The Scots in Victorian and Edwardian Belfast: A Study in Elite Migration (Scottish Historical Review Monographs)

The Scottish diasporic communities closest to home are those we know least about. Whilst an interest in the overseas Scottish diaspora has grown in recent years, Scots who chose to settle in other parts of the United Kingdom have been largely neglected. This book addresses this imbalance. Scots travelled freely around the industrial centres of northern Britain throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and Belfast was one of the most important ports of call for many. The Scots played key roles in shaping Belfast society in the modern period, playing a key role in its industrial development and many cultural, philanthropic and religious initiatives. Yet despite their significance, in Protestant, Unionist and at times ill at ease Belfast, individual Scots could be viewed with suspicion, dismissed as "strangers," or interfering outsiders.