ’na Bhaile/Homecoming (1993), Na Buachaillí Bána (1996) and Aimsir Ársa (2013). His prose works include Seal I Neipeal (2004) and Pianó hín na bPreáchán (2011). He is the author of several plays in Irish. He continues to live in Meenala.

Musical entertainment: Sontas – a fusion of Ulster-Scots and traditional Irish music and dance.

On Saturday, 17th October, 2009 I gave a speech at the Spirit of the South Award Dinner in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This is what I said:

Let me introduce myself in Tsalagi -Cherokee, as in this area they were once Ani Yun wiya—the Leading or Exalted People-Siyo To-hi-tsu – I am Ian Adamson—da-qu-ado. I am delighted to be here in Atlanta, Georgia, the home state of my favourite President, James Earl Carter – that most dedicated and highly principled man from Plains whose administration was one of remarkable accomplishment in pursuit of peace, justice and human rights. He is my favourite because I believe his foresight in diplomacy was an example to us as politicians in Northern Ireland and led directly to the Belfast Agreement.

But for me also he was also a man of the Frontier and like many of his predecessors in the Presidency a true son of Ulster. Set as Ulster is at the north-eastern corner of Ireland facing Britain across a narrow sea and separated from the rest of Ireland by a zone of little hills known as Drumlins, by lake, marshland and mountain, the characteristics of our language and people have been moulded by movements, large and small, between the two islands since the dawn of human history.

There was a constant coming and going between the north-east of Ireland and western Scotland from the time of the Ulster Scottish kingdom of Dalraida at the last quarter of the 5th Century when these Irish, or Scots as they were known, gave the name of Scotland to North Britain until the 17th Century immigration of a numerous Scots element brought the Scotch language or Ullans to Ireland. In a sense these Scots were returning home.

But was to be in the following century that the people of Ulster were to make another great migration and that was to be to a New World. Pressurised by southern expansion into Scotland earlier in the Christian era, they had at last returned to the lands of their ancestors. In speech and temper and outlook, the Ulster people contrasted more sharply with the natives of the other provinces of Ireland than the English Midlands with the Home Counties. In America they became known as Scotch-Irish and they created the Frontier.

Perhaps the most potent symbol of the American Frontier was Davy Crockett who was a determined opponent, political and personal of Andrew Jackson, his fellow Scotch-Irish man. It is therefore not surprising that he opposed Jackson and the issue of forced relocation of the Cherokee people from their ancestral homes in Georgia to Oklahoma through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. But like the Indians whom he was unable to save Davy Crockett became disheartened by Jackson’s continual victories and in 1836 left for Texas and martyrdom at the Alamo. There was also no greater defender of Indian rights and exposer of official corruption than Sam Houston, also of Scotch-Irish stock, whose citizenship of the Cherokee nation had been approved by their Council on 21st October 1829.

The success of the Scotch-Irish in frontier life was predicated by home life in the north of Ireland itself. There they had already been accustomed to living in rectangular houses with a wide open hearth fitted with familiar gear such as crook and crane and iron pots, flesh hooks and pot hooks, griddle and frying pans. In America they learned from the Indians. Indian corn became a prolific substitute for oats and barley and like them it was spring sown and food for people and beast alike. The Irish potato was introduced. Frontier clothing of leather and rawhide would have been no novelty to the Ulster immigrant nor would Indian music consisting of drum and flute have been unfamiliar to them. They followed the old Cherokee trails across the mountains. But they also learned from the Germans, whose log cabins, Kentucky Rifles and Conestoga wagons they made their own. Thus did they conquer the West

The Scotch-Irish were descended from the most ancient peoples of the British Isles – the Picts and Scots, known to themselves as Pretani or Cruthin. They took with them the heritage of farming and frontier life which had been learned through thousands of years at the Atlantic fringe of Europe. Their original society was matriarchal, their lineage matrilineal until conquests by indo-European groups such as the Celts and Anglo Saxons. American frontier women in particular were re-empowered by the old ideals of freedom and democracy which became the hallmarks of the American people.

Yet although the Scotch-Irish merged quickly into the American nation the Ulster speech itself was to stay alive in the hill country of Appalachia and beyond, where Scotch-Irish traditional music may still be heard. Amongst the earliest songs were ballads of their hero, King William of Orange, so that those who sung them became known as “Billy Boys of the Hill Country” or “Hillbillies”. Rooted deep in its traditions of the British Isles peasantry , the fiddle had become an instrument of major importance in the development of Irish, Scottish and Welsh jigs, reels and hornpipes. As with folk custom in general traditional music themes re-enforced the ancient culture divide between the north and west Britain and Ireland and the south and east of Britain.

