Hi Uncle Sam

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Hi Uncle Sam! is a short poem by Irish writer Reverend William Forbes Marshall. It asks Americans to remember the help of Ulster-born immigrants during the American Revolution. The poem was published in 1911 in Marshall’s collection Ulster Sails West. A verse from it is shown on a mural in Newtownards, and it has been set to music by the Ulster Scots Folk Orchestra. A piece of the poem was also used by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in its Emigration Series. The title’s Uncle Sam refers to the United States.

The poem praises Ulster people who fought for America. It asks who stood with you at Quebec and Brandywine, and names the lean, long-rifled Rangers and the Pennsylvania Line. It says Ulster men were with Americans from Lexington to Yorktown and from Valley Forge to Yorktown, noting that Virginians and Northerners helped in the fight. The poem argues that the story of the American war is also an Ulster story.