Saturday 1 January 2011

Belfast and Nashville - Sister Cities

Belfast and Nashville have been Sister Cities since 1995 and this is a very natural Sister City relationship because Nashville has a strong Scotch-Irish tradition.  The founders of Nashville were Ulster-Scots and men and women of Ulster-Scots descent have played an important role in the development of the city. 

Nashville's story is an Ulster story too and the Sister City relationship between Nashville, the capital city of Tennessee, and Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, is a fitting reflection of this.

During the 18th century as many as 250,000 Ulster-Scots emigrated from Ulster and crossed the Atlantic to settle in America.  In the course of time some of those Ulster-Scots families travelled south to Tennessee.

I have set up this blog to explore the historical and cultural connections between Ulster and Nashville.

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