Scottish Music Is Celtic Music!

Rod Fleming wrote:

"You made a point though about when you were playing with the Rogues, and one of the players said they didn't play Celtic, but Scottish music; you followed that up by saying that Celtic Music was a Highland thing, and 95% of Scotland's present-day population don't live in the Highlands.

The facts are these: Scotland's population is made up of several ethnic groups, but in principle there are Scots (from Ireland; settled Dalriada, now Argyll, in the 4th century) Picts (they probably spoke a Brittonic Celtic tongue but nobody's sure) Gallovicians (Brittonic (Welsh) speaking-- present-day Galloway and Ayrshire.)These peoples occupied all of what is now Scotland, and were _all_ Celtic. In the latter half of the first Millenium CE add to this Saxons from Northumbria who displaced the Pictish population of the Lothians, and Vikings, who settled the Isles and the North of the mainland. However, al these settlers integrated into the Celtic clan system, and as of 864 CE the country was united under the Scottish line of kings, the first being Kenneth MacAlpin. For the next 400 years the _whole_ of Scotland was a Gaelic-speaking nation. (This period is known as "The Gaelic Kingdom.")

The Highlands-- formerly as populous as the rest of Scotland-- were ethnically cleansed with fire and bayonet after Culloden by the imperialist English state and its allies in Scotland. (I should know. Both my maternal and paternal grandmother's families were evicted by them, to be replaced by -- sheep.) This is the reason why the Highlands are so sparsely populated today.

All of the indigenous Scottish musical types are derived from the Celtic tradition that was established during the Gaelic Kingdom-- the "Golden Age" of Scotland. The great collections of pieces such as the Straloch and Rowallan manuscripts are unquestionably Celtic; and the fiddle tunes of Gow, and many others, were intrinsically Celtic too. Miner's songs from Fife through to standards like "Nicky Tams"-- though sung in Scots, this music is Celtic.

It is true that until the last 25 years or so this tradition was only preserved in the world of ceilidh music, but preserved it was.

The bloody and vicious wars against a much more powerful, avaricious and acquisitive neighbour which have convulsed our nation, and the centuries of the most cruel cultural imperialism by the English State and their allies in Scotland have not altered in one iota this simple truth-- Scotland is a Celtic nation.

Many are those who would seek to deny Scotland the truth of her Celtic soul and tradition, not least the imperialist English, who even now try to deny Scotland her birthright. For three hundred years-- since the illegitimate Union that was so heinously forced upon us--  the imperialist English have been trying to eradicate the very idea of a Scottish cultural identity. They nearly succeeded in the 19th C, but the attempt eventually failed; yet still they keep trying.

Please don't assist them in their vile efforts to destroy a nation's soul. Scottish music IS Celtic music, because Scotland IS Celtic."