There are some forty million Irish Americans in the United States of America, descendants of those who, over the past four centuries, crossed the Atlantic in successive waves of emigrations.
Life in America was rarely easy and many of the new immigrants fell by the wayside; but eventually they achieved a standard of living unimaginable in the world they had left behind. Over the generations they rose to the highest positions in politics, the labour movement, the professions, industry, commerce and the arts, and their very numbers made them a powerful political force.
Yet more than any other ethnic group, the Irish nurture a great nostalgia for the 'Emerald Isle', their ancestral homeland.
From the Introduction to The Irish Americans - The Pitkin Guide with Irish American Heritage Trail in Ireland
The Ulster Scots
During the first half of the 1700s, over 250,000 people from Ulster settled in the English colonies of America. The new immigrants from Ulster found the land around the ports already densely populated and, of necessity, had to press on inland into the difficult territory of the Appalachian back country.
The Ulster Scots, as Presbyterians, were dissenters, who sailed from Ireland following the introduction of Penal Laws by the Protestant Irish parliament established after the victory of William of Orange in 1690.
Dissenters, like Catholics, were ruthlessly oppressed in Ireland during this period, so in their thousands they sold their leases and their stock and set sail for America.
By the 1770s there were 123 Ulster settlements in America. The Ulster Presbyterians were known for their skill of linen production.
The Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776 was signed by five men of Ulster stock and their descendants were to produce ten Presidents of the United States.
Life in America was rarely easy and many of the new immigrants fell by the wayside; but eventually they achieved a standard of living unimaginable in the world they had left behind. Over the generations they rose to the highest positions in politics, the labour movement, the professions, industry, commerce and the arts, and their very numbers made them a powerful political force.
Yet more than any other ethnic group, the Irish nurture a great nostalgia for the 'Emerald Isle', their ancestral homeland.
From the Introduction to The Irish Americans - The Pitkin Guide with Irish American Heritage Trail in Ireland
The Ulster Scots
During the first half of the 1700s, over 250,000 people from Ulster settled in the English colonies of America. The new immigrants from Ulster found the land around the ports already densely populated and, of necessity, had to press on inland into the difficult territory of the Appalachian back country.
The Ulster Scots, as Presbyterians, were dissenters, who sailed from Ireland following the introduction of Penal Laws by the Protestant Irish parliament established after the victory of William of Orange in 1690.
Dissenters, like Catholics, were ruthlessly oppressed in Ireland during this period, so in their thousands they sold their leases and their stock and set sail for America.
By the 1770s there were 123 Ulster settlements in America. The Ulster Presbyterians were known for their skill of linen production.
The Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776 was signed by five men of Ulster stock and their descendants were to produce ten Presidents of the United States.
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