Movement from Ulster

Billy Kennedy

Emigration from Ulster has always been a fascinating subject with the human stories of families who moved from this Province from the 18th century providing the most intriguing of tales.

   In this book, Co Antrim historian Dr David Hume reports and reflects on the varied experiences of the many men, women and children who made journeys to other lands and new worlds.

The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were the favoured destinations for the Ulster emigrations and the contribution they made in these countries was immense.

   Most of the emigrants featured in this book were Ulster-Scots/Scots-Irish, but there is a place in the book for folk of other backgrounds who left these shores and contributed much to developments in many areas.

   The author focuses on parts of the world that are forever Ulster, like the Waxhaw region of the Carolinas which was home to President Andrew Jackson and his family, whose roots are traced back to Boneybefore outside Carrickfergus in the 1760s.

   There is an illustration of an historical marker outside Waxhaw Presbyterian Church which was organised by Ulster emigrants in 1755, with the founding pastor the Rev William Richardson.

   Andrew Jackson's mother Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson is also remembered with a memorial at the Waxhaw cemetery.

   The Calhoun family, of American Vice-President John Caldwell Calhoun, is also deep-rooted in the Carolinas and David Hume brings to light some interesting details on their trek from Ulster to the "New World" and their expansion in the region.

   Dr Hume, an East Antrim journalist for 15 years and now director of services with the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, examines the considerable Orange links with Canada and how at one time the Order was as numerically strong there as in Ireland.

   Among notable personalities who jump out from the pages were William Ferguson Massey, who was born in Limavady and became Prime Minister of New Zealand; Cullybackey man Robert Houston, who was an influential figure in the Orange Order in South Africa; and Ballymena man Alexander Chesney, who fought on the loyalist side in the American Revolutionary War and is buried in Mourne Presbyterian churchyard in Kilkeel.

   This book is a useful addition to the literary works completed on emigration, with its added value in some wonderful mono illustrations re-produced.   

- Far From the Green Fields of Erin by Dr David Hume. Published by  Colourpoint Books, Newtownards. 128 pages (softback). £14.99.