Ben Lowry: I have been enjoying fascinating talks on Ulster and the early United States
On Wednesday I was at a fascinating lecture in the beautiful Robinson Library in Armagh.
(To read Ben Lowry’s main column on the Ulster Unionist Party, click on this link here)
Entitled ‘A Spanish Ulster Scot in the early United States’, it was about Enrique MacDonnell, a descendant of the Earls of Antrim who became an admiral in the Spanish navy in the late 1700s, and spent time in the early United States, reporting back to Madrid on the fledgling country. The talk was by Roddy Hegarty of Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Library.
I have attended all five of the six Department for Communities-funded free lectures held so far in the ‘Armagh and USA 250’, series to highlight the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. The last of the six is today week in Robinson Library, by Prof Ian McBride on Ulster, Ireland and 1776. Other talks were by the librarian John Gray, the historians Ronnie Hanna and William Roulston and an American, Valerie Bronson, who spoke about the role of women in founding the US.
As editor of a paper that reported on America from 1737, it has been a pleasure to attend these events and others such as the excellent Orange Order talk last Friday by Lord (Dan) Hannan on the links between the 1688 Glorious Revolution and 1776. There is also a coming event on June 27 in Belfast on the Ulster philosopher Francis Hutcheson, who was influential among power-brokers in the early 1700s.
Ben Lowry (@Benlowry2) is News Letter editor