Written by Chris Binkert, Photo courtesy of clintonlibrary.gov

While riding along on a tour bus during a recent trip to Scotland and Ireland, I was surprised to see a banner on a light post for William McKinley.  Just moments later, our tour guide began mentioning the number of presidents of Scots Irish descent.

The number and percentage of presidents with this ancestry stunned me. Of the 45 men who have been president, 28 have ancestral ties to Scotland or Ireland, an astonishing 62%.

Indeed, every president since 1961 has been of Scots Irish descent.

My mind began to wonder how these relatively small countries have had such an outsized impact on our nation.

And that’s where history gets interesting and complicated.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, the King of Scotland became the King of England. This man was James I.  The English had engaged in centuries of battles and disputes with Ireland and the Gaelic Irish nobility.  James I decided to confiscate all the lands of the Irish nobility and import Scottish families to live on those lands in the northern part of Ireland known as Ulster.  They called this a ‘plantation’, meaning the Scots, loyal to the King, were ‘planted’ in northern Ireland.

Over the next centuries, these Scots Irish families generally thrived. Yet, significant numbers of both Scottish and Irish families decided to emigrate to the United States following our independence from England in 1776.  They saw opportunities in America that were generally not available to them in Ireland.

Our Scots Irish Presidents

Among our earliest presidents, Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), James Monroe (1817-1825), and Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) were the first of Scots Irish descent.  Jackson’s family came from Antrim county in Ulster, a region of nine counties in northern Ireland.

Jackson was the first of nine presidents with descendants from Antrim. That county also has ties to Andrew Johnson (1865-1869), Chester Arthur (1881-1885), Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 + 1893-1897), William McKinley (1897-1901), Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989).

James Buchanan (1857-1861) was the first of four presidents with descendants from Tyrone county, also in Ulster. Others include U.S. Grant (1869-1877), Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), and Harry Truman (1945-1953).

Recent Scots Irish Presidents

Three of our recent presidents have celebrated their familial roots, travelling to their ancestral homes while in office.  John F. Kennedy’s (1961-1963) roots were 100% Irish, with family history in Limerick, Cork, Wexford, and Fermanagh.  He visited Ireland in 1963 and called those days “the best four days of my life.”

Irishman Joe Biden (2021-2025) also visited Ireland, specifically Louth on his trip in 2023. He said, “it feels like a homecoming.”

Bill Clinton’s relationship with Ireland is more substantive.  His mother, Virginia, was of Irish descent.  While president (1993-2001), he engaged in peace settlement talks to end the war in Northern Ireland.

When Clinton took office in 1993, the conflict between Protestant and Catholic communities had claimed over 3,000 lives over a 30 year period.  This period became known as ‘The Troubles’ and Clinton found it difficult to achieve peace.  The Good Friday Agreement with the British and Irish governments was signed in 1998, after years of negotiations and three personal visits from Clinton.

The Clinton-negotiated tenuous peace in Northern Ireland has lasted for 27 years, yet 6 large walls remain in the city of Londonderry/Derry, symbols of the past and ongoing segregation of Protestant and Catholics.   (If you call it Londonderry, you are Protestant, loyal to The Crown in London; if you call it Derry, you’re Catholic)

I was reminded of Clinton’s role in this process while in the lobby of our hotel in Belfast, where a plaque on the wall attests to his stay during one of the three visits.

Performance

How have these 28 Scots Irish presidents performed in office?  Six of them are among the top ten ranked best presidents. They are Theodore Roosevelt (#4), with ancestors from Antrim; Harry Truman (#6), with relatives from Tyrone; Thomas Jefferson (#7), whose mother was Scottish; John F. Kennedy (#8), with multiple Irish connections; Ronald Reagan (#9), with ties to Antrim; and Barack Obama (#10), whose maternal relatives came from Offaly.

As you might expect, many of our first 15 presidents were of British ancestry.

For this writer, to know that 62% of presidents sprang from Scotland or Ireland was a revelation, worthy of consideration and respect.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.