For a one hundred year period beginning in 1717, a roughly estimated 250,000 people left  Ireland's northern province of Ulster in quest of a better life in  America. They were largely the Protestant descendants of Scottish settlers who had colonized the north of Ireland for the British Crown in the 1600's.  The people commonly referred to in America as the "Scotch-Irish" or "Scots-Irish" became one of the dominant European groups populating the American colonies, and they are among the ancestors of probably most white and many non-whites  in the  South and West today. 

The mass migration of the Irish to America resulting from the Great Potato Famine of the mid-19th century is a familiar story. That subject was brilliantly treated in the 1995 public television documentary Out of Ireland and the 1998 series The Long Journey Home: The Irish in America.  But much less is generally known about another, earlier wave of immigration from Ireland that also had a profound influence on what it means to be American.  Redwine Productions of Atlanta is planning  to tell this compelling story in a long-overdue public television documentary. 

This documentary, presently in pre-production, will be a one-hour television documentary offering an overview of the Scotch-Irish influence on U.S. history and culture. This long-overdue program will take an unsentimental approach that will seek neither celebrate nor denigrate its subjects, but rather to present factual historical knowledge and a variety of viewpoints about their contributions to the American multi-cultural mosaic.will explore provocative questions about these immigrants from Ulster and their progeny.  How vital was their role in the How did the Presbyterian Church they spread in America develop into modern Presbyterianism?  Were they primarily responsible for the American ideal of universal education?  If so, how did they come to be identified with the stereotype of isolated, under-educated Appalachian folk?   What does the story of their settlement in Appalachia leave out of their history?  How significantly did their culture affect Southern speech, country music, and other enduring cultural characteristics that define the South?  Were they the dominant influence on present-day American's most widely held political, religious, and social values?  Did they, as some contend, infuse the American socio-political landscape with militarism, conservative individualism, and Christian fundamentalism? 

In short, did the Scotch-Irish simply melt into mainsteam America?  Or did they create it?


America's Other Irish is now seeking major funders and corporate  sponsors! Redwine Productions of Atlanta, Georgia will produce the documentary in association with Borderline Productions of Belfast, Northern Ireland, in partnership with The Center for Irish Studies at Georgia Southern University and the W.B. Yeats Foundation at Emory University.  The program will be offered to PBS and public service television in the U.K.

Please consider a gift to America's Other Irish. Corporate underwriting of public television is a highly effective way to advertise your company or organization. Acknowledgment of your production grant will appear at the beginning and end of the program, on this website, and on all promotional materials.  All contributions are fully tax deductible and will be made through the Center for Irish Studies at Georgia Southern University.   

To explore how underwriting this program can help fulfill your philanthropic mission or benefit your corporate image, please  contact us for more information.

We have a remarkable story to tell, and we welcome a partnership with you to tell it.