Telling the Nutfield Story: Ulster-Scots Videos

The Nutfield 300th anniversary celebration isn’t just important to our towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham and Derryfield, but also to those “back home” in Northern Ireland. Accordingly, this past August the Northern-Ireland based Ulster-Scots Agency invested considerable resources in sending a professional film crew over to capture scenes and interviews from old Nutfield and the similar early settlements in Maine (see blog post to the right).

The resulting video productions are available to watch below. These include:

• an introduction to the project by Richard Hanna, Director of Education and Language for the Ulster-Scots Agency, Belfast, Northern Ireland,

• a short piece focused on Rev. MacGregor’s establishment of Londonderry and Derry,

• a broader look at the 1718 MIgration and journey of the Scots-Irish from Ulster to Nutfield and Maine, and

• a comparison of the parallels—and differences–between Belfast Maine and Belfast Northern Ireland.

FIrst up is the brief introduction by RIchard Hanna.

This first video from the Nutfield and Northern Ireland collaboration starts with Rev. James MacGregor’s journey and ends showing the interior of a meetinghouse still very much like the original version of that at Rev. Macgregor’s First Parish in East Derry.

This next video covers the 1718 journey of Rev. MacGregor’s company from his home parish in Aghadowey Northern Ireland to New England, and their settlements in Nutfield and in Maine. It includes a sentiment expressed by our local TJ Cullinane on the challenges of the early settlers that applies well to our goals for the whole 300th celebration:

“[If} people today, so preoccupied with their own troubles, … would only look back into their own history, they’d see that what they’re contending with today pales in comparison with the trials and tribulations of the First Settlers. ”

This final video in the series focuses on Belfast Maine—founded by members of Rev. MacGregor’s contingent who journeyed north of New Hamshire and ended up staying—and its parallels with Belfast Northern Ireland.

We hope these videos have provided a bit of historical info and enthusiasm for the upcoming Nutfield 300th celebrations here in Derry, Londonderry, Windham, and the Derryfield portion of Manchester. Visit the Nutfield 300th Page to learn more, and follow the Nutfield 300th on Facebook for updates.