William Cowan - Distillers of Belfast and Glasgow - No. 4 Irish Whisky & Loch Lomond Scotch Whisky

Yet another large distilling firm with operations on both sides of the North Channel.

Judge Joseph Neilson (1813-1888)

"In January, 1888, that well-known American jurist and illustrious Brooklynite, Judge Joseph Neilson, died. He was an old friend of mine, of everyone who came upon his horizon. For a long while he was an invalid, but he kept this knowledge from the world, because he wanted no public demonstration. The last four years of his life he was confined to his room, where he sat all the while calm, uncomplaining, interested in all the affairs of the world, after a life of active work in it. He belonged to that breed which has developed the brain and brawn of American character - the Scotch-Irish."

Neilson’s funeral service took place at 2nd Presbyterian Church, Clinton Street, Brooklyn, in January 1888. His father was Dr Samuel Neilson and his grandfather John Neilson, who emigrated from Ulster in 1760.

700 Years ago - the death of Edward Bruce and the end of the Bruce campaign in Ireland

Elizabeth Jane Cochrane - 'Nellie Bly' - the journalist who travelled around the world in a record-breaking 72 days (1889-90)

She was born in 1864 in the town of Cochran Mills in Armstrong County on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. It had been named after her father Judge Michael Cochran (1810-1871). His father Robert Cochran had emigrated to Pennsylvania from County Londonderry. Her father died when she was just a child and her mother re-married, so it’s hard to see a direct family environment of distinctly Scotch-Irish values, but the community and region had been strongly so for over a century.

You’ll find references to her very easily online - a journalist who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Nellie Bly’. She first came to the fore through her championing of women’s causes and challenging what she saw as negative portrayals. She famously pretended to be insane in order to infiltrate an asylum for ten days, which she later wrote up as Ten Days in the Madhouse.

She travelled the world in 1889-90, beating Phileas Fogg’s famous 80 days achievement by doing so in 72 days, which was briefly a world record.

- Wikipedia entry here.

Hillbilly Elegy's time of reckoning

At long last, some of the voices from Appalachia who have been challenging the narrative of Hillbilly Elegy, will be published together in a new book entitled Appalachian Reckoning - A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy, by West Virginia University Press, edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll from Bowdoin College, where the recent 1718 Migration Ulster-Scots American Migration conference took place.

The Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Fiddle - Londonderry, New Hampshire

This is from the book entitled Two Hundredth Anniversary Celebration of Londonderry, New Hampshire, 1719-1919 (published 1923). No date given for the incident but the overall context of the chapter would suggest the 1700s.

Mike Compton & Joe Newberry - "What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul?"

I drove a 5 hr round trip to the annual bluegrass festival at the Ulster-American Folk Park mainly to see these guys in action. Awesome. Their set included this old 1930s classic. They also did an interview discussion session but I missed that sadly, hopefully it was recorded and might appear online.