Tuesday, 7 August 2012
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