ULSTER AMERICAN
FOLK PARK
Emigration Experience Northern Ireland
The
term Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) refers to immigrants who settled in
America (and Canada)
from Ulster – the north of Ireland – largely
in the 1700s – coming from the migration of Protestants from Scotland
and England who settled in the north of Ireland in the 1600s as part
of what is known as the Plantation of Ireland where large tracts of land
were confiscated from the native Gaelics, and largely the reason Northern
Ireland 
is
still part of the United Kingdom. The Scots-Irish settled primarily in
Pennsylvania area (see President
Grant Homestead) and middle American colonies and spread
south into Appalachia and west. About 5 million Americans count their
heritage as Scotch-Irish. Starting in the 1840’s during the Potato
Famine, waves of Catholic Irish settled in the cities of the east coast
and more immigrants came from the north. For Americans of Irish descent
looking for a past heritage the Ulster American Folk Park is a must visit
in Northern Ireland.
In 1818, a young boy
of 5, Thomas Mellon, left is rural country village home in Tyrone County
and sailed with his parents to America to settle
in Western Pennsylvania. Thomas Mellon was the ideal of the American
dream, the son of farmer immigrants, he eventually became one the richest
men in America, founded the Mellon Bank and along with Scottish immigrant
Andrew Carnegie endowed Carnegie-Mellon University. In his autobiography,
Thomas Mellon wrote of his memories of his boyhood in Ulster. As part
of the American Bicentennial in 1976, the American Folk Park was established
by Thomas Mellon’s descendants in Omagh, County Tyrone around the
original Mellon homestead.
The
Ulster American Folk Park is a journey back into the life of 19th Century
Ulster and
a chance to experience the journey of an emigrant
to America. The outdoor living museum folk park is of two parts, a collection
of original buildings representing rural life as it was in the 1700’s
and 1800’s.
The original birthplace of Thomas Mellon, cabins, Blacksmith’s
Forge, Presbyterian Meeting House among a collection of others including
the boyhood home of the first Catholic Archbishop of New York, John Joseph
Hughes. Another section represents city life in the 1800s and the journey
of an emigrant in which the visit begins 
in
a recreated street in Belfast, passing through the docks and boarding
a replica of an actual sailing
ship, the Brig “Union”, and disembarks into the replica streets
of an America city like Boston, and Pennsylvania farm houses. In
the buildings, one encounters enactors of the period who will explain
their
lives and surroundings, even possibly offer to serve you tea and cake.
You might even meet old Thomas Mellon returned to his boyhood home. The
park presents really a quite realistic feeling experience of traveling
from the old world and to a new life across the Atlantic. Special events
are sometimes held like Bluegrass Music festival. One can easily spend
a day wandering the world of living history.
Connected
with the folk park is the library for the Center for Migration Studies.
The library supports the park with resources for studying the
history of Ulster and the United States in the 18th and 19 Centuries.
The library is open to the public and students. One will find references
on emigration and history, but for roots tracers, individual family records
are limited, though some valuable clues can be found (see Finding
Irish Ancestors). The
Ulster American Folk Park is located in Omagh, County Tyrone,
about an hour
from Belfast
by car, south of Londonderry (two plus hours from
Dublin or Shannon) off the A5, open every day from April to September
and closed on weekends and public holidays from October to March.
Single admission is £7 for adults, £4 for kids up
to 16. Family tickets are available and definitely a journey to be
taken by
the whole
family. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Ulster
Folk Park
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SEE ALSO:
BELLE
ISLE CASTLE HOTEL - LOUGH ERNE
BALLINSTADT EMIGRATION MUSEUM HAMBURG
ULSTER TRANSPORT & FOLK MUSEUM BELFAST
25
FREE THINGS TO DO IN IRELAND
