The Andrew Jackson Centre, also known as the Andrew Jackson Cottage, is the ancestral home of Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States. It is located in the village of Boneybefore in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The centre consists of a refurbished traditional thatched Ulster–Scots farmhouse, which is known to have been built in the 1750s and was home to Andrew Jackson's parents shortly before they emigrated to South Carolina in the United States. [1] The interior of the farmhouse is effectively a small museum, consisting of original rooms decorated in the style of that period and featuring an extensive display on the life of Andrew Jackson.
The cottage's grounds feature the US Rangers Centre, which pays homage to the soldiers of the First Battalions of the elite US Rangers, which was first "activated" in the town Carrickfergus in 1942. [1]
The Carrickfergus Borough Council made efforts to make the centre more accessible to tourists. These include the installation of new information plaques in the recent standardised style of those found elsewhere in Carrickfergus, as well as the installation of roadsigns that more clearly show its location. These changes were put in place in an attempt to promote the town's historical Ulster-Scots connection to the United States, a connection that many locals take a great deal of pride in. The Carrickfergus Borough Council was consolidated in 2015 into the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, who have since opened the cottage five days a week for public visits.
The counties of Ireland are historic administrative divisions of the island. They began as Norman structures, and as the powers exercised by the Cambro-Norman barons and the Old English nobility waned over time, new offices of political control came to be established at a county level. The number of counties varied depending on the time period, however thirty-two is the traditionally accepted and used number.
County Antrim is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 3,086 square kilometres (1,192 sq mi) and has a population of 651,321, as of the 2021 census. County Antrim has a population density of 211 people per square kilometre or 546 people per square mile. It is also one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland.
Carrickfergus is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, 11 miles (18 km) from Belfast. The town had a population of 28,141 at the 2021 census. It is County Antrim's oldest town and one of the oldest towns in Ireland as a whole. Carrickfergus Castle, built in the late 12th century at the behest of Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy, was the capital of the Earldom of Ulster. After the earldom's collapse, it remained the only English outpost in Ulster for the next four centuries. Carrickfergus was the administrative centre for Carrickfergus Borough Council, before this was amalgamated into the Mid and East Antrim District Council in 2015, and forms part of the Belfast Metropolitan Area. It is also a townland of 65 acres, a civil parish and a barony.
Larne is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,853 at the 2021 census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. Together with parts of the neighbouring districts of Antrim and Newtownabbey and Causeway Coast and Glens, it forms the East Antrim constituency for elections to the Westminster Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly. The civil parish is in the historic barony of Glenarm Upper.
Ballyclare is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 10,850 according to the 2021 census, and is located within the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is part of, and the principal settlement in the Ballyclare District Electoral Area.
Ballymena is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 census, making it the seventh largest town in Northern Ireland by population. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim.
Antrim is a town and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies on the banks of the Six Mile Water on the north-east shore of Lough Neagh. It had a population of 25,606 people in the 2021 census. It is the county town of County Antrim and was the administrative centre of Antrim Borough Council until its 2015 merger with Newtownabbey Borough Council to form Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council. The town lies 14 miles (23 km) north-west of Belfast.
Ballymoney is a town and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated in the historic baronies of Dunluce Upper and Kilconway in County Antrim, as well as the barony of North East Liberties of Coleraine in County Londonderry. It had a population of 11,048 people at the 2021 census.
Larne Borough Council was a Local Council in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. It merged with Ballymena Borough Council and Carrickfergus Borough Council in May 2015 under the reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland to become Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
Greenisland is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies 7 miles north-east of Belfast and 3 miles south-west of Carrickfergus. The town is on the coast of Belfast Lough and is named after a tiny islet to the west, the Green Island.
Scotch-IrishAmericans are American descendants of primarily Ulster Scots people who emigrated from Ulster to the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their ancestors had originally migrated to Ulster, mainly from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England in the 17th century. In the 2017 American Community Survey, 5.39 million reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 3 million identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry, and many people who claim "American ancestry" may actually be of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
Ballycarry is a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is midway between Larne and Carrickfergus, overlooking Islandmagee, and is part of the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 981.
Northern Ireland is divided into six counties, namely: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. Six largely rural administrative counties based on these were among the eight primary local government areas of Northern Ireland from its 1921 creation until 1973. The other two local government areas were the urban county boroughs of Derry and Belfast.
Fred Cobain, MBE is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician from Northern Ireland, serving as a Belfast City Councillor for the Castle DEA since 2019. He was previously an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 until 2011.
The Georgian Merville House at Merville Garden Village, to be found in the district of Whitehouse on the northern shoreline of Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland was constructed in the year 1795 by John Brown (c.1730-1800), a distinguished banker and merchant of Belfast, who leased around 24 acres (97,000 m2) of the ancient townland of Drumnadrough, one of three townlands that formed the village of Whitehouse, the other two being White House and Ballygolan, to construct his own private estate. Brown was a partner in the so-called 'Bank of the Four Johns' that was established in Ann Street in the town in 1787.
Boneybefore is a village near Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies between the A2 road and Belfast Lough. It is home to the Andrew Jackson Centre, the ancestral home of Andrew Jackson, 7th president of the United States.
Carrickfergus is a barony in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is bounded on the south-east by Belfast Lough, and otherwise surrounded by the barony of Belfast Lower. It is coextensive with the civil parish of Carrickfergus or St Nicholas and corresponds to the former county of the town of Carrickfergus, a county corporate encompassing Carrickfergus town.
John Stewart is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician and businessman who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim since 2017. Stewart is Deputy Chairperson of the Assembly's Infrastructure Committee.
Carrickfergus Town Hall is a municipal structure in Joymount in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Carrickfergus Borough Council, is a Grade B+ listed building.