ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
How one group of immigrants and their descendants influenced American history with the same values and spirit reflected in their traditional music.

SYNOPSIS
Liberal democracy is under threat in the United States and around the world. Autocratic movements are aggressively trying to subvert enlightened representative democracy in favor of authoritarianism. By exploring the important place of one ethnic immigrant group in America’s democratic history, our media project will enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of the principles of freedom and equality underlying the constitutional republic our Founding Fathers created in the U.S. as a model for all freedom-loving nations.

For a 100-year period beginning in 1717, more than a half-million people left Ireland’s northern province of Ulster in quest of a better life in America. They were largely the Protestant descendants of Scottish settlers who had colonized the north of Ireland for the British Crown in the 1600s. The people commonly referred to in America as the “Scotch-Irish" or (more recently) "Scots-Irish" became one of the dominant European groups populating the American colonies. They are among the ancestors of probably most white and many nonwhite Americans in the South and West today.

THE SCOTS-IRISH -- A MUSICAL JOURNEY will be a two-hour documentary for PBS and U.K. and Irish television, with related material for digital media. The project will explore how the Scots-Irish have influenced America’s democratic traditions, conflicts and values in ways that remain relevant today, with the same spirit reflected in their traditional music. Although ours is at heart an American story, we will devote significant attention to the history of this group’s forebears in Scotland and Ireland to provide context.

The format will blend narrative with music performance to unfold the story. Approximately half the film will consist of traditional Irish, Scottish and American ballads contemporary with the events and stories in the narrative, dramatically vivifying them. An outstanding ensemble of American and Irish musicians led by folk singer/songwriter John McCutcheon will perform the songs and tunes. As the late Irish traditional singer and song collector Frank Harte wrote, “Those in power write the history, while those who suffer write the songs.”

Our film will not be ancestor-worship, but rather an objective, exhaustively researched history based on solid scholarship. We have enlisted as consultants some of the world’s most eminent scholars in Ulster-Scots/Scotch-Irish history, music, and culture.

This media project is dedicated to Presbyterians, Catholics and other people of faith working for peace and reconciliation in Ireland, America and the world.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR David Hughes Duke
SCREENWRITER Chris Moser
PRODUCER Chris Moser, David Hughes Duke
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Carol Moser

WEBSITE

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