Free eBook... DONALD MCELROY SCOTCH IRISHMAN

Free E-Book: Donald McElroy Scotch Irishman, a novel by W.W.Caldwell, 1918

A short excerpt from this novel by Willie Walker Cadwell...

CHAPTER I

The life story of most men, who have lived earnest and active lives, would doubtless be worth the hearing, if the various influences and the many vicissitudes which compose it could be separated and skillfully rearranged into some well wrought design. As I look back upon my own life, it seems to me full of interest and instruction, yet I suppose not more so than that of many another; wherefore, were personal experiences and conclusions the sum of it, I should hesitate to write them down, lest those events and struggles which to me have seemed notable and significant, should prove in the telling of them to have been but commonplace incidents to which all are liable. Because of the accident of my birth in the year 1754, however, I have lived through a period which will be ever memorable in the history of the world—a period so crowded with worthy deeds and great men, especially on this continent, that there is small danger its interest will be soon exhausted. Do not conclude that I intend to venture upon a tale of the American Revolution; only a master's hand can fill in with due skill and proportion so wide a canvas, and that story waits. Where my own life's story has been entangled with some of the events of that struggle I must touch upon them, and the real purpose of my narrative—which is to chronicle for future generations the noble part played in the great drama of the nation's making by a certain worthy people—will require me to review briefly a few of the battles and campaigns of our war against autocracy.

The Scotch-Irish - A poem from 1890

A poem by Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood, of Canton, O.  First published in The Scotch Irish In America 1891.

The Scotch-Irish

From Scot and Celt and Pict and Dane, 
And Norman, Jute, and Frisian,
Our brave Scotch-Irish come; 
With tongues of silver, hearts of gold, 
And hands to smite when wrongs are bold,
At call of pipe or drum.

"We're nothing like THOSE Kennedys!" - Book review of 'The Other Irish'

From the Huffington Post...

Book review of 'The Other Irish' by Karen McCarthey.
by: Court Stroud

Click to buy at Amazon

"We're nothing like those Kennedys. They're Catholic!" my petite, schoolmarm grandmother chided through pursed lips. Her terse reply startled me since Kennedy was her maiden name. I never mentioned the matter again, but often wondered why my query upset her so much.

Stephen Colbert: The Scots-Irish are not Irish!

In an interview with author Nell Irving Painter, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert puts his opinion across albeit with tongue planted firmly in cheek:

“Scots-Irish are not Irish. There’s no Irish blood in Scots-Irish people.  They are Scots Presbyterians who were given land in Ireland. They took our land, and drove my people across the River Shannon, where we were forced to farm rocks by Oliver Cromwell, and I will see him rot in hell before you call Scots-Irish people Irish!”

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is of Irish Catholic heritage. He grew up in South Carolina, his wife is of Scots-Irish heritage. He once quipped; "I am in a mixed-race marriage. I’m Irish, and my wife is Scots-Irish. Somehow we make it work.”

So was Stephen's tongue in cheek statment correct?... I guess it all depends on your point of view. Certainly the early Scots-Irish families that settled in colonial America had only lived in Ireland for a couple of generations before moving on, and still today in Northern Ireland many Ulster-Scots don't regard themselves as Irish.... But, Scots have been migrating to-and-fro between Ulster and south western Scotland for thousands of years. In fact the first human settlers in Ulster were from the land now known as Scotland so these people of northern Britain were indigenous to Ulster. The inhabitants of both lands shared the same ancestors. The Y-DNA gene pattern called M222, the so called 'Niall of the Nine Hostages' marker is most common in Northern Ireland and Lowland Scotland. It can be found in many Ulster-Scots and is proof of the close genetic similarities of the people of  Ulster and the Lowlands of Scotland.

Many of the early Scots-Irish / Ulster-Scots settlers in America did indeed regard themselves as Irish. Having been born in Ireland their nationality was certainly Irish even though they were ethnically & culturally Scottish. These Scots-Irish even created the tradition of St. Patrick's day parades in America. This was in a time before the emergence of Irish Nationalism deemed  that one had to be a Catholic and a Gael to be considered Irish.

