Irish Kilt?

[Phil]

Or perhaps you think the first Gaelic speaker crawled fully formed out of a hole in Mulngavie? Not very likely is it? (Quite apart from the fact that it is in the lowlands).

I am afraid that you are falling into the usual geographical trap when it comes to separating Gaelic speakers from those pesky Lowlanders. Milngavie (pronounced mull - guy) is located in what was historically Buchanan land, granted to them by the Earl of Lennox in the 13th century. In fact Craigend castle just to the north of Milngavie was a home of the Buchanans at one time. I don't need to tell you the history of the Buchanans or their origins in Ulster in the 11th century as I am sure you are fully aware of that but to dismiss Milngavie as you do is quite incorrect. As a matter of fact you will probably find more highlanders and those of highland descent (including Gaelic speakers) in and around Glasgow and its environs than you ever will in what you assume to be 'The Highlands'.

[Peter Crowe]

I am afraid that you are falling into the usual geographical trap when it comes to separating Gaelic speakers from those pesky Lowlanders. Milngavie (pronounced mull - guy) is located in what was historically Buchanan land, granted to them by the Earl of Lennox in the 13th century. In fact Craigend castle just to the north of Milngavie was a home of the Buchanans at one time. I don't need to tell you the history of the Buchanans or their origins in Ulster in the 11th century as I am sure you are fully aware of that but to dismiss Milngavie as you do is quite incorrect. As a matter of fact you will probably find more highlanders and those of highland descent (including Gaelic speakers) in and around Glasgow and its environs than you ever will in what you assume to be 'The Highlands'.

I totally agree Phil, about the Highland/Gaelic population of Glasgow and it's environs. I have had mixed reactions to wearing the kilt in the Dear Green Place but I always put that down to factors such as family or neighbourhood practice and culture. Amongst my family and their friends in and around Glasgow wearing THCD was if not universal far from unusual or remarkable. As to the Highland (and Hebridean) influence on the City, evidence of that can be found in the humorous collections of short stories by Neil Munro (Para Handy Tales etc.) as well as particular districts of the city of which the Knightswood area comes to mind or passing the Free Kirk on Woodlands Road as the Sunday evening service ends.

I know that in the case of my own family, they include sept names from Ross (Crowe), Gunn (Wilson), and Sinclair (Lyall), as well as the name Mackay. Many of these family antecedents (of my grand and great-grand parents generations) came to Glasgow from Banffshire (now Aberdeenshire), Angus, and Selkirkshire (Scottish Borders), so I do not claim to be a Highlander as such, nevertheless I consider THCD part of my own cultural inheritence.

[Phil]

I totally agree Phil, about the Highland/Gaelic population of Glasgow and it's environs. I have had mixed reactions to wearing the kilt in the Dear Green Place but I always put that down to factors such as family or neighbourhood practice and culture.

As you say, Peter, for whatever reason kilt-wearing has never been very popular in Glasgow. Many scouts wore it when I was younger but few others did. I wonder if it is a reaction to the influx of people from the north and islands in the 19th & 20th centuries and succeeding generations trying to distance themselves from what they may have seen as a stigma, denoting the dress of a poor and backward community rather than the bustling, prosperous one they aspired to join. Only a theory but, to this day, friends from the Glasgow area have a total antipathy towards kilt-wearing themselves although they like to see it worn by others.
On a not unrelated subject, am I alone in this or is there a growing sentiment here that sees Highland GOOD and Lowland BAD. It used to be that contributors fell over themselves to list their Scottish credentials. I'm sure you know the kind of thing - "My next door neighbour once had a cat that he got from someone whose aunt's great great grandmother's brother came from Scotland" as if such tenuous connections were necessary to lend a validity to their kilt-wearing. Now it seems that such connections must be firmly placed in "The Highlands" wherever that should be. And woe betide any ill-begotten Lowlander who should have the temerity to dabble with "the Highland" kilt or express any opinion which, of course, can immediately be challenged and disregarded as "non-Highland". Progress indeed.