Transposed to America the Ulster hoe down fiddle reached the peak of its development in the Southern States, supplemented occassionally by the plucked dulcimer borrowed from the German settlers. In the latter half of the 1800s came the fiddle banjo duet. In the early 1900s the fiddle, banjo and guitar trio was formed in the Southern Mountains. Soon other forms of popular music such as rag time and jazz had their effect on the mountain music. Different styles of fiddling developed, the most important perhaps being the Blues fiddling typified by the Mississippi Sheiks. This style, still predominant here in the South, was one of the richest contributions of the Black people to American life, not only for itself but because of its effect on such Florida fiddlers as Chubby Wise. Playing with Bill Munro, Wise formulated a new sound which was to become known as Bluegrass.

Musicologist WH Williams has written “Ireland’s initial impact upon American music came predominantly from Ulster.” Whatever their influence in terms of cabin and barn styles, field layout and town planning , it seems likely that the greatest and most lasting contribution of the Scotch-Irish was music. And however one may define the particular religious and ethnic identity, musically they should be considered Ulstermen, for they brought with them the mixture of Scottish and Irish tunes which is still characteristic of large parts of Northern Ireland. The arrival of the guitar added a new dimension to the music of the mountains. So most of all we gave you Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley.

Mouth music, however, to which the early Scotch-Irish danced their jigs and reels when no instruments were available, is still present in the Appalachians today. Back dancing, with its mixture of Scottish and Irish traditional styles, is not only still performed at competitive folk festivals but also in private homes. In fact, most of this would be perfectly recognisable to the original Scotch Irish immigrants, so that Appalachia and the Ozarks are actually more originally Ulster than modern Ulster is itself..This process is known as “colonial shift”, where settlers retain attributes which have become lost over time in the countries of origin.

There are many modern Americans who still take pride in their descent from Scotch-Irish families although they often know little of Ulster itself Not so many of these are now Presbyterians for most became Methodists , Baptists and Catholics according to conscience. This was due to old-time preachers whose traditions also lived on in the American black community to be personified by Martin Luther King. The migration of the Ulster people to the frontier was a Diaspora similar to that of the Jews.

North America was to provide ample scope for the soaring vision of men of Ulster origin. In Ulster itself meanwhile, Belfast, the only major city to support the American Revolution, became a great centre of industrialisation and on its Lagan River became a centre for the White Star Line, building one of the most famous ships of all, the Titanic, unluckily named because there was already another Belfast ship still sailing called Titanic, a cargo vessel built in 1888 by another shipbuilding yard founded in part by Richard Lewis, the grandfather of CS Lewis, who wrote the Narnia series of children’s stories. And yes, we also gave you Disneyland.

May I finish with a Sioux blessing, since I was once considered a Wisdom Keeper among them..

Lakota
Ho Tunkasila Wakan Tanka
Oyate oyasin unsiwicalapo na owicakiyapo
Nahan waci wicasi na waci winyan wwopila tanka
Nahan oyate oyasin canku luta ognamani owicakiyapo
Lecel wacin ho hecel lena, oyate kin nipi kte.
Mitakuye Oyasin

Grandfather Great Spirit
Have pity on and help all the People
Many Thanks for the Performers, male and female,
Help all the People to walk the Red Road of Peace
This I ask so that the People will prosper
You are all my relatives

In Scotch-Irish Fair Faa Ye –Bless you..In Ulster Gaelic—Go Raibh Maith Agat–Thank you very much.

The Ulster History Circle and the Ulster-Scots Agency request the pleasure of

your company at the unveiling of a blue plaque JAMES (JEMMY) HOPE at

Mallusk Cemetery, Park Road, Mallusk, Newtownabbey onMonday 24 March 2014 at 11.00 a.m

Refreshments afterwards in Mossley Mill, Newtownabbey BT36 5QA

RSVP to Maud Hamill: Email: maudhamill3@gmail.com Tel: 07766823535

On March 9 in 1919, three days after he died in London, the remains of one of Wexford’s most famous sons, John Redmond, were brought home to the Model County. News of his death caused great sorrow everywhere and even those who disagreed with his politics were united in their praise of his distinguished service to his country. The Irish Catholic Directory of 1919 reported his death and the reaction to it, in great detail, including the arrival of his funeral train at Wexford Station. Most of the expressions of sorrow at his death were, however, from the political and social elite of the day, most of them London-based.

The news of his death has caused great sorrow everywhere, and messages of condolence were received in great numbers, including messages from  King George, Queen Mary, and Queen Alexandra,’ it reported. ‘His Eminence Cardinal Logue, in a  communication to a Belfast paper, said: ‘received with heartfelt sorrow the sad news of the death of Mr. John Redmond. ‘I am sorry for the deceased gentleman himself, whom I have always held in the highest respect and esteem, and I am especially sorry for Ireland, which loses in her time of greatest  need a wise, experienced, devoted leader. He has given long and distinguished service to his  country, which owes to his powerful advocacy and tireless efforts many valuable concessions. Like many others, I may not have always been in perfect agreement with the details of his policy, but I have never even dreamt of questioning his patriotism and singleness of purpose and disinterested  devotion to the welfare of his country or his commanding abilities. I believe the country will long mourn the loss of such a distinguished son.’

