What hath God wrought

Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) was born in Belfast, the son of a Scottish father and an Ulster-Scots mother.  He was the greatest scientist of the Victorian era, a devout Christian, and a Liberal Unionist.

He took a great interest in the laying of a telegraph cable under the Atlantic and helped to ensure its success.  This was the greatest of all Victorian engineering projects and when it was completed in 1856 the first message to be sent was: 'Europe and America are united by telegraphic communication. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and goodwill towards men.'  (Luke 2:14)

Going back a little further the telegraph was developed by a Scotch-Irish inventor  Samuel F B Morse (1791-1872), who invented Morse Code.  In May 1844 Morse inaugurated the world's first commercial telegraph line with a message sent from the US Capitol o a railway station in Baltimore.  The message was: 'What hath God wrought.' (Numbers 23:23)

Both Morse and Kelvin were men who knew and loved the Bible as the Word of God.

Scotland's 'once in a lifetime' referendum

When SNP leader Alex Salmond appeared on the Andrew Marr programme on BBC television on the Sunday before the Scottish Referendum in September 2014 he said:  'In my view this is a once in a generation - perhaps even once in a lifetime - opportunity.'

Later he denied ever saying 'once in a lifetime' and insisted he had said 'the opportunity of a lifetime'.  He even described that September 2014 promise as a 'collective myth'.

However footage of the interview and an official transcript showed that he had used the 'once in a lifetime' phrase when asked whether he would pledge not to 'bring back another referendum' if the nationalists lost.  

'Once in a lifetime' - that statement was unqualified and unconditional and Nicola Sturgeon did not dissent from it but the SNP was trying to rewrite history.

The SNP simply could not accept that they had lost and are determined to turn a referendum into a neverendum.

Another Ulster-Scots dynasty in America

Browsing on the internet tonight I came across another prominent American family of Ulster-Scots descent, the Bankhead family of Alabama.

James Bankhead (1738-1799) emigrated from Ulster in the 18th century along with two brothers and settled in South Carolina.,  There he married  Elizabeth Rhea Black (1746-1837), a name that suggests she too was of Ulster-Scots descent, and they were the parents of George Bankhead, who married Jane A Greer.

In 1818 members of the family moved south from Union County in South Carolina into Lamar County, Alabama, and James Greer Bankhead, a son of George and Jane Bankhead, fought in the Mexican-American War.

He lived on the Bankhead plantation in Lamar County and around 1850 he built a fine house which is still there and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

James G Bankhead was the father of John Hollis Bankhead (1842-1920), who served in the Civil War and married a woman named Tallulah Brockman.

She was descended from the Revolutionary War hero Colonel Benjamin Kilgore (1738-1802).another Ulster-Scot whose father James Kilgore (1701-1771) emigrated from Ulster some time before 1734 along with two brothers.  Benjamin's wife Elizabeth Jack (1717-1792) was also an Ulster-Scot and so we have three lines of Ulster-Scots ancestry.

The family were originally Presbyterian but like many Scotch-Irish Americans they converted to Methodism some time in the 19th century.

John Hollis Bankhead had a long political career in both state and federal government.  He served in the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate before being elected to the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.    He was a Democrat and served in the Senate from 1907 to 1920.

His name lives on in the Bankhead Highway, Lake Bankhead, near Birmingham, Alabama, and the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile Alabama, as well as the William B Bankhead National Forest.

His son John H Bankhead II (1872-1946) was also a United States Senator and another son William B Bankhead (1874-1940) had an even more distinguished career as a United States Congressman.  In 1934 he was chosen House Majority Leader by his fellow Democrats and in 1936 he became Speaker of the House, a position now held by Nancy Pelosi.

The actress Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968) was a daughter of William B Bankhead.

The Bankheads were one of the most notable families in the history of Alabama.

There is often a tendency to focus on famous Scotch-Irish presidents and pioneers but the Ulster-Scots influence in America can be seen in almost every area of life and the Bankheads were certainly a notable family.

There is history in Belfast's street names

Thomas Carnduff

The street names in a town can often tell us much about the history of the town and that is certainly true of Belfast,

The old medieval castle is long gone but we still have Castle Place and Castle Street to remind us of the castle and its location..

Meanwhile Bridge Street marks the point where a bridge crossed the Farset River, before the river was culverted to create High Street.

