Devil's Advocate!

[Archangel]

I think that it's difficult to separate the two when related to the subjugation of the Highlands.

Certainly the Lowlanders were collaborating with the English even before King James' defeat by his uncle (King Henry VIII) at the Battle of the Solway Moss in the 1540s in "dealing" with the remains of the rival power base of the Lordship of the Isles; James VI and I was an active hater of Gaelic and the Gaels' way-of-life and tried hard to subvert both; and in the mid-1600s, Argyll, Montrose and others were working with the English after the Union of the Crowns (and the Highlands although a side issue enabled certain favourable pickings).

It was only after the Bishops' War when Montrose became Viceroy of Scotland that he really seems to have become involved with the Highlanders (and he's still refering to them as Irish, even when he's not talking about Colkitto's Irish McDonalds).

During the aftermath of the Jacobite risings of 1714 and 1745, it was the Highlands and Islands (both Loyalists and Jacobites) who suffered - Lowland and English Jacobites got off scot free, more or less. Next year, 2006, sees the 260th anniversary of the passing of the Act banning the tartan and the wearing of the kilt (it doesn't seem to have been implemented seriously for another year), which again affected the Loyalist Gaels as badly as it did the Jacobite.

There's a phrase in Gaelic to refer to the sheer nastiness of many of the policies and postures of the Lowlanders towards the Gaels: mì-rùn mòr nan Gall, "the great malice of the Lowlander".

So, I think that probably I did mean 'British', rather than simply 'English'.

this works, good history lesson. Just needed to clarify since, of course, there was no real British policy until 1701. However, the reality is that it wasn't that sharp a border either.

[An t-Ileach]

Mustn't follow up, the Mods are watching... resist the temptation... nothing to add really... Archangels' said it, anyway... go to bed, it's late enough! (Disappears down the corridor)

[Alan H]

I think I missed what, if anything, the kerfuffle was about, but I know this....

I don't necessarily have to agree with everything that someone says to respect their opinion, learn from them, and let them prod me into thinking. So James, while we have different views on a few things, that's fine, and I'm one hundred percent behind you explaining your perspective on kilt wearing, clans and everything. I'll learn from what you have to say, and THAT is a very good thing, indeed.

Carry on, Sir!!