What is Scots-Irish? Are they half Scottish, and half Irish?

Question

What is Scots-Irish? Are they half Scottish, and half Irish?

Answer 1

Yes

Answer 2

Scotch-Irish (the historically common term in North America) or Scots-Irish refers to inhabitants of the United States and, by some, of Canada who are of Ulster Scottish descent. The term may be qualified with American (or Canadian) as in "Scotch-Irish American" or "American of Scots-Irish ancestry".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots-Irish...

In the 1600s Ulster was the last redoubt of the traditional Gaelic way of life, Elizabeth I's English forces succeeded in subjugating Ulster and all of Ireland. The Gaelic leaders of Ulster, the O'Neills and O'Donnells, finding their power under English suzerainty limited, decamped en masse in 1607 (the Flight of the Earls) to Roman Catholic Europe. This allowed the English Crown to plant Ulster with more loyal English and Scottish planters, a process which began in earnest in 1610.

The Plantation of Ulster,  settled only the counties confiscated from those Irish families that had taken part in the Nine Years War. In general the "ordinary" native Irish remained in occupation of their land, they were neither removed nor Anglicised.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster

Answer 3

The Scotch-Irish were the issue of the highlanders who married into the low lander clans in the last 400 years or so. Yes, I would say half Irish and half Scottish.  The of the "old sod" are important to those ethnic groups.  There are Highland festivals in the U.S. each summer.  They wear kilts, as I understand the story.

Answer 4

Tebs is right.  When the Ulster Scots came to the U.S., they identified themselves as Scotch-Irish which meant racially they were Scottish but their geographical origins were Ireland.   Scots were planted in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I.  Protestants in Ireland are mostly descendants of them.  

Now, back during the first melennium Celts from Ireland migrated to Scotland so the Irish and the Scots are closely related.  It has been said, the two countries did not have the same type of people prior to the Celts.

Answer 5

The Scotch Irish didn't really exist. It was a misnomer given to them by English and German colonists when Protestant Scots from Northern Ireland started immigrating to the American Colonies in the very early 1700's.

These people had fought horrible battles with the native Catholic Irish, and any common tribal blood from the old days meant nothing. They hated each other. I've spent a year studying these people and many of my family lines trace back  to these folks.

Go here -- and download this book -- it's free, and although it deals with the founding and history of Londonderry, NH, it's a great introduction to the history of the "Scotch Irish."

http://books.google.com/books?id=yh9hPXk...