"the Scotch-Irish, sticklers for the Covenant, and utter enemies to the abomination of curled hair, regal government" – Lt. John André, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1780

John André (1750–80) was English, of Huguenot parents, a multi-lingual and erudite man. He was a British Army officer and was far from happy with his new-found circumstances as a prisoner in a Pennsylvania jail in 1780. He wrote to his mother that the town of Carlisle was

“inhabited by a stubborn, illiberal crew called the Scotch-Irish, sticklers for the Covenant, and utter enemies to the abomination of curled hair, regal government, minced pies and other heathenish vanities. A greasy committee of worsted-stocking knaves.”

He was hanged as a spy a few months later. A memorial in Westminster Abbey commemorates his life - and where he is now buried, with his remains being brought back across the Atlantic in 1821.

Again we have the term ‘Scotch-Irish’ in a primary source from the 1700s. It is about time that the myth of ‘Scotch-Irish’ being of later invention was ditched forever, and in fact ’scotched' when it arises in future. And we can now assert an historical cultural objection to the heathenish vanity that is the mince pie.