THE SCOT IN ULSTER

THE ULSTER OF TO-DAY

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nation. The legislation of 1782 and of the following session broke the shackles which had fettered hands which Nature had fashioned to be skilful in manufactures, and took away that clog on intellectual powers which were fitted to excel in commercial pursuits; while the Union of 1801 induced these men of the North to become in very deed citizens of the United Kingdom, instead of living, as they had been wont to do, with their hearts across the Atlantic, in company with their brethren who were serving under the shadow of the Stars and Stripes. It is profitable, however, standing as we do among the closing years of the nineteenth century, to look back on the work accomplished by our kinsmen who left Scotland in the seventeenth century, and to trace the indelible marks which they have left on the "sands of time," and on the face of Ulster. And we may safely assert that they were strong men, full of firm determination and governed by deep religious feeling, because, after three centuries, their descendants bear not a few traces of the strength of character and fire of their forefathers. The Ulster of 1888 tells, deeply written across its face, the story of the emigration which began in 1606.

It is necessary to recapitulate what this emigration amounted to, and what effect it really had on Ireland. The settlement made by Hugh Montgomery and James Hamilton, in 1606, opened up the county of Down to Scottish emigrants. They took possession of the whole of the north of the county, but they...continue reading »

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Page 101

The Scot in Ulster:
Sketch of the History of the Scottish Population of Ulster

by John Harrison

1888