The Gaelic Language and Culture - Historical and Current - 5 Minute Read
People are identified by the language that they speak and the population of the Highlands and Islands spoke a Celtic language, Scots Gaelic (Gaidhlig), which identified them as Gaels (Na Gaidheil).
The first Gaels came to Scotland from Ireland in 498 A.D. and colonised Argyll in the south-west Highlands. These Scottish Gaels, or Gaelic-speaking Celts, who replaced the Picts as the main settlers in the western Highlands and the Hebrides brought with them the Gadelic form of the Gaelic language and the Celtic peoples' affinity for poetry and music. Their language and culture eventually spread all over Scotland. By the 13th Century they had displaced the Norse rulers who had controlled the islands for centuries.
As a language that came into its own in the 12th Century, Scottish Gaelic was once the majority language in Scotland, known as Scotis in the 13th Century, Erse in the 16th Century, and, eventually, Scottish Gaelic.
The Gaelic speaking peoples of the Highlands lived in close community, and were tied to their chiefs and leaders by blood connections and tenant rights in the land. There was a system of services and duties including labour, contributions in cash and kind, and military service. Cattle and goats were their wealth, and sheep were kept for their wool. Fish and game supplemented the diet and some crops were grown.
In the evenings the people gathered in their homes to enjoy story-telling, poetry, songs, and pipe and fiddle music. Gaelic has a rich oral (beul-athris) and written tradition, having been the language of the bardic culture for several centuries. This culture involved the role of knowledgeable individuals as repositories of experiential (historic) societal knowledge. Thus, the old Highlanders, although usually illiterate were, in fact, well educated in the oral culture and history of their race.
The language preserved knowledge of, and adherence to, pre-feudal (tribal) laws and customs. The people, no matter what their personal circumstances were, wore the same attire, enjoyed the same culture and spoke the same language. Their apparel developed over the centuries, but was based on the plaid which developed into the plaid (a cloth slung over the shoulder) and kilt and was made of woven cloth with check patterns from which came the tartans of the modern kilt.
There was no Establishment and Peasantry in the Highlands; the difference was material. This was, in essence, the Clan System.
The system was developed with kinship determining loyalties and cattle gazing rights. Each clan followed its chief with unquestioning loyalty. After Scotland took control of the Western Isles some of the Norse rulers left to settle in Iceland, but the majority of families stayed on to become Norse-Gaelic clans under the Lord of the Isles, the chief of the Clan Donald of Islay, better known to them as 'Buchaille nan Eilean' - 'Herdsman of the Isles'.
In Lewis the clans of the Macleods, the Morrisons, the Macivers, the Macauleys, and the Macraes emerged. In 1493, King James IV of Scotland asserted his wavering authority over the Hebrides by abolishing the title Lord of the Isles and forfeiting it to the Crown. By ending this unifying hereditary rule of the islands he unwittingly strengthened the clans, whose first loyalty was to their chiefs rather than to the Crown.
What followed was a century of destructive inter-clan warfare as many clansmen lamented 'Ni h-eibhneas gun chlainn Domhnaill - There is no joy without Clan Donald'. The clan system was entirely different from feudalism, the land upon which the clan lived was not the property of the chief; it belonged to the tribe, and the chief was maintained by its members and given implicit obedience as defender of the territory of the people, and head of the race.
When, in the course of time, lowland Scotland adopted the Anglo-Saxon language, a cultural divide was created. The Gaels in isolation became like another race and were ruled by their own leaders who were often rivals to the King of Scots. The people were stubbornly resistant to the rule of a lowland-centred English speaking Scottish state.
To circumvent them, and bring them down, the King practised the policy of divide and conquer: he rewarded those who co-operated with the lands of those who did not. This policy greatly aggravated rivalries and feuds, clan fighting, cattle reiving and bloodshed. The suspicions and fears it created continued for a long time and were partly responsible for Highland participation in the dynastic wars which culminated in the Battle of Culloden in 1746, where the Jacobite Highland Army was defeated by Government Loyalist forces.