So were the Scots-Irish actually Irish? Well, what do you mean by Irish? Are you talking nationality? ethnicity? culture? citizenship? In my opinion it's all down to interpretation. Of the many ethnic groups, tribes or cultures which have existed on the island of Ireland over the millennia, not one has exclusivity on the term 'Irish'.

Ulster born fathers of US Presidents

Before Barack Obama became President of the United States of America, only three previous U.S. Presidents had fathers that were born outside of the United States... 

All three of those "First Fathers" were born in Ulster! 

No other US Presidents could claim closer connections to their ancestral homeland.


Those three Presidents were:

Andrew Jackson. His father was born in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim

James Buchanan. His father was born in Ramelton, Co. Donegal

Chester Alan Arthur. His father was born in Cullybackey, Co. Antrim

At least 17 US Presidents have Ulster-Scots ancestry.

An Ulster-Scots / Scotch-Irish Nation?

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jqmv8


What is a nation? Is it the same as a country? Are a people, or a tribe, the same thing as a nation?

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in five episodes, American writer & journalis Michael Goldfarb tries to find the answers. This 14min essay was the first episode and looks at the close connections between Ulster's Protestant community and their blood relations in America, the Scotch-Irish. Separated by centuries and an ocean they still have many cultural similarities including using religion as a principle of political action.


"No Surrender" and the "South Will Rise Again" are not just slogans to be tattooed on biceps and across knuckles. They are phrases that define the tribe's pugnacious sense of self-righteousness - but it is it enough to make those of Ireland's North and America's South a nation? 
Listen on the link below

The Scots-Irish in The Netherlands

From http://blog.thejourneyhomegenealogy.com/

Map of The Netherlands

We usually don’t think of Holland as a place for immigration from Ireland. However, if you consider the historical context, it makes sense. I’ve had the chance to trace several cases, most Scots-Irish from Ulster, which connected into The Netherlands.

In 1568, the war of independence for The Netherlands against Catholic Spain was begun. Scottish regiments arrived serving under the Protestant Prince of Orange (William I). The Netherlands became a solid Protestant county with the Reformed Church as the main faith. From 1572 to 1782 there were always Scottish regiments and their descendants in The Netherlands. The key to this piece of history is that many of the Scottish regiments were actually Protestants from Ulster. These Scottish regiments eventually were transformed into Dutch regiments, officially ending the Scots and Protestant Irish presence. Their descendants can still be found in The Netherlands today.

Do not be surprised if your Dutch immigrant ancestor named Visser is really Fisher, Verbaas is really Forbes, de Jong is really Young and Kroeders is really a Crowther.

Caledonian Society of the Netherlands

A lineage society for the Scots regiments is the Caledonian Society: www.caledonian.nl

Records of marriage for these families, taken from Reformed records have been published in Dr. IR. J. MacLean’s De Huwelijksintekeningen Van Schotse Militairen in Nederland 1574-1665 (Zutphen: De Walburg Pers, 1976). Some baptisms can be found in James Ferguson’s Papers Illustrating the History of the Scots Brigade in the Service of the United Netherlands 1572-1782, 3 Vols.  (Edinburgh: University Press, 1899, 1901). Other works also exist. 

The Scots-Irish origins of St. Patrick's day parades in America.

the first Irish society in America was formed by Ulster  Presbyterians

It is usually assumed that 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 their Irishness. That assumption is wrong... 

In 1737 the Charitable Irish Society was formed in Boston by Scots-Irish Ulster 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, it's membership is mostly made up of Catholics. 

greeting card  featuring the St. Patrick's flag of Ireland.

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 first proper St. Paddy's day parade in New York was held when soldiers from the British Army's Irish regiments 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.  These were Irish Protestant soldiers, as Catholics were forbidden from joining the army until 1778. Today, Irish regiments in the British Army still mark St. Patrick's day with a parade. 

British colonial troops in NYC

 Also 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!". 

