Ulster-Scots
Encyclopedia
The Ulster Scots are an ethnic group in Ireland
, descended from Lowland
Scots
and English from the border of those two countries, many from the "Border Reivers
" culture. These people first began to occupy Ireland in large numbers with the Plantation of Ulster
, a planned process of colonisation
which took place under the auspices of James VI of Scotland and I of England on land confiscated from the Irish nobility
, most extensively in the Province of Ulster. The term "Ulster-Scots" refers to both these colonists of the 17th century and, less commonly, to the Gallowglass
who began to arrive from what is now northwest Scotland centuries earlier.
Ulster-Scots were largely descended from colonists from Galloway
, Ayrshire
, and the Scottish Borders Country
, although some descend from people further north in the Scottish Lowlands and the Highlands
. Ulster-Scots emigrated in significant numbers to the United States
and all corners of the then-worldwide British Empire
— Canada
, Australia
, New Zealand
, South Africa
— and to a lesser extent to Argentina
and Chile
in South America
. Scotch-Irish is a traditional term for Ulster Scots who later emigrated to what is now the United States
; "Scots-Irish" is a more recent form of the American term, and is not to be confused with Irish-Scots
, i.e., recent Irish immigrants to Scotland
.
Although population movement of Gaels
to and from the northeast of Ireland
and the west of Scotland
had been on-going since pre-historic times, a class of warriors from the west of what is now Scotland fought in significant numbers as mercenaries for Irish kings
from the mid-13th century to the end of the 16th century. These were known as gallowglass
, from the Irish
for "foreign gaels", referring to their mixed Norse
and Gaelic heritage. Many settled in Ireland at the conclusion of their service. The next major influx of Scots was a concentrated migration of Lowland Scots to Ulster, mainly during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The first major influx of border English and Lowland Scots into Ulster came in the first two decades of the 17th century. Starting in 1609, Scots began arriving into state-sponsored settlements as part of the Plantation of Ulster
. This scheme was intended to confiscate all the lands of the Gaelic Irish nobility in Ulster and to settle the province with Protestant English and Scottish colonists. Under this scheme, a substantial number of Scots were settled, mostly in the south and west of Ulster, on confiscated land.
At the same time, there was an independent Scottish settlement in the east of the province, which had not been affected by the terms of the plantation. In east Down
and Antrim, Scottish migration was led by James Hamilton
and Sir Hugh Montgomery, two Ayrshire laird
s. This started in May 1606 and was followed in 1610.
During the Irish Rebellion of 1641
, the native Irish gentry
attempted to expel the English and Scottish settlers, resulting in severe violence, massacres and ultimately leading to the deaths of between four and six thousand settlers over the winter of 1641-42. Native Irish civilians were massacred in kind.
The Ulster-Scottish population in Ireland was further augmented during the subsequent Irish Confederate Wars
, when a Scottish Covenanter
army was landed in the province to protect the Ulster-Scottish settlers from native Irish landowners. After the war was over, many of their soldiers settled permanently in eastern Ulster. The war itself, part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
, ended in the 1650s, with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
. At the head of the army, Oliver Cromwell
re-conquered Ireland. Defeating the native Irish forces on behalf of the English Commonwealth, he and his forces employed methods and inflicted casualties among the civilian Irish population that were long commonly considered by historians and the popular culture to be outside of the accepted military ethics of the day (see more on the debate here). Under the Act of Settlement 1652, all Catholic-owned land was confiscated and the Plantations, which had been destroyed by the rebellion of 1641, were restored. However, due to the Scots' enmity to the English Parliament in the final stages of the English Civil War
, English settlers rather than Scots were the main beneficiary of this scheme.
There was a generation of calm in Ireland until another war broke out in 1689, again due to political conflict closely aligned with ethnic and religious differences. The Williamite war in Ireland
(1689–91) was fought between Jacobites
who supported the restoration of the Catholic James II
to the throne of England and Williamites
who supported the Protestant William of Orange
. The Protestant Ulster community, including the Scots, fought on the Williamite side in the war against Irish Catholics and their French allies. The fear of a repeat of the massacres of 1641, religious persecution under a Catholic monarch, as well as their wish to hold onto lands which had been confiscated from Catholic landowners, were all principal motivating factors.
