Bout ye!  We bid ye welcome tae Ulster-Scotch Online where we scrieve the aul tongue an leid alang wi promoting an fostering understanding of it`s attendant music, history, culture and heritage.  We are primarily focused on Northern Ireland and and the border Counties of the Republic but also across the island of Ireland and especially the various Irish and Scotch-Irish diasporas around the world..

We have just updated the website with new software to resolve some ongoing problems with the old software.  However all users and passwords should be carried across.  Please let us know what you think of the new look and please be aware it is still a work in progress in terms of aesthetics, with logos and links and such like still to be implemented.  Expect the blog to be more active with working software and a new blogging team asweel.  Speaking o which, anyone interested in blogging on Ulster-Scotch Online please drop us a line.

 

Streaming Video - Please Select An Event & Press Play

 

 

Feel free to add any upcoming events. Please note that the software uses the American date format of Month/Day/Year and not the Day/Month/Year format. Please feel free to come into the forums for some discussion. You can also add your own comments to any articles you see here by clicking where it says "comment" at the bottom of an article.

Please also feel free to subscribe to the Yahoo email group / forum.  Please be advised that this is a high load email list and you are advised to set an email filter to filter to a new `ulster-scots` folder so as not to clog your inbox (alternatively you can alter settings at Yahoo to receive a daily digest or read soley via the web ).

Subscribe to scotch-irish
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What is the future of Ulster?

An independent Ulster
A devolved Northern Ireland within the UK (as now)
A devolved Northern Ireland within a United Ireland
A United Ireland (no devolution)
A federal four province Ireland
A federal British Isles
Integration with the UK / Direct Rule (no devolution)

-- poll results --

Ulster-American Heritage Symposium

[May 17; for immediate release]

Ulster-American Heritage Symposium

Connections between Ulster and the U.S. to be Explored

In late June of this year will occur an exciting, concentrated opportunity to learn about Ulster-American connections when the Sixteenth Biennial Ulster-American Heritage is held in Knoxville, Tennessee, from June 28 to July 1. The event, hosted by the East Tennessee Historical Society, will over the course of four days feature lectures, performances, and events to explore these connections under the theme "Three Centuries of Ulster-American History, Tradition, and Shared Experience." Since 1976, when it was founded at the University of Ulster, the Ulster-American Heritage Symposium has met alternately in Northern Ireland or the United States in order to encourage and promote the scholarly study and public awareness of connections between Ulster and North America in all their dimensions.

Speakers at this year's symposium will include more than three dozen historians, archaeologists, museum officials, anthropologists, genealogists, educators, architectural researchers, historical preservationists, and many other specialists on a program that is geared the general public as well as academics. The majority of papers will deal with the migration and settlement of Scotch-Irish/Scots-Irish people in the U.S., especially in Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, but a wide variety of other topics will also be offered, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the ancestry of Edgar Allan Poe, frontier religion, and the temperance movement. Two special sessions are particularly worthy of note. One will focus on the service of Americans in Northern Ireland during World War II. It will feature a lecture by Jonathan Bardon of Queen's University Belfast, period newsreel, and a panel discussion by American veterans and people from Northern Ireland who experienced the American presence in the early 1940s. Another will deal with genealogy and include lectures on conducting research for Ulster ancestors in the United States, Ireland, and Scotland and a special report on a large-scale DNA genealogy project now underway. Those attending the conference will be able to make use of the Calvin McClung Collection, a major genealogical library attached to the East Tennessee Historical Society.

Near the Great Smoky Mountains and many other attractions, Knoxville is an ideal site for spending time in a part of southern Appalachia that today counts a large proportion of its citizens as having Ulster ancestry. For more information on the conference, visit the website of the East Tennessee Historical Society ( www.east-tennessee-history.org ) or contact its organizers (Michael Montgomery at ullans@yahoo.com, Michael Toomey at www.east-tennessee-history.org, or Cherel Henderson at cherel@east-tennessee-history.org ).

American students sample our Ulster culture

Scanned in from the Ulster-Scot, given away in Saturdays Belfast Newsletter
Will be online in the next week or so at www.ulsterscotsagency.com

Also if you live outside Northern Ireland you can receive a free copy through the post if you send a request to info@ulsterscotsagency.org.uk with your name and address included.

American students sample our Ulster culture

A 27-strong party of students from the American University in Washington DC recently visited the Mourne region of Co Down.
This was the fifth consecutive year that such a party from this particular university visited the area. The students on this occasion were led by their university lecturer Professor Peter Weinberger.

The group were on a field trip to Northern Ireland as part of their course work in a cultural studies conflict resolution programme.
They met with Maynard Hanna, director with the Ulster-Scots Heritage Council, and following a question and answer session, an evening of Ulster-Scots culture and entertainment was arranged in Kilkeel Orange Hall.

The student class was able to witness a band parade in Kilkeel, at which the Mourne Young Defenders Flute Band, in their
American Marines uniform, made quite an impact, so a request was made asking if this year's travelling student party could meet up with and attend their band practice.

