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Eight of the 56 signatories of the American Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 were of Ulster-Scots Presbyterian stock. They were John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress who had family ties in Co.Down; William Whipple, whose parents arrived in Maine from the North of Ireland in 1730; Robert Paine, his grandfather came from Dungannon; Thomas McKean (his father came from Ballymoney); Thomas Nelson, his grandfather came from Strabane; Matthew Thornton from Londonderry, he settled in New Hampshire in 1718; and George Taylor, son of an Ulster Presbyterian minister and Edward Rutledge, also a son of an Ulster Presbyterian family.
John Dunlap, who moved to America from a printing firm in Strabane and had the honour of printing the first copies of the Declaration. And Colonel John Nixon, whose parents were Ulster-born, delivered the first public reading of the document in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776.
16 of the 41 American Presidents were Ulster-Scots or had Ulster-Scots ancestry They are: Andrew Jackson, James Knox Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnston, Ulysses S.Grant, Chester Alan Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Bill Clinton! George W Bush has become the 17th American President with Ulster-Scots connections. William Jefferson Clinton is a relative of Lucas Cassidy, of Ulster Presbyterian stock, who left Co. Fermanagh for America around 1750.
And George W Bush can trace his ancestral roots back to the 18th century Scots-Irish diaspora form Ulster. Mr Bush's ancestor on his mother's side, William Gault, was a first citizen of Tennessee in 1796 and was born in Co. Antrim.
The story of Ulster's Presidential links begins with the Great Seal of the United States. This was designed in 1782 by Charles Thomson, an orphan emigrant from Upperlands, County Londonderry who became Secretary of Congress. His flying eagle, with the motto he chose from a Latin recipe for a mixed salad Epluribus unum - Out of many, one
Monday May 31st
Our Tour begins in Belfast Airport where we meet our driver and guide. Travel along the edge of Lough Neagh and into the Sperrin Mountains. Stop at Ardtara House in the village of Upperlands, Charles Thomson’s home, for a brunch. Carry on to the city of Derry and check in to The Beech Hill Country House, the HQ of the U.S. Marines during the Second World. Dinner and overnight here.
Tuesday June 1st
Leave the hotel to visit Grays Printing Press in Strabane, President Wilson Ancestral
Homestead and President Knox Polk’s family home at Cavancor. Private lunch with the Duke and Duchess of Abercorn at Baronscourt. After lunch visit the Ulster American Park, set around Paul Mellon’s family home.
The Ulster American Folk Park was founded in 1976 and is a living history museum, centred around the ancestral home of renowned banker Thomas Mellon. There are 30 buildings within the park, showing what life was like in Ulster and America for the emigrants who left our shores. An interpretive visitor centre, an extensive library and the Centre for Migration Studies are also located on the site. Dinner and the night at Beech Hill.
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| Grays Printing Press | Wilson Home | Cavancor |
Wednesday June 2nd
Visit the World Heritage Site, The Giant’s Causeway. Stop at Dunluce Castle, precariously perched on crumbling cliffs. Lunch at the Bushmills Distillery and hear how Irish monks invented whiskey. In the afternoon explore the Walled City of Derry, besieged for 105 days in 1689. Walk the walls, the best preserved in Ireland, or visit the numerous cultural sites which tell the story of this historic city. Dinner at the very historic private Prehen House, the home of the Knox family since it was built in the 1700s.
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| Dunluce Castle | The Giant's Causeway | The Walls of Derry |
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Prehen House |
Thursday June 3rd
Leave Derry and head West to visit Glenveagh Castle, which was given to the Irish State by the Pennsylvania banker Henry McIlhenny. Pub lunch here. Tour through the Blue Stack Mountains to the town of Donegal. Dinner and Overnight in the Lough Eske Castle and Spa, a stunning castle hotel.
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| Glenveigh Castle | The Mountains | Lough Eske Castle |
Friday June 4th
Explore the 16th century castle of the Brookes in Donegal town and visit McGees famous Donegal Tweed showrooms. Head South to Lissadell House and the countryside that inspired the poet W B Yeats. Private lunch overlooking Lough Gill and the lake isle of Inishfree with a Yeatsian expert. Return to Lough Eske for dinner and the night.
