At the birthplixe of Woodrow Wilson, who •
raised ond edueoted in North Caroline, thot’s
writer with colleen guide Kerr> Compbell.
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In Mecklenburg County, North Corolmo. Lod,
O'Neill, of Shone's Costle, North Ireland, mits
Lotto Ploce Lord O'Neill
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president
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the North
Ireland Tounst Boord
North Ireland wos "the seedbed for much of the
1 9th century flowering of the piedmont of the Caro¬
lines"
Digging For Your
Scotch-Irish Roots
". . . . For Carolinians Ihc chief charm
«if I l.sl«»r is atavistic, something call¬
ing fr«im the past in our bl«Mid. . .
tty CHALMERS C. DAVIDSON
Now it's in I he manor-house you'll
be staying if you visit North Ireland
and do a bit of planning ahead of time.
Eight writer-journalists, including
yours truly from North Carolina, went
over recently as guests of the North
Ireland Tourist Board and found it out.
Apparently this historic homeland of
the Scotch-Irish has yet to be invaded
by the American chain motels. In con¬
sequence. when the expensive country
estates of the ancient or recent rich
come on the market, the canny "na¬
tives” convert them into hotels for the
traveling public. They lose little of
their elegance and nothing of their im-
com parable emerald settings in the
transformation. I hey gain waterworks
and electrified Waterford chandeliers.
Outstanding among such accommo¬
dations are the Manor House.
"Killadeas.” in County Fermanagh,
an estate of the Irvine family «many of
whom migrated to America) for two
hundred years near Enniskillen, tho'
the house is an I860 remodelling:
Knock-Na-
Мое
Castle Hotel. Omagh.
County Tyrone, with a hush-hush
tragedy too close in time for the
brochures; and the Cullodcn Hotel.
Craigavad, County Down, originally
the residence of the Robinsons and
Campbells and once a bishop’s palace.
His Grace’s private chapel, deconse¬
crated, of course, is now the bar.
Killadeas and Knock-Na-Moc were
used by the American army brass in
World War II since northern Ireland
was more friendly to the Allied cause
than the Irish Republic to the south.
Tar Heel Ties
But for Carolinians the chief charm
of Ulster, as the natives properly call
northern Ireland, is atavistic, some¬
thing calling from the past in our blood.
These North Ireland counties. Fer¬
managh. Tyrone. Derry (London¬
derry). Antrim. Down and Armagh,
are the seedbed for much of the 19th
century flowering of the piedmont of
the Carolinas. Outstanding Americans
of direct Scotch-Irish ancestry include
Andrew Jackson and James Knox
Polk, both bom in the North Carolina
back country, and Woodrow Wilson
bom in the valley of Virginia, bred in
the Carolinas and educated at David¬
son College where his father, the Rev¬
erend Joseph R. Wilson of Wil¬
mington. N.C.. was a trustee. The
Alexanders were numerous in Coun¬
ties Down and Antrim. The Gastons
came directly from Clough Water.
County Antrim. And the I.attas mi¬
grated from Killcny. County Tyrone.
The "Macs” are as prolific in Ulster as
in Scotland. Now that pedigree is be¬
coming popular, there's no place with
more of it for piedmont Carolinians
than North Ireland. You can get back
to check it in less than a day. It took
our ancestors almost as many months
as it does us hours to get from their
"mountains" of Mourne. Cuilcagh.
and the Spcrrins to our rolling foot¬
hills. Many came by way of the ports of
Pennsylvania and Maryland and drove
a covered wagon down the "Great
Waggon Road" to North Carolina.
Humble Beginnings
A word of warning is appropriate for
those who cherish ancestral ambitions.
Few American families originated in
the manor-houses. The homesteads of
two conspicious examples of lowly be¬
ginnings and later greatness are now-
open to tourists. These arc the
thatched cottages of the first of the
Mellons of Pittsburgh and of the Wil¬
sons whose American grandson be¬
came our 28th president.
The Mellon house, near Omagh.
County Tyrone, is the humbler of the
two. If they did not actually inhabit it
along with the cows they were close
enough for lowing contact. The
American Family has now completely
THE STATE. JANUARY 1979
12