Ulster Scots people

The Ulster Scots (Ulster-Scots: Ulstèr-Scotch; Irish: Albanaigh Ultach), also called Ulster Scots people (Ulstèr-Scotch fowk)[6] or (in North America) Scotch-Irish (Scotch-Airisch[7]), are an ethnic group[8][9][10][11] in Ireland, who speak an Ulster Scots dialect of the Scots language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history, culture and ancestry. As an ethnicity, they diverged from largely the same ancestors as those of modern English people, and Lowland Scots people, native to Northern England, and Lowland Scotland, respectively.

Found mostly in the province of Ulster, and to a lesser extent in the rest of Ireland, their ancestors were Protestant, mainly Presbyterian, settlers who migrated from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England during the Plantation of Ulster.[12] The largest numbers came from Dumfries and Galloway, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, Scottish Borders, Northumberland, Cumbria, Yorkshire, and to a much lesser extent, from the Scottish Highlands.[13] Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Northern Ireland are British and/or Irish citizens.

The Ulster Scots migrated to Ireland in large numbers both as a result of the government-sanctioned Plantation of Ulster, a planned process of colonisation which took place under the auspices of James VI of Scotland and I of England on land confiscated from members of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland who fled Ulster, and as part of a larger migration or unplanned wave of settlement.

Ulster Scots emigrated onwards from Ireland in significant numbers to what is now the United States and to all corners of the then-worldwide British Empire—what are now Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, to British India and to a lesser extent to Argentina and Chile.^{[citation needed]} Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) is a traditional term for Ulster Scots who emigrated to America.[14]