John Redmond’s remains were removed from  Westminster Cathedral, where they had lain in state, on Friday evening, March 8, and conveyed to  Ireland by the 8.45 night mail from Euston. They arrived in Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) on the  mail steamer at an early hour on the Saturday morning. The special train, the engine of which was heavily draped with crepe, left for Wexford at 7.30a.m. Touching scenes were witnessed along  the route At all the railway stations groups of people gathered to  watch the train, and workers in  the fields stood with bowed heads while it passed. At Macmine Junction, a community of nuns who were compelled to leave Belgium at the beginning of the First World War and found a home at Macmine Castle mainly through the exertions of Mr. Redmond, knelt in prayer near the railway line.

The platform at Wexford was crowded with the leading men of the town and county. The Mayor and Corporation of Wexford and representatives of public bodies in various parts of Ireland were present. The remains were received at the Church of the Immaculate Conception by Rev. Thomas  Hore, Adm. The Most Rev. Dr. Codd, Bishop of Ferns, presided at the Solemn Requiem Office and  High Mass. Rev Thomas Hore, Adm., was celebrant; Rev. John Sinnot, C.C., deacon; Rev. Martin  Conner, sub-deacon, and Rev. Matthew Wickham, C.C.,  master of ceremonies; Rev. Mark O’Byme and Rev. John Butler were chanters. There was a very  large attendance of priests from different  parts of the country in the choir. The sacred ceremonies  were most impressive, and thecongregation in the church were deeply affected.

Shortly after 2p.m., the remains were borne into the churchyard. The burial service was conducted by Rev. Father Hore, Adm., Wexford, assisted by the other priests, and the coffin was afterwards placed in the Redmond  family vault. In its reports into his death, the periodical says messages of condolences were  innumerable, and came from ‘all classes and all parts of the United Kingdom, and also from the Colonies and the United States’. In the House of Commons, eloquent tributes were paid to the deceased by the Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Carson, Mr. Adamson (Chairman of the Labour Party); Mr. Eugene Wason, for the Scottish Liberal members; and Sir Herbert Roberts,for the Welsh members. Mr. John O’Connor returned thanks on behalf of himself, his colleagues, Mrs.  Redmond, and the Irish leader’s relatives.

The remains were removed from the rivate nursing home  in which Mr. Redmond breathed his last on Wednesday night to Westminster Cathedral, where they were placed on a catafalque before the altar in the Holy Souls chapel.On Friday morning Mr.Redmond’s remains were removed front the Holy Souls Mortuary Chapel and placed on a catafalque in the nave immediately opposite the High Altar. Cardinal Bourne presided at the Solemn Requiem Mass, and also preached. Before pronouncing the Absolution, the Cardinal Archbishop ascended the pulpit, and gave a short address. His Eminence said ‘the Catholics of the United Kingdom knew that one has been taken from them who, to the extent of his power, and often  in very delicate and difficult circumstances, did battle time and again for the sacred interests of their common faith, and their minds travel back especially to the strenuous part that he took 12 years  ago in the defence of the religious character of our schools’.

• The Redmond family decided not to have any public display in Dublin at the time of his funeral in case it might cause unrest. On March 20, two weeks after Mr. Redmond’s death a Mass was celebrated in the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street. The ceremony was arranged for by the Clongowes Union, of which Mr. Redmond was a vice-president, and there was a considerable attendance of members. Mrs. J. B. Redmond (widow), Mr. Max Greene (son-in-law), and Mr. L.G.  Redmond Howard were the relatives in attendance. Mr. J. Dillon, Mr. J. Devlin, and several colleagues of deceased in the Irish Parliamentary Party occupied front seats in the church. Many members of the Irish Convention were present, including Sir Horace Plunkett (chairman) and Lord  Southborough. Representatives of the commercial and professional classes of the country also attended, and the Lord Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls, as well as numerous members of the  Irish Bar, were amongst the congregation.

Wexford People 

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Colourful tour guide, passionate about preservation of cemetery’s legacy, passed away today

Hillbilly is a term (often used in a derogatory sense) for people who dwell in Appalachia but also parts of the Ozarks in the United States. Due to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term can be offensive to Appalachian-Americans. 

Origins of the term “hillbilly” are obscure. According to Anthony Harkins in Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon, the term first appeared in print in a 1900 New York Journal article, with the definition: “a Hill-Billy is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.” This statement has all the hallmarks of Northern  Yankee prejudice.