The Williamite forces, composed of British, Dutch and Danish armies as well as troops raised in Ulster, ended Jacobite resistance by 1691, confirming the Protestant monopoly on power in Ireland. Their victories at Derry
, the Boyne
and Aughrim
are still commemorated by the Orange Order into the 21st century.
Finally, another major influx of Scots into northern Ireland occurred in the late 1690s, when tens of thousands of people fled a famine in Scotland to come to Ulster.
It was only after the 1690s that Scottish settlers and their descendants, the majority of whom were Presbyterian, gained numeric superiority in Ulster. Along with Catholic
Irish, they were legally disadvantaged by the Penal Laws, which gave full rights only to members of the state church
(the Church of Ireland
), who were mainly Anglo-Irish
and converts or the descendants of English settlers
. For this reason, up until the 19th century, there was considerable disharmony between Dissenters
and the ruling Protestant Ascendancy
in Ireland. With the enforcement of Queen Anne's
1703 Test Act
, which caused further discrimination against all who did not participate in the established church, considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots migrated to the colonies in British America
throughout the 18th century.
Towards the end of the 18th century many Ulster-Scots Presbyterians ignored religious differences and, along with many Catholic Irish, joined the United Irishmen to participate in the Irish Rebellion of 1798
in support of republican
and egalitarian ideals.
Just a few generations after arriving in Ulster, considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots emigrated to the North American colonies of Great Britain
. Between 1717 and 1775, an estimated 200,000 migrated to what became the United States of America. In the United States Census
of 2000, 4.3 million Americans (1.5% of the population of the United States) claimed Scotch-Irish ancestry. The author Jim Webb
suggests that the true number of people with some Scotch-Irish heritage in the United States is more in the region of 27 million, possibly because contemporary Americans with some Scotch-Irish heritage may regard themselves as either Irish or Scottish.
, which has, since the 1980s, also been called 'Ullans', a portmanteau neologism popularised by the physician, amateur historian and politician Dr Ian Adamson
, merging Ulster and Lallans
- the Scots for Lowlands- but also an acronym for "Ulster-Scots language in literature and native speech".
s. Protestant
Scottish traditional music is sometimes similar to Irish
and Scottish Gaelic-centred music, in that it is usually informal. A popular example of Protestant Ulster-Scots musical events is the marching bands. Here a formal and organised structure is more obvious. Although they play less frequently, these bands meet regularly in community halls to tune their instruments and to practice popular tunes and songs. The strong Scottish Unionist roots of the Ulster-Scots musical scene is evident through the continuing celebrations during the Marching Season
, which has caused much controversy in Northern Ireland.
Pádraig Ó Snodaigh, author of the book Hidden Ulster, Protestants and the Irish language
, states that many of the settlers came from Gaelic speaking areas in Scotland and thus would have culturally meshed well with their new neighbours. Also he states that church records show that by 1716 close to ten percent of ministers in Ulster preached in Gaelic. He claims that such cultural and geographic affinity would have produced numerous conversions and also marriages. In addition James G. Leyburn, author of The Scotch-Irish: A social history, quotes James Reid, a historian of the Irish Presbyterian Church in 1853, that when the marriage ban was lifted in 1610 that it was a "great joy to all parties". However Professor Leyburn examines both sides of the intermixture debate in Chapter 10 "Intermarriage with the Irish" where after examination of both viewpoints, ends the chapter by giving his own view of the matter:
James Woodburn holds that the Scots and Irish "commonly intermarried". In 1923, The Handbook of the Ulster Question published by the Free State government, stated that English politicians were quite perturbed how the Scots were ready enough to intermarry with the Irish.
, has been traced to Ulster Scots who came to Nova Scotia in 1761 on the ship Hopewell.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, descended from Lowland
Scottish Lowlands
The Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....
Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
and English from the border of those two countries, many from the "Border Reivers
Border Reivers
Border Reivers were raiders along the Anglo–Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. Their ranks consisted of both Scottish and English families, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality...
" culture. These people first began to occupy Ireland in large numbers with the Plantation of Ulster
Plantation of Ulster
The Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation of Ulster—a province of Ireland—by people from Great Britain. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while official plantation controlled by King James I of England and VI of Scotland began in 1609...
, a planned process of colonisation
Plantation (settlement or colony)
Plantation was an early method of colonization in which settlers were "planted" abroad in order to establish a permanent or semi-permanent colonial base. Such plantations were also frequently intended to promote Western culture and Christianity among nearby indigenous peoples, as can be seen in the...
which took place under the auspices of James VI of Scotland and I of England on land confiscated from the Irish nobility
Irish nobility
This article concerns the Gaelic nobility of Ireland from ancient to modern times. It only partly overlaps with Chiefs of the Name because it excludes Scotland and other discussion...
, most extensively in the Province of Ulster. The term "Ulster-Scots" refers to both these colonists of the 17th century and, less commonly, to the Gallowglass
Gallowglass
The gallowglass or galloglass – from , gallóglach – were an elite class of mercenary warrior who came from Norse-Gaelic clans in the Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland between the mid 13th century and late 16th century...
who began to arrive from what is now northwest Scotland centuries earlier.
Ulster-Scots were largely descended from colonists from Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
, Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
, and the Scottish Borders Country
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
, although some descend from people further north in the Scottish Lowlands and the Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
. Ulster-Scots emigrated in significant numbers to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and all corners of the then-worldwide British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
— Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
— and to a lesser extent to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. Scotch-Irish is a traditional term for Ulster Scots who later emigrated to what is now the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; "Scots-Irish" is a more recent form of the American term, and is not to be confused with Irish-Scots
Irish-Scots
Irish-Scots are people who live in Scotland who are of immediate or traceably distinct Irish ancestry. Although migration between Ireland and Scotland has an established history owing to their close proximity, Irish migration to Scotland increased exponentially in the nineteenth century, and was...
, i.e., recent Irish immigrants to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Early development
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
to and from the northeast of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and the west of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
had been on-going since pre-historic times, a class of warriors from the west of what is now Scotland fought in significant numbers as mercenaries for Irish kings
Irish kings
This page serves as an index of lists of kings of the Gaelic kingdoms of Ireland of the Early Medieval period.*List of High Kings of Ireland*Kings of Ailech*Kings of Airgíalla*Kings of Brega*Kings of Breifne*Kings of Connacht*Kings of Dál nAraidi...
from the mid-13th century to the end of the 16th century. These were known as gallowglass
Gallowglass
The gallowglass or galloglass – from , gallóglach – were an elite class of mercenary warrior who came from Norse-Gaelic clans in the Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland between the mid 13th century and late 16th century...
, from the Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
for "foreign gaels", referring to their mixed Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
and Gaelic heritage. Many settled in Ireland at the conclusion of their service. The next major influx of Scots was a concentrated migration of Lowland Scots to Ulster, mainly during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The first major influx of border English and Lowland Scots into Ulster came in the first two decades of the 17th century. Starting in 1609, Scots began arriving into state-sponsored settlements as part of the Plantation of Ulster
Plantation of Ulster
The Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation of Ulster—a province of Ireland—by people from Great Britain. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while official plantation controlled by King James I of England and VI of Scotland began in 1609...
. This scheme was intended to confiscate all the lands of the Gaelic Irish nobility in Ulster and to settle the province with Protestant English and Scottish colonists. Under this scheme, a substantial number of Scots were settled, mostly in the south and west of Ulster, on confiscated land.
At the same time, there was an independent Scottish settlement in the east of the province, which had not been affected by the terms of the plantation. In east Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
and Antrim, Scottish migration was led by James Hamilton
James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboye
James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboye was a Scot who became owner of large tracts of land in County Down, Ireland, and founded a successful Protestant Scots settlement there several years before the Plantation of Ulster...
and Sir Hugh Montgomery, two Ayrshire laird
Laird
A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...
s. This started in May 1606 and was followed in 1610.
