Kilts
July 10, 2007 at 02:13 by Mike McQuaid
The above is a nice picture of me in my kilt at my graduation ceremony. I’ve worn my kilt 3 times in the last week and a half: graduation, the ball and some friends’ wedding. The thing I found strange about the latter was that, although English, the groom, his ushers and best man all wore kilts. Admittedly he was marrying a Scottish girl and was in Scotland but it’s something I’ve always found a little odd.
People seem to like kilts. I think it’s nice that the Scots (or, more broadly, Celts) have a form of smart dress that can be worn as black-tie that is distinctive and different from the rest of the world. The thing I’ve just found odd is the amount of non-Scots/Celts who seem to wear them or want to wear them to formal occasions. To me it is part of my national identity and one of the few areas in which I can express my patriotism for my country.
An Englishmen wearing Scottish national dress seems as odd as one singing “Flower of Scotland” or feeding all his mates haggis once a year…
Posted in Life
Being from the U.S. I’ve always wondered, do you wear something underneath that? Rumor has it you don’t!
Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. Depends on the person and what you are doing. At New Year when I’m not dancing around and will have a drink I don’t wear anything underneath. At a ceildh (Scottish dancing at weddings etc.) it is a bit dangerous to not
I have been to Scotland a few times, I went up there and the thing I found strange was that, although the people up their were Scottish, the academics, bus drivers and waitresses all spoke English and wore trousers. People had cars and other English inventions, wow.
When Scottish people want to do or be something English then that thing becomes British. Scotland is as made up as any modern state such as Macedonia or America, therefore you have to pretend that you are different to outsiders as well as have things in common or it all falls apart. The fact that diverse tribes once lived north of the Hadrian wall does not make an ethnic group. East Anglia has a much less ethnically diverse population than Scotland, and no one has argued that it is a country since Boadicea.
Why did your friend wear a kilt, perhaps because he is from Northumbria where kilts go back even longer than in Scotland; or perhaps he has as much right to wear it as you. We are all so interbred that nationality in the UK is no longer connected to blood. Nationality in the UK is therefore performative, if I wear a kilt, eat haggis and speak in a funny voice then I am Scottish.
Kilts are not even traditional for lowlanders. Kilts were a European thing worn by highlanders and Jacobites, these were floor length and looked nothing like the one in your picture. They only became anything like you are wearing then when Walter Scott reinvented them (Scots were already wearing trousers) for the visit of King George IV. Haggis came from Flemish immigrants.
Calm down!
I was just saying I find it a little odd. He has every right to wear a kilt, I just don’t see why he wants to.
Well done for your patronising history lesson. I’m sure the whole Scottish nation cares deeply.
Regardless of how we got them, kilts/haggis are part of our national identity. Yes, that identity is linked with that of England but we can take pride in our few distinctions, just as the English can from the rest of Europe.
Trousers, cars and other “English inventions” aren’t any more English than they are British, Irish, American etc.
I can’t think of a direct comparison except for morris dancing, which doesn’t seem commonplace in Scotland and is part of some English tradition.
> Trousers, cars and other “English inventions†aren’t any more English than they are British, Irish, American etc.
Exactly! I think most nationalism is nonsense that allows people to be more easily controlled.
I would tend to agree. However, I hardly think clothing really factors into that?
Well I think controlling English and Scottish people and keeping them mentally occupied and scared was very important in the C18th and before to keep people docile enough to grab power (c.f. Highland Clearances), but these things, once introduced into culture, have a tendency to hang around. While I doubt the Scots are going to lead a raid into Newcastle this summer, these same forces, these same invented ‘patriotisms’, are being used to prop up very nasty regimes indeed.
My bad knowledge of Scottish history was trying (and perhaps failing) to jokingly point out that nationalism that is exclusive is not only very dangerous but also normally always fake. The “areas in which I can express my patriotism for my country” is an interesting thing to say. patriotism is from patria, i.e. the fatherland, implies nationalism, where you would need a nation for that. Perhaps your friend was expressing patriotism to the *United* Kingdom?
Kilts are Scottish dress, not British and they’ve never been seen as British. I think the argument is a bit weak and maybe did apply 200 years ago but doesn’t now.
>> Perhaps your friend was expressing patriotism to the *United* Kingdom?
> Kilts are Scottish dress, not British and they’ve never been seen as British.
I.e. that we have a United Kingdom, so what is Scottish is British too. As I said, as far as I know, no one really ever wore kilts in Edinburgh before Walter Scott got them out for the British king, so it is all conscious re-enactment, all performative. He has as much right to kilts as Edinburgh uni has.
I’ll just leave this discussion as it is. You aren’t going to see my point and I’m not going to see yours, I think we’ve both said all we can to convince the other.
I have met a lot of Scottish people who share similar views, and I don’t understand why many Scottish people seem to not like non-Scottish people wearing kilts.
When I was traveling a couple of years ago I went to Morocco and stayed with a family for a while, they loved the fact that I was open to wearing their traditional Moroccan dress, which I did, as it was a way of embracing their culture, something that most Westerners would not do. They were glad that I was taking an interest into their way of life, the same way you would try their food and try to speak their language. I think the wedding you were talking about is really good that he wore a kilt, it shows to the bride’s family that he is embracing their heritage into his family as they marry – just the same way that she is bringing in his family’s heritage by taking his surname.
Every year I have been at University I’ve had a Burn’s night with friends, at one of them I even did one of the traditional speeches, I think this is good as I don’t understand why people who are born in Scotland should be the only ones to celebrate Scottish culture? Just the same way that everyone goes out to celebrate Ireland’s Saint Patricks day once a year, you don’t hear many Irish people complaining about that.
I would like to try a Kilt, I think it looks pretty good and it would be something different, but being English I never have because of worrying about offending someone, but I think that’s a sad thing that some people might feel that way.
if you’re english, theres probably a good chance that you’re related to a scot somehow, or an irishman, or a northumbrian etcetra etcetra, all you need to do is find this (no matter how tenious)bloodlink and use that as your bluff card.
oh and in my experiance its middle aged, middle classed women that take offence, the guys at the pub are just curious. ask yourself, are you scared by one of the chelsea tractor driving brigade?