San Antonio Highland Games XMarks group photo

[ShaunMaxwell]

We had a fine weekend (if a bit warm) for the San Antonio Highland Games. The turnout was the largest I can remember seeing for the games.

I'll post more photos and some excerpts of the keynote speech delivered on Friday evening at the Tartan Day commemoration at the Alamo, but here's the group photo:



Pictured left to right: The very dapper Tobus, CCK, Chewse, Medic78, Jack Daw and ShaunMaxwell

Here are some additional photos from the event:


Some members of the San Antonio Pipes & Drums


Athlete preparing for the sheaf toss


Dancers warming up


Vikings vs. Celts


Needfire in concert


"Little Dickens" working the crowd for encouragement before caber toss (he managed to turn it).

On Friday evening, Andrew Morrison, honorary British Consul to San Antonio, gave the keynote speech at the Tartan Day commemoration at the Alamo. The text of his speech appears below:


TARTAN DAY SPEECH AT THE ALAMO MARCH 30 2012

We gather here, as we do every year at this time, to commemorate the fact that over 80% of those who died defending the Alamo were of Scottish descent, including men like Crockett and Bowie. In Texas schools our children hear a lot about how important the Mexican American and native American elements of our history are, even about the German influence which was so prevalent a hundred years ago. But the importance of Scottish Americans in the 1830s is perhaps the first great untold story of Texas history. General Sam Houston was famously fond of good Scotch whisky, but was also immensely proud of his Scottish ancestry, as were most of the early settlers given grants by Austin.

Bowie sounds like just another vaguely familiar but strange name to us today, now that we have lost the ability to recognize origins in names. To a Scot Bowie, spelt Buidhe in Gaelic, indicates a member of Macdonald of ClanRanald, the largely Catholic clan from the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides.

Carl Peterson has shown us in his wonderful book, Now’s the Day and Now’s the Hour, not only that Scots played an important part in early Texas history, but that many of the most famous Texan songs, like Streets of Laredo, were Scottish songs with new words put to them. As late as the 1880s, it was Scottish masons who constructed the Texas Capitol building. While San Antonio was clearly named by Spanish settlers but Houston, Dallas and Austin all have Scottish names, to say nothing about McAllen to the south.

We gather here, then, to remind people that it was mostly Scots, Scottish Texans and Scottish Americans who gave their lives in this struggle for Texas’ freedom. We gather specifically at this time of year, however, to commemorate National Tartan Day, technically April 6th, which in turn is designed to remind us of what took place in Arbroath Abbey on April 6th 1320. It is perhaps the second great untold story that the Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland’s declaration of independence from England, served as the model for subsequent declarations of independence, including the Virginian, the American and the Texan declarations. The principle of national self-determination and the vital appeal of liberty, that which, in the words of the declaration, no man surrenders but with his own life, was largely born in Arbroath and inspired many of this nation’s founding fathers, themselves often of Scottish descent. I have yet to see a textbook history which gives proper weight to this fact.

Scots get no attention for two contradictory reasons, in my opinion: we’re too big and we’re too small. We’re too big because we’re identified with the broad British community, which is seen as the majority, even when it no longer is, and as a majority unworthy of special attention. And we’re too small, because as Scots we are indeed few in number, and a little less assertive than, for instance, our Irish cousins, who have made St Patrick’s day a national event.

Maybe it will be different this year. If there is one communication weapon more powerful in the minds of our nation’s youth than the school textbook, it is surely Disney Pixar films. This June will see the launch of Brave, an animated movie set in the Scottish highlands in the 10th century, starring the Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald. It will be interesting to see the publicity, and the stereotypes, which the film encourages.

But there is a third untold story we need to know and understand. In a couple of year’s time Scotland will celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, when Robert the Bruce defeated the might of England and King Edward and made independence for Scotland a possibility. Edward had much the stronger army and the better legal claim, as things were understood at the time (Bruce had previously sworn fealty to him).

Much the same could be said of Santa Anna, when he crossed Texas’s own southern border in February of 1836. He too had the bigger army and the better legal claim to the land.

