THE SCOT IN ULSTER

THE SCOT IN COUNTY DOWN

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dered all his colonies along the Pacific shore, and sailed round the world on his way home with a million sterling worth of plunder; and when another young skipper, in five of those queer old tubs which still float on the Zuyder Zee, went out into the wonder-haunted East, and conquered a New Holland greater than the old, in case it were necessary to break the dykes and leave the old land--to give Holland to the ocean rather than to the Spaniard. It was the age in which the individual was strong and the State weak; in which strong men trusted in their own strength, and did the work of the State.

And now Queen Elizabeth, who had been the strange, fickle, uncertain, and yet withal the luminous sun in that great English world, was dead, and the fashion of the time was to change. Still, for a while her methods were followed, for the spirit of the great Elizabethan age survived, although its sun had set--still it was left to the individual to do the work of the State. One of the enterprises which occupied the adventurous spirits of the kingdom during the early years of James I.'s reign was the colonisation of Ulster, and in this the Scots took their full share.

The last years of Elizabeth's reign had been disturbed by the rebellion of the great Earl of Tyrone, who, as The O'Neill, claimed to be King of Ulster. Tyrone fought a good fight--it is not here necessary to inquire why he rebelled. He defeated the first English commander who went against him; and...continue reading »

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Page 5

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

by John Harrison

1888