Rallying the Clans together. Chiefs of Clans Bruce, Leslie, Macnab and Carmichael on Salisbury Crags with Edinburgh Castle below.

Clan chiefs have been sending out rallying calls to their Clansmen and Clanswomen all over the world to come and join them at the Edinburgh Tattoo this August.  Rather than setting a fire on-top of a hill – this time they’re using the internet.

Back in 2009 many of us remember the epic Clan March up Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to the Castle, Clans walking behind their banners and many with their Clan Chiefs, being cheered on by thousands of onlookers.  This was the largest Clan display by far seen in Scotland, Over 125 Scottish Clans took part in the parade . Since then Clans have had their individual gatherings and clusters of Highland games but nothing touching what happened in 2009.

Jamie Macnab – Chief of Clan Macnab said in an interview for The Times  .”It was absolutely phenomenal… I don’t think anyone who took part that weekend will ever forget it.”

Clan Douglas at the Clan Parade in 2009

So now in 2017 the Clans will be marching again – this time to the Tattoo. It will be a series of Clan Parades that will take place each night of the Tattoo. This will be a major event within the Clan-themed Events that will be happening throughout this year, backed by the Scottish Clan Event Fund.

There are 25 performances of the Edinburgh Tattoo. Tickets have been put aside for the clans to buy for each performance to make sure that as many tartan-clad clansmen, women and children attend as possible.

The Edinburgh Tattoo

The Tattoo’s Chief,  Brigadier David Allfrey approached the Standing Council last August to gain support for his ‘Splash of Tartan’ theme for the Tattoo. This opportunity provides an excellent platform to promote Ancestral Tourism to International audiences. 2017 is Visit Scotland’s year of History, Heritage & Archaeology. The Clans will be playing a large part.

Clan Chiefs have been contacted and have signed up, now it’s all about mustering up support to get people to follow  them up the Royal Mile. Currently 53 Clan Chiefs have signed up, so each night there will be 2 Clans in the parade. Some Clans have already got 100 people signed up.

Jamie Macnab explains that this is a great opportunity to reposition the views within Scotland of Clan Heritage.  Here especially it can be seen as a bit twee – a shortbread version of Scotland, one that is just for tourists not for the people that live here.   Jamie adds:
” My hope is that our involvement in the Tattoo will get some home-based engagement and Scots will don their tartan and go, ‘Right, I’m putting my kilt on and going on my clan night.’ I mean, I think this is the first time the Tattoo has ever done anything like this so hopefully it will generate some interest.”

Clan events have always attracted people from oversees. the Convenor of the Standing Council, Sir Malcolm MacGregor has been over in the US trying to drum up support for this event.

Visit Scotland’s research has shown that history and heritage is the second most popular reason cited by visitors coming to Scotland from overseas. First was landscape and scenery.

So if you’re interested in joining your Clan – please contact your Clan Society and join in, let’s make this a great event!

For full list of clans and dates please see: http://www.scotclans.com/list-of-clans-and-dates-for-tattoo-clan-parade/

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 We asked our many fans if they had ever been and if they could share their pictures in an effort to take a look at some different perspectives of the battlefield and surrounding areas. We couldn’t have been more shocked at the amazing response we had, especially on our Twitter page. Loads of amazing people shared some fantastic images alongside some of their thoughts about the site so we would like to take a little time to share them here and let everyone see how impactful such a site can be for generations to come. Take a look at a few of our favourites below and click on them to see the original post…

We would love to hear your thoughts on this historic site and if you’d like to share any images of your own feel free to email them to info@scotclans.com, and remember this is something we like to do every so often on Facebook and Twitter so make sure you like and follow us so you can keep an eye out and join in!

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Happy Ramadan to our Muslim Friends Wishing you four weeks of blessings.

Scottish Muslims have a long history to celebrate.

Scotland has been closely connected with Muslim countries as far back as the Middle Ages. In the 8th and 9th centuries pilgrims travelled to the Holy land and Scottish traders visited the Muslim countries of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.

The geographer and mapmaker Muhammad al-Idrisi in the 12th century, depicted Scotland on one of his maps which helped to inspire Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama. Apparently his travels took him to many parts of Europe including Jórvík or York, in England. Scottish knights, some of them Knights Templar, joined crusades to Jerusalem, among them Alan FitzWalter, High Steward of Scotland, who joined Richard the Lionheart on the Third Crusade. Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland had directed that his heart should be taken and buried in the Holy Land. It only got as far as Muslim Spain, from where it was eventually retrieved and returned to Scotland.

With the British Empire relationships developed. Scots travelled as merchants, military men and civil servants to India, Malaya, Nigeria and many other countries with Muslim populations.

