I stand by what I said. Much of it is not strictly to do with kilts.

I disagree with McSpadger on just about everything. I won't tire everyone by repeating myself, but I would like to point out that the Dal Riada are one of the five Gaelic tribes of Ireland, and that traditionally they are all descended from Milesius (Milidh) who is supposed to have come to Ireland from Spain. Of course, the old genealogies spoil their own likelihood of being believed when they trace Milesius back to Adam and Eve, but if you ignore that part, I have never seen anything to disprove the rest of it, including in this thread.

The source McSpadger cites does not say that Gaelic speakers in Ireland got there because they came from Scotland, only that there was movement in both directions, which I never doubted, but in fact it says nothing about origin. Moreover, there seems to be growing evidence that the Gaels did come to Ireland from the Iberian peninsula, not from Scotland, so the traditional view looks pretty good to me.

As for the relatively trivial point about Pierce having written on the subject of Irish kilts in 1900, may I just say that the Gaelic League was founded in 1893, and they started kilted pipe bands before 1900. Irish (British Army) pipe bands are believed to go back as far as 1857, although some claim that they did not initially wear kilts? I hate to mention bagpipes for fear of starting more trouble, but those of course originated in the Middle East, not Scotland. The Scots merely added a third drone, the second drone having appeared somewhere in central Europe.

Why did I labour the point that this is XMarks the SCOT - because those who support the Scottish view of things outnumber everyone else here. The irony is that most of them are not actually from Scotland, and those most stridently Scottish probably come for the furthest away.