In their zeal to finally emasculate the power of the Highland clans after Culloden the Government swiftly intoduced the Acts of Proscription and Heritable Jurisdiction. The Proscription Act was the first of the 'King's Laws' which sought to crush the clan system. There was a ban on tartan and the wearing of kilts and Highland dress; and a ban on weapons and the writing of Gaelic. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act removed the feudal authority that the clan chieftains had enjoyed with Scottish heritable sheriffdoms reverting to the Crown instead.
Both of these Acts were an attempt by the Government to assimilate the Highlands with the rest of the kingdom and to deprive the Highlanders the ability to engage in further acts of military coercion and insurrection. It was a systematic attempt to eradicate the Celtic way of life.
The Act of Proscription was finally repealed in 1782. After Culloden the power of the chiefs was taken away, but the land was left to them and land rents were demanded in cash rather than kind. For some time they raised regiments, some of which are still fighting units of the current British Army. However, they required their "estates" to produce bigger incomes and this they achieved by removing most of their people and letting the vacant farms to wealthy single tenants - sheep farmers from the Borders.
These were the infamous Highland Clearances. Many of the dispossessed, who could afford to, emigrated to Canada and the United States, or to Australia and New Zealand, but the majority either drifted to the industrial slums or crowded on to the barren coastlines in poverty.
During the first half of the 19th Century 50,000 Highland Scots emigrated to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada as a result of the Clearances. Some of these emigrants had come from the Outer Hebrides following the collapse of the islands' kelp industries. A kelp trade flourished in the islands towards the latter part of the 18th and early 19th Century where seaweed was burned to produce valuable minerals such as soda and iodine. The industry flourished creating an economic boom in the islands during the French Revolutionary (1792), and Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) when supplies from elsewhere had been stopped by blockades and embargoes. The island landlords made most of the profits, but the crofters earned enough to pay the high rents that the landlords demanded.
However, the kelp trade collapsed after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 as other supplies of minerals became available once more. The kelp trade on the islands collapsed taking the economy of the whole area with it, and crofters could no longer even pay reduced rents; so the landlords began the period of Clearances in the islands to create sheep farms.
Each island group from the Hebrides had its own favoured area for emigration at different periods, Lewis families went overwhelmingly to Quebec, and Ontario with smaller groups settling in Cape Breton, and Pennsylvania. The Highland Clearances only ceased in 1886 on the passing of the Crofters' Act.
Between 1773 and 1922 many thousands of Islanders had emigrated to North America but following the collapse of Lord Leverhulme's schemes in 1921 mass unemployment created a new wave of emigration to Canada. In 1923 and 1924 the S.S. Metagama, Marloch, and Canada departed Stornoway for Canada with 860 emigrants aboard. The Metagama, 'The Emigrant Ship', completed the first crossing to St. John, New Brunswick in eleven days.
Because Gaelic was drastically persecuted after Culloden and the Clearances the language is considered invaluable to preserving Scottish history and culture.
Gaelic still occupies a special place in Scottish culture, has never been entirely displaced of national language status, and is still recognised by many Scots, whether Gaelic speaking or not , as being a crucial part of the nation's culture and heritage.
In 1992, the Council for Europe, in order to protect and promote regional and historic languages in Europe, adopted the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages, which classified Scottish Gaelic as an autochthonous language - a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but considered a minority language.
Scottish Gaelic also exists in a form called Canadian Gaelic and is spoken in rural areas of Nova Scotia - especially in Cape Breton Island.
The cultural image of Scotland is drawn from the clan system, and the music, and clothing of its Celtic people. Much has been attempted to revive, promote and protect the language and culture - from bilingual road signs through to the use of dedicated radio, television and multimedia platforms for both education and entertainment; to the annual celebration that is the Royal National Mod (Am Mod Naiseanta Rioghail).
The Mod Festival, which is a week long event, celebrates Scottish Gaelic song, arts, and culture. It has been celebrated almost annually since 1892, apart from during the two World Wars. Its founding was facilitated by the Gaelic Association (An Comunn Geadhealach) which was organised to protect and promote the Scottish Gaelic language. The Festival's location moves throughout Scotland, being held in a different county every year. In recent times the Mod has been held in Lewis in 2001, 2005. and 2011.
