black watch question

[shillelaghbruises]

The Black Watch tartan seems to be very popular, but I've read some nasty things about the regiment. Does anyone know the history of the Black Watch? All I know about them is from a song accusing them of some awful things in Ireland. One verse goes like this
"Strolling down the Falls road with riot guns and gas
Terrorizing women as they're coming out of mass
A shower of Scottish traitors we never will forget
Thank god we know the IRA will shoot the bastards dead."

So does anyone know the rest of the history of the Black Watch?

[Graham]

There's a bit'o'history here http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/culloden/theduke.htm

But I am not sure if it will answer your question.

Personally, if we boycotted every garment that was used by some to perform atrocities, I guess we'd all go naked.
I'm not sure what the Morrisons did in the past, but I love to wear it as my family tartan.

It's good to be concerned, and careful about what we support. The Black Watch, as a military regiment have surely killed many from a number of countries, that's what armies do - kill people (my pacifist views are showing, sorry).

[Colin]

You may also want to try this link from the BBC www.army.mod.uk/blackwatch

[Jimmy Carbomb]

To put it in the simplest of terms... if you're Irish, you DON'T wear the Blackwatch. If you're Scottish... knock yourself out wearing a beautiful tartan.

In the easiest of terms for a "light-hearted" comparison: It would be like a Red Sox season-ticket holder wearing a Yankees jersey to every home game at Fenway.

[shillelaghbruises]

I'm irish and scottish, so I guess I could go either way, but I think I'll steer clear because I'm Catholic and a supporter of Sinn Fein and all that, and it's not like I can afford another kilt anyway.

[phil h]

The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) was the first kilted regiment in the British Army, and the first to introduce the bagpipe. It's the oldest Highland regiment and can trace a line back to 1624 when the government of the day started raising Independent Companies to keep a check on the wild clansmen.
It was a case of Highlanders keeping watch on Highlanders.The Highlands of Scotland at that time was a pretty wild and desperate place. Not many southerners had the nerve to enter the distant mountains and glens, each ruled by different clans.. It was a dangerous place where the only authority was the clan chief, and justice was delivered at the point of a broadsword and dirk.
Stealing your neighbouring clans' cattle - and anything else for that matter - was a daily occupation which resulted in more than the odd bloody feud. That's where the Black Watch or the Independent Companies come in.
It was their job to police the Highlands, a case of taking a thief to catch a thief. The government thought their problems were over, until they realised their crafty Highland policemen were a pretty dab hand at the odd scam or two themselves, like letting their Highland brothers-in-crime go if the price was right.
Then came the first Jacobite uprising in 1715 and, in its aftermath, the Independent Companies were disbanded by George I. Laws were passed forbidding Highlanders to carry arms. Anyone caught with a claymore could be shipped overseas to serve in the red coated regiments.
Enter General George Wade, an Irishman, who was appointed in 1724 as Commander-in-Chief in Scotland and he began the task of pacifying the Highlands, building the roads and bridges so his troops could move swiftly to nip any other would-be rebellion in the bud.
He raised six Independent Companies of Highlanders from clans reckoned to be loyal to the government, some 500 officers and men, and they only were allowed the privilege of carrying arms. There were three companies of Campbells, and one each of Grants, Munros and Frasers.
It was around about this time that the Black Watch got its name. There are several stories about that, but the truth is no one really knows. Some say it was because of the dark tartan they wore and the watch they kept on the mountains and glens. Could be right, given that regular guardsmen stationed in the Highlands had just started wearing red. By comparison, the tartan must have appeared pretty dark. Another story says it was because of the 'black' Hanoverian hearts of the wearers, or perhaps because they were considered by rebellious clans to be 'blacklegs'.
Whatever the origin of the name, Highlanders of good quality and good family couldn't wait to join the Independent Highland Companies as they were called in 1725 - later they became the Highland Regiment of Foot - simply because of the status symbol of being allowed to carry arms. Each had its piper, dressed in the bright red Stewart or Royal tartan, because the Highlanders refused to march without the bagpipe.
In 1739, with war with Spain looming, George II ordered the Independent Highland Companies to be incorporated into a Regiment of Foot, with the Earl of Crawford, a Lowlander, appointed the first colonel. The regiment, the forerunner of today's Black Watch, paraded in a field by the River Tay near Aberfeldy and consisted of 850 men formed into 10 companies.
Marking the spot stands a statue of a private soldier of the old regiment, Farquhar Shaw, the son of a Strathspey laird, who was described as "a perfect swordsman and a deadly shot alike with the musket and pistol, and was known to twist a horseshoe, and drive his dirk in a pine log".
In 1743, the Black Watch arrived in Flanders and joined the allied army under King George II in the War of the Austrian Succession. They were the first kilted warriors to be seen on the Continent. But it was after some two years of manoeuvrings that the Black Watch was finally to receive its baptism of fire - at Fontenoy.
Marshal Saxe with a French army of 80,000 men had laid seige to Tournay and the Duke of Cumberland, then aged 25, moved against him with some 50,000 men under his command.
He found the French had dug in on the four-long-mile crest of a hill and in a wood to their front had built a redoubt, a kind of a fortress, which they manned with guns. The guns were trained on a part of the hill up which the British had to advance.
The brigade to which the Black Watch belonged was ordered to capture the redoubt, and in three lines set off up the hill in a slow march, arms shouldered, into an inferno of shot and shell. On they went, as the casualties mounted, until they were 30 yards from the French trenches.
The Black Watch was given special permission to fight the Highland way, so when the muskets played along the line of advancing regiments, knocking them down like skittles, the Highlanders hurled themselves to the ground. When the volley was over they leaped to their feet and fired back. It was a novel way of fighting as far as the British Army was concerned.
In fact, the Highlanders seemed to have impressed the Duke of Cumberland greatly. A Sergeant James Campbell, for example, killed nine French with his broadsword and was having a swipe at his tenth when a canon ball ripped his arm off. The Duke promised him a reward after the battle "of a value equal to the arm".
In the Autumn of 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland and the Black Watch was brought home to help deal with the Jacobite rebellion. But, thankfully, the regiment was not sent north to fight against its own kith and kin. Instead it was stationed in the South of England. to defend the coast in case of a French invasion.

[shillelaghbruises]

thanks, but that doesn't really answer the question about Ulster.

[Dakotan]

I'm Manx (leading back to Scottish), the new Black Watch Kilt just got here from Stillwater, and I'm going to wear it!
I wore a VERY Black Watch looking SportKilt to Irish Fest here last year and everyone thought it was great! I just wanted it for the green!
It seems I'm safe taking my chances here in South Dakota.

- Dakotan

[shillelaghbruises]

I think it's a nice looking tartan, but because of my very pro republican position on Ulster, I couldn't wear it if they were involved in fighting the IRA. Not to say that I support terrorism, but I support the cause.

[Graham]

Well, there are plenty of other tartans, or if you want to go Irish, there are a few of them. What about an Ulster tartan?
Here is a look at it:http://www.scotlandshop.net/designer...stertartan.php