The significant contributions to the development of modern society made by Ulster men and women are often overlooked in current assessments of the province and its people. This book aims to redress the balance somewhat by providing an appreciation of the lives of nine people of Ulster origin who deserve to be remembered both for their personal achievements and for their public importance. The lives included have emerged from a variety of backgrounds and span a period of some four centuries. Some carried with them a warm appreciation of their origins, and a few returned either to visit or remain in Ulster as their lvies drew to a close. Others sustained the Ulster side of their identity quietly, even unsuspectingly. If the latter are harder to detect, their discovery for the reader will be all the more rewarding. Of the eight men and one woman - scientists, soldiers, politicians, clergyman, artist, scholar - few have been remembered, except perhaps by obituarists, as being of Ulster origin. The importance of their roots is best conveyed by the telling in these pages of their individual and compelling stories.