Highland Songs of the Forty-Five - John Lorne Campbell

[Hugh2]

"Moreover, he was operating in a historical area studded with well-defended redoubts of misinformation on the subject of the Gaels, the Highlands and Jacobitism...".

http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/obi...pbell_john.pdf

Preface

"This anthology represents only a very small portion of the large amount of Gaelic political poetry composed between the years 1640 and 1750 which still awaits similar editing and annotation. Until this is done, no historian ignorant of Gaelic will be in a position to criticise dispassionately the motives and beliefs of the Highlanders of that time...The fact that the Gaelic language was officially proscribed, and unknown outside the Highlands, made it an easy matter for hostile propagandists to misrepresent the motives and malign the character of the Highlanders. This anthology is an attempt to show what their thoughts and feelings, as revealed in their vernacular poetry, really were."

Preface to Second Edition

"...I now consider that the Rising of 1745 was the natural reaction of the Jacobite clans and their sympathizers in the Highlands against what had been since the coming of William of Orange in 1690 a calculated official genocidal campaign against the religion of many and the language of all Highlanders, and that however inopportune the choice of the moment of the Rising may seem to have been, it must have appeared to many men and women as the last possible chance to throw off the Whig yolk..."

Introduction

"...The actions of the Highlanders are to be judged, not from what has been subsequently established as the truth, but from what they believed was the truth. To set up any other standards for the judgment of their motives or actions is to be guilty of a moral anachronism. The fact that the conceptions of one age are to a succeeding age misconceptions does not of necessity put the aspirations of those that held them on to a lower level.

In Scotland, particularly since the time of the Covenant and the Montrose wars, partisan writers have always been wont to describe the Highlanders as barbarous in manners and uncouth in speech. This propaganda, which is of a type now familiar to many of us, soon crystallised into an accepted opinion, adopted by most Scottish (and practically all English) historians, who have been almost without exception ignorant of the language of the people whom they condemned. It is astonishing in any case that any historian should feel himself properly equipped to write the history of his country while remaining in ignorance of the language spoken over half its area. It is through these circumstances that a tradition has been created which still has its popular following, and whose destruction is part of the purpose of this book."

"

"Fhuair na Goill sinn fo`n casan,
Is mor an naire `s am masladh sud leinn."

-John Roy Stewart

"Och,`s iomadh blar a dh`airmhinn-sa
A`ghraisg ud a bhith fann,
Nan cunntamaid a suas air n-ais
An seanna-chleachdadh bh`ann;
Gur h-ann diubh latha Bhanocburn
An tug sinn deannal cruaidh,
Us latha Coille-Chnagaidh sin
`N a chnag sinn iad d`an uaigh."

-Alexander MacDonald

[Kern]

Quote:

''against what had been since the coming of William of Orange in 1690''

There comes that Irish republicanism again and good auld Willie of Orange bashing.

Nvere forget the horrendous truth that many Gaels where ethnically cleansed by none other than yes ..... us wee Scots.

So please - lets cut out the Irish republican stance once more.

Hugh / Scottish republican. Admit it. You are Irish.

[ScotSites]

Hugh2 is definitely the troll that went by the name Raingeanach... I don't think he/she is Scottish Republican! At least one of them (Hugh2/Raingeanach) is definitely NOT Scottish!

[ANDY-J3]

I like the comment about the '45 rebellion being a reaction against oppression- it neglects to mention the "killing times" when hundreds were murdered without trial just for being protestant and it was the "oppressed" highlanders who were doing the killing in the name of James VII, not to mention raping and pillaging according to some accounts. One lot was as bad as the other and the highlanders weren't the innocent victims they are often made out to be.

[Kern]

Yes ....but....

we don't really like to talk about this period. Gives the Irish trolls an opportunity to create divisions. Not good.

Didn't King Billie kick some serious Irish backside?

[Kern]

He was one bad boy to you Irish wasnt he Hugh / Scots Republican / Reneragagagagah?!?

[ScotSites]

Originally Posted by Kern

Nvere forget the horrendous truth that many Gaels where ethnically cleansed by none other than...

... their own chiefs... the very same people that they looked up to and followed no matter what the possible outcome would be!

Anyway, back to the original article:

It is astonishing in any case that any historian should feel himself properly equipped to write the history of his country while remaining in ignorance of the language spoken over half its area.

Would it have been better if that history was completely ignored? Or would it be better if Gaelic speaking historians who in turn would be in ignorance of the Pictish language to have written the history? After all, who's to say they wouldn't just have done the same that the author of this piece is complaining all the English speaking historians do? (Don't bother answering that Hugh2/Raingeanach as your answer won't be worth reading!)