People are identified by the language that they speak and the population of the Highlands and Islands spoke a Celtic language, Scots Gaelic (Gaidhlig), which identified them as Gaels (Na Gaidheil).
The first Gaels came to Scotland from Ireland in 498 A.D. and colonised Argyll in the south-west Highlands. These Scottish Gaels, or Gaelic-speaking Celts, who replaced the Picts as the main settlers in the western Highlands and the Hebrides brought with them the Gadelic form of the Gaelic language and the Celtic peoples' affinity for poetry and music. Their language and culture eventually spread all over Scotland. By the 13th Century they had displaced the Norse rulers who had controlled the islands for centuries.
As a language that came into its own in the 12th Century, Scottish Gaelic was once the majority language in Scotland, known as Scotis in the 13th Century, Erse in the 16th Century, and, eventually, Scottish Gaelic.
The Gaelic speaking peoples of the Highlands lived in close community, and were tied to their chiefs and leaders by blood connections and tenant rights in the land. There was a system of services and duties including labour, contributions in cash and kind, and military service. Cattle and goats were their wealth, and sheep were kept for their wool. Fish and game supplemented the diet and some crops were grown.
In the evenings the people gathered in their homes to enjoy story-telling, poetry, songs, and pipe and fiddle music. Gaelic has a rich oral (beul-athris) and written tradition, having been the language of the bardic culture for several centuries. This culture involved the role of knowledgeable individuals as repositories of experiential (historic) societal knowledge. Thus, the old Highlanders, although usually illiterate were, in fact, well educated in the oral culture and history of their race.
The language preserved knowledge of, and adherence to, pre-feudal (tribal) laws and customs. The people, no matter what their personal circumstances were, wore the same attire, enjoyed the same culture and spoke the same language. Their apparel developed over the centuries, but was based on the plaid which developed into the plaid (a cloth slung over the shoulder) and kilt and was made of woven cloth with check patterns from which came the tartans of the modern kilt.
There was no Establishment and Peasantry in the Highlands; the difference was material. This was, in essence, the Clan System.
The system was developed with kinship determining loyalties and cattle gazing rights. Each clan followed its chief with unquestioning loyalty. After Scotland took control of the Western Isles some of the Norse rulers left to settle in Iceland, but the majority of families stayed on to become Norse-Gaelic clans under the Lord of the Isles, the chief of the Clan Donald of Islay, better known to them as 'Buchaille nan Eilean' - 'Herdsman of the Isles'.
In Lewis the clans of the Macleods, the Morrisons, the Macivers, the Macauleys, and the Macraes emerged. In 1493, King James IV of Scotland asserted his wavering authority over the Hebrides by abolishing the title Lord of the Isles and forfeiting it to the Crown. By ending this unifying hereditary rule of the islands he unwittingly strengthened the clans, whose first loyalty was to their chiefs rather than to the Crown.
What followed was a century of destructive inter-clan warfare as many clansmen lamented 'Ni h-eibhneas gun chlainn Domhnaill - There is no joy without Clan Donald'. The clan system was entirely different from feudalism, the land upon which the clan lived was not the property of the chief; it belonged to the tribe, and the chief was maintained by its members and given implicit obedience as defender of the territory of the people, and head of the race.
When, in the course of time, lowland Scotland adopted the Anglo-Saxon language, a cultural divide was created. The Gaels in isolation became like another race and were ruled by their own leaders who were often rivals to the King of Scots. The people were stubbornly resistant to the rule of a lowland-centred English speaking Scottish state.
To circumvent them, and bring them down, the King practised the policy of divide and conquer: he rewarded those who co-operated with the lands of those who did not. This policy greatly aggravated rivalries and feuds, clan fighting, cattle reiving and bloodshed. The suspicions and fears it created continued for a long time and were partly responsible for Highland participation in the dynastic wars which culminated in the Battle of Culloden in 1746, where the Jacobite Highland Army was defeated by Government Loyalist forces.
