Shared Culture - Shared Traditions

That Ireland shares a mythology, a rich music tradition,
2 languages and some history with Scotland is a fact of which we are vaguely aware. A great deal of what has been an enduring connection, however, has been glossed over or deliberately obscured.

It was the Irish Gaels known as Scots, who invaded Scotland in the 5th century and gave it their name. The most famous artifact from Ireland’s golden age, the Book of Kells, was almost certainly begun on the Scottish island of Iona. It was the Gaels who united Scotland in the 9th century and made Gaelic the language of the medieval court. The ‘Irish’ Gaelic culture of the Scottish Highlands survived that of Ireland itself by a century and a half. We know that the Scots planted Northern Ireland from the 17th century but it is not so widely known that hundreds of thousands of Irish people emigrated to Scotland between 1850 and 1950, or that Michael Davitt was a leading figure in the Scottish Highland Land League. The interwoven pattern of our separate histories continues with the parallel emergence of the new Scottish Parliament and the Northern Irish Assembly.

Amidst the ebb and flow of history the Book of Kells has become a fixed symbol of the complexity and sophistication of the shared culture that produced it. The Gaelic language remains our most potent living link. As we enter a new millennium plans are in place to create another great work of art that renews the connection between Gaelic Scotland and Ireland and celebrates the diverse strands of contemporary Celtic culture.