Taken from
http://www.zekes.com/~dspidell/famresearch/ulster.html#S/I

The Scots/Irish Immigration of the 1700s

GFS Linda, Co-leader Scot and Irish SIG, AOL Genealogy Forum.
A few terms for your understanding:

S/I = Scots-Irish, purely a U.S. term used to distinguish the
Presbyterian/Protestant Irish, mostly from Northern Ireland, who emigrated
to the U.S. in the 1700's as separate and distinct from earlier and later
Catholic emigrants.

Papists = Roman Catholics. You should understand that much of what happened
in Scotland which resulted in the emigration to Ireland was the result of
the English King realizing that the Pope held a "higher" position than that
of the King of England.
With that thought came the outlawing of the Catholic Church in the whole of
the British Isles.

Ulstermen or Ulster-Scots = Another name for the Scots-Irish, since Ulster
was the part of Northern Ireland in which the Scots were settled by the
British.  And Ulster Scots is the name by which the Scots-Irish are known in
the United Kingdom.

Orangemen = This name for the Scots-Irish comes from William III, Prince of
Orange, and is kept because his victory over despotic power laid the
foundation for the evolution of Constitutional Democracy in the British
Isles. [O.K. Some of this
rhetoric is rather radical, but that is the nature of the people.]

The Scots

The People:-

In the early 1600's, the border between Scotland and England was in terrible
trouble. It was impossible to live peacefully and normally.
In order to survive, the border people became "Border Reevers" (Robbers) and
turned their hands to cattle, stealing, kidnapping,
protectionism and fraud.  Because of their way of life, they made excellent
frontiersmen, guerrilla fighters and scouts. [However, the
English had no use for people with such professions on their borders.] The
most famous of these border clans were the Armstrongs,
the Bells, the Grahams, and the Johnstons. The most notorious of the clans
were the Pringles.

When James I of England (who was the Sco. King James VI and son of Mary,
Queen of Scots) came to the throne in 1603, the border was finally
"pacified".  Many people were killed and others sent to low countries.
Whole families were sent to Ireland with the hopes that they would settle
down to farming and be peaceful.  However, their previous way of life had
become so ingrained, they became the hard core of the Scots/Irish settlers.
They were the best frontier fighters in Britain, if not in Europe.

The Scottish people who found themselves in Ireland had gone through a
transforming experience - that of the Scottish Reformation, which was a
complete and total break with the Catholic Church. The average Scottish
Emigrant had discovered
that he needed neither the Priest nor the King to think for him.  This was
the beginning of the great radical tradition of the S/I people.

The Religion

The Calvinist Reformation taught the Scots/Irish that they were a chosen
people and they hungered for the promised land which was always just beyond
the horizon. The Calvinists advocated the grimmer aspects of all things
focusing on death and they actively persecuted those whom they considered to
be witches. The Scots/Irish, however, in Northern Ireland were mild in their
treatment of witches.

John Knox, was a great educationalist and the Scots/Irish absorbed his love
of education which gave them great advantage as propagandists.

The Scots in Ireland

The Common People

Actually, the greater majority of the Scots/Irish were tenant farmers, and
neither cattle thieves nor religious fanatics. They left Scotland because
the land could no longer support them due to the ravages of war, and they
could not pay the high rents that were being charged. So many people left
Scotland that they were compared to great swarms of bees rising
from the fields. They included grass men of Lanarkshire and skilled grain
growers from Wigton. Cattle were virtually the only wealth of the Scots.

The Wars

Clashes between the English and The Irish

The native Irish were defeated by the English in the Nine Year War.
Chichester commented, "We spare none! James I exiled some chiefs (one of
which was McNeil), confiscated their lands, and gave it to the Scottish and
English families he considered gentle and peaceful. Also he chose people who
had the wealth to install tenants and to improve the land.
James I even then considered the native Irish a barbarous and un-subdued
people. [Another reason of the English for displacing some of the Scots, and
encouraging others to move on their own, was the intention for the Scots to
help in the pacification of the Irish. The English authorities of this time
period seemed to like the idea of using the solution of one problem in
providing the solution to a second problem.]

Lord Abercorn was given 3,000 acres in Ulster.  L'Derry was given to the
London City Guild, however the 20' wall surrounding the city of Derry,
proved the Scots/Irish dominance.  Coleraine was given to English land
owners, but the Scots took it over.
Tully Castle on the shores of Loch Earne in Fermanagh was one of the
original Scots/Irish forts.  So many Scots had migrated that the ratio of
Scots to English in Ulster was 20 to 1.

Clashes between the Scots and the Irish

The native Irish rebellion in 1640 was answered by the Scottish Army who
considered themselves to be God's Army. The Scots were headquartered at
Carickfergus with the intent of converting the Papists in Ireland to the
Presbyterian faith. The Scottish
Army failed and Cromwell took over with a war lasting until 1660. In answer
to the incursion of the Protestant Scots, the Irish in the 17th century,
banned Presbyterian services and outlawed their ministers. Thereafter,
Presbyterian services were held when and where they could (many times in the
woods with guards posted to ensure safety).

Clashes between the Scots and the English

Poverty and persecution made the Scots/Irish sharply aware that they were
separate and second class citizens. In the 1680's, a radical and dedicated
Presbyterian sect labeled the Covenanters declared War on the English King.
Two women were made
martyrs in Scotland when they were tied to posts in the tide-lands and left
to drown in high tide - all because they refused to reject the principles of
the Catholic Church. Whole prisons were built to house the Covenanters who
were arrested. At the closing
of the 17th century, English landowners again began the persecution of the
Presbyterians. The Presbyterians could not be married in their own church
without being labeled as "fornicators". They could hold no position above
postman.