Introduction.

The Scotch Irish history, culture and its very existence have all at times been dismissed, distorted and misunderstood.

How could and did this happen?

Many reasons are applicable in this page we will deal with just three, Myth, Ignorance and a lack of Education.

1. Myth and Ignorance :

For many many years Irish Literature and history courses across the world have been basically teaching myth and half truths. Classes would be given the glossy title of “A Study of the Great Irish Masterpieces or Protestant Domination in oppressed Ireland ” ninety-five percent of these works would be by obscure dead Irish males or extremists within the Irish Nationalist movement. Even in the world of music historical masterpieces such as Danny Boy have had lyrics changed and even a third verse added.

Then for the last few decade's most of what you read about Ulster has been distorted and exaggerated beyond all recognition. No one could have predicted the level of propaganda and blatant lies as told by Sinn Féin, which is said to be a terrorist aliened movement organized along Leninist lines, which since its creation 95 years ago, allied itself enthusiastically with every enemy of western civilization, from Kaiser Wilhelm and Hitler to Colonel Gaddafi, ETA and FARC. They single handedly and unashamadly have distorted the historical record for political gain. In one event, Bloody Sunday in which 13 Catholic protesters were shoot dead by the British army, Sinn Féin and Irish nationalists are particularly vocal, what they fail to mention is that in the same year the IRA murdered 171 innocent Ulster people many of them children.

These acts of terrorism where of course were all carried out unashamedly under the vale of Irish patriotism and were excepted by an uneducated world. The Ulstermans view to this day is that this is part of a 400 year old campaign by Irish Nationalists which has the sole aim driving the Protestant from Ulster. Sinn Fein refer to the Ulster Scots as "Brits" knowing that it confuses an already confused world.

Reality!! tens of thousand's of Ulster Scots have been murdered, widowed and orphaned, there towns blown to bits year after year, there peaceful parades turned into Sinn Fein PROPAGANDA weapons and there name tarnished and blackened by a slick PR machine all under the cry of "Brits out of Ireland"

This is extremely dangerous because in doing this Irish Nationalists are engaging in cultural warfare on all peoples of world who are settler's. Would the USA or Australian's tolerate such a long lasting campaign of hate and discrimination?

Of course its not just the Irish who are to blame for the myth and ignorance surrounding the Ulster Protestant, the British have just as much to answer for. They have deliberately and constantly refused to except the Scotch Irish as a people down the years, they also in history incited competition between the peoples in Ulster and even in the USA so as to divide and rule. They made promises then when it suited regarded these promises made to ether side as invalid. As well as this they used false propaganda about ether side to justify their repression or genocide. They also introduced Penal Laws designed to disenfranchised and discriminated against Presbyterians. All in all the Scotch Irish faced an up hill struggle just to survive.

The once mighty reputation of the Scotch Irish has withered over the years and the Ulstermans reputation has been severely tarnished, this is largely due to the fact that he have been desperately deficient in the media and propaganda skills, at which his enemies excel.

Ulster Protestants and the Scotch Irish in general are a stolid, quiet, decent, law-abiding people, maybe a little unstylish and some would even say unfashionable. Some of this is changing, of course. Just as pinched, poor, righteous old Catholic Ireland is a fast-fading memory, so the Ulstermen are gradually being modernized and urbanized. Like many Israelis the parallels really are unavoidable they want to live a normal peaceful life in a modern civilized country. Whether their enemies will allow this is still, as with the Israelis, an open question.

Religion:

So are Ulster Scots a misunderstood, battered and besieged people in this world, destined for glory in the next? well you could hardly invent a theology better suited to the position of the Ulster Protestants, one of the most unloved, misunderstood and attacked of all the world’s minority peoples.

DR Ian Paisley the leader of the Free Presbyterian Church in Ulster would stand by the above analogy. In the European elections of June 1999, when the province voted as a single unit, Paisley got 28.4 per cent of the vote, more than any other candidate. The truth is that all Ulster Scots might not share all of his theological convictions, but they support him because he has stood up for them, fearlessly and consistently, through all these years of discrimination, Irish propaganda, torment and betrayal, when they have been badly in want of people to stand up for them.

