Re: no friends of Charlie's
Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 14:50:50 -0400 (EDT)
Complex indeed, Scottie!
I found it interesting that you failed to list the man who penned the poem
upon which the title of perhaps the most sacred piece of scripture in the
bananafishbowl was based: Robt. Burns.... (Phew! Thank god we finally
found some way to mention JDS in the midst of this apparently interminable
Caledonian cacaphony....) Now I know that the Ayrshire Plowman was not an
Edinburger; that, in fact, his work was spurned in the Athens of the North!
(Perhaps that's why you neglected to include him in your imaginary Princes'
St. Pantheon?) Perhaps the exclusion of the man who's immortal memory we
celebrate with Islay malts in January every year (and who inspired our
monk-like master JDS to produce his most important work) only goes to show
that there's no such thing as Sassenach solidary south of the Great Glen.
In fact, I find most of my "Scottish" affinities--as I find ALL of the great
whiskies--north of that very imaginative (as opposed to imaginary) line. I
love Edinburgh! (I lived there for three years--though I'd never claim that
this brief residency qualified me for any claim to Celtishness, North
Britony, Scottishness or Trainspotting....) But my heart's in the
Highlands--which is probably why I'm always breaking out in tears....
Who did you mean by Charlie, then?
Cheers,
Paul
> '... I'm assuming here that we can all agree that
> Ireland is the westernmost of the larger British Isles....
> Which means, I believe, that they could choose
> (though most don't) to be called "north Britons"....'
>
> Well, actually no, Paul.
>
> Many would now call themselves the 'true' Irish,
> by which they mean they are descended from those
> people - largely Celtic & Norman in origin (&,
> of course, Roman Catholic in faith) who have always
> lived outside the Pale (that area around Dublin
> dominated over the centuries by the English
> 'Ascendency') & felt themselves oppressed by it.
>
> This Ascendency - mainly Protestant & looking ever
> towards England for their culture were called -
> proudly by themselves & derisively by the 'natives' -
> the WEST BRITONS.
>
> There is a rather similar duality of identity in Scotland.
> The Islanders & Highlanders (also Celtic in origin, as well
> as Catholic in allegiance) can be seen as the westerners.
> They live in caves, speak Gallic, are covered in red hair &
> when starving eat their young. They were the pitiful
> followers of the Young Pretender otherwise known as
> Bonny Prince Charlie. (NOT the Charlie of the heading.)
>
> The long central rift of the Caledonian canal splits this group
> off from the Lowland Scots (easterners) who are, in the main,
> Protestant by faith & very mixed in their racial background.
> They include quite a heavy admixture of settlers from the north
> of England. Their capital, spiritually as well as literally,
> is Edinburgh which was the breeding ground of most of
> the great Scots geniuses - Napier, Hume, Boswell, Scott,
> Stevenson, Raeburn et al. They are the Scots (I'm one of them)
> for whom Dr Johnson said that their fairest prospect was
> the highroad to London. And they, if anyone, are
> the NORTH BRITONS.
>
> Boring but, in oversimplified terms, true.
>
> I shall leave the much more complex situation in the North
> of Ireland to another day when you're all feeling fresher.
>
> Scottie B.
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