The Appalachian region was largely settled in the 18th century by the Ulster Scots, Protestants, who migrated to the Irish province of Ulster before, during, and especially after, the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. The majority of these people originated in the lowlands of Scotland. In America, the Ulster Scots became known as the Scotch-Irish. Harkins believes the most credible theory of the term’s origin is that it derives from the linkage of two older Scottish expressions, “hill-folk” and “billie” which was an old synonym for “fellow”, or “friend”.

Although the term is not documented in America until 1900, I have always believed that it originated in 17th-century Ireland for Protestant supporters of King William III during the Williamite War. The Irish Catholic supporters of James II referred to these northern Protestant supporters of “King Billy”, as “Billy Boys”. However, my old friend, Michael Montgomery of the University of South Carolina, in From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English, states “In Ulster in recent years it has sometimes been supposed that it was coined to refer to followers of King William III and brought to America by early Ulster emigrants…, but this derivation is almost certainly incorrect… In America hillbilly was first attested only in 1898, which suggests a later, independent development.” Michael is president of the Ulster-Scots Language Society, which I founded in 1992.

Obsessed as he is with obsolete terminology, there is a serious inconsistency in Michael’s argument, which Harkins has followed..If the term only developed in America in the late nineteenth century, who in America was using the old  Scotch term “billie” for “fellow”  or “friend” at that time? I am a native speaker of Ulster-Scots and “fella” and “freen” were the only terms used in my own village of Conlig in Ulster and in my Granny’s home in Ayrshire in Scotland. We have never used the term “billie” instead of “fella” or “freen”, though it was indeed used in Scotland, including by Robert Burns in Tam O’Shanter. But where is the evidence that the term was used as such  in Appalachia ? Michael himself has stated that no attestation of “billie” as “friend” has been found in America other than Bruce (1801), who was an emigrant from Ulster, so how did the term enter common parlance?.

Harkins theorizes that use of the term outside the Appalachians arose in the years after the War between the States, when the Appalachian region became increasingly bypassed by technological and social changes taking place in the rest of the country, and purposely so. Until the Civil War, the Appalachians and Ozarks were not significantly different from other rural areas of the country. After the war, as the wounded Confederacy made a strategic retreat to the Hills until its time should come again, the Appalachian country retained its frontier character, and the poverty-stricken people themselves came to be seen in the Yankee heartlands as backward, quick to violence, and inbred in their isolation. Fueled by news stories of mountain feuds, such as that in the 1880s between the Hatfields and the McCoys, the hillbilly stereotype, which bordered on overt racialism, developed in the Yankee North during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It has been said that the Scotch Irish made three contributions to Colonial America.  They settled a frontier, they founded the Kirk and they built the school.  It was they more than any other group who created the first western frontier. The Reverend Francis Makemie (1658–1708) was born into the Ulster Scots community in Ramelton, County Donegal. He went on to become a clergyman and was ordained by the Presbytery of the Laggan, in West Ulster, in 1682. At the call of Colonel William Stevens, an Episcopalian from Rehobeth, Maryland, he was sent as a missionary to America, arriving in Maryland in 1683. He is considered to be the founder of Presbyterianism in the United States of America.

On February 8, 1693, under a royal charter (technically, by letters patent) granted by King Willam III  and Queen Mary II of Orange, The College of William and Mary in Virginia was established to “make, found and establish a certain Place of Universal Study, a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences…to be supported and maintained, in all time coming.” Named in honor of the reigning monarchs King William III and Queen Mary, the College is the second oldest in the United States and was one of the original Colonial colleges. The King provided funds allocated from tobacco taxes, along with the Surveyor-General’s Office “profits” and 10,000 acres each in the Pamunkey Neck and on Blackwater Swamp. Founded as an Anglican institution, it made an  easy transition to secular status after the American Revolutionary War, but, like the rest of the South, suffered greatly under the Union occupation. But it has always remembered its Williamite roots and connections to the British monarchy.

To the Scotch-Irish much largely go the credit of being the first pioneers west of the Appalachians in opening up the Mississippi valley.  Not only were they predominantly among the pioneers-the mother of the first white child born west of the Rockies was Catherine O’Hare from Rathfriland, but they carried with them an important part of their cultural heritage, their music.  Whatever their influence in terms of cabin and barn styles, field lay-out, town planning and so on, it  seems likely that the greatest and most lasting contribution of the Scotch Irish was music.

However one may define their particular religious and ethnic identity musically they should be considered Ulstermen for they brought with them the mixture of Scottish and Irish tunes which is still characteristic of large parts of old Ulster. From the “Hillbilly music” of the Appalachian Billy Boys or followers of King William, which became Bluegrass, to the Soul music of the Gaelic singers of Donegal and the Hebrides, which became Rhythm and Blues, along with their brothers and sisters in the Black community, they left a lasting impression on  Americanism as  it  was to become. How proud they must be of being “hillbillies”, proud and brave. Elvis and Dolly, we love you…You will live forever

The events of the First World War, particularly those that had a major effect on the history of Ireland, will be remembered and commemorated over the next six years.