It is one thing for us to see the correspondence, but is there any evidence that the Alamo defenders themselves did? As it happens, there is. Back in 1793 Robert Burns had written a wonderful song in which Bruce addresses his troops before Bannockburn. It quickly became synonymous with Scottish nationalism and with the struggle for freedom over tyranny everywhere. It begins:

Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,
Scots wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victory!

Now’s the day and now’s the hour!
See the front o’ battle lour,
See approach proud Edward’s power,
Chains and slavery!

“Now’s the day and now’s the hour!” This line was used by Sam Houston, by Governor Henry Smith and by Travis in their attempts to rouse support for the cause from among their fellow settlers.

And when Albert Martin was sent with Travis’ last letter to Gonzales, he himself added the postscript, that the defenders were “determined to do or die,” quoting the famous last line of the song.

We know that the Scottish-born piper, MacGregor, played on the walls every night, and that Crockett played his fiddle as they sang. We can be certain too, then, that this was the song on their lips. Untold story number three, therefore, is the part played by Bannockburn in inspiring the heroes of the Alamo.

It is for this reason that we will be taking a party of Texans to Bannockburn itself in 2014 to lay a stone at the site of the battle. Two years ago Jim Mather, Scottish Minister of Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, came to lay a stone, of Caithness marble, here at the Alamo, to mark those of Scottish birth and Scottish descent who died in defense of this shrine of Texas liberty.

In 2014 we will lay another stone, this time made of the same pink marble from Marble Falls, which was used by Scottish masons to build the Texas Capitol building in Austin, at the site of Bannockburn itself. Senator Leticia Van de Putte is an enthusiastic supporter of this project; she has already secured the block of stone and is ready to introduce the appropriate resolution in the Texas Senate.

2014, of course, will be a momentous year for Scotland. The Ryder Cup and the Commonwealth Games will be held there. Scotland has declared it also the second Year of Homecoming, five years after the first, which was timed to coincide with the 250th birthday of Robbie Burns himself. There will be another grand Gathering organized by the Scottish Standing Council of Chiefs in Stirling. I will certainly be there and will hope to see a number of you too. I hope we get a good turn-out of Texans to watch Senator Van de Putte and others lay that stone.

2014 will also be the year of the Scottish referendum on independence, and we will need to avoid the Texas delegation becoming political pawns in a way that would be awkward for the UK and US Governments. It is not my role, as Honorary British Consul, to take a position on the referendum. In fact I am charged, on the contrary, with bringing you greetings from ALL the people of the United Kingdom.

Clearly, though, the referendum will be a hotly debated issue in Scotland. Latest polls show a majority of Scots remain opposed to the idea of full separation, although, ironically, a majority of people in England seem to favor it! Just as Texans see no inconsistency between being proud of their own independent history in Texas and being also proud Americans, people can be proud Scots and proud to be British too. For the moment that’s the way most Scots feel, but things can certainly change as the campaign heats up and nobody discounts the political savvy of Scotland’s independence-minded First Minister, Alex Salmond.

Certainly the old economic and security considerations that made the Union such a good deal for Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries have lost their force. The British Empire has gone and supranational institutions like the UN, NATO and the EU have made national size and military power almost inconsequential. Ireland and Norway have shown Scots that they can have a viable future as a smaller, if somewhat poorer, nation, if they want it.

Either way, 2014 promises to be a fascinating and historic time for Scotland, and I would encourage you all to make plans to be in Stirling that summer.

Meanwhile I would ask you to remember and repeat the three untold stories we are here to tell: that most of the Alamo defenders were of Scottish descent, that the Declaration of Arbroath should be studied and treasured by all as the world’s first, seminal declaration of independence, and that the Texas revolution was inspired by the struggle for Scottish independence 500 years before, and in particular the Alamo defenders saw themselves fighting a second battle of Bannockburn.

Texan children are taught to remember the Alamo, but the Alamo defenders themselves would tell us that we should remember Bannockburn too, and we should also remember the principle of Liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Arbroath.