Shomeret wrote:
> In the most recent issue of Scotland magazine, there's an article
> called "50 Things You Never Knew About Scotland".
> Among the fifty was that bagpipes were originally Roman, that Mary
> Queen of Scots liked to play billiards, that Robert Burns published
> his first book in order to raise money for a trip to Jamaica in order
> to become a plantation manager there. His first book was so
> successful that he decided to stay in Scotland. An English Quaker
> named Thomas Rawlinson introduced the kilt to Scotland because he
> found it more practical than traditional Highland dress for his
> Highland employees at his iron smelting works to wear. Five thousand
> years ago there were huts at Skara Brae in the Orkneys that had indoor
> bathrooms connected to a plumbing system. (Methos got tired of using
> an outhouse.)
>
> There were also one page profiles of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sean
> Connery in which I learned that the Connery family came from Ireland.
> Most Scots-Irish that I've heard about are Scots that settled in
> Ireland.
That would be the Scots-Irish. Irish-Scots are quite another matter :-)
I only have to go back to my great-grandfather's generation to find
BOTH sides of my family were from Ireland.
>
> There was also an article about emigration from Scotland that
> uncritically accepted extremely prejudiced statements about
> Highlanders made by Alexander Irvine in 1802.
>
>
Highlanders were pretty unpopular with most Lowland Scots at that
time. They spoke a different language ("Gaelic" was quite often
called "Irish" - and indeed Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic speakers are
mutually understandable), they had different customs, different
loyalties (first loyalty was to the Clan Chief, frex) and wore strange
clothes. Most of them were also Roman Catholics - to Lowland Scots
raised in Calvinistic Protestantism they were idolaters and just one
step from <shock!> paganism. They had a reputation for being cattle
thieves, which suggested they were ... less than honest... about other
matters of property. Memories (aye, long memories here in Scotland)
of Viking raids by the Irish Vikings too.
--
Jette Goldie
jette@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
("reply to" is spamblocked - use the email addy in sig)
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