Precious copy of US Declaration of Independence the star-spangled attraction at new Ulster-Scots exhibition

On loan from The National Archives (UK), the precious document, which was printed by Co Tyrone man John Dunlap, is being displayed in Belfast for the first time.

It is thought that around 200 were printed for distribution in July 1776 but only 26 are known to have survived.

The last new discovery of a Dunlap Declaration was at a flea market in 1989. It was sold at auction in 2000 for $8.14 million.

The exhibition – running from April 20 to July 24 – will highlight the role of the Ulster-Scots diaspora in shaping the thinking of the American colonies in the years leading up to the independence declaration.

The Declaration carries the names of two Ulster-Scots born in what is now Northern Ireland – Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress and John Dunlap, who printed the original document.

At the official launch on Thursday, US Special Envoy to NI Joe Kennedy III, praised the “rugged, determined men and women” who left Ulster for America and helped found a great nation.

Commenting on the Declaration, PRONI director David Huddleston described it as “one of the great documents of the world,” and urged everyone to come and see it.

Other speakers at the launch included NIO parliamentary under secretary of state Lord Caine, Ulster-Scots Agency chief executive Ian Crozier.

According to the The National Archives: “It is likely that only around 200 of these copies were ever printed. The United States Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.

"The prints made by John Dunlap were delivered to the founders early on the morning of July 5 1776. One copy was officially entered into the Congressional Journal and the additional copies were distributed, some by horseback, throughout the colonies to be read aloud to colonists and the militia.”