Author: Dr. Patrick Devine-Wright
Being Gael has over centuries come to stand for cultural and emotional solidarity but also for an isolated and very localised identity. It has come to represent a lack of the prestige and power associated with overlords in earlier centuries and incomers in more recent times. Many Gaels have come to see themselves as a marginalized community who were relatively powerless in the face of sweeping and imposed change. Many of the aspects of distinctiveness of being Gael have come from the use of Gaelic as a language but also from the kinship system, expressed in patronymics; distinctive religious practices, such as the reading of the scriptures and the singing of psalms in Gaelic; and a shared awareness and attitude towards an encircling and different social world. Islanders and Ulster folk have come to internalise the British mainland view of themselves as a peripheral people with a negatively-valued rural way of life. Out-migration of islanders and Ulster folk in large numbers has perpetuated the feeling that it was necessary to leave in order to succeed in life or in earlier times to survive. This chapter looks at which factors caused out-migrants to leave but for the remaining Islanders and Ulster folk to stay on during the Clearances and Improvements.
donfad said,
April 12, 2008 at 8:15 am
What theories can help to explain similar patterns of migration to Uists and Prince Edward Island (PEI) from various parts of Scotland?
1. Was Clanranald responsible for much of the internal migration into the Uists? For example, MacFarlane from Perthshire might have been his estate manager, Cameron from Sutherland might have been his schoolmaster, Beaton from Skye might have been his doctor.
2. Why bring these people in at a time when Clanranald was shipping people out in big numbers to Canada? Why bring them in when the standard of education in local Uist people was actually quite good (some letters from ordinary people at that time were in good English)?
3. Were other names unusual to the Uists such as Buchanan, Walker, Steele, MacQuarie, MacNiven, MacLellan, brought in for similar reasons?
4. What exactly was the link between the Uists, Perthshire where Clanranald now lives, other places in mainland Scotland and the Inner Hebrides. Similar migration patterns are to be found in the maritime provinces in Canada where the majority of people of Highland extraction came from the Uists, Argyll, Perthshire, Skye and Sutherland. How much of a coincidence is that? Some of the links are obvious but, as usual, the ‘devil will be in the detail’.
donfad said,
April 12, 2008 at 8:15 am
Migratory patterns from Scotland to Prince Edward Island (PEI), Cape Breton and Nova Scotia.
1. The earliest to come to P. E. I. in large numbers were from the Clanranald territories and the Lordship of the Isles (essentially Catholic). This comprised the west central Highlands (Moidart), the Small Isles and the southern Outer Hebrides.
2. The next important group (and the largest overall) came from the Isle of Skye, the Isle of Raasay and the adjacent mainland of Wester Ross. The MacDonalds, the MacLeods and the MacKenzie’s were the dominant political families and most of the area had been recently converted to Presbyterianism.
3. The third largest group (the Lord Selkirk scheme) hailed from the northern Isles of Argyll; Mull, Coll and Colonsay, with much smaller representation from the mainland of Ardnamurchan and the other Isles. Most of this district had also been recently converted to Presbyterianism.
4. The fourth largest group came from Perthshire in the eastern Highlands. This area tended to be divided between the Stewart controlled territories in the west and regions controlled by the Duke of Athol and by the Gordons of Huntly in the east. This area had a strong representation of Episcopalians and a smaller but significant Baptist following.
5. The final group came from Sutherland from MacKay Country. It was one of the earliest areas to have been converted to the Presbyterian faith and the only one to have fully supported the Hanoverian dynasty during the Jacobite Rising.
donfad said,
April 18, 2008 at 9:12 am
The strong Celtic cultural connections between Scotland, Northern Ireland and Canada are maintained year-on-year in the battle for the World Pipe Band Grade One Championship. The Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, Simon Fraser University Pipe Band and Shotts & Dykehead Pipe Band have shared the crown between them and the top three places at the World Championships since 1992, with the exception of 1998, when the Victoria Police Pipe Band from Australia were crowned champions.