The 10^th and 16^th Irish Divisions and the 36^th Ulster Division suffered significant losses that were deeply felt by families from all parts of Ireland. Many tens of thousands of young, and sometimes not so young, men left home for the first time to go to France to join thousands of others on the Western Front with the expectation that they would all be “home by Christmas”. Women also played their part by taking on jobs at home to support the war effort with many others following our troops to the front line to provide medical and nursing care in dressing stations and field hospitals.

The Somme Association is currently developing its plans to commemorate the main events of the First World War to acknowledge the losses of a whole generation. We are seeking the backing of our Councils through the incoming year to assist with raising the necessary funds to ensure that we can commemorate the courage and sacrifice of the men who left home to join the fight, and the women who supported them.

Not only is 2014 the 100^th Anniversary of the start of the First World War, but it is also the last year in which our existing Councils will operate before the changes resulting from Local Government Reform come into effect in April 2015. We are grateful for your support in the past and are now asking that you join with us in raising the necessary funds at this time. With your support and involvement we can start to invest in our plans to commemorate the centenaries of the First World War, through exhibitions and events at home as well as leading in several of the main commemoration ceremonies abroad. We are asking if you would consider sponsoring a fundraising event in your Council area to assist us in raising the necessary funds to ensure that the various events are carried out in a manner that is a fitting tribute. The event can range from a fundraising dinner or lunch to sponsoring a show or concert for members of the local community where the proceeds can go towards our Somme Association Centenary Appeal. We plan to formally launch the Appeal on the 7^th April 2014. If you feel that you are unable to sponsor a fundraising event your council may wish to consider making a donation towards our Appeal.

Representatives of the Somme Association will be pleased to work with you to discuss the possible options and are available to attend a meeting of your council to give a presentation on our current plans and provide more information on our Appeal.

The centenaries of the First World War provide us with an opportunity for people from various backgrounds to come together to mark our shared history and to remember family members who stood together with others, many of whom did not return. It is important that their contribution and sacrifice is marked in an appropriate and fitting way that engages with all sections of our community and assists our young people in learning more about the key events in this part of our history and to better understand how we united at that time and shared the same emotions and the same sense of pain and loss. Our aim is to ensure that the centenaries of the First World War are marked in a way that the descendants of all of those stood together in war can join in commemorating their exceptional courage and sacrifice. In describing the actions of the 16^th Irish Division and the 36^th Ulster Division as they fought side by side at the Battle of Messines, Major William Redmond of The Royal Irish Regiment said “It would be a fine memorial to the men who have died so splendidly if we could, over their graves, build up a bridge”.

With your support we can continue to work to achieve that objective.

Dr Ian Adamson OBE

Chairman

The Somme Association 

 The Scotch-Irish (Cruthin)  origins of St. Patrick’s day parades in America. 

It is usually assumed that Southern Irish Catholics were the first to bring the traditions of St. Patrick’s Day to America and were the first to hold parades on that day to celebrate “Irishness”. That assumption is wrong… 

In 1737 the Charitable Irish Society was formed in Boston by Scotch-Irish Presbyterian colonists. The Society was set up with the purpose to assist newly arriving fellow immigrants from Ireland in the traumatic process of settling in a strange new country.  In March 17th of that year they decided to mark St. Patrick’s day with a dinner at a local tavern followed by a modest parade through the streets. This was to be the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in America, and most likely the world (Ireland didn’t commemorate Patrick with parades until the 1930’s). The Charitable Irish Society is the oldest Irish organisation in America and it is still in existence. It was exclusively Presbyterian until 1804 when the society became non-denominational. Today, understandably, its membership is mostly made up of Roman Catholics.  

Greeting card  featuring the St. Patrick’s flag of Ireland. This is one of the three flags which make up the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. It is also the flag of Alabama.

It is often wrongly cited that the first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York but the first records of celebrations for the Irish apostle in that city come from 1762 (25 years after the Boston event). An Irish Protestant called John Marshall invited Friends to his house at Mount Pleasant for a party to celebrate the day. His guests marched as a body to the party thus forming the first unofficial “parade”.  In 1766 the New York Gazette reported on a notable March 17th celebration at the house of a gentleman by the name of Mr. Bardin. Among the toasts raised on the evening were; “the prosperity of Ireland“, “Success to the Sons Of Liberty in America” and “The glorious memory of King William of Orange“. The first proper St. Patrick’s day parade in New York was in that same year (1766) when soldiers from the British Army’s Irish regiments (Catholics were forbidden to join the army until 1778) met at the Crown & Thistle tavern in Manhattan, drank a toast to King George III and then paraded through New York  with the “playing of fifes and drums, which produced a very agreeable harmony.” before heading back to the pub for more drinks. Today, Irish regiments in the British Army still mark St. Patrick’s day with a parade. 

