My own family's story

From the 13th to 17th century, Irish and Scots Highland chieftains hired elite bands of mercenaries, skilled in the use of heavy, hand-held weapons, to supplement their regular forces. These mercenaries, known as gallogladh in Gaelic, were Anglised as Gallowglass. The word, in Gaelic, is usually said to mean foreign warriors. These imposing mercenaries wore distinctive long coats of padded cotton or chain mail and conical shaped helmets, which set them apart from ordinary Irish warriors. Many of them settled in Ireland and became the forefront of the Irish war machine with their Claymore, a two-handed sword, and their Sparth, or battle axe.

The Gallowglass originated in the Hebrides (a group of island just off the west coast of the Scottish Highlands) and were of mixed Celtic and Viking origin. Clan Donald was one of the principal providers and leaders of Gallowglass Warriors, not only in Ireland, but also for King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden during his Thirty Year Wars.

I always like to note how nothing happens in a vacuum. Gustavus was known as the Father of Modern Warfare and it is likely that some of his tactics were learned from the very Gallowglass Warriors that he employed to help fight his battles. It is also very likely that the Gallowglass learned some of their tactics from the Knights Templar.

Knights Templar are thought to have taken refuge in Scotland, landing on the Isle of Mull in 1313. This would have been well within the kingdom of the Rulers of the Isles, the “Sons of Somerled”.

The following year, a few Templars are thought to have been led by Angus Og McDonald, great, great grandfather of Hugh of Sleat, at the Battle of Bannock Burn, when Robert Bruce freed Scotland. Hugh of Sleat is the progenitor of my McQuiston family.

Angus was married to Agnes OCahan, of Dungiven, the Irish community from where our family eventually immigrated to America, thus linking the Scottish island and Highland families with the Bann River Valley, the hotspot of Scotch-Irish settlement in Northern Ireland.

Words with gall in them usually denote some type of Viking background. The Hebrides were often called Innes Gall, or islands of the foreigners.

Thus foreign warrior really meant Viking warrior.

Galway Bay in Ireland and Galloway in Scotland are also named after their Viking backgounds. The Galloway area of Scotland includes Wigton, where many Scotch-Irish moved to, escaping violence and persecution in Ireland, in the mid to late 1600s.

That Knights Templar were in Scotland is proven in many ways. Over 500 pieces of property were recorded as belonging to Templars. Templar graves dot the landscape from the Isle of Skye to Paisley Abbey, two more places where Clan Donald had a dramatic presence.

Also, on a small island, just off the coast from Caisteal Uisdean, on the larger Isle of Skye, are the graves of two Crusaders knights. It was the Crusaders who originally made up the Knights Templar.

It is most likely that Gallowglass Warriors fought with tactics learned from Vikings, Celts, and Templars and were, therefore, the very best, toughest fighting men around, at the time. No wonder they were invited to Ireland!

The fighting typically only took place in the summertime, when fields were dry. During the winter, Irish families were required to house Gallowglass, and in many cases these Scots, from the Hebrides, married Irish women.

The marriage of Angus Og and Agnes OCahan or OCathan, was of particular importance in bringing the races of Scots and Irish Celts back together. Both had originated from Celts who were escaping persecution in Europe. Both groups of Celts were attacked by, and intermarried with Vikings. They were and are essentially the same people.

Scotland got its name from Irish Celts called scotti, meaning invaders. Their scotti-land became Scotland. The Wild Scots of the Hebrides and Highlands were most often referred to as the Irish, and their language was often called Irish.

So the Scotch-Irish, in their earliest form, were the same people just moving back and forth in an area that had anciently been called Dalriada.

In the case of Angus and Agnes, her dowry to him was that 140 Irish were to marry 140 Scots to help bring peace to the two regions of the old Dalriada. This means there were at least 141 recorded marriages between the Celt/Vikings of Northern Ireland and the Celt/Vikings of Scotland. Of course there were many more, including those of Gallowglass Warriors to local Irish women.

One of the most important marriages was that of the grandson of Angus, Jon Mor, to the Bissett heiress of Antrim. This enabled Clan Donald to create what became known as Clan Donald South, led by the McDonnell family that eventually produced Sorley Boy McDonnell as their leader.

The son of Angus, Good King John, married Margaret, great granddaughter of King Robert the Bruce, and this is how we descend from him. The daughter of Bruce, also named Margaret, married the High Steward of Scotland, and their son became Robert II, the first Stewart king. He was born at Paisley Abbey, and is buried there. In his grave is also buried John, brother to Hugh of Sleat. This younger John was the last official Lord of the Isles.

Scotch-Irish history is so very tightly associated with the power of Scotland and of Northern Ireland, through Bruce; through Robert II and his daughter, Margaret, who married Good King John of Islay; through the Lordship of the Isles; and through the Antrim kingdom of the McDonnells.

King John had another son that was the progenitor of the McDonalds of Keppoch. Andrew Jackson ancestor, Richard Jackson, was a caretaker of horses for the Keppoch McDonalds, when he met Mary McRandall. One of the main sources for the McRandall name was from the Keppoch McDonalds. Richard and Mary moved to Coleraine, Northern Ireland, in the middle of the Bann River Valley, where the Scotch-Irish were so entrenched.

The Bann Valley is a small 25 mile or so radius of communities, some in Antrim County and some in Derry County, that surround the Bann River. One of the bigger towns is Coleraine and it was here that the Jackson family dominated local politics. In the early 1700s they were forced to raise rents on their tenants because of pressure from creditors in England. This was a major catalyst, if not THE main event, that began the immigration from Ulster to America. The first local immigrant to America was a reverend from Macosquin, which is just below Coleraine.

