Identity in the Scottish Diaspora

[Profane James]

Or this one here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvmRR2UaCNU

Glè mhath,
'No cringe factor' indeed! Funny, the Johnston/Armstrong stories are so similar...prob made up :^\

[The Q]

I don't think that being beaten for speaking Gaelic at school was actually being anti Gaelic, what it was, was for being non conformist. I can remember children being beaten for not conforming, writing / doing school work with your left hand or having long hair or having your white school shirt not tucked in were common causes of being beaten if you were a serial offender while I was at school in the 60s and 70s.

Since I assume most of the teachers would have been outsider English / French speaking they would not have to tolerated being unable to understand what was being said.

[Nathan]

I don't think that being beaten for speaking Gaelic at school was actually being anti Gaelic, what it was, was for being non conformist. I can remember children being beaten for not conforming, writing / doing school work with your left hand or having long hair or having your white school shirt not tucked in were common causes of being beaten if you were a serial offender while I was at school in the 60s and 70s.

Since I assume most of the teachers would have been outsider English / French speaking they would not have to tolerated being unable to understand what was being said.

It was a crime against our culture that helped defeat Gaelic as a language of commerce or higher learning. Regardless of the intentions...

[AFS1970]

It was a crime against our culture that helped defeat Gaelic as a language of commerce or higher learning. Regardless of the intentions...

Other cultures have had similar issues. I used to work with a bunch of guys who were Italian. One who was only a few years older than me was forbidden to learn Italian growing up and always regretted not really being able to talk with his grandparents who spoke no English. His father saw him being raised to speak only English as a sign that he was not raising a dumb immigrant child.

Conversely the 3 guys who were all about 10 years younger than me and had grown up here but had all at one point lived in Italy, all spoke both Italian and English fluently, as did their parents. Different generations seem to look at this different ways. and the more we loose something, the more we regret not holding onto it tighter.