Re: no friends of Charlie's

Thor Cameron (my_colours@hotmail.com)
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 12:01:37 -0700 (PDT) 

And the point to this whole silly friggin' thread is.... ?????

Thor


>     '... 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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