A SCOTTISH COLLAGE AND PRESENTATION…
First Minister Rt Hon Alex Salmond MSP MP
About
The Buchanan Clan is the most ancient and historic of clans in Scotland: click the tartan by checking surname eligibility
- In the Gaelic language the name of the Clan (Buchanan) is Canonaich.
'Scotland Year of Homecoming 2009' is a Scottish Government initiative to encourage all with Scottish roots and ancestry to trace their family lines
Hogmany, 31 December 2008
CULTURAL ICON
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Scotland & Cultural Diaspora, by Mark Dowe
FIRST MINISTER in Scotland, Alex Salmond, viewed the original manuscript of Auld Lang Syne and predicted that, “Our very own international cultural icon, Robert Burns” would help turn a threatened tourism downturn in 2009 into a visitor boom.
Mr. Salmond recorded his New Year message at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, which is hosting the Paths of Robert Burns exhibition of key documents and manuscripts until February before it is taken on tour around the country for the rest of the Homecoming, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of the bard.
Apart from the touring Burns exhibition by the National Library, the National Trust for Scotland is also playing its part by creating a Burns Blog of letters by the bard, to be placed online in the coming months.
More than 90 letters are expected to be posted at www.burnsletters.wordpress.comon the anniversary of the dates they were written, leading up to the new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in July 2010, with links to a fundraising site for those who want to help raise £4m towards the £21m overall cost of the museum.
BURNS BUST
Robert Burns is Scotland’s National Bard. Year of Homecomingcelebrates the 250th anniversary since the birth of Burns who was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, and spent most of his life in Dumfries & Galloway.
Burns who wrote the most beautiful Scottish poetry and music is also remembered for his humble and destitute upbringings. Robert Burns, other than being a brilliant writer of Scottish literature and musical verse, was also known for his efforts as a tenant farmer in tending to the land throughout Ayrshire, Dumfries & Galloway and throughout other parts of Scotland.
His memory is immortalised every year during Burns season throughout Scotland and the world; 2009 is likley to be a poignant reminder of the wealth of works left by our famous bard.
NEW YEAR MESSAGE
LOOKING at the original manuscript of Auld Lang Syne, the First Minister said in his New Year Message:
… “Written by our very own international cultural icon Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne is a masterpiece that is sung by hundreds of millions of people around the world to welcome each and every New Year. As we know New Year is a time for family, for reunions, for taking stock, for looking back and looking forward.
… For many people, 2009 will be an enormous challenge, with the full impact of the economic downturn starting to bite. At times like this, therefore, it is even more important that we pull together as a nation.
… I believe there is a spirit of optimism that will pull us through and encourage people to return to Scotland for our Year of Homecoming.”
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Lisa Kelly sings “Caledonia” at the Slane Castle, Ireland
- 01 January, 2009
SHOTTS & DYKEHEAD PIPEBAND…
- Saturday, 24 January 2009
CONNECTING GENERATIONS
ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk is a fully searchable pay-per-view website provided by a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon, enabled by Scotland On Line.
The website offers access to a uniquely comprehensive range of Scottish genealogical data, including:
- The Statutory Registers of births for Scotland, 1855-2006 (indexes and digital images until 1907, indexes only from 1908-2006).
- The Statutory Registers of marriages for Scotland, 1855-2006 (indexes and digital images until 1932, indexes only from 1933-2006).
- The Statutory Registers of deaths for Scotland, 1855-2006 (indexes and digital images until 1957, indexes only from 1958-2006).
- The 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901 Census Returns for Scotland (indexes and digital images), 1881 (indexes and full transcript).
- The Old Parochial Registers of baptisms and the proclamations/marriages for Scotland, 1553-1854 (indexes and digital images).
- Scottish Wills and Testaments from 1513 to 1901 (indexes and digital images).
The official Scottish genealogical website can be found at:
FIRST MINISTER in Scotland, Alex Salmond, insists the Year of Homecoming would be a success and could help bring Scotland through the recession if the country supported the events over the next 12-months.
During Mr. Salmond’s recent address and question-and-answer session with Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, he restated his six-point plan and focussed on the tourism drive to bring hundreds of thousands of people of Scots descent to Scotland this year.
The SNP leader, who heads a minority administration at Holyrood, added:
… “There is a wider aspect to Homecoming and that is a reconnection of Scotland with up to 80 million people around the world.”
Mr. Salmond has launched new Scottish banknotes from the Clydesdale Bank to commemorate 2009 as the Year of Homecoming. A new £10 note features a new portrait of Robert Burns, who is currently on the £5 note. Sir Alexander Fleming will be on the new £5, Robert the Bruce on the £20, Elsie Inglis, a leading suffragette, on the £50 and Charles Rennie Mackintosh on the £100.
Part of the First Minister’s speech in Glasgow was on education. He added:
…”Scotland invented free education. Burns was an educated man. Scotland was the only place on earth where a peasant farmer would be educated.”
Scotland’s political leader recalled mass emigration from Scotland in the 19th century for economic reasons, which created the vast diaspora, and warned that unless investment in the educated population at present became a priority, departures again would become widespread.
- Sunday, 25 January 2009
Kenny MacAskill, Justice Secretary in Scotland, writes in the Observer, in an article entitled: “My trip to Canada is all fond kisses“
Mr. MacAskill writes on Homecoming Scotland:
Homecoming has begun. Offering the immortal memory in Toronto suggests it will be a success.
Today, as we celebrate 250 years of Robert Burns, I will be in Halifax where the shared Scottish identity is alive and prospering. On Friday I was in Toronto, two thirds of the way up the 1,800-foot CN tower at a Burns Night dinner, offering the immortal memory. It was a magnificent setting and there must have been 200 people. They kept coming up and telling me how much they loved Scotland. I met first-generation emigrants and those whose families left centuries ago but who retained an affinity and affection for Caledonia. I am here trying to make the most of this unique bond to highlight the Homecoming celebrations here in Scotland.