The first Muslims came to Scotland in the 18th century mostly because of the Indian subcontinent (largely from the Bengal region) to work for the British East India Company. Working mainly as sailors. This is why many muslim communities in Britain are still found in Port Towns. In Scotland with we have large Muslim communities in the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Originally they came from mainly India, Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia. The next wave of emigration brought students, professionals, merchants and servants. Scotland benefited greatly from this influence.

The first named Muslim known in Scotland was Wazir Beg from Bombay (now “Mumbai”). He is recorded as being a medical student who studied at the University of Edinburgh in 1858 and 1859.

Now there is estimated to be around 75,000 Muslims in Scotland, who show great pride in their duel heritage.

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Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon, 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

We have just received the sad news that Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon, 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne has passed away. Out thoughts go out to his friends at family at this tragic loss.  He was only 58 years old, and died after a long battle with cancer.

Known to those who knew him as ‘Mikey’ Strathmore he led a very colourful life. On one side he was one of the richest men in Scotland, first cousin to the Queen once removed, an Earl and a Lord,  then on the other, he was a family man who shunned all the ‘pomp’ because he fell in love and chose the life of running an ironmongers in the market town of Forfar.   ‘Mikey’ did not lead a boring life and his 59 years are filled with many stories that will live on forever,  a life to be celebrated.

Glamis

Strathmore and his family lived at Glamis, one of the most beautiful castles in Angus, Scotland.  Glamis has a history of Royal relatives staying here, often it was host to the ones who were a little more ‘troublesome’,  Strathmore was definitely one of these characters.  History would be boring if it wasn’t for people like him.

Mary, Dowager Countess of Strathmore

Born 7th June 1957,  Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon was the only son of Fergus Michael Bowes-Lyon and Mary Pamela McCorquodale.  He also had two sisters; Lady Elizabeth Leeming and Lady Diana Godfrey-Faussett.  His Mother Mary has the title The Dowager Countess of Strathmore.  Mary still moved from Glamis to the Borders, she is well known within the community especially when she spearhead a campaign to stop the closure of Glamis Post Office.

He attended Sunningdale School, Eton, then on to the University of Aberdeen and finally in true Royal tradition, RMA Sandhurst.  On finishing at Sandhurst he rose to the rank of Captain in the British Army (serving with the Scots Guards).  He was very well liked by the men, especially for his jokes.

Strathmore qualified as a stockbroker in the City of London then joined the Whips Office in The House of Lords.  He was styled Lord Glamis between 1972 and 1987 where he was a hereditary peer and politician.  His son Simon now holds this title.

He succeeded his father as the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in 1987 after his father died on August 18th – also a young death at just 59 years.  It was reported that Fergus died while while out shooting accompanied by his son  and a friend when he just collapsed.  His death came as a big shock.

Strathmore’s grandfather Fergus Bowes-Lyon was killed during WW1 fighting with The Black Watch at The Battle of Loos.  He was known for his heroic acts amongst them leading his men into battle near Hohenzollern Redoubt   He was the elder brother of the Queen Mother and doted on his little sister who he called ‘Buffy’.

The Lyons came to Glamis in the 14th Century after they were granted lands when Sir John Lyon married the daughter of King Robert II.  Strathmore’s father Fergus inherited Glamis in 1972, along with his Mother they carried out extensive work on the castle in order to make it the family home it is today. It was previously a royal hunting lodge. On the death of his father Strathmore was very active in the management of the estate, Castle and farming enterprises.

Glamis has a dark secret – back in the nineteenth century a Lyon-Bowes baby had been reported to have died but really was hidden away in Glamis because they were deformed.  Thomas Lyon-Bowes was the rightful heir to the title and property but due to his deformity he was kept in a secret chamber at Glamis and the story that he was dead was leaked out.  Thomas has no gravestone and the chamber was bricked up after his death.  There are awful stories, labelling him ‘The Monster of Glamis’  and describing him as half man half frog.  It has always been questioned how much of the story is true.

In 1984 Strathmore married Isobel Charlotte Weatherall daughter of Captain Anthony E. Weatherall  Michael and Isobel have three sons.

Jock Bowes-Lyon (John), Geordie Bowes-Lyon (George) and Lord Glamis (Simon)

They separated in 2003 and divorced in 2004.  His oldest son Simon Patrick Bowes-Lyon is Lord Glamis and heir.  His brothers are John Fergus Bowes-Lyon and  George Norman Bowes-Lyon.

At the funeral of the Queen Mother Strathmore walked behind Prince Phillip.  His sons were also there as the Queen Mother’s great-grandnephews; Simon, John and George.

