Veteran News Letter journalist Billy Kennedy reminisces on 25 years on trail of Scots-Irish in America

Now on his 12th book, Billy’s journey began in the summer of 1993 when he was sent to Tennessee on a two-week assignment by then News Letter editor Geoff Martin.

The Bessbrook-born journalist who lives in Tandragee said: “Geoff thought it was a good idea for me to travel to Tennessee and see at first hand the highly significant US southern states’ link with Ulster.

“He packed me off with about £1,500 of expenses. I didn’t have a credit card unlike everyone else in America at the time. I was running around with all this money in my pockets that I’d changed into dollars.”

Billy, a News Letter man of nearly fifty years, said: “Everywhere I went, I got the same message from folks who told me their people came from the north of Ireland in the 18th and early 19th centuries, mainly Presbyterians – ‘We’re Scots-Irish and proud of it’.”

Billy has been a journalist with the News Letter since 1974 where he has held a variety of roles including assistant editor and churches correspondent.

He has written 12 books about the Scots-Irish in America.

He has also written historical books on the IFA, Linfield FC, where he is honorary vice-president, and Glasgow Rangers’ Ulster connection.

The News Letter assignment back in 1993 resulted in the publication of a special 24-page supplement in the paper.

Billy said: “It was an exhilarating experience for me, both in my time in Nashville at the heart of the country music scene and in the hills and hollers of the Smokies, meeting folks imbued with very distinctive Ulster-Scots characteristics and mannerisms.

“On that trip, I managed to fit in an exclusive interview with upcoming country star Garth Brooks at his Nashville base. I also made my first visit to Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s theme park in the Great Smoky Mountains, and met Dolly’s family.

“On return, I was approached by east Belfast publisher Sam Lowry and DUP politician Gregory Campbell about the potential of writing a book on the Ulster connection in the southern states of America.

“We agreed on the need for such a work and, for the next 18 months, I set about in-depth research work on both sides of the Atlantic, making several journeys to Tennessee, meeting reliable civic, cultural and history contacts there.”

It is estimated that 200,000 Ulster-Scots migrated to what became the United States of America during the 18th century, many of them Presbyterians who were legally disadvantaged in the north of Ireland because they were dissenters to the Anglican state church.

During the American War of Independence (1775–1783), most of the Scots-Irish population sided with the American patriot cause.

Eight of the 52 signatories of the 1776 Declaration of Independence came from men of Ulster-Scots stock.

They included Maghera, Co Londonderry-born Charles Thomson, who was the first secretary to the United States Continental Congress.

About three quarters of the Confederate Army in the US Civil War (1863-1865) were Scots-Irish although the commander of the triumphant Union Army was Ulysses S Grant, from a Ballygawley, Co Tyrone family.

Grant went on to become the 18th US president.

The founder of the Presbyterian Church in America was the Rev Dr Francis Makemie, from Ramelton, Co Donegal.

Many US universities and colleges were founded by Ulster-Scots settlers, including Princeton College in New Jersey.

In 1995 Billy published his first of 12 books – a 228-page tome on the Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee.

As a journalist and author Billy said he only deals in fact: “I have never been into fiction books – the Scots-Irish Chronicles are about real-life people who conquered adversity in their journey of life and, after moving from their British homeland (in Scotland and Ulster) to the ‘New World’, labouriously created a civilisation out of a bleak wilderness.

“The popularity of my books at home in the UK and, most significantly in the United States vindicated my approach.

“I was assistant editor of the News Letter when those books took off. I’d come back home jetlagged and it was back into work, writing the Morning View, it was hard going.

“I couldn’t have done it without the support of my wife Sally.”

Billy, a father-of-one and grandfather-of-two who has been married for 47 years, said: “For seven years I did a book a year to meet up with the demand.

“As the number of books increased, my lecture work gained impetus in the regions, speaking at universities, civic gatherings, to history and genealogical societies, in churches of Presbyterian, Baptist and Episcopal, and at various Scottish Highland games in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina.

“My lectures at various venues extended to more than 150 and it was at these gatherings, particularly in the early years of my work, that I gleaned a lot of information and data from many folk intensely proud that their ancestors were Ulster-Scots immigrants.

“I’ve been over to America about 60 times in 27 years. There was maybe years I was over about three times.

“This year is the first time I haven’t been over. I keep in touch via other means.”

Billy commented: “A big highlight of my sojourns was appearing in 2007 on the American History Channel documentary ‘Hillbilly - The Real Story’.”

He said: “Other highlights were my visits to the ancestral homes of President Andrew Jackson in Nashville, President James Knox Polk in Maury County, President Andrew Johnson in Greenville, (all three Tennessee), President Woodrow Wilson in Staunton (Virginia) and President James Buchanan in Lancaster County (Pennsylvania).

Other lasting memories include visits to the wooden shacks inhabited by Davy Crockett and his clan at Limestone and Morristown and the sites of the Battle of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto: “When you walk those battlefields the hair stands on the back of your neck.”

Billy spoke highly of Sam Houston, the man who led the Texan Army to victory over Santa Anna’s Mexican army at San Jacinto: “Houston was a man of strong east Co Antrim roots and governor of both Tennessee and Texas. I hold to the view that Houston, an iconic American politician and soldier, was the greatest American never to become President.

“Houston, a close contemporary of President Andrew Jackson and frontiersman David Crockett – also of Ulster-Scots roots – was a wily, articulate individual who just failed to make the presidential nomination in the 1850s.”

Full sets of Billy’s 12 books have reached three American Presidents – Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W Bush – as well as country music megastar Dolly Parton.

Billy said: “In May 1997, I received a personal letter from President Carter acknowledging his Co Antrim eight-generation-back ancestor Andrew Cowan, who settled in Abbeville county, South Carolina in 1742.

“I have met people from a wide range of American society – US senators, congressmen, mayors, state governors, top legal attorneys, preachers, hillbillies, and yes, moonshiners.”

Billy recalled a time when an offer of a bottle of illicit whiskey came from an unexpected source: “On one occasion I was offered a bottle of moonshine by a highly respected doctor who attended one of my lectures in western North Carolina.

“I appreciated his generosity, but politely refused the offer, knowing customs would collar me heading home at the airport.”

He continued: “On another visit to the Carolina back country, I was met by a lady carrying a bunch of papers, detailing her family roots back to Ulster.

“She had come along for one of my lectures and she asserted, ‘I’m a hillbilly, proud of it, but don’t you dare call me a hillbilly’.

“Her papers confirmed she was of stout decent Ulster lineage. She was typical of very many folk I met on my trail of the Scots-Irish.”

Since Billy’s first visit to America in 1993 he has made acquaintances in nearly 40 US states.

He said: “My journey on the trail of the Scots-Irish has taken me to 15 American states and I have built up a contact base of hundreds of people from no fewer than 38 of the 50 US states, including California and Hawaii, and western states Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, Nebraska and Kansas.

“They are all book readers taken by the epic Scots-Irish journey to America.”

He added: “One man who contributed much to the success of my books was David Wright, the highly acclaimed American frontier artist. David, based in Nashville, allowed me to use his vivid highly colourful frontier paintings on the book covers and these were an undoubted selling point for the various publications. I am greatly indebted to David for his kindness and generosity.

“At a personal level, I was privileged to be recognised for my work with the granting of honorary citizenships of the cities of Knoxville (Tennessee), Louisville (Kentucky), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), and Newnan (Georgia).”

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