That's been enough to get him a seat next to George Bush at the White House, and will be enough to get him another personal invite at any White House function, because in the USA and where Ian Paisley comes from, plain speaking, fierce integrity, and the courage to face down the world’s cruelest, most amoral terrorist gangs, still count for something.

The Scotch Irish culture in Ulster and the USA is important because it affects everyone. Cultural diversity is more than racial classification, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. Cultural diversity encompasses the whole range of human experiences including but not limited to age, gender, racial classification, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic class, physical disabilities, national origin, geographical location, political orientation, physical size and appearance. These factors influence the cultural experiences and backgrounds of individuals and groups. Many of the problems experienced by culturally different groups and individuals are based on cross-cultural misinformation as has been used by the Irish against Ulster Protestants, if we do not study the truth of all the people on the planet, we have a limited view of humanity.

Then history becomes one person’s story, in the Ulster Scots case an Irish Nationalist mans story.

2. Education:

Are British and Irish Governments guilty of breaking there own laws and those of the United Nations in a campaign of Scotch Irish/Ulster Scots oppression and domination?

Here are some facts,

1. The Scotch Irish are a minority people in Britain and Ireland.

2. They are a part of Britain, Ireland and Americas culture, heritage and history in every avenue and have been for 500 years.

3. They number over 800,000 in Northern Ireland with a few thousand in some Northern Counties of the Rep of Ireland.

4. They have direct ancestor's numbering many millions in the United States of America and more still spread around the entire globe.

5. They have there own language.

6. The effects the Scotch Irish have had on civilization and its evolution on a global scale are enormous.

7. They have a long rich and varied culture with a heritage and history totally unique to them.

Why then is a Protestant child in Ulster corrected in school if they should use a single word from the Ulster Scots dialect and why are the many achievements of the Scotch Irish, there culture and history totally ignored in Protestant state education?

DR William Gatherer Trustee, Gordon Cook Foundation May 2000 states for the British Government that

"It is to be hoped that the conference will explore and elaborate prevailing aspirations that 'education for citizenship' should help young people to have a regard for themselves and for others; to develop the abilities needed to empower them to participate effectively in the life of their families, their communities and the society in which they live and work; to be able to identify and assess the values which underlie their own behavior and that of others; to be able to take responsibility for their beliefs and actions; to appreciate such moral values as honesty, justice and concern for others, and to be committed to applying these values in their own lives and promoting them in the life of society."

And part of the British governments FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES says that "The Parties shall take measures in the fields of education and research to foster knowledge of the culture, history, language and religion of their national minorities and of the majority".

The ethos of a school and what is taught is critical if culture and citizenship is to be of value, by ignoring the history of the Scotch Irish/Ulster Scots in education the British and Irish governments are creating a black hole in history and denying a people there very cultural existence.

Did in 1798 the British hatch a devious plan to ensure that the Scotch Irish would never rise in rebellion again? by deciding to educate the Scotch Irish man in the ways of the British. A plan which would create such a mind set as to make him more British than the British themselves.

Today this seems to ring true as Ulster Protestants are still taught English History with events such as 1641, the migration to the USA and even the Somme not being taught or recognized.

Click here for the history curriculum Ulster Protestant children currently use. It speaks of significant people, change and continuity in their own area, social, religious, cultural or aesthetic perspectives, events and changes in the different periods and even World War I and II.

In saying this you would expect that Ulster Protestant children would be taught about the Plantation of Ulster in detail, and that 15 President's of the USA came from Ulster, that half of George Washington's army was men with roots in this small area, that in 1641 the Irish massacred 250,000 Protestants which lead to the start of emigration the the New World, which changed Ulster and America and indeed even the world.

Unfortunately not they are told of King Arthur the French revolution and the like. As for local history that's simply an non starter, it just doesn't exist. History is taught well and in great detail but with the total absence of any mention of the Scotch Irish. In Northern Ireland state schools Ulster Scots - Scotch Irish history is totally ignored and designated as non existent.

