A question for our Irish kiltie brothers

[Jerry]

While my father immigrated from County Tyrone in the late 1920s, we are Scots. At least that is what the Irish American Society tells me. I am also a Gordon on my mother's side of the family.

[PiobBear]

*****

[PiobBear]

While not historically Irish, the kilt became popularized in the 1880’s by the Gaelic League and Irish patriots like Patrick Pearse, Bernard FitzPatrick, Eamonn Ceannt, Douglas Hyde, and Pierce O’Mahony, until now it’s recognized as a form of Irish national dress. They wanted a form of dress which was distinctively Celtic (that is, distinctly not English), but did not think that the saffron colored léine, resembling as it does a woman's shift, would be adaptable to modern dress. This occurred concurrently with the Scottish Romantic period, when Victoria's court made wearing kilts fashionable. Therefore, they adopted the kilt, making it distinctively Irish by the traditional color of the léine. While there are many modern Irish national, county, and family tartans (many "Irish" tartans, while quite lovely, are actually recent inventions of Scottish woolen mills, designed by Polly Wittering of the House of Edgar in 1997), the most common and widely recognized is the solid colored saffron kilt as worn by Bernard FitzPatrick and Pierce O’Mahoney while campaigning for home rule in Parliament in the 1880’s, by Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland in 1938, and by the pipers of the Irish Defense Forces and the Royal Irish Regiment today. Distinctively Irish solid color kilts are also seen in dark greens, blues, and reds.
While modern Irish tartans were designed by Scottish mills, that's not to say definitively that historically the Irish didn't wear tartan. One of the most ancient of all tartans was discovered, quite by accident, in an Irish peat bog in 1956. This tartan goes by a number of different names and is recognized officially as the ‘Ulster District Tartan’. Experts have estimated that the pattern was constructed in the mid 1600s, and that it may have been worn by the O’Cahans of Antrim.

[macwilkin]

Pierce O’Mahoney while campaigning for home rule in Parliament in the 1880’s

Ironically, Pierce O'Mahoney is the inspiration for the new Bulgarian tartan, since the O'Mahoney spent a great deal of time in nation and was involved in a number of charitable efforts.

T.

[Woodsheal]

While modern Irish tartans were designed by Scottish mills, that's not to say definitively that historically the Irish didn't wear tartan. One of the most ancient of all tartans was discovered, quite by accident, in an Irish peat bog in 1956. This tartan goes by a number of different names and is recognized officially as the ‘Ulster District Tartan’. Experts have estimated that the pattern was constructed in the mid 1600s, and that it may have been worn by the O’Cahans of Antrim.

Here's an excerpt of an article on the Ulster tartan:

'Tartan and Kilts' by Dr Clifford Smith

Ulster has its own 350-year old tartan, which has an intriguing history. On 28 April 1956, the Coleraine Chronicle reported the discovery by a farm labourer of ragged clothing dug out of an earth bank on the farm of Mr William Dixon, in the townland of Flanders, near Dungiven, County Londonderry.
The find consisted of a woollen jacket or jerkin, a small portion of a mantle or cloak, trews or tartan trousers, and leather brogues. This was the style of clothing worn by men in those parts in the 16th or early 17th century.
Archaeologists from the Ulster Museum were invited to analyse the discovery. A block of peat containing fragments of the clothing was examined by Mr A G Smith of the Department of Botany at Queen’s University, revealing a high concentration of pine pollen. Scots pine had been introduced into Ireland in the 1600s. The likelihood was that the tartan cloth was at least that old.

Peaty loam destroys flesh and bone while preserving fabrics like wool and leather. No body was found, though it is possible that the site marked a grave.
Audrey Henshall from Edinburgh’s National Museum of Antiquities examined the woollen cloth, which had been well preserved. Its reddish brown staining was due to its being buried for hundreds of years in peat. The trews had been made up from tartan woven in the Donegal style, in strips varying in width and distance from each other. The remaining items were also subjected to rigorous analysis.
Audrey Henshall concluded that while the mantle was Irish, the trews almost certainly originated in the Highlands. The logical explanation was that tartan cloth woven in Donegal had been exported to Scotland. There the material had been made up into tartan trews, which was the fashion in the Highlands. These trews started off as clothing for some wealthy person. When they were unearthed in the soil at Flanders townland, the trews were covered in patches. The large variety of materials used indicated that the trews had been passed from one person to another, adding to the mystery.

