Madam, - I read with interest Patsy McGarry's recent reflections on Ian Paisley's comments at the Boyne (Rite and Reason, May 15th).
Understanding the past may well be one sure way to help us understand the present but Mr McGarry's subsequent depiction of Ulster Presbyterian history reminded me of two other comments made at that historic meeting. The First Minister also stated: "The Boyne conjures up all manner of stereotypes, many of which are far from the reality of what this ground signifies", while the Taoiseach suggested that "we are all coming to acknowledge that we have a shared and complex past".
In this light I was rather struck by the simple, segregated and somewhat stereotypical portrait offered of Ulster Presbyterians. May I make a few points which are clearly still not widely recognised on either side of the Border? Although the numbers of emigrants crossing the Atlantic during the 18th century are still hotly contested by historians, it is clear that Ulster Presbyterians comprised a majority (possibly 60 per cent) of a diverse migration flow.
Furthermore, many of those who have written about the "Ulster-Scots" or "Scotch-Irish" seem to forget that more Ulster Presbyterians left Ireland in the 19th century than during the 18th and that Ulster emigration is predominantly a 19th-century phenomenon.
Indeed, in terms of gross volume, Ulster Presbyterian emigration was at its height during the years of the Great Famine (1845-50). We might also reflect that, as William rode away from victory at the Boyne, the greatest wave of migration from Scotland to Ireland was still to come. The 1690s was the decade when most "Ulster-Scots" arrived and they arrived in Ulster, at least in part, as refugees from the worst famine in Scotland's history (1695-99).
One could not agree more with Mr McGarry about the need for more inclusive history teaching but we should perhaps consider that Presbyterians, north and south, are every bit as ignorant about their history as Catholics and Anglicans. At this moment in history, as the island addresses the challenge of transition from emigrant nursery to host society, let us - as the Taoiseach and First Minister exhort us - avoid the trap of simplifying our past and neglecting the diversity and complexity our peoples have experienced on the island of Ireland and throughout the Irish diaspora. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK FITZGERALD, Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster-American Folk Park, Omagh, Co Tyrone.