A Short Story of How a Wee Northern Ireland Town Impacted America

There is a town of less than 15,000 residents, less than the population of the Hamlet of Pearl River, in the County of Tyrone in Northern Ireland, named Strabane.

Sadly, it is best known as the most bombed town in Northern Ireland and the most bombed town in Europe in proportion to its size during Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”.

Strabane’s early impact on America began with a Strabane-born 29 year old Printer named John Dunlap, who immigrated to Philadelphia at the age of 10, and eventually took over his Uncle’s print shop and printed the first publication of our Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776. His family print shop in Strabane has been kept in tribute to his role in world history.

Another son of Strabane was British General Guy Carleton, who was England’s Military Commander at the end of our Revolution and headquartered in Quebec. After England surrendered in 1783, General Carleton sailed from Quebec to Piermont for a dinner meeting in Tappan’s DeWint House with America’s Military Commander, George Washington. Following the meeting, General Carlton returned to Piermont to board his ship, the HMS Perseverance, from which the ship’s canons saluted our independence as a free nation for the first time.

Not too long after, in 1807, the Wilson family of Strabane immigrated to America. The family were the grandparents of the future 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. Their family house still stands in Strabane. Woodrow Wilson is most remembered as the President who led America into WW I.

Of course, none of these can compare with the immigration of a young lady born and raised on a cattle farm in the Sperrin Mountains of the Town of Strabane, County of Tyrone, Northern Ireland, named Aileen McLaughlin, who became Eileen Murphy of Pearl River.