Dakota Beacon

Between Valentine’s Day and Easter lies St. Patrick’s Day breaking the “winter blues.”

This good-natured celebration holds fun for all. But there is more to St. Paddy’s Day than fun. This occasion celebrates Scots-Irish descendants and their ethnic heritage -- political correctness and “white privilege” be damned.

Who are the Scots-Irish? Where did they come from and how did they influence American history and culture? Good questions deserve good answers.

Former Secretary of the Navy and 2016 Democrat presidential candidate James Webb wrote a wonderful book in 2004 that answers these questions. His book, “Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America,” is a must read for anyone seeking to understand American history and the story of an ethnic group of men and women who forged that history. He advances two themes. First, he traces the Scots-Irish influence in defining “the American way of life.” Second Webb tracks anecdotally his personal Scots-Irish heritage.

Webb distills the salient points of Scots-Irish culture from an involved and misty history. From encounters with the Romans, Pics, and other wild Celts; to the building of Emperor Hadrian’s seventy-three-mile wall; to the migration of the Scotti from Ireland to Scotland, Webb creates a perspective that makes Celtic history understandable.

For almost a millennium following the collapse of the Roman Empire the English tried and failed to subdue the Scots-Irish. The conflict in Northern Ireland relates directly to the forced establishment in 1603 of the Ulster Colony by the English. To subdue Ireland, the English evicted Irish Catholics from their lands in Northern Ireland. They then imported Scots Presbyterians to work the land and tend to business. Soon, the English Anglican elite began treating the Scots as poorly as they treated the Irish. Result? This started the great Scots-Irish migration to America in the 1700s. They came as family groups and indentured servants (slaves) bringing with them their culture and their heritage. As rebels and outcasts they proved to be superb frontiersmen and fighters.

Underlying Webb’s thesis is the identification of the Scots-Irish character traits explaining their unbroken fighting spirit that influenced American culture. Among these traits was uncomplaining self-reliance, fierce individualism, and a warrior spirit. These Scots-Irish working class traits built America.

Webb points out that the American Revolution had its intellectual basis with the English Anglican elite. But over 40% of the men that fought the Revolution came from the Scots-Irish. During the War Between the States, as many as 70% of the Confederate soldiers were Scots-Irish.

Webb shows how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, stubbornness, and mistrust of elites formed and still dominates the ethics of blue-collar workers, the military, writers, and country music. Scots-Irish pioneers like Daniel Boone, Merriwether Lewis, William Clark, Kit Carson, and Davy Crockett blazed trails westward. Scots-Irish gave America some of its great military leaders including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and George Patton. Famous American writers like Mark Twain, Horace Greeley, Edgar Allen Poe, and Larry McMurtry trace their roots to Scots-Irish heritage. Scots-Irish also produced several America presidents including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

A common understanding of who the Scots-Irish were has been lost in today’s politically correct society. These are an invisible ethnic group whose story cries out to be told. “Born Fighting” fills that gap in part, but it may not be enough.

Although Webb is certainly opinionated, that does not detract from his factual accuracy. Few groups have suffered the stigma of prejudice and negative stereotypes more than the Scots-Irish. They and their descendants have taken more than their share of abuse. Stereotypes portray the Scots-Irish people as dirty, drunken, brawling, ignorant, illiterate, rowdy, belligerent, boisterous, and uncouth. Other stereotypes render the Scots-Irish as childlike leprechauns. Through it all, the Scots-Irish spirit never broke. They overcame discrimination without the aid of equal opportunity legislation.

The Scots-Irish stand as a wonderful example of how an ethnic group persecuted for over a millennia can triumph over bone-crushing hardship. They certainly did not waste their time whining, complaining, and blaming others for their misfortunes. They didn’t seek reparations or try to re-write American history. Their proud, indomitable spirit enabled them to shake off victimhood and shun adversity despite centuries of abuse.

The Scots-Irish deserve more than St. Patrick’s Day to salute their achievements. For the smears and epithets of racism and white supremacy this ethnic group deserves a safe space from ritual humiliation. In the spirit of tolerance and diversity, let Congress codify a St. Patrick’s Month along with a federal holiday!

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).