The Clearances

The ClearancesThe Clearances

• Anglicization had the effect of destroying the old link between the clan-chieftain and his people. The Gaelic-speaking tenantry could now be removed at will by the landlords, who saw that people could not produce the profits that the new economic system required.

• This led to large-scale clearances where people were forcilbly evicted from their homes (the first was in Glengarry 1785).

• 1792 was the Bliadhna nan Caorach (Year of the Sheep).

The ClearancesThe Clearances

• Highland landlords had greater powers over their tenants than any in contemporary Europe.

• A number of factors combined (including the Potato Famine-which was also known in Scotland- of 1846-7) made Clearance a recurring catastrophe of the nineteenth century.

• In the Gaelic poetry of the time, the recurring image is that of the Lowland shepherd who arrives in the Highlands with his flocks of sheep which displace the Highlanders for the profit of the landlords.

A Gaelic History of ScotlandA Gaelic History of Scotland

• After the ‘rebels’ had been crushed at Culloden, the Highlanders no longer posed a threat to the Anglo-British state.

• Especially after the popularity of MacPherson’s Ossian in the 1760s, the Highlander came to be identified as a ‘noble-savage’.

• The popular portrayal of the ‘lost world’ of the Celts reinforced its disconnection from the reality of industrialisation and empire.


• The ever-deepening social and cultural crisis in the Highlands led to a retreat into religion as an internal community.

• The Church of Scotland saw a disruption of its unity in 1843, and the formation of the Free Church. This was evangelical inspiration, and rejecting the world. In Gaelic terms it also rejected secular culture, music, song and dance.


• Catholicism had been identified with the Jacobite cause.

• Many Catholic communities in the Highlands and Islands left Scotland in the 19th century for Canada and the USA. By 1878, almost all the Gaelic Catholics were in the county of Inverness and the diocese of Argyll and the Isles.

Emigration of the Gaelic clans

Gaeldom in RetreatGaeldom in Retreat

• In a period when Gaelic was already in decline, An Comunn Gaidhealach (The Highland Society) was established in 1891 with the express aim of encouraging the Gaelic language and tradition.

• It has been the patron of an annual competition called the Mod, modelled on the Welsh Eisteddfod.

The Kilt, and the TartanThe Kilt, and the Tartan

• In 1815 an expatriate club, the Highland Society of London, had written to each of the clan chiefs asking them to send a sample of their clan tartan to be deposited and registered.

• To many this was baffling, since they didn’t know that such a thing existed.

The Kilt, and the TartanThe Kilt, and the Tartan

• After George IV visited the Highlands in 1822, tartan became all the rage.

• Two men claiming to be Bonny Prince Charlie’s sons arrived in Scotland with a bogus list of clan tartans, which became the origin of many of today’s so-called clan ‘setts’.

The KiltThe Kilt

• The kilt had been banned after 1746, and Highlanders were forced to wear trousers. This law was repealed in the 19th century.

• Before 1727 the big kilt had been a large plaid, a piece of rough checked-weave material usually about five feet across and fifteen feet long, more like tweed than modern tartan.

The KiltThe Kilt

• Palide is the Gaelic word for blanket, and it was used as day wear and for sleeping under.

• To put it on a clansman laid the plaid on the ground over his belt and then lay down himself.

• He then wrapped the bottom section around his waist and secured it by buckling his belt at the back.

• The rest covered the upper body like a loose coat and it was usually pinned at the shoulder. (feile mor)

The tartanThe tartan

• The word was used hundreds of years ago, and first recorded in 1538. “heland tartane’. And by the 16th century it appears that yarn was being dyed and woven into colourful checked patterns. Many of these colours came from Highland plants.

Gaeldom in RetreatGaeldom in Retreat

• Rather a lack of native institutions led to a certain decline, although the British military became the principle patron of piping in both the Lowlands and the Highlands. (Highland Games).

• Such Highland Games, often far from the realities of the Gaelic world, led to the introduction of ideas and styles once foreign to Gaelic music. (changing the tempo).

Gaelic todayGaelic today

• The neglect of Gaelic in the education system after 1872 resulted in the language surviving as an oral rather than a literary medium.

• After all, the purpose of school had been to promote English literacy.

• Adult Gaelic reading ability was mostly associated with Bible reading, homeworship and Metrical Psalms.


• In the 1981 Census, the usually resident population of Scotland totalled just over 5 million, of these a mere 82,620 were able to read, write or speak Gaelic.

• Interestingly, only 20,000 lived in areas where 75% of the population spoke Gaelic. These were chiefly in the Western Isles, the Isle of Skye, Tiree, Islay.


• There are still speakers of the language in the western coastal areas of the Highlands.

• Nearly 42% of Gaelic speakers were migrant Gael in the principal urban areas of the Lowlands (Lowland Strathclyde Region).

• In Glasgow in 1982, there were some 15,000 (migrant) Gaelic speakers.


• It is often in these urban areas (around Glasgow) that there is a growing proportion of Gaelic speakers.

• In fact, most Gaelic-speakers in Scotland are to be found in areas which are not predominantly G-speaking, nor have been historically.

• This leads to a range of problems.


• The census of 2001 showed a total of 58,652 speakers of Gaelic in Scotland.

• This represented a continued sharp decline from 65,000 in 1991 and 88,000 in 1971.

• In the mid-1700s, the figure exceeded half a million, and until c1400, half the population of Scotland spoke Gaelic (Gàidhlig).


• Native Gaelic speakers in Canada in 2001 numbered 2155, with the largest number in Ontario (mostly of Cape-Breton origin).

• At the time of confederation, Gaelic (with 200,000 speakers) was the third most spoken European language in Canada.

