The Ulster-Scot supplement
Blazing the trail across America
The cultural, historical and musical dimensions
of the Ulster-Scots Agency are being promoted far
beyond these islands, with the United States, with
its significantly large Scots-Irish population,
being a particularly receptive base for expansion.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand are other countries
where interest in the Ulster-Scots diaspora is
naturally keen, but it is the United States that
the Agency's role is being appreciated the most.
This was very apparent to an Ulster-Scots Agency
delegation who last month spent two weeks in several
regions of the United States, attending various
cultural and musical events and fully explaining
how Americans, who would categorise themselves
as Scot-Irish, can best identify with the homeland
of their 18th century emigrant ancestors.
Agency vice-chairman Jim Devenney and deputy chief
executive George Holmes, who were joined on the
United States visit by Scots-Irish author Billy
Kennedy and champion piper Robert Watt, confirm
the welcome they received from people at the events
they attended in Tennessee and Georgia was warmly
spontaneous and very encouraging.
"It is uncanny the kinship and characteristics
there are between what are known as the Scots-Irish
people of the Appalachian states like Tennessee
and Georgia with the folk back home in Ulster.
There is a close bond inherited from several centuries
ago when the first set of Presbyterian emigrants
left Ulster for America," reports Newtowncunningham,
(Co Donegal) man Jim Devenney.
"This was very apparent at the Appalachian
Fall Homecoming at Norris in East Tennessee and
the Stone Mountain Highland Games at Atlanta in
Georgia, and at lecture and social events we attended
in Knoxville and Newport in East Tennessee and
in North Georgia," adds Jim, delighted at
meeting a good number of people with Donegal family
connections.
Genuine
George Holmes concurs: "There
is clearly a very positive and genuine interest
in Ulster-Scots
history, culture and music, judging from the reactions
and responses of the many Americans that we met
and talked with. There is a great yearning to learn
more about Ulster and Northern Ireland, and its
people., We are seen by many as cousins from across
the Atlantic."
Lord Laird of Artigarvan, chairman of the Ulster-Scots
Agency, is delighted at the American interest.
"We were aware of the large Scots-Irish diaspora
in the United States and fully realise the importance
of promoting our work there, and in countries like
Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Ulster-Scots
movement now operates internationally," says
Lord Laird.
More than 1,000 copies of the Ulster-Scots Agency's
special set of eight leaflets on the Ulster-American
link were distributed along with 1.000 copies of
the Ulster-Scots newspaper. There was a very ready
demand.
The recently-formed Ulster-Scots Society of America
is making big strides with its recruitment of members,
and area convenors have been appointed in various
states, particularly in the Appalachian region.
Billy Kennedy once again returned to the trail
he has been on in Scots-Irish research in the United
States for the past 10 years and demand for his
seven books remains high there, with considerable
interest generated already in his next publication
due to be published next spring.
Plaudits
Piper Robert Watt, from Maghera in Co Londonderry,
won plaudits all round at the Stone Mountain Highland
Games by taking first place in the three major
piping events. Robert was quite deservedly voted
Piper of the Games.
Anticipation is growing in the United States for
the Atlanta (Georgia) premiere next May of the
Ulster-Scots musical, On Eagle's Wing, which is
produced and directed by leading Northern Ireland
musician John Anderson.
The two-hour musical extravaganza, with a cast
running into hundreds, will also be presented in
Jacksonville (Florida) and Baltimore, before returning
to the Odyssey Arena in Belfast in late May.
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