I posted this on the other thread which has gone wild about the diaspora and wearing of the kilt etc. And as I saw T.M. Devine's new history “To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland’s Global Diaspora 1750-2010” mentioned earlier I thought I'd repost it here as it is pertinent to the discussion. His relevant chapter runs to many pages so I will give you a few salient quotes.

“By 1970 there were only 170,000 Scots-born in the USA, fewer than at an time since 1860: ‘on the average probably older, and on both counts more likely than ever to cling to the remnants of folkways long since outmoded in Scotland’ (Bertoff, Under the Kilt). Against this background, few could have predicted the explosion of ‘Scottishness’, American-style, that was now about to take place. The transformation came, not from the dwindling numbers of immigrants from Scotland, but rather from new categories of self-professed Scots, often removed by several generations from the old country and sometimes having the most tenuous direct diasporic connections with Scotland.”

“The numbers speak for themselves. In the early 21st century around 300 Highland games took place in North America every year. Between 1960 and 1980, the number in the United States alone tripled, from a mere two dozen to over seventy. From 1985 to 2003 the rate of growth quadrupled. By 2005, 150 Scottish clan societies and ‘family associations’ had been established.”

“Perhaps the most striking fact about this upsurge in Scottish-American interest is its novelty. It cannot simply be seen as a revival of nineteenth and early twentieth century Scottish diasporic traditions, although at its core, the myths and stories of auld Scotia still loom large. In essence, the recent evolution and popularity of Scottish heritage in the United States is an indigenous American development, managed and directed by the transatlantic diaspora and often containing elements which native Scots find risible or even offensive.”

“The warrior ethos is physically celebrated at Highland games across the South by the proliferation of broadswords, dirks, halberds, spears, Lochaber axes, targes, claymores and chain-mail, an array of weaponry which would result in immediate police intervention in the old country.”

“Needless to say, as one commentator (Celeste Ray) has put it, ‘What the Scottish diaspora conceives as Scottish can be excruciating for Scots’.”
These are not my own words obviously, but I found them relevant. The author goes on to talk at length about the “Braveheart phenomenon”, more on the proliferation of Clan societies, the fact that there are more than 1,900 pipe bands in the USA alone and the number grows each year. A good read for those with an historic interest.

And as I stated on the other thread - we never felt we needed to ask for permission to express our Scottishness nor to wear the kilt, and I'm fairly certain none of us will stop now.