During the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
, the native Irish gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
attempted to expel the English and Scottish settlers, resulting in severe violence, massacres and ultimately leading to the deaths of between four and six thousand settlers over the winter of 1641-42. Native Irish civilians were massacred in kind.
The Ulster-Scottish population in Ireland was further augmented during the subsequent Irish Confederate Wars
Irish Confederate Wars
This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....
, when a Scottish Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...
army was landed in the province to protect the Ulster-Scottish settlers from native Irish landowners. After the war was over, many of their soldiers settled permanently in eastern Ulster. The war itself, part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...
, ended in the 1650s, with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...
. At the head of the army, Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
re-conquered Ireland. Defeating the native Irish forces on behalf of the English Commonwealth, he and his forces employed methods and inflicted casualties among the civilian Irish population that were long commonly considered by historians and the popular culture to be outside of the accepted military ethics of the day (see more on the debate here). Under the Act of Settlement 1652, all Catholic-owned land was confiscated and the Plantations, which had been destroyed by the rebellion of 1641, were restored. However, due to the Scots' enmity to the English Parliament in the final stages of the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, English settlers rather than Scots were the main beneficiary of this scheme.
There was a generation of calm in Ireland until another war broke out in 1689, again due to political conflict closely aligned with ethnic and religious differences. The Williamite war in Ireland
Williamite war in Ireland
The Williamite War in Ireland—also called the Jacobite War in Ireland, the Williamite-Jacobite War in Ireland and in Irish as Cogadh an Dá Rí —was a conflict between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William of Orange over who would be King of England, Scotland and Ireland...
(1689–91) was fought between Jacobites
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
who supported the restoration of the Catholic James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
to the throne of England and Williamites
Williamites
Williamites may refer to either of two minor Roman Catholic religious orders or congregations:*Benedictine Williamites of Monte Vergine*Hermits of Saint WilliamOr may refer to:*the "Williamite" followers of King William III of England...
who supported the Protestant William of Orange
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
. The Protestant Ulster community, including the Scots, fought on the Williamite side in the war against Irish Catholics and their French allies. The fear of a repeat of the massacres of 1641, religious persecution under a Catholic monarch, as well as their wish to hold onto lands which had been confiscated from Catholic landowners, were all principal motivating factors.
The Williamite forces, composed of British, Dutch and Danish armies as well as troops raised in Ulster, ended Jacobite resistance by 1691, confirming the Protestant monopoly on power in Ireland. Their victories at Derry
Siege of Derry
The Siege of Derry took place in Ireland from 18 April to 28 July 1689, during the Williamite War in Ireland. The city, a Williamite stronghold, was besieged by a Jacobite army until it was relieved by Royal Navy ships...
, the Boyne
Battle of the Boyne
The Battle of the Boyne was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants of the English, Scottish and Irish thronesthe Catholic King James and the Protestant King William across the River Boyne near Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland...
and Aughrim
Battle of Aughrim
The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the Jacobites and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691 , near the village of Aughrim in County Galway....
are still commemorated by the Orange Order into the 21st century.
Finally, another major influx of Scots into northern Ireland occurred in the late 1690s, when tens of thousands of people fled a famine in Scotland to come to Ulster.
It was only after the 1690s that Scottish settlers and their descendants, the majority of whom were Presbyterian, gained numeric superiority in Ulster. Along with Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Irish, they were legally disadvantaged by the Penal Laws, which gave full rights only to members of the state church
State church
State churches are organizational bodies within a Christian denomination which are given official status or operated by a state.State churches are not necessarily national churches in the ethnic sense of the term, but the two concepts may overlap in the case of a nation state where the state...
(the Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
), who were mainly Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
and converts or the descendants of English settlers
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
. For this reason, up until the 19th century, there was considerable disharmony between Dissenters
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....
and the ruling Protestant Ascendancy
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
in Ireland. With the enforcement of Queen Anne's
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
1703 Test Act
Test Act
The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists...