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| Benbulben | Drumcliffe | Lough Gill |
Saturday June 5th
By way of Lough Erne with its prehistoric monuments on Boa Island, which we should stop at, to Castle Coole, a stately neo classical home and headquarters of the US 8th Infantry Division during the war, and then to Andrew Jackson’s ancestral home. Lunch at the Linen Green at Moygashel, a pleasant café in a luxury retail shopping outlet. Visit the Irish Linen Centre in Lisburn, where the history of the North’s Industrial Revolution is well displayed. Dinner and overnight at the Culloden Hotel overlooking Belfast Lough.
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| Castle Coole | Boa Island | Jackson Home | Culloden |
Sunday June 6th
Explore The Ards Peninsula, Groomsport Harbour was the location where the
first attempted emigration from Ulster to America took place. Rev Robert Blair
of Bangor, Rev John McClelland of Newtownards, Rev John Livingstone of Killinchy
and Rev James Hamilton of Ballywalter were the four ministers who commissioned
the famous ship The Eagle Wing. They had come to Ulster to minister to the
Ulster Scots Presbyterians in the Hamilton and Montgomery Settlement area. Eagle
Wing sailed from the harbour at Groomsport on the morning of 9th September 1636,
the morning after Sir Hugh Montgomery’s grand Scottish state funeral in the
Priory of Newtownards. Today her journey is remembered each year in the annual
Eagle Wing Festival.
Visit the Marquis of Londonderry’s house and gardens, Mount Stewart, Lunch at Grey Abbey, the stately home of William and Daphne Montgomery. The Montgomerys have owned the abbey since the Cistercians were removed in the 16th Century, and a one stage owned much of County Down. Then take the ferry across Strangford Lough to Downpatrick, the 18th Century Cathedral town where Ireland’s return to Belfast by way of Killyleigh Castle and Rowallane gardens. Dine in Belfast City tonight at one of the top restaurants in Northern Ireland.
Near the Eisenhower Monument. On August 24th 1945, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower (later President Eisenhower) unveiled a monument at the front of
Belfast City Hall. At the end of his speech, he said "...My Lord Mayor, in
inviting me to return here to become an honorary Burgess you have given one
further proof of the ties of affection which bind the American Army to the
people of Northern Ireland. I trust that you look upon it, as I do, as a token
of our common purpose to work together for a better world..." Eisenhower
was 34th US President from 1953 – 1961.
He had also addressed the troops at Bangor as they left for what became known as the D Day landings; Bangor’s North Peir was renamed Eisenhower Pier in 2005 in his honour, with his granddaughter Mary Jean Eisenhower in attendance at the ceremony
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| Groomsport | Grey Abbey | Eisenhower Monument |
Monday June 7th
This morning explore the Capital City of Belfast, the industrial centre where Harland and Wolff built the Titanic. Visit the many museums and galleries in the city, with a private tour to one of Belfast’s seats of government, unless the administrators are actually sitting.
Larne Emigrants Statue - This
impressive monument is at Curran Park in Larne, depicting a family about to
leave Ulster for America. The inscription on the marble plinth reads:
"This memorial, unveiled on 16th May 1992 by Professor Bobby Moss PhD
of South Carolina, is dedicated to the memory of those first Ulster emigrants
who sailed from Larne in May 1717 upon the 'Friends Goodwill', bound for Boston.
They were to be the first of many. There is no other race in the United States
that can produce a roll of honour so long and so shining with distinction. And
who shall deny our claim to have done more, much more, than any others to make
the United States."
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| Carrickfergus | Larne Emigrants | Arthur Home |
Leaving Belfast behind, follow the Causeway Coastal Route and visit dramatic castle at Carrickfergus.. Just outside the town visit The Andrew Jackson Centre. Carry on up the coast road to have a bar lunch at Ballygally Castle and then come back through the Glens to visit the Alan Arthur Cottage. Dinner and overnight at the Culloden Hotel.
Tuesday June 8th
Depart Belfast Airport
Martha Nell Beatty
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