NORTHERN IRELAND ACROSS THE POND
NORTHERN IRELAND ACROSS THE POND
"BRETHREN, let us depart for God has appointed a new land for us to dwell in," said the Rev James McGregor to his congretation in 1718. "It is called New England."
MCGREGOR led his group of dissenting Protestants from Co Londonderry to Boston and then Londonderry, New Hampshire.
McGregor was not the first Ulsterman to feel the pull of the New World. An unsuccessful attempt was made to sail from Groomsport in 1636. This expedition, led by the Rev John Livingstone, was so plagued by bad weather that it eventually returned to the coast of Antrim.
Nonetheless, Livingston's son subsequently made it to America, and his great, grandson Robert Livingston was a signer of the Declaration of
Independence in 1776.
Thus, the connection between Ulster and the United States begins early and runs deep. The out-migration of Ulstermen in the 18th century populated the western border lands of the American colonies, from New York in the north to Georgia in the south, with what one author has called "God's Frontiersmen".
The story of these Ulster-Scots, their role on the frontier and in the American Revolution, is well known. They produced statesmen and soldiers way out of proportion to their numbers in the colonies and the early republic. Indeed, a trip to the Ulster American Folk Park near Omagh is likely to convince the visitor that the United States is a far western province of Ulster.
Just as fascinating, however, is the influence that the US had in Ulster beginning in the late 18th century. It is not merely an interesting fact that the Declaration of Independence was published in a Belfast newspaper in August of 1776, before it was known any where else in the British Isles.
To a community of both Protestant and Catholic dissenters who were still largely excluded from the full rights of citizenship, the political statement that "all men are created equal" and that they had an "inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" was an appealing one.
That statement, and the example of the new US, found an audience in the patriot appeals for an independent Irish Parliament in the 1780s and it contributed significantly to the desire of the United Irishmen for a new civil government established on republican principles in the 1790s.
Although the efforts of the United Irishmen resulted in disaster in 1798, these tragic events produced a new wave of emigrant exiles to the United States. Many of these people were to play prominent roles in the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
By the years of the Great Famine, the 1840s, emigrant ships were sailing out of Derry several times a week. So the great migration continued.
The connection between Ulster and America worked both ways. From the late 18th century America was a major supplier of flax seed for Ulster farmers, and throughout the 19th century, despite its own growing production of cotton, the US was the largest foreign market for Irish linen goods.
By 1873, a particularly good year, the US bought 39,202,050 yards of linen goods worth �1,202,251 (compared to 1,450,419 yards worth �59,378 purchased in Germany). The large department stores in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago had a steady market for a variety of Ulster linen goods.
Americans, in turn, exported increasing amounts of farm machinery to Ulster farmers. The Royal Ulster Agricultural Society showed both McCormick and Ferguson farm equipment at their annual exposition and it is worth noting that Cyrus McCormick and Harry Ferguson had Ulster connections.
The dramatic crises of the 20th century threw Ulster and Britain together with the US in ways unforeseen in the previous decades. America joined the Allies in the Great War in 1917 and sent destroyer squadrons to the Royal Navy station at Cobh, but when America entered the Second World War it established a major destroyer base at Londonderry.
The recent celebrations marking the end of the Second World War have rekindled memories of the large American presence in Northern Ireland. Not only the US Navy, in both Derry and Belfast, but the Army and Air Force had camps and facilities for almost 300,000 troops across the province.
Prominent Americans from First Lady Eleanor Rossevelt to Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower to the hottest swing - band leader Glenn Miller, visited Ulster to inspect the troops and strengthen the war effort.
During the past 30 years the connection between Northern Ireland and the US has been more complicated still. Official American policy has been to stop terrorism, encourage a peaceful settlement, and urge a full acceptance of the democratic political process by all parties.
Private citizens in the US, however, have from time to time encouraged and attempted to assist terrorist groups in the pursuit of their objectives in defiance of the government's wishes.
Nevertheless in the last five years the Clinton administration, while recognizing that a political settlement in Northern Ireland would have to come from the parties here, has attempted to assist in creating conditions in which constructive talks could be held leading to a possible settlement.
President Clinton's 1995 visit, the efforts of former Senator George Mitchell, and the Good Friday Agreement, represent something of the hope of Americans that they can contribute to peace in Northern Ireland.
Or as the American tradition would put it, to insure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in Northern Ireland.
If this is successful, it will be a fitting climax to the Ulster America connection begun in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Professor Francis M Carroll, of the University of Manitoba, is Visiting Fellow, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Institute of Irish Studies, and is researching book on the Ulster American connection.