In addition to Jon Mor, who founded Clan Donald South, and another son who was the Keppoch progenitor, Good King John of Islay also had a son named Donald who followed him as Lord of the Isles and led Clan Donald North from various Hebrides islands.

Donald had a son, Alexander, Lord of the Isles, Earl of Ross, Sheriff or Justiciar of the Highlands, and father of Hugh of Sleat, from whom I descend, and for whom I am named.

Hugh of Sleat’s son, Donald Gallach, married into the Irish branch of the family, being wed to Sorely Boy’s aunt. Donald had a son, Alexander, who took our direct line and family name to Ireland, in 1565, to help Sorley fight against the English. Sorley fought them until he was 80 years old and it appears Alexander helped him until he was about 86, dying while leading 100 Gallowglass Warriors. Many other Scots came in 1565 to aid Sorley Boy.

The great McDonnell/McDonald family, along with many other smaller clans from the Scottish/Irish mix, made up the first Scots in Ireland, the first to be called Scotch-Irish.

Back on April 14, 1573, Queen Elizabeth of England issued a manifesto containing the oldest known reference to the words Scotch-Irish. She wrote, . . . Sorely Boy, and others, who be of the Scotch-Irish race . . . - those others included Hugh of Sleat’s grandson and a few great grandsons.

I feel Scotch-Irish is likely just a contraction of Scottish-Irish and now I have some potential proof.

In a Lord of the Isle book I purchased in Scotland, the author cites an English diplomat, Ralph Sadler, who, in about 1558, when speaking of Mary Queen of Scots and her attempted alliance with Sorley’s brother, James McDonnell, called James and his people the Scottish Irishie.

This was fifteen years before Elizabeth used Scotch-Irish.

Since there was tremendous activity between the English, the Scottish government, and this rogue faction of Scottish Irish - the McDonnells of Antrim - my guess is that a term, somewhere between Scottish-Irish and Scotch-Irish was used over and over again when speaking of these people. It just wasn’t recorded a lot - but it was recorded twice!

This is one more proof that it was the McDonald Clan who was first officially known as Scotch-Irish. Our family was absolutely part of this bunch of Wild Scots.

Some people like to say Scotch-Irish is an Americanism. Some like to say it should be Scots-Irish, instead. Some like to say the Scotch-Irish were principally lowlanders.

NOT!!

The Scotch-Irish, for centuries, were Highland Scots blending into and remolding the character of the average Northern Irelander, principally through Clan Donald. This is why probably half of the Scotch-Irish people carry Mc names like McCormick or McQuiston, etc. a prefix originating in the Highlands and Islands, not in the lowlands. This is why the Scotch-Irish were principally Presbyterian, the religion of Scotland, not Ireland. This is why both Queen Elizabeth and Ralph Sadler, two contemporaries of James and Sorley Boy McDonnell, called them, and their family, Scottish Irishie or Scotch-Irish.

Again, there is no evidence to the contrary. Most detractors of this theory don’t start counting Scotch-Irish history until the early 1600s, hundreds of years after this unique race actually began, and many years after the term Scotch-Irish was first known to be used.

The Gall Gael race, that gave birth to Somerled, was half Viking - half Celt and permeated both Ireland and Scotland. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The Scotch-Irish of course!!

I found a Scottish book from 1729, which uses the term “Scotch-Irish” in a translation of a Latin book from 1521, where the term “Scotos Hibernicos” is translated as Scotch-Irish - people who are said by the 1521 author to have already been long established in Ireland at least back in the 800’s, if not earlier.

This means that as early as 1521 there was a distinct race known (as translated from Latin) as Scotch-Irish. This was 52 years before Queen Elizbeth’s usage. So it would certainly seem that the term Scotch- Irish was used with familiarity as early as the 1500s, and the race is said to have been formed or have originated long before that date.

At the very least, the term was being used in Scotland before most Scotch-Irish came to America. There is no early usage of the word or term Scots-Irish to be found, and the Scotch-Irish Society of America is so against changing history by using Scots-Irish, they won’t even allow an article in their journal that uses the term Scots-Irish. Scotch is so obviously a contraction of the word Scottish, or perhaps an early alternate spelling. It had nothing to do with alcohol in its original usage, anymore than Irish did, just because of Irish Whiskey. Like I said before, taking the ch off Scotch, to make Scot, would be like taking the h of Irish to make Iris.

I’m reminded of the newer definition for “gay”. We wouldn’t want to change the words of the song When Irish Eyes Are Smiling to read anything but all the world seems bright and gay, just because the word has an alternative meaning, today. Would we?

So why change the age-old word Scotch to Scots, just because Scotch also refers to a drink, now? Scotch-Irish, as a term for a race, is as old as the hills. It is our very race, led by Clan Donald and defended by our family’s blood for century upon century. It is the very race that became the stereotypical American, and led, and won, the War of Independence.

The Scotch-Irish made up the majority of those who stayed with Washington at Valley Forge and he is quoted as saying, If defeated elsewhere, I’ll make my last stand with the Scotch-Irish.

At Guilford Courthouse it was the Scotch-Irish who decimated 1/4 of the most crack British troops leading directly to Cornwallis’ surrender a few months later. It was also the Scotch-Irish who fought the first real battle of the Revolution at nearby Alamance in 1771.

It was only about a week or two quick sail from one end of Clan Donald lands to the other, from Caithness to Dungiven. This race was simply the Sons of Somerled, the Children of Conn (of the Hundred Fights) - the greatest, most romantic, freedom-loving race to ever set foot on Mother Earth.

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