In today’s world, few countries command as much global attention during their presidential elections as the United States. This alone underscores the considerable influence of the American state on global affairs. The United States is definitely a completely new and unique type of empire that has absorbed the best of its dead predecessors (especially the Roman Empire). It is far from perfect in either form or substance, but one thing is obvious – it has a remarkably stable and hitherto unprecedented internal immunity in the history of mankind. 2016 was a landmark year for the United States and all of humanity. Against all odds, businessman and showman Donald Trump won the presidential election. He decisively defeated not just an ordinary passing politician, but Hillary Clinton herself – the consensus candidate of the elite groups of the Democratic Party.
A number of serious experts specialising in American politics called this event revolutionary. However, it was most accurately characterised by Walter Russell Mead, who published an article titled ‘the Jacksonian Revolt’. This definition is more correct, as it is still too early and bold to talk about fundamental deep transformations. Indeed, there was a riot, but its consequences had a serious impact on the balance of power within the American elite groups. To understand what is at stake, we need to get a clearer picture of the nature of the modern United States, which requires first debunking the established misconceptions. The first and perhaps the key is the myth that Americans are a nation of immigrants. Indeed, today’s Americans are descendants of hundreds of different nations that migrated to the New World in search of a better life in different historical eras. However, this nation, like any other established nation, has its own core, around which subsequent rings were formed. Let us start with the core.
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The first line of the core. The Ulster Celtic group
The second line of the core. The Dutch group
The third line of the core. The German group
The fourth line of the core. The Celtic Catholic group
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The Ulster Celtic group
Ethnic group: Irish and Scottish
Geography of origin: Ulster (modern Northern Ireland)
Religious affiliation: Celtic (nation-oriented) Protestantism
The history of the Christianisation of Ireland is closely intertwined with the Roman conquest of Britain, which was systematically attacked by militant Celtic tribes. Although the Romans had been preparing to conquer the Celtic lands for a long time, their local campaigns (through forces stationed locally) were unsuccessful. Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the then ruler of the British province, requested additional forces from Rome to capture Ireland, but the campaign never took place. Christianity conquered this island almost bloodlessly, as evidenced by the absence of the cult of martyrdom inherent in many other Christian nations. Already under Saint Patrick (the father of Irish Christianity), a local national church was formed, which recognised the supremacy of the Pope. However, due to their geographical remoteness from continental Europe and the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the relationship between the two Churches was purely formal. Being an excellent strategist, Patrick understood the importance of this (albeit formal) connection as the foundation of a new religion, around which the process of uniting local disparate tribes was underway.
As a result of the synthesis of Celticism and island Christianity, the Celtic Catholic Church (CCC) emerged – unlike anything else. Irish and Scottish Catholics, especially from the northern lands (Ulster), had a reputation for excellent politicians and warriors. Their representatives participated in the development of strategic plans and commanded the most elite troops of the Vatican during the Crusades. Celticism became one of the most important factors for European Catholicism, which maintained a considerable distance from its traditional Latin part. The Celtic Catholic aristocracy was extremely hostile to the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther in 1517. They demanded that the Pope took more decisive action to prevent a schism and its painful consequences. At the same time, it should be noted that the CCC was alien to such traits as unbridled greed and the pursuit of wealth inherent in the leadership of the Latin Catholic Church. Unlike the Latin aristocracy, the Celtic one cared about its people, so it was in no way affected by the reformation rebellion.
Protestantism in the form of Anglicanism came to Ireland, the heart of the Celtic world, in a harsh and imposed form as a result of Oliver Cromwell’s punitive campaign. As a staunch English statesman, he saw the Irish as a threat to the English national project. Taking advantage of the situation (the Irish rebellion of 1641), he decided to act from a position of hard power. Cromwell began by physically exterminating the local aristocracy, thereby beheading the Irish people, who lost their foothold. Under his influence, the Long Parliament passed a special act on settlements, which approved the right to confiscate lands from the Irish in favour of the British. In addition, a significant part of the Irish population was subject to deportation to the most barren and desolate part of the island – the Connacht region. In fact, the English parliament condemned tens of thousands of Irish people to starvation. The Irish, who left this area, faced the death penalty without any proceedings.
