US Presidential Election Special!

US Presidential Election Special!

Date: 08/11/2016 14:47

The 2016 US election takes place today, after which one of the world’s most influential nations will have a new leader. 19 exhausting months of Presidential election campaigns will determine the 45th President. However, have you ever wondered which American Presidents had their roots in the north of Ireland?

This seems like a good occasion to explore Northern Ireland’s connections to the USA, both historically and politically, in From Here to the White House. Tracing these invisible links between America and the north of Ireland,  the film tells the story of the quarter of a million Ulster Scots - descendants of Scottish Presbyterians, who'd first settled in the north of Ireland, before sailing across the Atlantic and emigrating to America in the 18th century.

‘Northern Ireland - home of the American dream’, a saying that rings true not only of Woodrow Wilson and 16 further Presidents, but of the astronauts, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn - both of whom can claim ancestral links to the north of Ireland. Some have more direct links than others, but the connection to 18th and 19th century emigrants from the north of Ireland is evident in the case of each.

The fascination with the 'old country' persists into the present era, with a long list of American Presidents - not least Bill Clinton and Barack Obama - making the pilgrimage to explore their Irish/ Ulster Scot roots.