Posted on 10/03/2004 10:04:28 AM PDT by LNewman
One of the most powerful cultural forces shaping America, they've produced great Presidents, soldiers, inventors, actors and writers. But, as a group, they've remained unvisible. The time has come to change that, says the author.
snip ...
The Scots-Irish are a fiercely independent, individualist people. It goes against their grain to think collectively. But, as America rushes forward into yet another redefinition of itself, the contributions of the Scots-Irish are too great to remain invisible. My culture needs to reclaim itself-stop letting others define, mock and even use it-and is so doing regain its power to shape the direction of America
Because our country needs us.
(Excerpt) Read more at parade.com ...
As a member of Clan Campbell, I always fill out government forms that require a declaration of nationality "CELTIC-AMERICAN"!
Leslie on my mother's side, Webb on my paternal grandmother's. I wear orange on Saint Patrick's day.
:-)
The Scottish accent fascinates me. We went to London years back and made a few friends who've visited stateside. One was a limo driver from Glasgow. His accent was so thick, you really had to concentrate on what he was saying. Anyhow, they visited during Thanksgiving ... was interesting trying to explain the holiday.
Not talking division (burp) ... talking history. Have you heard of the Latter Day Saints DNA projects to determine family lines (I'm not Mormon, BTW)? In any case, it's more interesting to rat around in archives yourself. I've got a neat little program on my PDA that converts GEDCOM files for viewing. I carry the family tree around with me to libraries and such for fact checking instead of lugging along a computer.
Good grief! You know you're a redneck when you use "I've got." ;)
I'm all for the Irish-Scots! They are almost as good as the Irish... :>)
It's said that one thing that made Pittsburgh distinctive in the early 20th century is that the "first families" tended to be Presbyterian and Scots-Irish, and proud of it. Elsewhere, the Episcopalians tended to hold sway at the top of the social pyramid. Generally, though, the Scots-Irish seem to have melted into an American, or Southern, or Western identity. In the 18th century, there were plenty of Irish on the New England and New York frontiers, just as there were in Western Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Carolina. You can still see this in the place names, but they seem to have seamlessly merged into the surrounding population. Some classic backcountry Yankee types actually have Scots-Irish names and faces, but were on the Yankee side when the Irish Catholics arrived, and would be surprised to hear that they were also part-Irish.
I have lived here 40 years, my accent is still thick. My grandkids imitate me all the time .We took them to Scotland last summer (03) They loved it, did not want to come home.On the 4th of July they went out with my grand niece to A party, when they got there the whole place was decorated in Red white and blue bunting and a US Flag cake welcoming them to Scotland.They loved the highlands.
Do you prefer "I gets"?
Ha! I could have left the "got" out of there altogether. :)
I knows how to do the english verbage:
I gets
He gets
They gets
They all gets
...arrived in Illinois, but settled in Tennessee and had a large family.
Father's family Irish mostly, with a touch of Scotch :)
btt
Well, this is me and mine. Ancestors were those dirty, filthy, long-haired, claymoor-wielding, highlander animals you saw in "Braveheart"......and damned proud of it.
Welsh, Irish, English and Coonass.
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the Clearances hit the Highlands hardest? Whereas the Ulster plantation settlers came largely (though not totally) from the Lowlands. Also, weren't the Highland Clearances in the mid/late 1700's -- well after the Ulster plantation?
Make sure I am right, but I have researched this fairly thoroughly. If no one ever has a reason to search this fact out, and you never have any enemies, I suppose you could risk it, but I know I would not consider losing my American citizenship for anything.
They never really did. Family tartans are a 19th century invention. Regional tartans are much older; different areas had different perferred patterns and in ancient times, supposedly, it was possible to tell where a traveller was from, by his pattern.
Also take note of the fact that the mainly Gaelic Highlands were much more into tartan than the ethnically mixed Lowlanders (Pictish/Welsh/Gaelic/Anglian/Norse/Flemish etc.) Although it must be said, the Lowlanders had a pretty strong clan system at one time, especially along the border.
My direct male-line ancestry is a Huguenot line that fled persecution in France after the St Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572), finding refuge in Scotland and later Ulster. As they intermarried and assimilated into Scottish and Ulster-Scottish communities, they eventually adopted a Scottish spelling for their name. Our "family tartan" wasn't registered til 1988!
Not a risk at all, I assure you, I have spoken with the US dept of state, the Irish consulate, and with lawyers, no loss of US citizenship, no renoucing of citizenship at all. Actually quite a few people have done this without any penalty. In fact a few people working at the State Department have done this without any problem.
The US allows dual citizenship with a few nations with no penalty or loss of US citizenship, Ireland and Israel among them.
That is interesting. I will have to look into that because it is possible in our family.
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