[QUOTE=Ward;693085]Hello to all. This is my first posting. I am not Scottish. I am of Irish ancestry. Counties Donegal and Galway. A very close friend of mine and a member of this website, have been having a lot of discussions and doing lots of research about the Irish and kilts. I know traditionally the Irish did not wear kilts but it seems to be very common to associate the Irish with wearing kilts, too. Is this just an American thing or a marketing stunt? I would love to join my Scottish brothers around town and events wearing a Irish tartan kilt which I also know are not traditional, but I also don't want to look like an idiot either. You know, "Look at that dork with the Irish kilt. The Irish don't even wear kilts". Or should I just say the heck with it, be myself and say I'm not Scottish but I like to wear kilts and I'm Irish so I thought it made sense to wear Irish colors. Anyway we're all of Celtic descent anyways, right? Let me know your opinion. What do the Scottish have to say about this?

[REPLY/I'm Irish too and have the same questions as yourself. I've just sent this email on joining: "Thanks for the welcome. I'm wondering just how tolerant you guys can be as I'm not a Scot but an Irishman, though one of my national flags, like yours, is the saltire cross, a red one on a white background.

I hope I may have the hospitality of your site to find out more about the kilt. There is, I'm sure you know, a saffron Irish kilt which still survives as the dress of pipers in the Royal Irish Rangers. The use of saffron and the wearing of Irish traditional dress was banned by Henry VIII in 1537 and by his daughter Elizabeth I for the same reasons as Scottish highland dress was forbidden after Culloden in 1762 (?), and so I hope at the very least to be joining a community of sympathetic men who want to assert their right to wear their traditional dress when they want to!

Didn't mean to get heavy but just to put the facts foremost. Glad to be aboard.

Pat Magee"

If I could work the technology or knew your email address I'd send you a photo of the traditional Irish saffron kilt. ]