Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post
No arguements on the web site; the article itself was written by a chap who self-styled himself "the O'Dinan". There is much debate regarding his conclusions, as you rightly point out.

T.
I think the O'Dinan's article was rubbish, sadly. It was written some time ago, and the author actually died a while back, we are told.

Outside of that one article itself, the only examples of Irish solid coloured kilts I ever see referred to are either saffron, green or (very rarely) sky blue, none of which are ever said to represent a clan. For those who don't know, saffron represents the practice of dyeing the ancient Irish leine with that substance, although being linen they were actually an entirely different shade, whereas the wearing of the green in general represents the 18th century rebellions of the United Irishmen, or the green cockades that were distributed to them by their French allies and the shamrocks that were worn by those who didn't receive a cockade, and sky blue is said to represent St. Patrick, although I am unaware of the least support or reason for the latter, or any historical reference to anyone ever wearing a sky blue kilt to honour St. Patrick.

Both green and saffron kilts were certainly worn as symbols of Irish nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although ironically pipers in Irish units of the British Army also wore saffron kilts from the 19th century onwards, and the same are currently also worn by pipers in both the Irish Army and the Irish Air Corps.

The style, using the definite article in front of the surname, does imply that the author was chief of the O'Dinan clan. I have never heard of such a family name, and this was not one of the clan chiefs recognised by the Irish government (unlike Don Juan O'Callaghan of Barcelona, for example), but it is difficult to conclusively rule it out, since the majority of Irish clan chiefs were never recognised. This in turn should not be surprising, given that Irish clans generally ceased to function as clans per se during the 17th century, whereas Ireland only became independent in 1920.