On November 24, 2005 Michael married again,  Dr. Damaris E Stuart-William, a clinical psychologist  at Glamis Castle.  Michael and Damaris had one son Toby Peter Fergus Bowes-Lyon born that same year.  Then came a very hard time in his life where he publicly went ‘off the rails’ at the breakdown of his second marriage which he apologised for and confessed to a drink problem. The more lurid details of this episode I’m sure will be covered elsewhere so theres no need to dwell on them here.

His life then took a turn for the better with the help of Karen Baxter who was a financial manager of Strathmore’s companies and manageress of the Forfar ironmongers David Irons & Sons.  This long term friendship blossomed and became more intimate and the two were married in August 2012 at a low key ceremony at Glamis.  Karen, Mikey and Karen’s two daughters Chloe and Kristen all lived together as a family at Glamis.  He was said to have loved his step daughter dearly.

Strathmore had bought the ironmongers  where Karen worked known as ‘Irons’ in 2005, setting up an office on one of the floors.   It was an Aladdin’s cave of a shop that he used to visit as a child.    But when an Asda opened up near by, Mikey took a leaf from his Mothers book and protested saying it was destroying local stores.  The Irons had been running for 174 years, sadly it was forced to close in 2014.

Mikey and Karen

As a final word about the life of Mikey Strathmore I think it’s best to call on the sketch by The Two Ronnies  (Mikey was always a big fan of The Two Ronnies). You remember the scene – when the shop customer Ronnie Barker demands the shopkeeper Corbett for ‘Four Candles’ but really wants a ‘fork ‘andles’.  A great sketch that always got a laugh and Mikey Strathmore was a man always smiling.

Mikey outside his Iron Mongers – photo from The Daily Mail

The post The sad loss of the Earl of Stathmore and a celebration of his life appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

Caisteal Maol

THE MACKINNONS OF MACKINNON

The Caisteal Maol stands near Kyleakin, a picturesque seaside village on the east coast of the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Till the Battle of Largs in 1263, this quaint Scottish hamlet was ruled by the Norwegian monarchy.

Legend has it that Caisteal Maol, or the castle of Dunakin, was built by a Norwegian princess known as ‘Saucy Mary’. This Nordic lady ruthlessly collected toll from ships that had to pass through the narrow stretch between the castle and the mainland. Only Norse vessels were exempted. She married Findanus, the man who is considered the forefather of the Mackinnon clan. And Casisteal Maol became the original seat of the Mackinnons.

According to the Scottish mythology, the McKinnon clan is supposed to have defeated the Vikings at Goir a’ Bhlair, on the eastern slopes of Beinn na Cailleach, above Broadford. Down the years, in recorded history, the clan played a major role in the Wars of Scottish independence. The early Mackinnons supposedly provided shelter to Robert the Bruce during his escape to Carrick. After Bruce triumphed in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Mackinnons were rewarded with land on the Isle of Skye.

By the early 19th century, the chieftainship of the clan had passed to William Alexander Mackinnon, the 33rd Mackinnon of Mackinnon. And it was during the time of this patriarch that his grandson Francis Alexander Mackinnon was born on April 9, 1848, three months before the birth of WG Grace. And by the time Francis Alexander Mackinnon passed away on February 27, 1947, he had almost outlasted the career of Don Bradman.

At the time of his death, Francis Alexander Mackinnon, the 35th Mackinnon of Mackinnon, had lived through an eventful 98 years and 324 days, which made him the oldest Test cricketer ever till that time. The record lasted 62 years until Eric Tindill went past him by spending 99 years and 226 days on earth before passing away in 2010. Of course, both these venerable gentlemen have been left behind now by South African fast bowler Norman Gordon, who is still going strong on 102 years and 246 days as we celebrate Mackinnon’s 164th birthday.

Francis Alexander Mackinnon. Photo Courtesy of kentcricket.co.uk

MACKINNON THE CRICKETER

Mackinnon the cricketer was not quite born in the ancient islands of Scotland. He saw the light of day at Acryse Place, Kent and was schooled in Harrow.

As a Harrovian, he did not quite manage to get into the playing eleven. But, by the time he was in St John’s College, Cambridge, he was a good enough player to get his Blues.

In 1870, he was a member of the Cambridge side during their historic encounter with Oxford. That was the match at Lord’s in which Frank Cobden, the Cambridge fast bowler, claimed the last three wickets with a hat-trick to win the match by two runs.

Years later, Mackinnon recalled the game with a sense of mock-vanity, “I really won the match, for I scored two.” Yes, his score in the second innings amounted to the margin of victory. However, he always omitted to say that in the first knock he had scored a very useful unbeaten 17, the second highest score of the innings.

Later, Mackinnon’s only Test match went down to be associated with another famous hat-trick. He played for Kent for a decade from 1875, and was one of the members of the side of Lord Harris that went to Australia in the winter of 1878.