In their zeal to finally emasculate the power of the Highland clans after Culloden the Government swiftly intoduced the Acts of Proscription and Heritable Jurisdiction. The Proscription Act was the first of the 'King's Laws' which sought to crush the clan system. There was a ban on tartan and the wearing of kilts and Highland dress; and a ban on weapons and the writing of Gaelic. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act removed the feudal authority that the clan chieftains had enjoyed with Scottish heritable sheriffdoms reverting to the Crown instead.
Both of these Acts were an attempt by the Government to assimilate the Highlands with the rest of the kingdom and to deprive the Highlanders the ability to engage in further acts of military coercion and insurrection. It was a systematic attempt to eradicate the Celtic way of life.
The Act of Proscription was finally repealed in 1782. After Culloden the power of the chiefs was taken away, but the land was left to them and land rents were demanded in cash rather than kind. For some time they raised regiments, some of which are still fighting units of the current British Army. However, they required their "estates" to produce bigger incomes and this they achieved by removing most of their people and letting the vacant farms to wealthy single tenants - sheep farmers from the Borders.
These were the infamous Highland Clearances. Many of the dispossessed, who could afford to, emigrated to Canada and the United States, or to Australia and New Zealand, but the majority either drifted to the industrial slums or crowded on to the barren coastlines in poverty.
During the first half of the 19th Century 50,000 Highland Scots emigrated to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada as a result of the Clearances. Some of these emigrants had come from the Outer Hebrides following the collapse of the islands' kelp industries. A kelp trade flourished in the islands towards the latter part of the 18th and early 19th Century where seaweed was burned to produce valuable minerals such as soda and iodine. The industry flourished creating an economic boom in the islands during the French Revolutionary (1792), and Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) when supplies from elsewhere had been stopped by blockades and embargoes. The island landlords made most of the profits, but the crofters earned enough to pay the high rents that the landlords demanded.
However, the kelp trade collapsed after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 as other supplies of minerals became available once more. The kelp trade on the islands collapsed taking the economy of the whole area with it, and crofters could no longer even pay reduced rents; so the landlords began the period of Clearances in the islands to create sheep farms.
Each island group from the Hebrides had its own favoured area for emigration at different periods, Lewis families went overwhelmingly to Quebec, and Ontario with smaller groups settling in Cape Breton, and Pennsylvania. The Highland Clearances only ceased in 1886 on the passing of the Crofters' Act.
Between 1773 and 1922 many thousands of Islanders had emigrated to North America but following the collapse of Lord Leverhulme's schemes in 1921 mass unemployment created a new wave of emigration to Canada. In 1923 and 1924 the S.S. Metagama, Marloch, and Canada departed Stornoway for Canada with 860 emigrants aboard. The Metagama, 'The Emigrant Ship', completed the first crossing to St. John, New Brunswick in eleven days.
Because Gaelic was drastically persecuted after Culloden and the Clearances the language is considered invaluable to preserving Scottish history and culture.
Gaelic still occupies a special place in Scottish culture, has never been entirely displaced of national language status, and is still recognised by many Scots, whether Gaelic speaking or not , as being a crucial part of the nation's culture and heritage.
In 1992, the Council for Europe, in order to protect and promote regional and historic languages in Europe, adopted the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages, which classified Scottish Gaelic as an autochthonous language - a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but considered a minority language.
Scottish Gaelic also exists in a form called Canadian Gaelic and is spoken in rural areas of Nova Scotia - especially in Cape Breton Island.
The cultural image of Scotland is drawn from the clan system, and the music, and clothing of its Celtic people. Much has been attempted to revive, promote and protect the language and culture - from bilingual road signs through to the use of dedicated radio, television and multimedia platforms for both education and entertainment; to the annual celebration that is the Royal National Mod (Am Mod Naiseanta Rioghail).
The Mod Festival, which is a week long event, celebrates Scottish Gaelic song, arts, and culture. It has been celebrated almost annually since 1892, apart from during the two World Wars. Its founding was facilitated by the Gaelic Association (An Comunn Geadhealach) which was organised to protect and promote the Scottish Gaelic language. The Festival's location moves throughout Scotland, being held in a different county every year. In recent times the Mod has been held in Lewis in 2001, 2005. and 2011.
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