This weekend sees the Homecoming Scotland 2009 programme officially kicking off with a series of high-profile Burns events across Scotland and abroad. With a target of generating an extra £40m in tourism revenue and 100,000 additional international visitors, the importance of the programme to Scotland’s economy is clear. But stirring national pride and passion among Scots abroad isn’t hard. For as millions of people across the globe mark the 250th anniversary of our national bard, it’s clear this is also a celebration of Scottish identity, which predates both the American civil war and migration across the Mississippi.
This was brought home to me when researching emigrant Scots and their societies. I learnt from the Atlanta Burns Society that at the centenary of Burns’s birth in 1859, there were already three Burns clubs in the southern states of America. And while travelling in Atlanta I came across what appeared to be an apparition – Burns’s Cottage. Not some mock-up, but a full scale replica of Alloway. Inside were photos of Burns statues in Central Park in New York, Grant Park in Chicago and downtown Sydney. All of them are understandable given the wealthy Scottish community there. Then I saw a statue of one in Cheyenne, Wyoming! Why?
Ramsay MacDonald unveiled a Burns statue in Vancouver in the late 1920s. Vancouver had not long been established, nor had Ramsay MacDonald long returned to office as British prime minister and yet he travelled across the Atlantic and Canada to unveil it. Why? Because Burns epitomises and embodies Scottish values and what we stand for. Egalitarianism. A veneration of education. A belief in probity and thrift and hard work as a virtue, yet also the longing and sadness of the emigrant Scot.
In the hundreds of years since Scottish settlers first landed in foreign shores, you may have expected that our identity would have become diluted or even disappeared. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I think it is remarkable that it is alive and prospering. It is amazing that people have sought to retain this common bond when often they left these shores with only an education. Sometimes they were shamefully driven from their homes or cleared from the land of their birth. At other times, they departed when the factory gates clanged shut or the mines were closed. But whoever and however they came, they remembered the land they left behind.
Scottish identity is not restricted to the possession of a particular passport. Simon Fraser, after whom the great river in Halifax was named, is seen as one of the greatest Scottish Canadians. He opened up western Canada and reached the Pacific long before Lewis and Clark. But he was born in New England, not Scotland. When he travelled down the mighty Fraser river and saw the majestic mountains, he called the land around Fort George New Caledonia. It seemed the image of the land he called home that had been lovingly described to him by his mother and father but which he had never seen.
He wasn’t born in Scotland nor even journeyed to Scotland, but he still considered himself a Scot. There is a Scotland of the imagination. Simon Fraser was a Scot and anyone who shares our culture and values is welcome to be one. That applies as much in the 21st century as it did then.
The fact that there are already more than 2,000 Burns suppers registered on the World Famous Burns Supper website is testament to the status he has achieved across the globe. It’s testament to the fact that Burns encapsulates the need for Scots abroad to record not just where they came from but who they are and what they stand for.
Homecoming Scotland 2009 is inspired by the 250th anniversary of the birth of Burns. What better figure to inspire people with Scots ancestry everywhere to visit Scotland and celebrate our culture, heritage and the many great contributions our country has given the world.
For those emigrant Scots who will be celebrating Burns across the country this weekend, there will also be a longing and sadness for their homeland. No song resonates to the heartache of the emigrant more than “Ae Fond Kiss”. It was written by Burns when his love Clarinda was to emigrate to the West Indies and he believed her to be lost and gone forever.
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever
Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee!
Had we never lov’d sae kindly
Had we never lov’d sae blindly
Never met – or never parted
We had ne’er been broken-hearted
There is an estimated diaspora of 28 million Scots across the world – Homecoming 2009 aims to reach out to them and Scots at home to help them all join the national celebration of their country.
CELTIC CONNECTIONS: ‘AE FOND KISS’
- Sunday, 09 August 2009
Ye Banks & Braes/Regimental Marches/Highland Dancers
– collections of art, drawings and Scottish history reflected through time. The video starts with some well known Robert Burns’ tunes:
Highland Dancers demonstrate form each year in the “Scottish Sword”, a prime event in the Scottish Highland Dancing calendar.
(About) Scottish Sword:
Scottish Sword Dancers, ritualistic and combative dancing between four quadrants of two crossed-swords, are martial skills imitating epic Scottish deeds that feature in Scottish tradition and folklore.
- Saturday, 22 August 2009
Sutherland & Epping Forest Pipes and Drums
… Entry: 29 October, 2009
Braveheart & Battle of Stirling Video Music
- Battle of Stirling, September 1297 – Part 1
Braveheart Music Video:
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© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected
Please do observe copyright laws as original content deserves to be protected.
This journal is intended to be open ended, with commentary provided on various aspects of the Homecomingthroughout 2009. This is an exciting period and time in Scotland for those many hundreds of thousands of people likely to trace their ancestral heritage and Scottish origins.
This site seeks for the establishment of an independent Scotland.
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Filed under: Alex Salmond, Art, Arts, History, Music Selections, Robert Burns, Scotland, history of scotland, scots ancestry, scottish government | Tagged: ae fond kiss, alphainventions, aly bain, battle of stirling, braveheart, canada, clan buchanan, connecting generations, highland dancing, hogmanay, isla grant, kenny macaskill, nicola benedetti, phil cunningham, Robert Burns, saint andrew, Scotland, scotlandspeople, scottish genealogy, scottish identity, scottish music, scottish records, scottish sword, shotts dykehead pipeband, surname eligibility, sutherland epping forest pipes and drums, the old accordion man, ye banks and braes, year of homecoming 2009