It was not a very happy tour for the batsman. The only decent runs he made were in the matches against the odds teams put together by the local sides. In the Test match at Melbourne, Mackinnon scored a duck and five and on both occasions had his stumps flattened by the demon bowler Fred Spofforth.

In the first innings, on the first day of the Test, he walked in to bat at 26 for five after Spofforth had whisked one past Reverend Vernon Royle. The ball that greeted him was too good for Mackinnon and his stumps were rearranged as well. And then Tom Emmett, one of the two professionals, came in and lofted the first ball down the throat of the long stop. It resulted in the first hat-trick in Test cricket.

Mackinnon continued to play for Kent till 1885, and in his penultimate year he enjoyed his most prolific season. When Australia played Kent that year, he opened the innings and scored 28 and 29 in a fantastic victory, earned mainly through the memorable bowling of Alec Hearne. That same summer he hit 115 against Hampshire and 102 against Yorkhsire, the only two hundreds of his career. He was second in Kent’s averages that year, his 33 following the 41 of Lord Harris.

He ended his career with 2310 runs from 88 matches with two hundreds and an average of 15.71. He never bowled.

THE LONG LIFE

After giving up cricket, Mackinnon was made the President of the Kent County Club in 1889. A Captain in the Royal Kent Yeomanry from 1871 to 1893, he was promoted to Honorary Major in 1886. He was later appointed a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Kent from 1900 to 1902.

In 1903, his father William Alexander Mackinnon, the 34th head of the clan, passed away. Francis Alexander Mackinnon succeeded him to become the 35th Mackinnon of Mackinnon.

Till ripe old age, Mackinnon remained in close contact with the game. He could be seen meeting old cricketing cronies in the Kent grounds, even after his legs had long called it a day, venturing around the ground leaning on two sticks. Occasionally, he could be glimpsed at Lord’s as well. Generally the I Zingari tie would be proudly worn around his neck. From time to time, he would take peeks at his watch, dangling from a chain decorated with a gold medallion bearing the insignia of crossed bats — a memento from the Australian tour, presented by Lord Harris. He used to regale the audience with hilariously narrated reminiscences of his happy days.

During the Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week in 1946, at the age of 98, Mackinnon watched the cricket from the pavilion, as also the Band of Brothers’ tent. One afternoon during the week, he visited the Rose Hill School, with his daughter and the Marchioness of Abergavenny in tow. It was here that he had sat as a pupil 89 years ago. Now, he embarked on a search for his old desk where he used to sit. He followed it up by inspecting the Sea Scout Troop before giving a talk to the whole school.

A few days later, he presented a picture of a Kent and Sussex match at Hove to the Canterbury pavilion — the painting depicting a century-old match, with Alfred Mynn and Fuller Pilch wearing tall hats.

When a few days later he was called on telephone and asked about his health, Mackinnon cheerfully responded, “I am going into hospital tomorrow — but only for the annual meeting at which I shall preside. I am very well in health — very well indeed. I still do a lot of work in the garden: weeds don’t like me at all.”

On February 27, 1947, Francis Alexander Mackinnon passed away at his home, Drumduan, in Forres, Morayshire, Scotland.

————

Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix

The post Francis Alexander Mackinnon, 35th Chief — A Hat-Trick Victim in his Only Test appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the historically formidable and well established Labour Party is particularly troublesome to those in power at Westminster due to his strong anti-establishment outlook matched together with a distinctly farther-than-usual left agenda.  Scotlan’s reaction has been cautious and mixed.  Corbyn is anti Nuke, which speaks favorably to a growing consensus in Scotia against the renewal of the Trident nuclear submarine program housed in Scotland.  Indeed, the Conservative UK government has suggested that the Corbyn victory has created a UK wide risk to national security, economic security and every family in the Union.  Probably a bit of over reach, but it does express the degree of discomfort the established political organizations in the UK are experiencing.

Scottish Indy. On the other side of the coin, Corbyn is a Unionist and has not in the past supported Scottish Indy.  Indeed, there is an argument that a Corbyn led and potentially resurgent Labour Party could stifle the recent surging support for a Scottish exit from the United Kingdom by fueling some hope of an alternative to the wave of recent Tory Conservative majorities in the UK Parliament at Westminster.

The seeds of SNP and Labour cooperation were sown earlier during the Labour leadership campaign when Corbyn signaled that, unlike his predecessor at the Labour helm Ed Miliband, Corbyn would be willing to work with the SNP at Westminster if it meant the opportunity to defeat the Tories and create a coalition UK government.  Although that position raised criticism from Corbyn’s own party in Scotland, the SNP’s Alex Salmond, now an MP at Westminster representing a Scottish constituency, welcomed the sea change saying that he could work with Corbyn on a range of issues such as welfare reform and abolishing Trident.

