Diaspora, defeatism, and dignity: Ulster Protestant reimaginations of the self through Ulster-Scots Americanism

The notion of an American diaspora has become increasingly salient among the minority of Ulster Protestants who ascribe to the “Ulster-Scots” ethnic identity in Northern Ireland. Especially in light of the well-established conception of an Irish-American diaspora, the effort Ulster’s “Protestant community” to construct and delineate a separate, non-Irish genealogical diaspora reveals much about their collective self-conceptions and aspirations. In this paper, I argue that the descriptions of Ulster-Scots-American diaspora represent both means of recasting “their” actions and ideologies as ethnically predestined, and an attempt to regain a sense of collective dignity in light of palpable postbellum defeatism.