no friends of Charlie's
Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 19:23:53 +0100
'... 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.