Antrim and Argyll: Some Aspects of the Connections explores the connections between Antrim and Argyll, from the earliest times. The contributors examine the prehistoric and medieval connections, Gaelic culture, musical traditions and migration from Argyll to North Carolina involving Antrim flaxseed traders. The book provides fascinating insights in to the shared heritage of people from these parts of Ulster and Scotland.

Written by scholars in Northern Ireland and Scotland, this book explores and reflects on a number of aspects of these links, including archaeology, history, musicology and linguistics.

The New Scots, the men of the army the Scottish covenanters sent to Ireland, were the most formidable opponents of the Irish confederates for several crucial years in the 1640s, preventing them conquering all Ireland and destroying the Protestant plantation in Ulster. The greatest challenge to the power of the covenanters in Scotland at a time when they seemed invincible came from a largely Irish army, sent to Scotland by the confederates and commanded by the royalist marquis of Montrose.

But though historians have studied Anglo-Scottish and Anglo-Irish relations extensively, Scottish-Irish relations have been largely neglected. Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates attempts to fill this gap, and in doing so provides the first comprehensive study of the Scottish Army in Ireland.

Scottish Migration To Ulster In The Reign Of James I by M. Perceval-Maxwell was first published in 1973, yet it continues to be one of the most significant works of scholarship on the 'plantation' of Ulster. This book describes in detail the initial establishment of settlement in Ireland's northern province over a comparatively short space of time, that is from 1603 to 1625.

The essays in Plantation – Aspects of seventeenth-century Ulster Society, range from overviews to case studies of particular areas, individuals or groups. Sources that are essential to a better understanding of the immense social, economic, demographic and political changes brought about by the plantation are highlighted, while the experiences of the Irish, English and Scots are all brought into view and analysed from different perspectives. Edited by Brendan Scott and John Dooher expert contributors to the book include Dr Patrick Fitzgerald and Dr William Roulston

This landmark volume by Raymond Gillespie reconstructs the society of east Ulster – the counties of Antrim and Down – in the early seventeenth century. These counties formed a distinct region within Ulster and were excluded from the official scheme for the Ulster plantation. In remarkable detail – all the more impressive due to the loss of so many records of this era – the author explores demographic and economic developments, the emergence of rural and urban communities, and the tension between central government and local interests. In doing so, he reveals a fascinating picture of the strivings of both settlers and natives to establish a modus vivendi during a period of rapid change.

When the first edition of this book appeared in 2005 it was quickly recognised as an essential work of reference for family historians researching Ulster ancestors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It filled an important gap in providing reliable guidance on sources for perhaps the most critical period in understanding a family’s links with the north of Ireland. This is territory where some family historians fear to tread. But they need not. This guide opens up avenues for research; drawing attention to the riches of archives inside and outside of the island of Ireland, demonstrating the benefit of often undervalued, rare, even quite unconventional, yet accessible sources – if you know where to look – which can help document your ancestors back to the 1600s.

Millions of people around the world have Presbyterian ancestors from Ireland. The aim of this book is to help those with Irish Presbyterian roots find out more about their forebears. It considers the different strands of Presbyterianism in Ireland and explores the range of records generated by these religious denominations and where this material can be accessed by researchers. Much attention is focused on the documentation created by individual congregations, though consideration is also given to the records created by the higher courts of Presbyterianism and other bodies, as well as the personal papers of Presbyterian ministers.

This essay by Rodney Green on migration from Ulster to the Carolinas, particularly South Carolina, in the period leading to the War of Independence can well lay claim to being years ahead of its time. It confirms that Presbyterian ministers continued to be involved in the organisation of congregational removals from Ulster. At the same time, Green’s research is also quite possibly among the earliest to contend that, by the mid-eighteenth century, the motive for emigration from Ulster to the New World being linked to a strong sense of religious persecution had by then been replaced by economic factors, mostly associated with agriculture and land holding in Ulster.

Scotch-Irish Merchants in Colonial America tells the story of the transatlantic links between Ulster and America in the eighteenth century. The author draws upon a remarkable range of sources gleaned from numerous repositories in America and Ireland as he explores the realities of life and work for the merchants. The trading networks and connections established and the economic background to the period are examined in some detail. Scotch-Irish Merchants in Colonial America: The Flaxseed Trade and Emigration from Ireland, 1718-1755 provides fascinating insights into the connections between Ulster and Colonial America through the experiences of the Scotch-Irish merchants.

Over the last 350 years, Ireland has sent a constant stream of emigrants to North America. Estimates range from six to ten million. Each emigrant spoke English, Irish, or Ulster Scots. Many indeed used two of these tongues. One of the most formative chapters in this fascinating story is the often-overlooked arrival of perhaps 200,000 people from Ulster in the colonial era, specifically in the sixty years before the American Revolution. This book recounts the lasting impact they made on the development of the, English language of the United States from the eighteenth century to the present day. It documents nearly four hundred terms and meanings, each with quotations from both sides of the Atlantic, that were contributed to American English by these eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster.

First published in 1966, R. J. Dickson’s Ulster Emigration to Colonial America, 1718–1775 remains the acknowledged work of scholarship on the eighteenth-century movement of families and individuals from the north of Ireland to the New World. This important book provided for the first time a balanced and professional study of the entire emigration phenomenon and carefully examined the economic, social and political context of emigration.