 

A soldier of the Royal Ulster Rifles

On 17th March 1780,  in honour of his large contingent of Irish soldiers, General George Washington issued a General Order to give his troops the day off for St. Patrick’s Day. Over one third of the Continental Army were of Irish descent or Irish born, the vast majority of whom were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. Soldiers from within these ranks had formed a society called The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in 1771 of which George Washington was an honorary member. The original society was overwhelmingly Scotch-Irish Presbyterian in membership with some Episcopalians and three  Catholics, one of whom they elected as their first president; General Stephen Moylan. 

The Friendly Son’s membership was originally mostly Scotch-Irish

The Friendly Sons held the first St. Patrick’s celebrations in Philadelphia in 1771 where the organisation had been formed. They also organised the official St. Patrick’s day parades in New York city from 1784 into the 1800’s. The American War of Independence had struck a sympathetic chord in Ulster.  Many thousands of Ulster people had emigrated to America and some were in the forefront of the Revolution.  However when France declared its support for the Colonists, Volunteer Companies were formed to counter any possibility of a French invasion of Ireland.  Ulster at that time was the cradle of progressive ideas in Ireland. “May the northern lights ever illuminate the Irish nation” became a popular toast. 

Many of the volunteers were politically-conscious and democratically minded.  They used the strength of the Volunteer Movement to press for radical reform, including a demand for legislative independence.  Although the Volunteers were Protestants, the Belfast Companies called vociferously for Catholic emancipation and resolved that: “We invite to our ranks persons of every religious persuasion”.  Indeed the Belfast Companies not only raised half the building costs of St Mary’s Chapel and St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Donegall Street but on the day of its opening in 1784 paraded in full dress and marched to attend the Mass, which according to the Belfast Newsletter, was also attended by great numbers of the other Protestant inhabitants.

Father O’Donnell published a letter of thanks from the Roman Catholics of Belfast to the Volunteers “for their generosity in enabling them to erect a handsome edifice for the celebration of divine worship.  They know not in what adequate terms to express their feelings and were excited by the attendance and so respectable a protestant audience on Sunday last at the opening of the House- the impression of which mark of regard is never to be effaced”.

A few years later, in 1789, the Siege of Derry centenary commemorations showed, as A T Q Stewart pointed out, how the celebration of the historic event could not have developed in a more natural way, allowing all the townspeople to take civic pride in it.  An early nineteenth Century account describes how the day’s celebrations culminated.   The Derry Corporation, the Clergy, the Officers of the Navy and Army, the gentlemen from the country, Volunteers, Scholars and Apprentices sat down to a plain but plentiful dinner in the Town Hall.  Religious dissentions in particular seemed to be buried in oblivion.  Roman Catholics vied with Protestants in expressing their sense of the blessing secured to them by the event which they were commemorating.

On March 17, 1812, in Savannah Georgia, thirteen men founded the Hibernian Society, dedicated to aiding  largely Catholic destitute Irish immigrants. A few months later, the group, now up to 44 members, adopted a constitution and the motto, “non sibi sed alis” (not for ourselves, but for others). Not one charter member was a Catholic. One year later, on March 17, 1813 the group held the city’s first St Patrick’s day parade, they marched in procession to a Presbyterian church. It’s a similar story with Canada’s oldest parade; Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Day parade was first held in 1824.  Soon after, the St. Patrick’s Society was born in the city, it’s membership was overwhelmingly Protestant. In 1856, many of the members left and formed the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society. 

 

At the beginning of the 19^th century during the Napoleonic Wars, the demand for timber for sailing ships could not be met from the traditional source of the Baltic States due to a blockade by Napoleon’s navy. Emigration through the ports of Moville and Derry was to British North America, where timber was plentiful, rather than the new United States. Due to technological changes in linen production, cottage-based weavers and their impoverished families were left with no option but to migrate to the Maritime Provinces of what is now Canada. 

This immigration started about 1815 following the battle of Waterloo and it is thought that 80% of passengers landed in Canada, with perhaps half of that total going on to the United States.  By 1871 they made up 24.3% of Canada’s population, with 35% of the population of Ontario and New Brunswick being of Irish origin.

In this pre-famine period of genuinely mass immigration (1815-45) in both the United States(400,000) and Canada (450,000), protestant Irish migrants continued to significantly outnumber Roman catholic Irish. As a consequence in 1871 60% of the Irish in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were protestant.  Furthermore they were rural settlers, in contrast to the United States where the Irish immigrant’s principal role was to service the industrial revolution. 

