In the
sixteenth century Scottish Highlanders settled in the Laggan district of east
Donegal. They were called Redshanks. Their story is told in the book The Laggan Redshanks. The history
of the Laggan Redshanks has many fascinating elements which include Clann
Chaimbeul and their dynamic leader the fifth Earl of Argyll, Gaelic sexual
intrigues, English Machiavellian maneuvers, and the Redshanks themselves.
The Redshank settlement in the Laggan took place in
the tumultuous years during the sixteenth century that were dominated by
Elizabethan English attempts to bring Ulster firmly under the control of the
Crown. The Redshanks were vital players in the affairs of those times and
indeed it was their military skills that delayed the conquest of Ulster until
the beginning of the next century.
The Laggan
Redshanks remained on their lands in Portlough precinct after the Plantaion
began. Their Campbell connections, Reformed faith, along with their
reputation as elite fighting men, which made them not only acceptable to the
incoming Stewarts, but a welcomed van guard. The Redshanks could be
considered British subjects in an ecumenical Scottish sense, complete with
appropriate loyalties, and a version of the Protestant faith. In the
Portlough area, the incoming Planter Scots came from Ayrshire and Lennox.
Lennox included lands in the Scottish Gaeltacht and parts of Ayrshire were
still Gaelic speaking in the early 1600s. The Scots from these areas were
familiar with Gaelic language and customs and were ethnically similar to the
Campbell Redshanks.
Many of
the descendants of the Laggan Redshanks migrated to the English Colonies during
the Ulster Migration and became part of the Scots-Irish people. Of interest to
the genealogist, the book includes appendices of the muster rolls and surnames
of the Redshanks and notes on their point of origin in Scotland.
Link:
The Laggan Redshanks
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