Ulster, which was colonised with particular brutality, was the hardest part. Unlike the central part of Ireland, the south and north never ceased the struggle, fighting the British with all available means. Cromwell, who was well aware of the character of the northern Celts, decided to resort to castling, sending Irish families loyal (bribed) to England as viceroys to the northern lands. To make it more convincing, he recruited Irish Catholics into his personal unit. Thus, Oliver Cromwell created the illusion of readiness for peaceful coexistence. The locals believed in the sincerity of his intentions, for which they paid dearly. The Northern Irish Catholic aristocracy was slaughtered, arrested, or exiled to Connacht. The population, left alone with a formidable opponent, either left their native lands or converted to Anglicanism. Due to their strong attachment to their native land, there were more of the latter. They saw this not as a betrayal, but as a necessary compromise to remain on their ancestral land. The British also began to actively populate Ulster with Protestant Scots. They hoped that this would speed up the process of assimilation of the local Irish.
However, they did not take into account that both of these people had the same Celtic root. As a result of mixing Irish with Scots who converted to Protestantism, a unique group emerged – the Ulster Celts or Irish Scots. They could be divided into two groups. The first group was the ‘phonies’ (crypto-Catholics). Formally, they were loyal to the metropolis and demonstrated their allegiance to the Anglican Church, but in fact they used their capabilities and position to protect their Catholic compatriots and financed various kinds of riots, uprisings and guerrilla movements against the British. Many of the ‘phonies’ were identified and executed, but instead of humility and forgiveness, they uttered the following phrase: ‘Glory to Ireland, death to the British’. The second group was the ‘loyalists’ who were devoted to England and its interests. We are talking about those, whose religious identity component (English Protestantism) suppressed the national one (Celtic). In order to reduce the influence and size of the first group, the British Crown decided to expel as many Ulstermen as possible to their American colonies. The first ships, including the famous Mayflower, were filled with Ulster residents, British Calvinists (most of whom were also of Scottish and Welsh descent), and Irish prisoners from the southern lands of the Emerald Isle.
The representatives of this group formed the core of the primary American colonial aristocracy and the American state aristocracy later on. The future founding fathers of the American statehood were of Ulster-Celtic origin: John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, James McHenry, Pierce Butler, William Paterson and General George Washington himself, who became a symbol of American independence and its first president. The Washington family’s history goes back to ancient Ireland. Its founder was the Celtic warrior and Abbot Crinan, who came from the Irish aristocratic Kennel dynasty, which ruled the medieval Tyrconnell Kingdom (present-day lands of Ulster). Crinan married Scottish Princess Bethoc, daughter of King Malcolm II the Destroyer of Scotland. King Malcolm II is known for killing his predecessor Kenneth III during the battle for his peaceful policy towards England. Malcolm prepared for war with England, but was defeated in 1006. The British captured the strategically important city of Durham, killing local men, whose severed heads were impaled on the peaks of the city walls.
After learning about the brutality of the British, the Celtic nobility from different lands sent troops to Malcolm for revenge. In 1018, the Scottish king inflicted a crushing defeat on the British, seizing vast English lands up to Tweed. By the decision of the Celtic leaders, a significant part of the army remained at the disposal of Malcolm to protect Scotland – a key outpost of Celtic civilisation. The then king of England, Denmark and Norway, Cnut the Great, tried to recapture the lost lands, but was defeated twice. Duncan I, the future king of Scotland and founder of the Dunkeld dynasty, was born in the marriage of Crinan and Bethoc. His fall (he had no heir) led to internal strife and two Anglo-Scottish wars, which ended with the victory of the latter and the establishment of a united and independent Kingdom of Scotland. It was led by the ancient Celtic Bruce clan, whose descendant became another prominent American – Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. After the loss of independence, the last members of the Dunkeld dynasty were forced to leave Scotland. They settled in England and, in order to conceal their origins, took the Norman surname of Wessington, which later became the English Washington.
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‘If defeated everywhere else, I will make my last stand for liberty among the Scots-Irish of my native Virginia.’
George Washington.
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To some extent, the Anglo-American War of 1775-1783 can be called the first major British-Celtic war. The most combat-ready units of the Continental Army (Americans) consisted of fighters of Irish and Scottish descent. Thousands of Irish from all over Europe sought meetings with American envoys, demanding to send them to war with the British. The British ambassador to France repeatedly asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to influence the American envoy Benjamin Franklin and Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette, who ensured the secret dispatch of the Irish to the war against the Crown. In the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, which predetermined the outcome of the entire war, three of the four commanders were of Ulster-Celtic origin, including Horatio Gates himself (once an officer in the British army).
To be continued…