The Canadian Irish Protestant Benevolent Society

With the failure of the Potato crop in 1845 thousands upon thousands of desperate and diseased men, women and children from every corner of Ireland sought escape by boarding ships bound for America.  And it is this period (1845-50) that has received the most attention. There is still a tendency to see the Great Famine as the prime cause of the Irish Diaspora, when in reality heavy emigration from Ireland began well before the Famine and continued well after it.

 

From the mid 1800’s, as Roman Catholic immigrants from Ireland started to outnumber their Protestant counterparts in the Northern Yankee cities, the parades started to become controlled and organised by the Roman Catholic only Ancient Order of Hibernians, which was formed in New York in 1836. The parades became less secular and took on a Catholic Nationalist political outlook. Non-denominational societies such as The Friendly Sons, The Charitable Irish & the Hibernian Society became more Roman Catholic and Gaelic, moving away from their Protestant and Cruthinic origins. Thanks though, to its Irish Protestant beginnings in America, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations remained more secularized than in Ireland, where it was considered a day of holy obligation. In fact, until the 1970s the bars in Dublin were closed on March 17.

 

St. Patrick stained glass window in Armagh’s Protestant cathedral.

Another common misconception today is that Irish-Americans are predominately Roman Catholic. But in fact more than half of the 40 million Americans who claim Irish heritage are Protestant in faith. One of the main factors for this is that  in the colonial period 30 percent of all immigrants from Europe arriving between 1700 and 1820 came from Ireland and the great majority of them were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from Ulster. To give a perspective on this; in 1790 when Fr. John Carroll was ordained as the first Roman Catholic bishop of the USA there were around 30,000 practising Roman Catholics (around 1% of the population) and 22 priests in the new United States. This number represents Roman Catholics of all nationalities (English, Irish, Dutch, German etc.). At the same time there were around 200 practising Presbyterian ministers from Ulster alone and an estimated 250,000 Scotch-Irish.

 

The  descendants of these early Scotch-Irish arrivals have been multiplying ever since. A study in the 1970’s showed that  83% of Irish-American Protestants have been in America for four generations or more compared to only  41% of Irish-American Catholics. The National Opinion Resarch Centre at the University of Chicago produced statistics which demonstrated that 12% of modern adult Americans named Ireland as the country from which most of their ancestors came and 56% belonged to one of the Protestant churches. Not many  are now Presbyterians for most became Methodists and Baptists according to conscience.This was due to old-time preachers whose traditions also lived on in the American Black community to be personified by Martin Luther King . There seems to be a growing trend in America for Protestant Irish to wear orange on St. Patrick’s day in recognition of their faith and heritage.

St. Patrick mural in protestant area of Belfast.

Saint Patrick’s story is therefore essentially an Ulster story. This is where he was enslaved as a boy from Britain by the Cruthin Chieftain Milchu, this is where he returned to as a man. It is where he built his first church in a barn, , it is where he evangelized, among his first converts being the daughter of Milchu, the Cruthin princess Bronagh, it is where he lived and died. And it is where his cult became established in Connor, Dalaradia, in Antrim,before moving to Armagh. Today, St. Patrick’s so-called “grave stone” can be viewed in the grounds of Down Church of Ireland Episcopalian Cathedral in Downpatrick, Ulster… not far from where he built his first house of Christian worship in Saul, the barn, Co. Down. So his story is an Appalachian story too…And,of course, Patrick is also the Patron Saint of Nigeria and a potent symbol of Common Identity with the Black Community….

 

 

IX. – THE DECLINE OF ULAIDH.

Defeat.
Another century passed by, and the fortunes of the Kingdom of Ulaidh were on the wane. Against the Crew Hill the enemies of the Ulidians seemed relentless in their attacks. In 1099 Donal O’Lochlainn led an army of the Northern Hy-Niall across Toome into Ulidia. He reached the Crew Hill and found the Ulidian forces ready for battle. In the engagement that followed the Kinel-Owen were victorious. The victory gave them an opportunity of inflicting a lasting humiliation on their old enemies. They cut down the Sacred Tree of the Crew Hill, and compelled the Ulidians to give hostages.

Retaliation.
Twelve years later the Ulidians had recovered so far as to be able to retaliate for the insult offered to their national honour. In 1111 A. D. they led an army into the territories of the Hy-Niall, and cut down the sacred trees of Tullaghogue (Os), under which from time immemorial the Kings of the Kinel-Owen were inaugurated.