One of Belfast's notables, Thomas Carnduff, certainly recognised that when he wrote in the Belfast Telegraph (29 July 1939): 'The history of Belfast is not to be found in the printed book but in the street names.  Ann Street, Joy Street, May Street, Arthur Street.  Not mere visionary names, but borne by people whose lives were linked with the progress and life of the city itself.'

No, Donald Trump did not coin the term 'fake news'

I was surprised to hear a Sky News reporter state that Donald Trump 'coined' the term 'fake news'.  In fact that statement is itself 'fake news'.

Donald Trump may have popularised the term 'fake news' and he certainly used it more than anyone else I can think of but he didn't coin it.

The term 'fake news' was already in use in the 19th century.  Then it was used by newspapers and magazines to boast about the quality of their own journalism and attack that of a rival, which would then be described as publishing 'fake news'.

In 1895 the journal Electricity claimed that 'we never copy fake news' and the following year a writer at a newspaper in California attacked the publisher of another newspaper stating, 'It is his habit to indulge in fake news.  He will make up news when he fails to find it.'

Fake news seems to have been an issue at that time because the Toronto Daily Mail (13 June 1893) carried a report headed 'FAKE NEWS'.  It stated that the Connecticut legislature had introduced a bill providing for the punishment of people who sent 'fake news' to newspapers.

Some earlier newspaper reports used the term 'false news' but gradually 'fake news' became the preferred term and it was in widespread use long before Donald Trump was even born.

The 90% dominance of the Left in universities

Since the 1960s there has been a political imbalance in universities in the British Isles and North America.  It is an imbalance in which the left is predominant and an imbalance which has been increasing, decade after decade.

In 2017 the Adam Smith Institute published a report on British universities titled Lackademia: why do academics lean left?

There have also been reports on academics in American universities and colleges and in fact the imbalance on both sides of the Atlantic follows the same general pattern.  That is one reason why it is worth keeping an eye on the current position in America.  Another is that there is some interchange with academics crossing in both directions.

A recent investigation by a conservative website, The College Fix, used an interesting technique to assess the imbalance in universities across the USA.

They looked at data collected by the Federal Elections Commission from employees who named their employer as a university and so were able to compare universities and states.  The data included lecturers, faculty, professors, administrators, librarians and other employees.

Florida is a good example to look at because politically it is fairly balanced between Republicans and Democrats.  In the 2016 presidential race Donald Trump took 49% of the vote and Hilary Clinton took 48%.  In 2020 Trump increased his vote share to 51% with Joe Biden taking 48%.

So how did the seven largest universities in a politically balanced state fare in terms of donations to the two parties?

In the past two years nearly 89% of political donations from faculty members in the seven Florida universities were given to the Democrats with just 10.6% going to Republicans - roughly 90% and 10%.

In Ohio the percentage of political donations that went to the Democrats was even higher at 92% and in Pennsylvania it was 96%.

The long march of the Left through the corridors of academia continues unabated.

The inventive wife of a Scotch-Irish businessman

William Apperson Cochran (1831-1883) was a Scotch-Irish businessman, politician and public official, with family roots in county Antrim.

He was a son of James Cochran (1813-1895) and his wife Nancy Caroline Templeton (1808-1895), both of whom were Scotch-Irish.  

His paternal grandparents were John Cochran (1760-1853) and his wife Martha McCaslin (1772-1845) and Martha was also Scotch-Irish.  His grandfather was a veteran of the American Revolution and he fought at King's Mountain.

However it is his wife who is better remembered and she has left us a lasting legacy, which most of us appreciate.  She was born Josephine M Garis (1841-1913) and they lived in Shelbyville, Shelby County, Illinois.

Josephine Cochran was inducted into the US National Hall of Inventors in 2006 and her invention was the first practical mechanical dishwasher, which she demonstrated in 1886.

She was a rich woman who held many dinner parties and while she had servants to wash the dishes she wanted a machine that could do the job faster without chipping any dishes.  No one had invented a practical dishwashed and so she built one herself.

She patented the design, went into production and showed her invention at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  There she won the highest prize for the 'best mechanical construction, durability and adaption to its line of work'.  She started the Garis-Cochran Manufacturing Company which eventually became part of the Whirlpool Corporation.