Qualla: Ulster https://qualla.com/ulster en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ulster https://qualla.com/ulster Ulster: Introduction https://qualla.com/ulster/ Photo credit Clemensfranz, CC BY 2.5. The Ulaid were a confederation of tribes who once dwelt in the northern part of Ireland, and they gave the place its name. Long before they were a people in history, they were a people in legend - the heroes of the Ulster Cycle, the warriors of Emain Macha, the kingdom whose foremost champion Cúchulainn defended single-handedly against the cattle-raid of Connacht in the great Irish epic the Táin Bó Cúailnge. From the Old Norse Ulaztir, the land of the Ulaidh, came the English Ulster. Today, nine counties carry that name. Six of them are in Northern Ireland; three - Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan - are in the Republic. No other Irish province lives quite so visibly across a border.

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Image: Clemensfranz | CC BY 2.5

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/gcep-ulster-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ulster: The Northern Kingdoms https://qualla.com/ulster/ Photo credit Rossographer, CC BY-SA 2.0. Three ancient overkingdoms once divided Ulster between them: Ulaid in the east, Airgíalla in the centre, and Ailech in the west and north. The Cenél nEógain, a branch of the Northern Uí Néill, gradually pushed the Ulaid east of the River Bann and made Tír Eóghain - most of modern...

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Image: Rossographer | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/gcep-ulster-the-northern-kingdoms.mp3 0:06 2 full Ulster: The Earls Depart https://qualla.com/ulster/ Photo credit Rossographer, CC BY-SA 2.0. Ulster was the last Gaelic redoubt. After Elizabeth I's forces crushed the Gaelic alliance at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 and the broader Nine Years' War ended in 1603, the northern lords found their power circumscribed. In 1607, the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell - Hugh O'Neil...

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Image: Rossographer | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/gcep-ulster-the-earls-depart.mp3 0:06 3 full Ulster: The Scotch-Irish https://qualla.com/ulster/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. Excluded from political power by the Anglican Protestant Ascendancy after 1690, Ulster Presbyterians began voting with their feet. Between 1717 and the 1770s, around 150,000 of them sailed for colonial America. They settled first in Pennsylvania and western Virginia, then pushed ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/gcep-ulster-the-scotch-irish.mp3 0:06 4 full Ulster: The Province Divided https://qualla.com/ulster/ Photo credit RealCounties, CC BY 4.0. When Ireland was partitioned in 1921, the line cut Ulster in two. Six counties (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone) became Northern Ireland; the remaining three (Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan) joined the Irish Free State. The choice was deliberate. Unionists wa...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/gcep-ulster-the-province-divided.mp3 0:06 5 full Ulster: The Lakes and the Lava https://qualla.com/ulster/ Photo credit Albert Bridge, CC BY-SA 2.0. Geographically, Ulster runs from the basalt of the Antrim Plateau, where ancient lava flows cooled into the hexagonal columns of the Giant's Causeway, to the granite of the Mournes in County Down, where Slieve Donard rises 848 metres above the Irish Sea. Lough Neagh, in the east,...

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Image: Albert Bridge | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/gcep-ulster-the-lakes-and-the-lava.mp3 0:06 6 full Ulster: Tongues and Triumphs https://qualla.com/ulster/ Photo credit Detroit Publishing Co., Public domain. Three languages run through Ulster: English (the everyday tongue), Irish (Gaeilge Uladh, particularly strong in the Donegal Gaeltacht), and Ulster Scots, which evolved from the Lowland Scots speech of the planters. Donegal Irish remains closest to Scottish Gaelic, a reminder of t...

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Image: Detroit Publishing Co. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/p/ulster-wp/gcep-ulster-tongues-and-triumphs.mp3 0:06 7 full