God's Frontiersmen

God's Frontiersmen, by Rory Fitzpatrick, tells the dramatic story of the Ulster Scots, or Scots-Irish as they are also known — Scottish Presbyterians who came to the north of Ireland in the seventeenth century and who constitute the dominant strain among Ulster Protestants today. Aptly called the 'Frontiersmen of God', they brought with them their Calvinist beliefs, a stern work ethic and a fiercely independent spirit. Economic hardship and religious discrimination led thousands to cross the Atlantic where they formed the vanguard of the great army of pioneers who pushed the frontier westwards.

Many of the famous names in American history came from Ulster stock: the frontiersmen Davy Crockett and Kit Carson, the Civil War generals Stonewall Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant, and, in the world of business, the millionaire dynasties of the Gettys and the Mellons. The Scots-Irish played a leading role in drafting the Declaration of Independence. Ten United States Presidents were of Scots-Irish origin, including Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson.

To the developing lands of Canada, Australia and New Zealand the Ulster Scots sent farmers and engineers, doctors and clergymen, who played a major role in forging these new societies.

In Ulster the book charts Belfast's rapid economic growth in the nineteenth century, due largely to the entrepreneurial skills and energy of the Ulster Scots, and examines the deepening religious and political divisions leading to the partition of Ireland in 1922. A companion volume to the major Channel Four television series of the same name, the book offers a greater understanding of an often misrepresented people who have helped shape Western society and who now in their Ulster homeland face the greatest crisis of their existence.