GAELIC TODAY


• The results of the 2001 Census showed c59,000 speakers.

• Another challenge facing those who wish to promote the language is that more than half the Gaelic-speaking population in 2001 was over the age of 40.

• Most initiatives on behalf of Gaelic have been launched at the local community level and not on a larger national Scotland-wide scale, reflecting the split in Scottish thinking about where Gaelic fits into the national identity.


• There have been for a long time psychological barriers to the restoration of Gaelic (or even maintenance).

• ‘Gaelic is not relevant to modern life’

• ‘it is a foreign and alien apparition on the Scottish scene’.


• One important new coordinating body on the scene in Scotland is the National Gaelic Parents Association/Comunn nam Parant Naiseanta (1994).

• This body monitors progress in extending Gaelic-medium education. It has so far served as an effective link between schools and community regarding extended usage of Gaelic.

Gaelic educationGaelic education

• Gaelic medium education has made great strides since its (re)establishment in Scotland in the 1980s, particularly at the primary and pre-school levels.

• There are now over fifty schools around Scotland which offer Gaelic-medium education.


• These are either all-Gaelic establishments or in bilingual streams in English-medium institutions.

• The most important new body in this area is Comhaire nan Sgoiltean Araich- the Gaelic Pre-school Council.

Comhaire nan SgoilteanComhaire nan Sgoiltean

• Within its first ten years CNSA has established over 140 Gaelic pre-school groups around Scotland, which represents over 2400 children.

• The number of schools offering Gaelic as a subject has tripled since the early 1980s.


• It is not always realised that for a very long period Gaelic was used as the medium of instruction in local religiously administered schools in Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland until c 1872.


• Only about one-third of children in Gaelic-speaking areas are presently attending Gaelic-medium schools (all in the NW traditionally Gaelic area- Gaidhealtachd, with only one elsewhere in Scotland, in Glasgow.

Sgoil Ghàidhlig GhlaschuSgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu

• 80% of the children come from homes in the Glasgow

• Area where English is the first language.

Sabhal Ostaig MorSabhal Ostaig Mor

• http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/

Sabhal Ostaig MorSabhal Ostaig Mor

• The college was founded in 1973 at Ostaig Farm Square, by local entrepreneur Sir Iain Noble. Renowned Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean was amongst its early board members. The first full-time Director of the college was Isle of Raasay-born Gaelic scholar who assumed the role in 1976. From 2002 the college offered Bachelor degrees as a constituent college of UHI Millennium Institute.

Gaidhlig ar an LionGaidhlig ar an Lion

• Bòrd na Gaidhlig• http://www.bord-na-gaidhlig.org.uk/welcome.html

• Bòrd na Gàidhlig works to promote Gaelic, and strives in partnership with the Scottish Government, the people of Scotland and the Gaelic organisations to improve the status of the language. It is a priority for Bòrd na Gàidhlig to increase the number of Gaelic speakers and users, and that Gaelic and its culture are respected and esteemed throughout Scotland.

GGààidhlig ar an Lonidhlig ar an Lon

• http://www.cainntmomhathar.com/index.php

• ‘Cainnt Mo Mhathar’ is a very useful website for listening to Gaelic-speakers from all over the Cape-Breton taking about themselves and their lives.

• www.mygaelic.com

LallansLallans

• http://www.lallans.co.uk/

The Scottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament

• http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/index.htm

Powers of the devolved Parliament Powers of the devolved Parliament of Scotland of Scotland

• Devolution is the delegation of power from a central government to local bodies. Scotland was granted devolution by the passing of the Scotland Act in 1998 which means that Scotland has a parliament with ‘devolved’ powers within the United Kingdom. Any powers which remain with the UK Parliament at Westminster are reserved. Reserved matters were set out in Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act.

Powers of the devolved parliament Powers of the devolved parliament of Scotlandof Scotland

• Devolved powers: Matters such as education, health and prisons, which used to be dealt with by the Parliament at Westminster, are now decided in Scotland.

• Reserved powers: Decisions (mostly about matters with a UK or international impact) are reserved and dealt with at Westminster

Parties in Scottish ParliamentParties in Scottish Parliament

• PartyTotal 129• Scottish National Party 47 • Scottish Labour 46 • Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party 16 • Scottish Liberal Democrats 16 • Scottish Green Party 2 • Independent 1 No Party Affiliation 1 Total:

129

The Scottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament

• http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/apps2/msp/msphome/default.aspx

• http://www.snp.org

Scottish identityScottish identity

• Scotland started as a multiethnic society, with Gaels, Britons, Picts, Angles, and later Normans, Anglo-Normans, and Flemings.

• During the middle ages and early modern period, the rift between Gaelic Scotland and Lowland society grew ever greater, eventually being a split on linguistic and religious lines.


• Following the Jacobite rebellion and Culloden (1746), Scotland’s constitutional links with the rest of Britain grew, and Scotland played an important role in the growth of the British Empire.

• With the decline of Gaelic language and culture, Scotland saw herself as mainly an Anglophone country, but increasingly as a country that wanted to govern itself.


• In the context of the Scottish revival in the twentieth century, major writers such as Somhairle MacLean (Gaelic), Hugh MacDiarmid (Lallans), William Auld (Esperanto) emerged who brought Scottish writing back to the foreground.


• It is interesting to see how some aspects of the Gaelic history of Scotland have been integrated into a more generalised Scottish identity.

• The kilt can be seen frequently in Glasgow, and learning Gaelic is more found in the Lowlands than the Highlands. The pipes and the tartan now belong to all Scots whatever their origin.

Documents

The Clearances