Also in attendance were members of the Kirknarra School of Dance.

Professor Wienberger offered warmest and heartfelt thanks for the welcome and for what he termed "a most excellent evening of top class and enjoyable, Ulster-Scots entertainment".

Interest in language and culture

Scanned in from the Ulster-Scot, given away in Saturdays Belfast Newsletter
Will be online in the next week or so at www.ulsterscotsagency.com

Also if you live outside Northern Ireland you can receive a free copy through the post if you send a request to info@ulsterscotsagency.org.uk with your name and address included.

Interest in language and culture
by Joanne Crockard

Recent market research undertaken for the Ulster-Scots Agency indicates an encouraging increase in public interest for the language and culture.
Some findings from an Omnibus telephone survey undertaken in Northern Ireland make interesting conclusions :-

• More than two-thirds of people think that it is important that the Ulster-Scots way of speaking is preserved.

• Nearly seven per cent of people said that they spoke Ulster-Scots, which equates to just over 100,000 people.

• Thirty per cent of people polled would like to learn Ulster-Scots as a language.

With regard to Ulster-Scots cultural identity -

• Seventy per cent of people believe that Ulster-Scots is a vital part of Ulster's heritage; with more than half of the Roman Catholic people polled agreeing with this.

• And 70 pc of Protestants and 40 pc of Roman Catholics polled said that Ulster-Scots was part of their cultural identity.

George Patton, Agency Chief Executive, said: "This research is highly encouraging for the promotion of the Ulster-Scots language and culture. It shows that the Agency's work over the last six years has borne fruit.

"We are delighted that there is cross-community interest and support as it validates our long-held view that Ulster-Scots can contribute greatly to the Province's cultural life as a whole."

Promoting Ulster-Scots heritage

Scanned in from the Ulster-Scot, given away in Saturdays Belfast Newsletter
Will be online in the next week or so at www.ulsterscotsagency.com

Also if you live outside Northern Ireland you can receive a free copy through the post if you send a request to info@ulsterscotsagency.org.uk with your name and address included.


Promoting Ulster-Scots heritage

The Ulster-Scots Heritage Council was established in 1995 to promote awareness and understanding of the Ulster-Scots tradition in language, history and culture.

Since then it has developed and expanded to include the Belfast Ulster-Scots Festival as the annual celebration of the Ulster-Scots heritage.

The first Belfast Ulster-Scots Festival took place in 1999 as a one-off event. It was re-launched in November 2005 and was highly successful, consequently it is hoped that the festival will now become an annual event.

To help develop a festivals' policy and assist groups organising festivals, the Heritage Council has secured funding from the Ulster-Scots Agency to employ a full-time festival officer for the next two years.

Andrew Smith, from Banbridge, was last month appointed festival officer. He is a graduate of University of Glasgow, where he read Scottish literature and English language. He has a long-held interest in Ulster-Scots language, history and culture.

As well as co-ordinating the Belfast Ulster-Scots Festival, Andrew will be on hand to provide support to other Ulster-Scots Festivals across Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Irish Republic. He can be contacted at the Ulster-Scots Heritage Council, 218 York Street, Belfast, BT15 1GY (028 9074 6939).

Bout ye!  We bid ye welcome tae Ulster-Scotch Online where we scrieve the aul tongue an leid alang wi promoting an fostering understanding of it`s attendant music, history, culture and heritage.  We are primarily focused on Northern Ireland and and the border Counties of the Republic but also across the island of Ireland and especially the various Irish and Scotch-Irish diasporas around the world..

We have just updated the website with new software to resolve some ongoing problems with the old software.  However all users and passwords should be carried across.  Please let us know what you think of the new look and please be aware it is still a work in progress in terms of aesthetics, with logos and links and such like still to be implemented.  Expect the blog to be more active with working software and a new blogging team asweel.  Speaking o which, anyone interested in blogging on Ulster-Scotch Online please drop us a line.

 

Streaming Video - Please Select An Event & Press Play

 

 

Feel free to add any upcoming events. Please note that the software uses the American date format of Month/Day/Year and not the Day/Month/Year format. Please feel free to come into the forums for some discussion. You can also add your own comments to any articles you see here by clicking where it says "comment" at the bottom of an article.

Please also feel free to subscribe to the Yahoo email group / forum.  Please be advised that this is a high load email list and you are advised to set an email filter to filter to a new `ulster-scots` folder so as not to clog your inbox (alternatively you can alter settings at Yahoo to receive a daily digest or read soley via the web ).

Subscribe to scotch-irish
Powered by groups.yahoo.com

 

What is the future of Ulster?

An independent Ulster
A devolved Northern Ireland within the UK (as now)
A devolved Northern Ireland within a United Ireland
A United Ireland (no devolution)
A federal four province Ireland
A federal British Isles
Integration with the UK / Direct Rule (no devolution)

-- poll results --