"BRETHREN, let us depart for God has appointed a new land for us to dwell in," said the Rev James McGregor to his congretation in 1718. "It is called New England."
MCGREGOR led his group of dissenting Protestants from Co Londonderry to Boston and then Londonderry, New Hampshire.
McGregor was not the first Ulsterman to feel the pull of the New World. An unsuccessful attempt was made to sail from Groomsport in 1636. This expedition, led by the Rev John Livingstone, was so plagued by bad weather that it eventually returned to the coast of Antrim.
Nonetheless, Livingston's son subsequently made it to America, and his great, grandson Robert Livingston was a signer of the Declaration of
Independence in 1776.
Thus, the connection between Ulster and the United States begins early and runs deep. The out-migration of Ulstermen in the 18th century populated the western border lands of the American colonies, from New York in the north to Georgia in the south, with what one author has called "God's Frontiersmen".
The story of these Ulster-Scots, their role on the frontier and in the American Revolution, is well known. They produced statesmen and soldiers way out of proportion to their numbers in the colonies and the early republic. Indeed, a trip to the Ulster American Folk Park near Omagh is likely to convince the visitor that the United States is a far western province of Ulster.
Just as fascinating, however, is the influence that the US had in Ulster beginning in the late 18th century. It is not merely an interesting fact that the Declaration of Independence was published in a Belfast newspaper in August of 1776, before it was known any where else in the British Isles.
To a community of both Protestant and Catholic dissenters who were still largely excluded from the full rights of citizenship, the political statement that "all men are created equal" and that they had an "inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" was an appealing one.
That statement, and the example of the new US, found an audience in the patriot appeals for an independent Irish Parliament in the 1780s and it contributed significantly to the desire of the United Irishmen for a new civil government established on republican principles in the 1790s.
Although the efforts of the United Irishmen resulted in disaster in 1798, these tragic events produced a new wave of emigrant exiles to the United States. Many of these people were to play prominent roles in the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
By the years of the Great Famine, the 1840s, emigrant ships were sailing out of Derry several times a week. So the great migration continued.
The connection between Ulster and America worked both ways. From the late 18th century America was a major supplier of flax seed for Ulster farmers, and throughout the 19th century, despite its own growing production of cotton, the US was the largest foreign market for Irish linen goods.
By 1873, a particularly good year, the US bought 39,202,050 yards of linen goods worth �1,202,251 (compared to 1,450,419 yards worth �59,378 purchased in Germany). The large department stores in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago had a steady market for a variety of Ulster linen goods.
Americans, in turn, exported increasing amounts of farm machinery to Ulster farmers. The Royal Ulster Agricultural Society showed both McCormick and Ferguson farm equipment at their annual exposition and it is worth noting that Cyrus McCormick and Harry Ferguson had Ulster connections.
The dramatic crises of the 20th century threw Ulster and Britain together with the US in ways unforeseen in the previous decades. America joined the Allies in the Great War in 1917 and sent destroyer squadrons to the Royal Navy station at Cobh, but when America entered the Second World War it established a major destroyer base at Londonderry.
The recent celebrations marking the end of the Second World War have rekindled memories of the large American presence in Northern Ireland. Not only the US Navy, in both Derry and Belfast, but the Army and Air Force had camps and facilities for almost 300,000 troops across the province.
Prominent Americans from First Lady Eleanor Rossevelt to Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower to the hottest swing - band leader Glenn Miller, visited Ulster to inspect the troops and strengthen the war effort.
During the past 30 years the connection between Northern Ireland and the US has been more complicated still. Official American policy has been to stop terrorism, encourage a peaceful settlement, and urge a full acceptance of the democratic political process by all parties.
Private citizens in the US, however, have from time to time encouraged and attempted to assist terrorist groups in the pursuit of their objectives in defiance of the government's wishes.
Nevertheless in the last five years the Clinton administration, while recognizing that a political settlement in Northern Ireland would have to come from the parties here, has attempted to assist in creating conditions in which constructive talks could be held leading to a possible settlement.
President Clinton's 1995 visit, the efforts of former Senator George Mitchell, and the Good Friday Agreement, represent something of the hope of Americans that they can contribute to peace in Northern Ireland.
Or as the American tradition would put it, to insure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in Northern Ireland.
If this is successful, it will be a fitting climax to the Ulster America connection begun in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Professor Francis M Carroll, of the University of Manitoba, is Visiting Fellow, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Institute of Irish Studies, and is researching book on the Ulster American connection.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0383
Published Date: 04-Sep-98
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