, which caused further discrimination against all who did not participate in the established church, considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots migrated to the colonies in British America
British America
For American people of British descent, see British American.British America is the anachronistic term used to refer to the territories under the control of the Crown or Parliament in present day North America , Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana...
throughout the 18th century.
Towards the end of the 18th century many Ulster-Scots Presbyterians ignored religious differences and, along with many Catholic Irish, joined the United Irishmen to participate in the Irish Rebellion of 1798
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
in support of republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
and egalitarian ideals.
1800 - Present
Scotch-Irish / Ulster Scots
British America
For American people of British descent, see British American.British America is the anachronistic term used to refer to the territories under the control of the Crown or Parliament in present day North America , Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana...
. Between 1717 and 1775, an estimated 200,000 migrated to what became the United States of America. In the United States Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
of 2000, 4.3 million Americans (1.5% of the population of the United States) claimed Scotch-Irish ancestry. The author Jim Webb
Jim Webb
James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
suggests that the true number of people with some Scotch-Irish heritage in the United States is more in the region of 27 million, possibly because contemporary Americans with some Scotch-Irish heritage may regard themselves as either Irish or Scottish.
Culture
Because of the large scale intermingling of the Ulster Scots population with the Irish, it is difficult to define distinct aspects of Ulster Scots that would distinguish it from either. An example of this being that the Ulster Scots Agency itself points to many of its cultural icons as being from either the Scottish lowlands or from Ireland.Language
Ulster Scots, the local dialect of Lowland ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
, which has, since the 1980s, also been called 'Ullans', a portmanteau neologism popularised by the physician, amateur historian and politician Dr Ian Adamson
Ian Adamson
Cllr Ian Adamson OBE is a former Lord Mayor of Belfast. He is a member of the Ulster Unionist Party and is a retired medical doctor.A serving Councillor on Belfast City Council from 1989 until 2011, Adamson was Lord Mayor in 1996....
, merging Ulster and Lallans
Lallans
Lallans , a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands meaning the lowlands of Scotland, was also traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole...
- the Scots for Lowlands- but also an acronym for "Ulster-Scots language in literature and native speech".
Music
In music, there is believed to be a distinguishable line between the cultures of the native Irish and the Ulster-Scots living in Ireland. In Ireland the traditional music is focused around the 19th century 'session' or until the 1990s, 'kitchen session'. This is a regular meeting, often weekly, and is marked by informal arrangement of both musicians and audience, although Irish traditional music is one of the most influential types of music known to the modern world, and can be heard in some of the Ulster Scots music and in Country and Appalachian musicAppalachian music
Appalachian music is the traditional music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music , religious hymns, and African-American blues...
s. Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
Scottish traditional music is sometimes similar to Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
and Scottish Gaelic-centred music, in that it is usually informal. A popular example of Protestant Ulster-Scots musical events is the marching bands. Here a formal and organised structure is more obvious. Although they play less frequently, these bands meet regularly in community halls to tune their instruments and to practice popular tunes and songs. The strong Scottish Unionist roots of the Ulster-Scots musical scene is evident through the continuing celebrations during the Marching Season
Parades in Northern Ireland
Parades are an important part of Northern Irish culture. Although the majority of parades are held ostensibly by Protestant, unionist or Ulster loyalist groups, nationalist, republican and non-political groups also parade. Parading is often considered to be an assertion of a group's control over a...
, which has caused much controversy in Northern Ireland.
Intermingling and intermarriage in Ulster
A question that has been raised by many historians about the Ulster-Scots is the question of intermingling and more importantly, intermarriage between the native Irish and the incoming Scots. However others contest such claims.Pádraig Ó Snodaigh, author of the book Hidden Ulster, Protestants and the Irish language
Hidden Ulster, Protestants and the Irish language
Hidden Ulster, Protestants and the Irish Language is a book written by Pádraig Ó Snodaigh in 1973. Revised editions appeared in 1977 and 1995. The thirdedition was published by Lagan Press....
