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In puzzling move US Cenus bureau to differentiate Irish Scotch and Scotch Irish

Scotch Irish identity will be recognized but Irish Scots will be a new category

NIALL O'DOWD,

IrishCentral.com Founder

Published Saturday, January 14, 2012, 8:48 AM

Updated Saturday, January 14, 2012, 8:48 AM

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22 Comments

The US Census will list Scotch Irish as an ancestry category, but Scotch Irish will be listed under its own category.

In a move sure to raise eyebrows, the US Census will list Scotch Irish as an ancestry category, but Scotch Irish will be listed under its own category.

So there will be Irish, Scotch Irish, and Irish Scotch as three separate definitions in their annual community surveys and every ten year census.

Quite what the difference between Irish Scotch and Scotch Irish is is not clear, however, and the Census Bureau does not make it clear.

Last week, IrishCentral reported that the Scotch-Irish will no longer be included in official US census figures. A statement from the bureau had said: “While the ancestry tables will all look the same, the interpretation of the "Scotch-Irish" and "Other groups" estimates will change ... Individuals reporting Irish-Scotch are no longer tabulated as "Scotch-Irish" but rather are included in the "Other groups."

IrishCentral understood this to mean that the term was to be excluded from the census forms, however, the Census bureau says that that is not the case. As in years past, the ancestry question on the form still includes a write-in box where people can write in their ancestry, and those results will still be published.
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Scotch-Irish will no longer be included in official US census figures- POLL

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Saying a sad farewell to America but longing to stay here
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The difference is that prior to 2008, there was only one code in the American Community Survey for anyone who wrote in either Scotch-Irish or Irish-Scotch. Both options were tabulated as "Scotch-Irish."

In 2008, the Census Bureau added a unique code for the Irish-Scotch to more accurately count this population group.

“For the first time, the Irish-Scotch will have their own count which we are still tabulating and are hoping to produce later this year or early in 2013,” a spokesperson confirmed.

To view the latest data from the ICS click here.

Nster.com

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22 Comments

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hammerclaw | Apr 26, 2013, 09:03 PM EDT

Historically, in the States, Ulster-men or Ulster-Scots began calling themselves Scotch-Irish to differentiate themselves from the immigrants who began arriving from the rest of Ireland. Before that, THEY had simply been referred to as Irish. They never called themselves "Scots-Irish"; that term is a modern historical revision.

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mreinhar2001 | Jul 01, 2012, 03:14 PM EDT

I like to just mark "other" and list myself as Celt. I am one of two "others" in my state in my profession.

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jimgordo1 | Jan 18, 2012, 06:43 PM EST

IrelandNorth -- You need to visit the Ulster-American Folk Park in Omagh. There you will learn that not all Ulstermen went South. Most of them came to the U.S. thru Philadelphia and went west, north and northwest from there in addition to south. Fact is, they went wherever there was land for getting. Others, mostly congregations led by their minister, came in thru Charleston and then spread to the winds -- north, south and west.

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dan Breen | Jan 16, 2012, 02:00 PM EST

How about scots toilet paper ?

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hchriste | Jan 16, 2012, 12:34 PM EST

I am Scot-Irish from Norway, hmm must be Scotch on the rocks? Tax payer dollars at work,

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jamieLM | Jan 16, 2012, 09:05 AM EST

@CitizenWhy & mamaginnty- good posts. Hopefully, everyone will finally get the name correct - it's "Scots-Irish." After all it's not Scotchland, it's Scotland.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 16, 2012, 06:32 AM EST

'Scots-Irish' were displaced from Scottish lowlands (i.e. peasant farmers) to Ulster by Cromwell's purges from Gt. Britain, like southern/eastern Irish were to Connacht by his later tirades within Ireland. Interesting how Ulster-Scots went to the U.S. rebel south while native Irish emigrants settled in the U.S. Yankee North, consequently juxtaposing their situation back home. I wonder was this the real causae of the American Civil War, 1886.

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CitizenWhy | Jan 15, 2012, 07:23 PM EST

How come they use the term Scotch? For Irish people in or from Scotland it should be Scots. Scotch today just means the whiskey, but the term is still used for Scotch-Irish as a "grandfathered" usage.

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CitizenWhy | Jan 15, 2012, 07:20 PM EST

Oh come on Irish Scots would be people of Irish ancestry who immigrated to the US from Scotland. Not Scotch Irish at all.

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VernonC | Jan 15, 2012, 06:17 PM EST

This is not a new idea, the Spanish conquerors of the new world put labels on the various mixes of race and nationality, apparently to put people in their place in a class. The high to the low born were categorized: know your place, Indio, you too, Negro, and all you mongrels of mixed race. Will American Indians be required to differentiate between being Chinese or Mongolians? The US border is an arbitrary line, a step either way changes their nationality, a step south they are Mexican, a step north and they are America Indian. Mexicans think of themselves as Latino because of their language when few can trace themselves back to Spain. How many blacks have any idea what nation they originated from, the names of African nations have changed many times in the last 3 or 4 centuries. This is silly.

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seanomelbourne | Jan 15, 2012, 05:20 PM EST

Maybe they should include "viking Irish" or "Norman Irish" or maybe "Spanish Irish". It's all much ado about nothing.

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Rebelforce | Jan 14, 2012, 09:03 PM EST

Obviously, the purpose here is to confuse people in the hope of increasing the Scotch-Irish numbers.

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Celtica43 | Jan 14, 2012, 09:00 PM EST

As a genealogist with 30 yrs experience, I say "What?"

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slainte39 | Jan 14, 2012, 05:58 PM EST

Scots-Irish: descendants of Ulster Scot plantation people who migrated to America, predominately in the late 16th and 17th centuries. Protestants. Irish-Scots??: probably more recent (1800's-1900's) Irish immigrants to Scotland...mainly Catholics...James Connolly type.

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Scotchtommy | Jan 14, 2012, 04:49 PM EST

Who writes this baloney?In the words of St Patrick and St Andrew- who gives a ---?The Gov must be putting something in the water to drive us all crazy

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