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 largely Scots-Irish in membership with some Anglo-Irish Episcopalians and three Irish Catholics, one of whom they elected as their first president; General Stephen Moylan. The Friendly Sons held the first St. Paddy'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 Friendly Son's membership was originally mostly Scots-Irish (Ulster-Scots)

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 Paddy'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.  However, the first recorded celebration of St Patrick's Day in Canada was in 1759, again by Irish Protestant soldiers serving with the British army, this was  following their conquest of part of New France, a French colony in North America.

The Canadian Irish Protestant Benevolent Society

From the mid 1800's, as Catholic immigrants from Ireland started to outnumber their Protestant counterparts the parades started being organised and controlled by the exclusively Catholic 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 Catholic & Gaelic, moving away from their Protestant origins. Thanks though, to it's Irish Protestant beginnings in America, St. Patrick's Day celebrations remained less serious 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.

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Another common misconception today is that Irish-Americans are predominately Catholic. This is an easy assumption to make as in the last 160 years the overwhelming majority of  Irish immigrants to the USA have indeed been 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 those were Presbyterians from Ulster. 

To give perspective on this; in 1790, when Fr. John Carroll was ordained as the first Roman Catholic bishop of the USA, there were approx 30,000 practising Catholics (around 1% of the population) and 22 priests in the new United States. This number represented 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 Scots-Irish.

Although they didn't come in numbers as huge as the later Catholic wave of immigration the  descendants of these early Scots-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. 

Patrick, apostle of Ulster

There seems to be a growing trend in America for people of Irish Protestant heritage to wear orange on St. Patrick's day in recognition of their faith & heritage. In the video clip below from The Simpsons, the Orange & the Green fight it out on St. Paddy's Day!

Saint Patrick's story is essentially an Ulster story. According to the legends it was Ulster where he was enslaved as a boy, that is where he returned to as a man. It's where he built his first church, it's where he evangelized and it is where he lived & died. Today, St. Patrick's grave stone can be viewed in the grounds of Down Anglican Cathedral in Downpatrick, Ulster... not far from where he built his first house of Christian worship in Saul, Co. Down.

St. Patrick mural in an Ulster-Scots district of Belfast.

'Us Boys' Documentary film

Filmed over four years, this documentary follows the daily lives of Ernie & Stewart Morrow,  Ulster Scots bachelor brothers who farm Oldchurch in Glenarm, Co. Antrim.  It looks as if the 20th century has passed this place by but the brothers are proud and want nothing to do with modern trappings.  Both men never got married, but they do not regret it, as they are very fond of their freedom. When his brother and companion of 75 years dies, Erinie continues to live as he has done for the past eighty years, in an old farmhouse without electricity. Although this film is only around 15 years old it already seems to be from a bygone time and a traditional lifestyle that has all but disappeared.

I like the part where Ernie is talking about his family history: "We are what they call the Scots-Irish.... We are not the full Scotch. A wean of big boys came in (from Scotland). And there were three Morrows came in and they were all over six foot tall. And one went to Co. Down, One went to Co. Antrim and one went to Co. Derry....Three brothers... and that's what brought the Morrows in."

This film is in Ulster-Scots with German subtitles. It's a pity i cant find the English subtitled version, as even those who are familiar with the Ulster-Scots tongue will have difficulty understanding all of this due to the low audio quality.

Border Reivers; The ancestors of many Ulster Scots

Anyone who lives in Ulster will be very familiar with surnames such as Armstrong, Irving, Murray, Kerr, Maxwell, Johnstone, Carruthers, Potts, Elliott, Burns, Douglas, Bell, Crozier, Scott & Graham. These are all Border Reiver family names.

Many Ulster-Scots (Scots-Irish) are descended from these Border Reivers;  lawless clans from the border between Scotland & England, where a lifestyle of raiding and marauding was the only way to survive. They started off as subsistence farmers but owing to their geographical position they were frequently harassed by passing armies who, at the very least, would require provisioning, often without payment,  but who were more often hell bent on destroying everything before them and causing as much damage and misery as they could. Crops were destroyed, homesteads burnt and the people murdered or dispersed.

It is no coincidence that these people, having had their crops regularly destroyed and their livestock stolen, looked for other means of sustaining themselves and their families... They took to reiving.