Scottish Culture and Heritage.  Regarding preservation and enhancement of Scottish heritage, there are a few things to remember about Labour.  The Labour Party in Scotland is a “branch office” of the UK Labour Party, ultimately taking direction across the board from Party leadership in London.  The influence of “Corbynism” will be strongly felt in Scotland.  The Labour Party has never proven itself to be a very interested partner in the Scottish Diaspora’s expressions of Scottish heritage, preferring a more completely forward looking agenda.

The most current Labour Party Manifesto (2015) does not focus on heritage issues at all and fails to mention Scottish native language revival. Labour’s 2015 Charter for Culture and the Creative Industries  includes the basic statement,  ”[T]he beauty of our cities, towns and villages, including exceptional monuments, churches, cathedrals and historic houses should be protected and enhanced.”  Not a resounding and deeply thought commitment but a place holder at least.  There is little reason to expect the election of Jeremy Corbyn to alter that outlook.

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Today a second poll was released, showing similar results as last week’s Ipsos – Mori poll. Significantly, the TNS poll utilized a different approach and methodology than the Ipsos – Mori poll which adds encouragement to the independence movement. One commentator has labeled the effect of this fresh TNS poll as earth shaking (“Political earthquake as TNS agrees with Ipsos-Mori : there is now a majority for independence” ).

Here are the big numbers: Favor Independence?  47% Yes, 42% No, 11% Undecided.  Excluding those who are undecided, the poll puts the Yes side ahead by 53% to 47%.  Recall that last week’s Ipsos – Mori poll was remarkable in that its finding of 53% in support of Scottish independence was inclusive of the undecided vote, which was a very low 3% in that poll. Is Scotland changing its mind regarding independence?  Still far too early to say but we now have a strengthening argument that it is.

More detailed poll results will be worthy of a peek as they appear.  Questions such as “why” did you vote “No” a year ago but are ready to vote “Yes” today become the focus of analysis.  The various age brackets all appear to remain voting in blocks similarly to the vote taken in 2014 (generally, the younger the voter the more likely she is pro-Indy). Are the new “Yes” supporters distributed across the age spectrum of Scotland or have recent events convinced more young or more senior Scots to change their mind on this most fundamental constitutional question?

Then there is geography. Where do the new “Yes” supporters live?  The TNS poll appears to confirm that Glasgow remains very strongly pro-Indy but what about the rest of Scotland?  Many questions.  More analysis …

As always, these polls offer insights that go beyond the independence question.  For a good breakdown of some of the other aspects of the TNS poll, check out the STV News analysis HERE.

Stay tuned!

The post Scottish Indy Quick Update: One more poll showing a majority now in favor of Scottish independence appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

In the last Watching Scotland blog we took a look at the Scottish Conservative Party, or (from an American point of view) the somewhat unfortunately nicknamed “Tories”. From a right of centre perspective we now swing over and investigate what is going on over on the left with Scotland’s fourth largest political party (out of seven or eight, depending on the moment) – The Scottish Green Party.

The Scottish Greens were founded in 1990 upon the breakup of the UK wide Green Party into decentralized regional bodies. Scottish Greens are entirely politically independent of the other Green parties in the UK but are supportive of those as well as the European Union’s Green equivalent.

Scottish Greens have been represented in the Scottish Parliament since its devolved launch in 1999, but at a fairly low level, dropping from a high of 7 Green MSPs elected in 2003 to the 2 that Scotland has delivered to Holyrood at present. Despite the fall in numbers from the 2003 Parliament there is some reason to believe that the Scottish Greens have turned things around and may again be on the upswing in terms of membership and influence.

That latest STV poll that indicated a clear majority in favor of Scottish independence also had quite a bit to say about the potential future of the Scottish Green Party, all of it encouraging. The poll placed Scottish support for Scottish Greens at 8%, which translates into 8 MSPs in the 2016 Scottish Parliament, up from the current 2.

Further, Scottish Green party co-convenor Patrick Harvie MSP was selected as the most popular leader (highest approval rating) among all from the Holyrood opposition parties. Scottish Greens presently claim a membership of roughly 9,000 which makes it the fourth largest political party in Scotland and easily within reach of growing larger than the Scottish Conservative or Tory Party and overtaking the third position.

Of particular note to those of us in the Diaspora who are interested in preservation of Scotland’s historic built environment and landscape is the fact that the Scottish Green party maintains a handful of local councilors elected mostly in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the central belt, as well as an institutional preference for local control of planning and other decisions. Land development and collateral preservation of historic assets is largely a function of local government in Scotland through its local councils.