O’Rorke and O’Carroll at the Crew.
The Kinel-Owen had their revenge. They came in 1148 under Murtagh Mac Loughlin and dethroned Cuuladh O’Donlevy King of Ulaidh, and set up Donacha, a prince of the same family, in his place. Tighernan O’Rorke and Donogh O’Carroll came with an army to the assistance of the ill-fated monarch. They established him again on his throne ; but no sooner were they gone than Cu-uladh was expelled by the Ulidians themselves, It was this same Tighernan O’Rorke, Prince of Breffney, who four years later was doing the penitential exercises on Lough Derg, when his wife Devorgilla eloped with the infamous Dermot Mac Murrough. It may be remarked in passing that Devorgilla soon afterwards retired to the Abbey of Mellifont, where she spent the rest of her days in works of penance and charity. O’Carroll, who accompanied O’Rorke to Craobh-Tulcha, was the King of Oriel that endowed the famous Cistercian Abbey of Mellifont.

Fuit llium.
After this we hear no more of the Crew Hill in Irish history. Its fame and munificence and hospitality had been the theme of minstrels in the days of King Connor Mac Nessa. With the falling fortunes of its chiefs Craobh Tulcha lapsed into oblivion. Its very site was almost forgotten. So much so that an otherwise accurate and painstaking antiquarian of the last century wrote : ” It would appear that the place  lay towards the north of the modern county of Down, somewhere in Castlereagh.”

A Poet of the Fourteenth Century.
Here are a few lines translated from a topographical poem written in praise of the chieftans of Ulaidh by John
Mor O’Dugan, who died in 1372 A.D.

” Let us lift our heads towards Creeve-Roe.
The chief Kings of Uladh let us name,
The lands of hospitality and spears,
The Dunlevys and the Hoeys.

” Of their nobles are men of slaughters,
The O’Haddys: and the Keogans.
Great are the spoils they bring from plunder,
The O’Laverys and O’Lawlors.

The O’Lynches have proud champions,
And the O’Mornas red-complexioned,
We have visited their territories,
Let us cease from naming the High-Kings.”

X. – RELIGIOUS REVIVAL.

De Profundis Clamavi.
It is needless to tell that religion and morality must have suffered during the constant wars that devastated the Province of Ulster. It is when matters seem nearing their worst, however, that the providence of God manifests itself. For instance, in the case of the Norman Invasion, when Danish wars and incessant strife had wrought havoc in the Province of Leinster, and prepared the way for the foreigners, God raised up a holy and learned ecclesiastic – the great St. Laurence O’Toole – to be shepherd over His flock during the terrible crisis. He showed a similar providence in regard to the people of Antrim, Down, and Armagh, whilst the Kingdom of Uladh was tottering to its ruin amidst the clash of arms. The Prelate who saved religion in the North at the time of the downfall of Uladh was St.

St. Malachy.
Malachy O’Morgair.
We have a beautiful account of the life and times of this Saint, written by his friend St. Bernard. St. Malachy was born in 1094, and spent his youth at the famous School of Armagh. Sprung from pious parents, he was from the first a man of prayer and a diligent student. At the age of 25 he was promoted to the priesthood. Soon after, he was entrusted by the Archbishop Celsus with the serious duty of correcting the various abuses that had grown up during years of incessant war. He re-established the public singing of the Canonical Hours, and urged upon all the frequent reception of the Sacraments.

His Zeal.
” Behold him,” says St. Bernard, ” plucking up and pulling down and scattering with the hoe of his eloquence, making the crooked ways straight and the rough ways plain. You would say he was a raging fire burning down the rank weeds of crime. His eye spared not disorder, indecorum, nor what was wrong wheresoever it presented itself ; but as hail sweepeth the green figs from the fig tree, and as the wind scattereth the dust from the face of the earth, so did he exert all his might to remove from before his face and blot out from amongst his people all abuses, and in their place, like a good legislator, he established the laws of the Church.” The ancient Monastery of Bangor, which had been reduced to ruins by the Danes in 812, he restored to something like its former glory.

Bishop of Connor.
He was made Bishop of Connor at the age of 30. ” He soon discovered,” writes St. Bernard, ” that it was not to men, but to beasts, that he had been sent Christians in name, but Pagans in reality.” What the fruits of his zeal were, we are told by St. Bernard : ” Churches were rebuilt and supplied with priests. The rites of the Sacraments were duly administered, confession was practised, the people attended the church, and concubinage was suppressed by the solemnization of marriage. In a word, so completely were all things changed for the better that you can apply to that people now what the Lord said by His Prophet : They who were not my people are now my people.”

Archbishop of Armagh.
From the See of Connor he was promoted to the Arch-Archbishop of bishoprick  He accepted this dignity only under .
obedience. when he felt that his mission was accomplished in the Primatial City, he retired to the Bishopric of Down. There he hoped to end his days in peace amongst the monks he had established at Downpatrick. But he was not allowed to remain undisturbed in his beloved retreat. He had to make two journeys to Rome in connection with the organization of the Irish Church. When he reached the Monastery of Clairvaux, on the second journey, the sickness of death was upon him. In the holy atmosphere of this monastery that he loved, and attended in his dying moments by his friend St. Bernard, he passed to his reward on the Feast of All Souls, 1148.