Raiding parties in battle

a short excerpt from Born Fighting on the Reivers 

For over 400 years between the 13th & 17th centuries, warring families from both sides of the lawless border valleys would carry out deadly raids on each other. These skilled warrior horsemen would live a life of looting, arson, murder & rustling.  The life of the Border Reiver was not necessarily ruled by his allegiance to the English or Scottish Crowns, but more likely by his allegiance to a family surname. The history of the Border Reivers has many similarities to that of  the American Wild West. It produced its share of outlaws and broken men, corrupt officials, greed, misery and struggle for survival.

Reiver map of the Scottish - English border

Reiver re-enactors

In 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England. He immediately set about unifying the two countries and started by bringing the Reivers under control. Many Reiver families were faced with the choice of hanging or accept exile across the Irish sea to the wild badlands of Ulster as part of James' Plantation project to bring the Irish natives under control.

ballads of the Border Reivers

In Ulster the Border Reiver family names were found in particularly concentrated numbers in county Fermanagh. Are you descended from the Border Reivers? Have a look a this list of the major family names from the Border Reivers website.

'Ulster-Scot' a clue to possible C.S. Lewis forgery?

    

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), the Ulster born author of 'The Chronicles Of Narnia', called his beloved personal tutor, W.T. Kirkpatrick (1848-1921), an Ulster-Scot (Kirkpatrick had grown up in an Ulster-Scots area of County Down). Indeed Lewis paid the great tribute to his tutor by including him as a character in his third and final science-fiction novel, 'That Hideous Strength' under the name of 'McPhee'. And in Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, the character of Professor Kirke (note the name) who appears in the first few pages of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' appears to be drawn on Kirkpatrick as well.

Kirkpatrick had been Headmaster at Lurgan College, Co Armagh, when Albert Lewis was a pupil there - Albert was the father of C.S. and his brother, Warnie. Kirkpatrick retired to Great Bookham in Surrey ( to be close to his son, it seems) where Albert Lewis remained in regular touch with his former teacher, relying on his advice with difficult problems. So Kirkpatrick became Warnie's personal tutor to prepare Warnie successfully for Sandhurst.

W.T. Kirkpatrick

Despite his acknowledged ability, C.S. Lewis had never fitted into any of the schools Albert had sent him to. And so Kirkpatrick became Personal Tutor to C.S. Lewis as well, with the boy living with Kirkpatrick and his wife in Great Bookham. The goal in this case was to prepare the boy for entry to Oxford.

C.S. Lewis loved his time at Great Bookham with the Kirkpatricks. Kirkpatrick taught C.S. Lewis Italian so that the boy could read Dante in the original language. He testified to Albert Lewis that his son was the most brilliant translator of Latin verse that he had ever encountered.

The greatest controversy in C.S. Lewis studies concerns the claims of forgery levelled by critic Kathryn Lindskoog. Mrs. Lindskoog claimed that certain works published after Lewis's death as coming from Lewis's pen had, in fact, been forged. Among these work was the unfinished science-fiction short story 'The Dark Tower'.

The character of McPhee appears again in 'The Dark Tower' but this time as a rather wooden and colourless Scot. Note 'Scot', not 'Ulster-Scot'

In his introduction to the original edition of 'The Dark Tower' (1977), the American-born Walter Hooper suggested that the fragment had been written in 1938, to follow Lewis's first science-fiction work, the novel 'Out of the Silent Planet' (1938). Mrs Lindskoog responded by claiming that a Librarian at the Bodleian Library has observed that the ink of the manuscript of 'The Dark Tower' was not manufactured until after the Second World War. More recently, Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis, has opined that the short story was written after the Second World war, in the 1950s.

C.S. Lewis was born and bred in Belfast, but non-Ulstermen may not understand properly the distinction between a Scot and an Ulster-Scot. Dr Philip Robinson of the Ulster Folk Museum is a world authority on Ulster-Scots and author of 'An Ulster-Scots Grammar'. In the 1990s, Dr Robinson was expressing interest in C.S. Lewis and his attention was drawn to this point. As a result he wrote a letter to Mrs Lindskoog, which she published in her quarterly, 'The Lewis Legacy', claiming that "I can say with conviction that there is no possibility whatsoever that Lewis would have characterised his MacPhee in The Dark Tower as a Scotsman after describing him as an Ulster-Scot in That Hideous Strength". 'That Hideous Strength' was published in 1945.