Citizens of other country's reading this will be shocked, its seems so outrageous its almost unbelievable, in essence a people have been turned into another people over 200 years by denying them there own history.

English history is indeed important as it also affected the Scotch Irish, but when no connection is ever made regarding any event and the Scotch Irish, when they are never mentioned, when there forefathers history and achievement's are totally ignored and even when that peoples very existence is brought into question by other neighboring county's citizens keen to grab the history, this can only be described as cultural and religious terrorism.

The continued extermination of a people and history to maintain the "Celtic Tiger myth and the British Union" as was quoted in an Irish newspaper.

The UK COUNCIL OF EUROPE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES.

ARTICLE 14

1 The Parties undertake to recognize that every person belonging to a minority has the right to learn his or her minority language. (Ulster Scots in not officially recognized in State education)

ARTICLE 13

1 Within the framework of their education systems, the Parties shall recognize that persons belonging to a national minority have the right to set up and to manage their own private educational and training establishments. (This advice has never been past onto the parents and no offers of assistance, help or advice have ever been relayed to parents regarding this)

ARTICLE 12

1 The Parties shall, where appropriate, take measures in the fields of education and research to foster knowledge of the culture, history, language and religion of their national minorities and of the majority. (Local Scotch Irish culture, history, language and religion which is in abundance is eliminated from the curriculum)

2 In this context the Parties shall inter alia provide adequate opportunities for teacher training and access to textbooks, and facilitate contacts among students and teachers of different communities. (None of the teacher-training colleges provide for the teaching of Ulster-Scots or its history)

3 The Parties undertake to promote equal opportunities for access to education at all levels for persons belonging to national minorities. (The Irish language is taught and funded by the British and Irish Governments to the tune of many millions of pounds, Ulster Scots is not recognized)

ARTICLE 10

1 The Parties undertake to recognize that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing. (In primary education, young children who use Ulster-Scots speech are subject to correction causing terrible embarrassment. It is the language of the Pub, street, playground and the home but not the classroom.)

ARTICLE 9

1 The Parties undertake to recognize that the right to freedom of expression of every person belonging to a national minority includes freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas in the minority language, without interference by public authorities and regardless of frontiers. The Parties shall ensure, within the framework of their legal systems, that persons belonging to a national minority are not discriminated against in their access to the media.

Now if you wish to speak Irish the above is stringently applied. The medium in schools should be as it is English so as children can take full advantage of the opportunities schools have to offer, and to participate fully as citizens in their adult and working life, but they should not be corrected in school for using poor or improper English, it should be explained to them that they are using an Ulster Scots word. Of course this would be uncalled for if Ulster Scots heritage and culture where being taught.

It doesn't stop at this the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that

C. Freedom of Expression (Art. 13) 139. Article 40.6.1 of the Constitution guarantees the rights of citizens, to express freely their convictions and opinions.

137.He or she cannot be deprived of citizenship acquired by birth or adoption.

87. This guarantee of equality, based on human personality, is as applicable to children as to adults. Discrimination based on a parent's status would be inconsistent with the guarantee of equality in the Constitution as would discrimination based directly on the child's own status.

B. Parental Responsibilities (Art.18, paras. 1-2) 180. A person who is a child's guardian has duties and rights in relation to all matters concerning the child's physical, intellectual, religious, social and moral welfare. Parents who are married to each other automatically hold equal rights as guardians until a child reaches the age of 18 years.

Above is a catalogue of laws and guide lines of which the British and Irish Governments are guilty of breaking and totally ignoring. It is a travesty of unporportaional size, how can a man be denied his culture and heritage, how can he have the pride, morals and Christian principles of his ancestor's of he is not as a child taught them.

The greatest democracy on the Globe is steeped in the very nature of the Scotch Irish man, and this inherent nature still shines bright every where the Scotch Irish man dwells. The current program of education MUST be amended to include the history and culture of the Scotch Irish, to deny it is to deny history. And to deny history is to deny the children of tomorrow the truth. See also Ulster Scots

Compiled by an Ulster civil servant.