Preface - (first 600 words only)
‘big lad, you’re getting above yourself – Laird writing a book!’
I can just hear my friends’ and others’ reaction at the idea
of me writing about myself. And I agree with their viewpoint. I
have not undertaken the usual worthwhile tasks that are generally
considered to make an autobiography interesting beyond one’s
close family. But this book is not an autobiography. At least that is
how I see it.
This is the story of an ordinary Ulster Scot, Ulster Unionist or
Ulster Protestant making his journey through life in his native
trouble-racked province, in the latter part of the twentieth century
and on into the twenty first. What it is not, is a day-by-day or a
month-by-month or even a year-by-year account of an average
enough life.
I have been interested in current affairs, which in Northern
Ireland includes history, from as early as I can remember and long
before achieving a number of recognisable positions. As a result, I
am constantly asked to explain the Unionist case or to outline my
Ulster Scots background.
There seems to be little analysis of those two topics for the
ordinary punter. Why did, and why do I, spend so much time upholding Unionism and why am I so pleased to be of an Ulster
Scots background? These questions and more I try to answer in
these pages.
I believe that we are all made up of our reactions to that which
has happened to us, directly and indirectly. So, using selected
sections of my life, I map the journey from the small boy steeped
in Unionism, or ‘the Cause’, to the rational grown-up of pension
age. I still have most of the basic values and beliefs intact. But as a
result of that journey, I am no longer a ‘paper Unionist’ or ‘paper
Ulster Scot’, but one who has, almost day-by-day, thought out his
position and now regards himself as a practical exponent of those
two major beliefs.
The journey from the atmosphere in which I was born to this
day was strewn with doubt, mixed messages, confusion and
occasional revision of my views. And it was none the worse for
any of that.
As well as our backgrounds, we are created by the circumstances
we meet in life. I try to explore the circumstances, both positive
and negative, that I encountered in my life, and consider how they
affirmed or changed my views. I examine my Ulster Scots
background, or Scotch/Scots Irish as they call it in America,
and come to terms with how it affected my community, my family
and me.
The Ulster Scots people are often regarded as that section of
the Scottish race that was hardened on the anvil of Ulster. Their
story is one of hardship, independence of spirit and a search for
equality and justice. The Ulster Scots community produced some
most remarkable people including seventeen American presidents,
two men who would stand on the moon, some major figures of
business, the church, and science and of war. Their story is one that
changed the course of history at many points. They had the vision
and drive to help create what is now the United States of America.
For a small group moved mostly from the border of Scotland and
England to the northern part of the island of Ireland, their
contribution to the modern world is out of all proportion to their
size. Yet by our nature, we of that ethnic group either play down or do not know who we are. I sincerely hope that this publication
will inform at least some.