Join me on Valentine's Night!

Yes it's the opportunity you've been waiting for. I'm giving my illustrated talk on Sir Thomas Smith's Forgotten English Colony of North Down and Ards (1572-75) on Valentine's evening for Bangor Historical Society. The venue is Bangor Abbey and it starts at 8pm. I will have a small supply of the booklets available. A PDF version of the booklet will soon be available on the new Ulster-Scots Community Network website here.

Dr Jonathan Bardon's talk to the Society in January was about the arrival of James Hamilton in 1606, so I'm doing what is sometimes called the 'backstory' or if you're into Star Wars, the 'prequel'. For those of you who don't know, around 1605 Hamilton got a look at the Smiths' old legal papers from 1572 and discovered a golden opportunity which they had missed out on, but which he wanted for himself.

Bangor Abbey was burned down during the Smith campaign, but Hamilton rebuilt it. Hamilton succeeded where Smith failed. When he died he was buried in the Abbey crypt.

Hope to see you there!