, states that many of the settlers came from Gaelic speaking areas in Scotland and thus would have culturally meshed well with their new neighbours. Also he states that church records show that by 1716 close to ten percent of ministers in Ulster preached in Gaelic. He claims that such cultural and geographic affinity would have produced numerous conversions and also marriages. In addition James G. Leyburn, author of The Scotch-Irish: A social history, quotes James Reid, a historian of the Irish Presbyterian Church in 1853, that when the marriage ban was lifted in 1610 that it was a "great joy to all parties". However Professor Leyburn examines both sides of the intermixture debate in Chapter 10 "Intermarriage with the Irish" where after examination of both viewpoints, ends the chapter by giving his own view of the matter:
"If one must give his verdict, the weight of evidence seems to be on the side of little intermixture. The Scotch-Irish, as they came to be known in America, were overwhelmingly Scottish in ancestry and Presbyterian in faith. To the extent that occasional intermarriage occurred, the Irish partner seems almost invariably to have been absorbed into the Presbyterian element."
James Woodburn holds that the Scots and Irish "commonly intermarried". In 1923, The Handbook of the Ulster Question published by the Free State government, stated that English politicians were quite perturbed how the Scots were ready enough to intermarry with the Irish.
Hereditary disease
The North American ancestry of the X-linked form of the genetic disease, congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidusNephrogenic diabetes insipidus
Nephrogenic diabetes insipidus is a form of diabetes insipidus due primarily to pathology of the kidney. This is in contrast to central/neurogenic diabetes insipidus, which is caused by insufficient levels of antidiuretic hormone /Argenine Vasopressin...
, has been traced to Ulster Scots who came to Nova Scotia in 1761 on the ship Hopewell.
See also
- Anglo-IrishAnglo-IrishAnglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
- British AmericanBritish AmericanBritish Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom . The term is seldom used by people to refer to themselves and is used primarily as a demographic or historical research term...
- EnclosureEnclosureEnclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
- Highland ClearancesHighland ClearancesThe Highland Clearances were forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands during the 18th and 19th centuries. They led to mass emigration to the sea coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and the North American colonies...
- History of Northern IrelandHistory of Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is today one of the four countries of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, having been created as a separate legal entity on 3 May 1921, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
- History of ScotlandHistory of ScotlandThe history of Scotland begins around 10,000 years ago, when humans first began to inhabit what is now Scotland after the end of the Devensian glaciation, the last ice age...
- Immigration to the United StatesImmigration to the United StatesImmigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
- Irish CatholicIrish CatholicIrish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
- Orange Order
- Plantation of UlsterPlantation of UlsterThe Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation of Ulster—a province of Ireland—by people from Great Britain. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while official plantation controlled by King James I of England and VI of Scotland began in 1609...
- Presbyterian Church in IrelandPresbyterian Church in IrelandThe Presbyterian Church in Ireland , is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland...
- Republic of IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
- Scotch-Irish American
- Society of United Irishmen
- UlsterUlsterUlster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
- Ulster CovenantUlster CovenantThe Ulster Covenant was signed by just under half a million of men and women from Ulster, on and before September 28, 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill, introduced by the Government in that same year...
- Ulster loyalismUlster loyalismUlster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
- Ulster Scots languageUlster Scots languageUlster Scots or Ulster-Scots generally refers to the dialects of Scots spoken in parts of Ulster in Ireland. Some definitions of Ulster Scots may also include Standard English spoken with an Ulster Scots accent...
- Unionism (Ireland)
- William III of EnglandWilliam III of EnglandWilliam III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
External links
- Ulster-Scots Agency
- The Ulster-Scots Society of America
- BBC Ulster-Scots — culture and language portal
- The Scot in Ulster: Sketch of the History of the Scottish Population in Ulster (by John Harrison, 1888)
- Inconvenient Peripheries Ethnic Identity and the United Kingdom Estate The cases of “Protestant Ulster” and 'Cornwall’ by Prof Philip Payton