So if the ink tells us that the manuscript could only have been written after the Second World War, and the literary evidence in the Ulster-Scot connection tells us that C.S. Lewis could not have written the story after 1945, when could the author have written it?

Article from An Ulster-Scot by James O'Fee

The antiquity of the Scots In Ulster

A lot of people like to make the point that the Scottish are in fact ancestrally Irish, which is only partly true. They are usually referring of course to the Scoti, a Latin name given by the Romans to describe Irish raiders, who would loot & plunder parts of northern Britain in the 4th century before later going on to carve out the kingdom of Dalriada. Of course there was already a large population of  indigenous Picts & Britons living in Caledonia (Scotland) long before the arrival of the Scoti. The kingdom of Dalriada and the greater Highlands area has always been sparsely populated and the vast majority of the Scottish people have always lived in the Lowlands. If the Scoti were indeed Irish settlers/invaders of the western Highlands (some academics now doubt this) then it's estimated there would have been only a few thousand souls that settled there during that time.  Today the population of the entire Highlands is less than 5% of the total population of Scotland, even though it covers a third of the country's land mass. In fact there is a lot more traceable Ulster genetic heritage in the Lowlands than there is in the Highlands. So while a portion of Scotland's population overall is undoubtedly descended from the Irish, the majority isn't. 

Ulster-Scottish kingdom of Dalriada

Going in the opposite direction, there has always been migration of people from Scotland to Ulster, stretching back to Mesolithic period when the first humans permanently settled in Ireland. Long before the Plantations, before the Hamilton & Montgomery settlement, before the Gallowglass (the Antrim Scots), the Scots had influence in Ulster.

In the summer of 637, the Battle Of Moira was reputed to be the largest battle ever fought on the island of Ireland. King Congal of Ulster and his allies from Dalriada mustered an army of Ulstermen, Cruthin, Scots, Picts & Anglo Saxons (Sassenachs) to fight against the High King of Ireland, Domnall II. The defeat & death of Congal  led to the loss of Ulaid & Dalriada territory to the Ui'Neills and the retreat of many Ulstermen/Cruthin to Scotland. The Cruthin people of Ulster were referred to by the Gaels as Picts. The Irish word Cruithne meaning that they believed the Cruthin originated in Pritani (or Qritani in Goidelic), which was Britain, most likely from modern day Scotland. Perhaps they had originally spoke the same ancient form of the Brythonic (British) celtic language as the Scottish Picts. Noted historian professor T. F. O'Rahilly said of the Cruthin, that they were "the earliest inhabitants of these islands to whom a name can be assigned".

Battle of Moira, Co. Down 673 A.D.

Even before the Ulster-Scottish kingdom of Dalriada and even before the Cruthin  there were 'Scots' (or rather people originating from northern Britain) in Ulster. One of the earliest known human settlements in Ireland is in Mountsandel, Co. Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It's believed these Mesolithic peoples came here from Scotland, first settling in Co Antrim some 9000 years ago.  It is thought they were attracted to the coast of Co. Antrim in the search for flint, which they would have known was to be found in the limestone cliffs they could see distantly glinting in the sun from  the coast of modern day Scotland. Flint was a rare and valuable commodity in northern Britain. These were amongst Ireland's first people. They would have been descendants of Iberian migrants who first settled southern England and over the course of many generations, as the Ice Age receded, moved up through Britain and finally over to Ireland, maybe via a seasonal land-bridge connecting south west Scotland to the Antrim coast. The ancient stone Court Cairn tombs of the British Isles, built around 6000 years ago in the Neolithic period are most highly concentrated in South west Scotland & North East Ireland. This is proof of a common culture and shared beliefs between Scotland and Ulster going back into the midsts of time.