In light of the foregoing figures, the Scottish Greens may well be set to increase their political influence in Scottish devolved politics. It is of course important to note that the Scottish Greens are the only party in the Scottish Parliament aside from the SNP that endorsed the Yes Scotland position on Scottish independence. So lets take a look at the Scottish Green position on some issues.

Heritage and Culture. Not much to say here although the Scottish Green 2015 policy document talks more about culture than heritage and the ancestral diaspora, about which it says essentially nothing. Here is the entire entry entitled “Culture”:

Quality of life is a major issue for Greens with culture a significant component in empowering people and strengthening communities. Culture produces positive, creative, inquiring and educated citizens. It also attracts inward tourism. We encourage participation in the arts, both actively and passively.

We encourage the use of Gaelic and Scots.

The arts can help in regeneration and tacking exclusion and we will require Scottish Enterprise to include a cultural remit.

It reads as a bit of a place holder, which is encouraging in that at least Scotland’s native languages rate a clear mention of support. The mention, however, is far from enthusiastic and leaves a gaping hole in support for Scotland’s native cultures and languages, which is disappointing from such an otherwise forward thinking progressive organization.

Aside from culture and heritage one might find just about everything else of political interest in Scotland inside the Scottish Green Party platform. It is a mistake to understand the Greens as a political party that is limited to positions on environmental issues and climate change although they do have those and are able to provide focus in the larger political sphere.

It would also be a mistake to understand the Scottish Green Party as a radical left political force in Scotland as their policies and platforms remain firmly within the conceivable in Scotland, without the need for radical change in institutions – with the one exception that the Scottish Green platform is openly in opposition to hereditary monarchy and supports a republican form of government with a written constitution in Scotland.

Will the fortunes of the Scottish Green party rise in the context of a viable opposition to the growing dominance of the SNP? Just one more thing to keep an eye on in the upcoming Scottish Parliamentary election cycle. Check out the Scottish Green Party website for more info.

The post Watching Scotland: A peek at the Scottish Green Party appeared first on ScotClans | Scottish Clans.

Still, for those of you who have not read this piece, it is well worth the few minutes it will take to gobble it up.

Especially for the Diasporrans in the crowd, do note Mr. Leask’s closing remark:

“More: know your own culture, and you’ll find it easier to know another (and vice-versa).”

The completeness with which our diasporic Gaelic heritage has been erased from our lives can make it difficult to see our modern American, Canadian, Australian selves as, in fact, ethnic Gaels. Yet we are just that and it is no meaningless thing.

A few days ago in the grocery store the produce man, a local Hispanic guy, saw a pal of his, another local Hispanic guy. These two friends greeted each other and launched into laughing conversation in their ethnic tongue – not the official language of America.  A few years ago I might well have found myself annoyed that these two guys were having a great old time in their own native language instead of English, even though their conversation was their own and none of my business.  I spoke English, I didn’t speak anything else, and I could not understand myself in terms of a person who enjoyed a minority and threatened ethnicity.

All of that changed when I resolved to learn Scots Gaelic. As a Gaelic learner, instead of annoyance I smiled and thought, with some envy, how fortunate the Hispanic people of the area where I live are to have that language bond with each other no matter where they are and no matter whether they meet an old friend or a new member of the Hispanic world.  I stood there by the potatoes wishing there were some Gaels around.  Of course, there are, they are everywhere, they just don’t know it.  Language and culture are inseparable and language is the hub of the cultural wheel.  When two people share an ancestral tongue you can bet they are sharing a whole lot more.

Jewish American linguist Joshua Fishman put It this way:

“The real question of modern life, and for reversing language shift, is how one can build a home that one can still call one’s own and by cultivating it find community, comfort, companionship and meaning in a world whose mainstreams are increasingly unable to provide these basic ingredients for their own members.”

It is not to America’s advantage to envision itself as “English only”.  As a practical “lingua franca” or language of convenience, English is and will continue to be a uniting thread across the continent.  But America is not and never has been an English nation to which immigrants arrived late in the game.  America began, grew and continues as a nation of immigrants and the English are only one part of that diverse crew.  Indeed, Anglo culture itself was quite a late visitor to North American shores even for western Europeans, trailing behind the Spanish and French.  It is also worth remembering that America was not predestined to be Anglo, despite the myth of Manifest Destiny.  For instance, had negotiations taken a slightly different turn in Paris in 1763 at the end of the French and Indian War, North America could easily have been home to French and Spanish communities living here together in some stasis with the native nations who preceded them.

In the end, things didn’t work out that way and the monoglot Anglophone tsunami submerged everything else including the ancient Scots Gaelic culture almost as soon as it landed on American soil.  Only a few pieces of cultural detritus have been allowed to remain floating at the surface of this nation.  Some of that detritus contained seeds and some of those seeds have taken root in America once again.  The Wampanoag and Mi’aamia languages native to the Ohio Valley, both once ‘extinct’ in that they had no living speakers, are being successfully reclaimed by members of those nations.  There are other examples here and in Australia where cultures formerly withering under the imperial thumb are re-flowering and enriching the overall larger national culture and pocket book with collateral benefits such as cultural tourism.