The textile expert supported the soil analysis, dating the find to between 1600 and 1650. The original colours proved very difficult to distinguish, which was to be expected, given that the tartan had been buried for centuries. However, Audrey Henshall’s specialist techniques enabled her to extrapolate what the original colourings in the cloth would have been. Having identified the colours red, dull green, dark brown and orange or yellow, the antiquarian stated that the ground consisted of wide blocks of red and green, divided into squares of about one inch by groups of narrow lines of dark orange, dark brown and green.
A hand-loom in the Belfast College of Technology was used to re-create the Ulster tartan, based on the colours of the rags in the earth bank. In 1958 a tailor’s model, dressed in the mantle, jacket, trews and brogues, graced the entrance hall of the Ulster Museum.
The tartan was registered with the Scottish Tartan Society in the early 1970s as “weathered Ulster Tartan”. Later a second pattern, based on Audrey Henshall’s reconstructed colours, was also registered with the Society. This restored version is known as “red Ulster tartan”. The Society accepted that both tartans were genuine.

[macwilkin]

While modern Irish tartans were designed by Scottish mills, that's not to say definitively that historically the Irish didn't wear tartan.

Splitting hairs here, but in reference to the Ulster tartan, since its age is estimated at around the time of the beginning of the Ulster plantation, and evidence states that the trews were actually made in Scotland, It's probably safe to say that a Scot wore these tartan trews. Remember that in general, Ulster-Scots did not intermingle wi' their "wild" Irish neighbours.

T.

[Graywolf]

Obviously in this day and age every group needs a symbol that is easily identifiable, that people connect to that group, and that stands out. For all Celts, this is the kilt. Whether Scots, Irish, Welsh, or Breton. As one of the largest, most dynamic, important and almost forgotten peoples in history - we Celts need an identifying symbol which can be used to distinguish us from others; to represent our heritage; and to unite us. That symbol is the kilt!!

[Ayin McFye]

I regularly wear the Irish National Tartan, as well as a MacKenzie for the Scottish side of my heritage as well. I strongly embrace my Irish Heritage and traditions. It's the term "Tradition" that i fear some people interpret with vast difference. As far as I understand though, as many people have quoted the Kilt has only really been around for 100+ years in Ireland. But honestly even if the tradition start 5 years ago, I would still embrace it. My Irish family name may not have it's own tartan for me to wear, but I am proud nonetheless.

Most states if not all for all i know in the US have their own tartan as well. These tartans just like their ancestors in Ireland and Scotland should be worn with respect.

[Chef]

I just think that with the above historical statements that you can accept the kilt as part of the Irish culture since it has been adopted for over 100 years in Ireland regardless if it was first fashioned in the Highlands or not.

Interesting how many of the arguments against the historical aspects of kilts and tartans in Scotland are dismissed because the modern kilts and family tartans are only a 150 or so years old.

Other than the saffron kilt, which is widely recognised as an Irish garment I don't believe there is much of a cultural link between Ireland and the kilt, particulalry if you ask the people of Ireland. With all the times I have worn a kilt in Ireland, I have never been asked if it represents my Irish heritage from a stranger. I am always recognised as a Scot and in the US the only Americans who want to know if I am Irish are the ones who don't know the difference between the two.

My personal opinion is that the modern push in Irish kilts is from the marketing departments of kilt retailers trying to drum up more business since until recently the use of kilts has been by such a small group of people and not thought of as a form of national dress.

[McClef]

Tradition is one of those interesting words in that is there really a fixed period of time that something is done before it can be called "traditional."?

New traditions are being created from older Celtic ones and that's surely a good sign.