Is JD Vance really Scots-Irish - and does it even matter?

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

Vance's claim to Scots-Irish heritage would connect him to America from the days before the revolution, which may explain why he's so keen to play it up.
There's just one issue though - there's no real evidence it's true.
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Earlier this year Gordon Lyons of the the Democratic Unionist Party commissioned a report into Vance's ancestors in Northern Ireland but researchers were forced to admit they had "not established a conclusive family link'.
Emails to Lyons, obtained via Freedom of Information, concluded "it has not been possible to establish conclusive proof of a direct Vance link back to Ulster at this stage".
The vice-President was believed to be descended from Lancelot Vance, son of Scottish reverend John Vance, who died in the Siege of Derry in 1689.
However, the Vance Family Association has been running a genealogical research project using DNA for more than a decade, and cast doubt upon the claim.
Its president, Dave Vance, said there was no direct connection to "the John Vance who is popularly assumed by many genealogists to be the sole progenitor of all Irish Vances'.
It appears then that Vance, who has been staying near Kilmarnock this week, is not as connected to Scotland as he might believe or claim.
What is not in dispute, however, is heavy influence of the Scots-Irish community on Appalachia.
JD Vance plays golf at Turnberry The term doesn't refer simply to those of Scottish and/or Irish descent but specifically to Protestant immigrants from the northern counties of Ireland, whose ancestors came there from Scotland.
In the early 1600s King James VI of Scotland - James I of England - sought to solidify his rule over Ireland and encourage the spread of Protestantism.
One method involved seizing land from the native Irish in Ulster, making it the property of the British Crown, and handing it over to Presbyterians from southern Scotland.
It was, in effect, what would now be recognised as an ethnic cleansing in which the Crown sought to 'breed out' the native Gaelic population with poor protestants from Scotland, as well as Northern England and Wales.
Those moving to Ireland did not own the land, instead operating as sharecroppers paying tithes to the Anglican Church of England rather than their own Church of Scotland.
By the 1660s Scottish Presbyterians made up some 20% of Ulster's population, close to two-thirds of its British population, and that number would grow hugely at the turn of the century.
A prolonged famine hit Scotland in the 1690s in which up to 15% of the population died of starvation, with 50,000 fleeing to Ulster between 1690 and 1710.
By 1720 they represented the absolute majority in terms of population, but they continued to be shut out from political power by the Church of England.
As a result many - at least a quarter of a million by the time of the American Revolution - emigrated to the American colonies in search of a better life.
Many of them eventually settled in Appalachia, which shared geographical similarities with their former homelands.
The Scots-Irish settlers brought with them their knowledge of crop rotation and the farming techniques which had been practiced in Ireland for centuries, adapting them to the rich soils of the region.
Culturally, too, their contribution was foundational to the traditions of Appalachia.
The fiddle, blended with the banjos played by slaves from West and Central Africa, became a key component of bluegrass as did traditional folk ballads and their narrative storytelling.
Appalachian quilts mixed Scottish and Irish traditions with those of Native American, Amish and Quaker to create a style distinct to the region, while food staples like buttermilk and potatoes can also be traced back across the Atlantic.
Then, of course, there's moonshine.
A moonshine still (Image: Wikimedia Commons) As Mark Sohn wrote in his book Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture and Recipes: "For the Scots-Irish, whiskey-making was linked to freedom. They came to Appalachia in search of freedom, and they brought not only their whiskey-making knowledge but also their worms and stills.'
During the prohibition era the limited road network in Appalachia made it easy to evade revenue officers, moonshiners swapping barley mash for maize corn to create a potent - and illegal - spirit.
Kathy Olson, director of the Stephenson Center for Appalachia at Lees-McRae college said: "It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Scots-Irish made the defining contribution to Appalachian culture in terms of shaping the region's cultural identity as distinct from lowland American culture in terms of language, music, religion, and agriculture."
Many Scots-Irish immigrants played a key role in the successful struggle for independence.
The Battle of Kings Mountain, which took place in 1780 in North Carolina, was described by President Theodore Roosevelt as the "turning point of the American Revolution".
It was fought and commanded by a number of Scots-Irish and Scots on the American side, including Joseph McDowell Jr, William Campbell, and James Johnston. Loyalist commander Patrick Ferguson, from Pitfour in Aberdeenshire, was killed in the battle.
To this day, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee have the highest proportions of Scots-Irish ancestry in the United States and place names across the region reflect their Celtic origins.
Virginia has a Glasgow and a Kilmarnock; there's a Kelso in Tennessee and an Elgin in South Carolina; while North Carolina has Aberdeen, Cumnock, Glencoe and Inverness.
The list of notable Americans descended from Scots-Irish immigrants is huge.
Edgar Allan Poe's grandfather, David Poe, was an emigrant from County Cavan, and the author spent time in Irvine as a child having been fostered by a Scottish tobacco merchant.
His fellow horror scribe Stephen King is descended from Reverend James Pollock, who moved from Ireland to Pennsylvania in the late 18th Century, while Mark Twain's ancestors came to the United States from County Antrim.
The former's home state of Maine isn't generally considered part of Appalachia, though the Appalachian mountains do stretch into it, but it's third most populous city is named Bangor.
King devised a fictional analogue for the city, also with an Irish name, called Derry, the setting for his 1981 novel IT.
In the world of music Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day can trace his ancestry back to the members of the Armstrong clan given land in County Fermanagh; Elvis Presley's mother Gladys Mansell's family came to Ulster from Scotland; and Hank Williams' mother was of Scots-Irish descent.
John Wayne's great-great-grandfather Robert Morrison arrived in America from County Antrim and was of Hebridean descent; while other actors with Scots-Irish roots include Steve Martin, Brad Pitt, and Burt Reynolds.
Vance may well occupy the White House one day, but the Oval Office too has a long history of Scots-Irish occupants.
Andrew Jackson's parents were from near to Carrickfergus; Teddy Roosevelt's mother was descended from people who emigrated from County Antrim; and Lyndon B Johnson's roots went back to Dumfresshire via Ulster.
Trump famously shared his belief that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S but he, too, has Scots-Irish heritage.
Obama told the Democratic National Convention in 2016: "See, my grandparents - they came from the heartland. Their ancestors began settling there about 200 years ago. I don't know if they had their birth certificates, but they were there.
"They were Scotch-Irish mostly - farmers, teachers, ranch hands, pharmacists, oil rig workers. Hearty, small-town folks. Some were Democrats, but a lot of them, maybe even most of them, were Republicans - the party of Lincoln. And my grandparents explained that folks in these parts, they didn't like show-offs, they didn't admire braggarts or bullies."
Those words were a none-too-subtle rebuke of Vance's boss, whose Scottish heritage is far more certain.
Whether the country has to take the blame for the VP too remains a matter of debate.