There are lessons to be learned by diasporic Gaels from native nations who have also suffered under British and American domination.  When a true account of history is made it becomes clear that the Gael shares much more in common with native nations that what is at first apparent.  When our cultures met on North American soil we occupied different locations on the continuum of Anglo domination and that disparity continues today.  Yet the Gaelic experience and the North American Native Nations experience relative to Anglo driven cultural extermination are remarkably similar plot lines played out in stories set centuries apart. The terminal result on the cultures has been frighteningly similar.

As soon as we begin to recognize, reclaim and celebrate that part of ourselves that houses our non-Anglo Gaelic heritage, we once again begin to understand what it actually means to be “not English”.  Do we not owe it to our ancestors and our young people to confront that truth?  Each of us has a wonderful obligation to help reclaim and reinvigorate our ancestral Gaelic culture and heritage.  Try it.  You’ll like it.

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Things began to heat up on August 31^st when SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh tweeted a photograph of herself sitting in a shiny Scottish police helicopter that has recently been re-branded on one side in Scottish Gaelic. Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh is a member of the SNP 56, the spunky MPs that Scotland sent to Westminster for the 2015 UK Parliament. She has been outspoken on several issues while in London, as have many of her SNP colleagues, and thus she has become somewhat of a lightning rod for news coverage and opposition comments. Plus, the Scottish police themselves have been at the heart of controversy lately for a range of alleged failures and wrong-doing.

In a memorable case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the Gaelic language was assaulted along side the politician and the police. Unfortunately and unfairly, the language may have taken the hardest toll. Several professional and amateur commentators ridiculed and marginalized the Gaelic language in an attempt to expose poor leadership and politically biased decisions of the SNP led government. The Gaelic helicopter was labeled a “vanity project paint job” not worthy of taxpayer funds by one twitter commentator. Another wrote “at least the 1% of Scots criminals who speak Gaelic will be worried when the cops are after them.”

From helicopters the critique grew nastier that very evening as it expanded to bilingual road signs. A fairly offensive anti-SNP website posted a meme attacking the Scottish government’s strong commitment to bilingual road signs (Gaelic/English). Despite the fact that the figures quoted in the meme were monumentally inaccurate, when a few media sources picked it up and the Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives re-tweeted it the political fitball game was on again.

On August 31^st, anti-SNP political sources and a very feisty media launched a critique based around an alleged expenditure of 26 million pounds earmarked for adding Gaelic language to Scotland’s road signs even (gasp) outside of the Highlands and Islands. In fact, the figure was 2 million pounds and as it turns out the Gaelic element of Scottish road signs is expense neutral, not costing the taxpayer any additional costs. Despite the basic inaccuracy of the critique, the core message of the attack deserves attention from supporters of Gaelic revival.

The message of both of these attacks was that Gaelic should be recognized as nothing more than a “hobby language” which, in all likelihood (and with any luck), will be extinct by the middle of this century and thus, is not fit for significant public support. The point was to make the SNP led Scottish government look bad because it is spending money on something that is actually bad for Scotland and futile to boot. In doing so (or trying really hard to do so) a disturbing and ignorant dislike verging on hatred of Gaelic culture and heritage revealed itself. Then it got worse.

Scotland sports a very lively online political blogosphere and one of the most successful bloggers and websites on the pro-independence side is called “Wings Over Scotland”. Wings stakes out the opposite side of the political spectrum from those who were using the Gaelic language to bludgeon the SNP at the end of August. On September 1, 2015 Wings Over Scotland bit back at the Scottish media and Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw exposing the gross inaccuracy of their allegations of public expenditure on Gaelic road signs and their duplicitous hot and cold positions on public support for Gaelic language and cultural revival over time. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Wings also ripped into Gaelic language and culture in an even more aggressive and less informed blinkered Anglo-centric tirade than even the anti-Gaelic helicopter and road sign people had put together.

To begin, Wings titled its tirade “The lesser of two stupids” (Gaelic revitalization being one of those) and opened with the sentiment, “Let’s start off by losing some more friends.” Apparently Wings Over Scotland got up on the wrong side of the bed on September 1. It is well worth quoting the following few paragraphs in their full angry, arrogant, imperial and uninformed glory:

“This site has no time for the Gaelic lobby. The obsolete language spoken by just 0.9% of Scotland’s population might be part of the nation’s “cultural heritage”, but so were burning witches and replacing Highlanders with sheep and we don’t do those any more either.