Mountsandel (1) and other prehistoric sites

artists impression of a Court Cairn tomb

So it is perhaps more accurate to say that the Irish are descended from the people of (what is now called) Scotland. We are indigenous peoples of this land and the migration between Ulster & Scotland has been constant throughout the millennia. Ireland, Scotland and the rest of Britain share the same ancient race of ancestors at their core. For anyone to say the Scots are foreigners in Ulster is plainly wrong and  i would suggest they take a long look back into the depths of Irish history!

Toronto Ulster United F.C.

Formed in 1914 by Ulster-Scots migrants, Toronto Ulster United F.C. were one of the most legendary Canadian soccer teams of the past. 

Also known as 'The Red Handers' They won the National Championship in 1925, 1946 and 1951 and were finalists in 1922 and 1937. Also won the Ontario Cup in 1927, 1929 and 1937. Playing in the National Soccer League, which was formed in 1926, they were champions in the first year and again in 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1941. In 1926 Ulster won the Nathan Straus Cup as champions of the International League, a competition played between U.S. and Canadian clubs. Sadly the club disbanded in 1963.

 They had played against teams such as Liverpool, Manchester united, Glasgow Rangers, Sparta Prague, Belfast Celtic & Dusseldorf.

Above is a rare silent film clip from 1930 showing Ulster United take on Glasgow Rangers at the Ulster Stadium, Toronto, Canada. The event included a display of Scots culture with Scottish dancing pre-match and a regimental bagpipe band at half-time.

The teams on the day were as follows:

Ulster: Bobby Kirk, Dave Eadie, Dick Pryor, Billy Stewart, Matt Wilson, Jimmy Hagan, John Paxton, Allan Mathieson, George Graham, Jimmy Galloway, Jimmy Moir.

Rangers: T. Hamilton, Gray, R. Hamilton, McDonald, Simpson, Craig, Archibald, Brown, Fleming, Muirhead, Morton.

Unfortunately, just like the team, the Ulster Stadium no longer exists. The only reminder that stands today is a an old dive bar called the Ulster Arms Tavern that sits just across the road on Gerrard St. East where the Ulster United's ground once stood. It's over 80 years old and used to be the Ulster Arms Hotel when United were the top team in Canada. The bar has seen better days. The Ulster United team were inducted into the Canadian soccer hall of fame in 2011.

Action at Ulster Stadium.

A Taste of Ulster

Judith McLoughlin, an Ulster-Scot girl from co. Armagh who now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, brings Scots-Irish cooking to America's deep south.

As well as running her own gourmet food business called ‘The Ulster Kitchen’, Specializing in Scots-Irish cuisine Judith also keeps a blog, holds Scots-Irish cooking courses and has just released a cookbook which blends traditional Ulster-Scots recipes with the flavours of the southern states of the USA.

Visit The Ulster Kitchen for a real taste of Ulster!

Scotch-Irish will no longer be included in official US census figures.

From IrishCentral.com...

 Almost 35 million people currently living in the US claim Irish ancestry, according to the just released figures from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey for 2010.

But in a controversial move the  figures for the numbers of Scotch-Irish are no longer available. The Census Bureau has announced the change.

In a statement they said “While the ancestry tables will all look the same, the interpretation of the"Scotch-Irish" and "Other groups" estimates will change. ….Individuals reporting Irish-Scotch are no longer tabulated as "Scotch-Irish" but rather are included in the "Other groups" category.”

That information could well upset the millions of Americans who are of Scotch-Irish heritage which will no longer now be acknowledged as a separate heritage.

US Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has been an outspoken advocate of the Scotch-Irish and wrote a best selling book called "Born Fighting” about them.

Among the most famous Scotch-Irish are Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett and President Chester Arthur.

Much of the appeal for Northern Ireland tourism efforts to woo American tourists has been aimed at the Scotch-Irish, primaily in the south. Now it will be far moredifficult to locate them.

It is thought the figure for people of Scots Irish heritage in the USA is widely under-estimated. It is believed a large potion of those who claim their ancestry as just Irish or Scottish are in fact actually of Scots-Irish descent.