THE SCOT IN ULSTER
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so had their relatives and humbler neighbours. Besides, Ireland was only across a narrow channel, and it was a country which they could see on any clear day. If James had enlisted the men of the northwest of England to aid in the settlement of Ulster, as he did the people of the south-west of Scotland, the history of Ulster would have been materially altered. To London citizens, on the other hand, Ireland was a far-off savage country, for which they did not feel at all inclined to give up the comforts and the civilised activities of the metropolis. Thus the Londoners' colony was, for the first half-century at any rate, a failure, and the "Companies" let their lands to the "mere Irish," breaking the terms of their contract, and involving themselves in ever-recurring quarrels with the Irish authorities. One good thing the "Irish Society," which managed the London settlement, did for Ireland: it founded Londonderry and Coleraine, which in course of long years grew up to be two main bulwarks of Protestantism in Ireland. ...continue reading »
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Page 46
The Scot in Ulster:
Sketch of the History of the Scottish Population of Ulster
by John Harrison
1888