Being multilingual is an excellent thing, but the significant amount of time and effort taken to learn a literally-pointless second language) because everyone you can talk to in Gaelic already understood English) would be vastly better directed to picking up on that was actually of some use, and every extra fraction of a second spent scanning a road sign trying to find the bit you can read is a fraction of a second spent with your eyes off the road.

Non-primary native languages are a tool whose main utility in practice is at best the exclusion of outsiders and at worst an expression of dodgy blood-and-soil ethnic nationalism. They’re a barrier to communication and an irritation to the vast majority of the population, who are made to feel like uncultured aliens in their own land.”

And because Wings’ political opponents are even worse than the horrors of living with Gaelic, Wings then launched off on an attack on the anti-Gaelic crowd as mentioned above. It’s all a little crazy.

Of course this is not the first time – or likely the last – that we’ve heard the idea that Gaelic is simply not worth the effort of support voiced in a fairly urgent and aggressive manner in Scotland. Back in 2013 Conservative writer Allan Massie gave Gaelic-bashing a good go. David Mitchell is a Scottish comedian but for some reason he gets deadly serious when it comes to the evil potential of the Gaelic language. The revulsion that some in Scotland have for their nation’s oldest living indigenous language and culture is surprising and has not been fully explained. Occasionally it causes me to believe that our ancestors who left Scotland actually had it right.

It is surprising how insular and sheltered the Scottish conversation regarding the Gaelic language actually is. The history and broad contribution of the Gaelic language and culture across Scotland appear to be not well known and the discussion is generally conducted from a position of British colonial imperialism even by those like Wings Over Scotland that like to consider themselves anti-imperial, progressive and open minded. Wings suggests that Gaels who are interested in reclaiming the language and culture that were forcibly torn away from them by an invading imperial power are an imposition to Wings and others of that invading imperial power who remain. That sentiment is simply ignorant and backward and deserves no further attention.

Astoundingly, these Gaelic critics may never have thought about the fact that minority language and cultural revitalization, re-invigoration and even reclamation of “sleeping beauty” languages that have lost all native speakers are part of a growing global movement that is actually picking up speed and in many cases flourishing outside of Scotland. First Nation languages in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, India and elsewhere are actively reclaiming “dead” languages and revitalizing severely endangered languages and those native cultures are beginning to flower in new and very positive ways. And it results in positive impact to the majority culture as well. Understanding cultural identity by learning indigenous language typically creates greater self esteem, pride and a decline in anti-social behavior in members of that culture. It is almost universally a good thing, although it is not always recognized as such by recalcitrant majority cultures.

Perhaps the most successful language reclamation project is now the primary language of private and public life in the state of Israel. The Hebrew language had its beginnings around the 13^th century B.C.. Following a gradual decline Hebrew ceased to be spoken by the 2^nd century A.D. For the next 1,750 years, spoken Hebrew was a “sleeping beauty” language – dead or extinct – it was no one’s mother tongue. At the end of the 19^th century the Hebrew diaspora began the reclamation and revitalization of their ancient but extinct mother tongue. Today there are over 14 million Hebrew or Israeli speakers and the language is now one of two official languages in Israel, the other being Arabic.

Hebrew linguist and language revivalist Ghil’ad Zuckermann has commented that “[d]uring the past century, Israeli has become the primary mode of communication in all domains of public and private life among Israeli Jews. By now the Israeli language is probably the most important common element that still binds Israeli Jews together.” That is what ancestral language and culture do – they bring people together.

There is no question that the greatest beneficiaries of indigenous language revitalization are the language owners themselves. In Scotland, Gaelic was spoken almost everywhere until roughly the 13^th and 14^th centuries when it began to decline in the shadow of a rapidly spreading new Scots language and the pressure of French Norman institutions and cultural tradition. That means that if native Scots chose to be receptive, almost every Scot with native roots to his or her country could participate and benefit in Gaelic revitalization. By reestablishing connection with their ancestral lands, ancestral tongue and way of life language learners create a stronger sense of belonging, identity, self worth, and well being.

Writers like Wings Over Scotland are very proud of Scotland’s global multi cultural modern identity and they are therefore deathly afraid of the rise of ethnic nationalism in Scotland and that fear is evident in their anti Gaelic and even anti heritage writing. Yet in reality, the British imposed Scottish status quo which strips native identity and culture from Scots but allows it for immigrants to Scotland is the most corrosive and divisive societal structure possible. Instead of shirking and mocking their ancestral heritage, modern Scots should try to embrace and develop it. Learning the joy and satisfaction that comes with a better connection to ones own past is the very best way to assure broader and deeper tolerance for other cultures and traditions. When Scotland shuts that opportunity down for its own natives it condemns them to a parochial angry future.

Works that way in America too.

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