Not sure how to title this.. (Irish Ancestry)

[NewPiperinNY]

Well -- being new to kilting I am curious about a lot of things... but here is my first 'quandry'.

Being of Irish heritage doesn't speak volumes for wearing a kilt. And to be honest I don't plan (at least while I am working) to be kilted full time, just special occasions, and with tartans of the American or Irish influences.

Does everyone here have a historical tie to their kilted-ness?

[xena]

Nope. You don't have to be a cowboy to wear blue jeans, nor do you have to be Scottish to wear a kilt.

It's just polite to know at least the name of the tartan you're wearing.

For what it's worth, the pipers of the Irish Defence Forces wear saffron kilts, as do the members of the Royal Irish Regiment. There's debate as to how far back kilts go in Irish history, but they're there now, at the very least.

Kilts really were originally just something of the Scottish Highlands, then they became common all throughout all Scotland. Now they're being popularized throughout all the Celtic nationalities, and beyond.

[tooltruckguy]

NO. I'm part Irish and part German. I have and wear kilts Irish National, County Galway and Irish Saffron. I wear them on special ocassions as well as every day sometimes. I guess it depends on what mood I'm in.

[Spc. Scott]

I'm pretty much a mutt. There's some Scottish stirred in there but I know that I'd be wearing a kilt either way. I have a few kilts that have a family connection and a few others that I just happen to like.

I do try to learn a bit about the history of the clans for the kilts that I have no connection to. Just seems like the right thing to do for me.

In the end it comes down to the fact that kilts, in my opinion, are an all around great garment to wear.

[Raphael]

I am 100% Chinese and I wear the kilt regularly.

[GMan]

About 37% Irish here, and I am Kilted tons of times.

[nab2488]

I am about 1% Scottish so I really have no basis to wear a kilt. However, I wear them all the time. I find it very funny the only times I hear people say "you have to be Scottish or Irish to wear a kilt." they themselves are not Scottish or Irish. Last time I heard that I was on campus at kennesaw state university and a frat boy said it under his breath behind me in line at the lunch counter. First off how could he have know if I was Scottish or not? I was just standing there. So that proved to me he was an idiot. I turned around he was wearing a University of Georgia hat. So I asked him "Do you go to the University of Georgia? Because I think you should only be allowed to wear a UGA hat if you go there." I waited for a response he just looked at me with his mouth open so I just waited in line he never said another word.

I do make sure to learn as much about a clan tartan I wear before I wear it. So if someone asks I can be informed and tell them about the clan this tartan represents. If I am wearing it to a Highland games or something where a lot of traditional scots will be I tend to wear a universal tartan.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

You can wear a kilt. Or you can wear one of those quasi-kilt things made out of canvas with snaps and pockets and funny looking pleats.

If you choose the former, then as mentioned by others, you'd be advised to know a bit about the tartan you are wearing so you don't look a fool if someone asks "what tartan is that?" You would probably do well to dress along more traditional lines, too. And avoid wearing white socks with your kilt.

Or you can wear the quasi-kilt man skirt sort of thing, in which case it won't matter a fig if you know anything about tartan or not. But at least you can wear white socks.

The choice is up to you as to what you wear and how you wear it. No "historical" tie is required.

Enjoy your kilt.

[O'Callaghan]

Briefly, the kilt developed in the Scottish Highlands from combining the Irish brat (striped woollen cloak) with the Irish leine (pleated linen tunic), some time after the indigenous Picts (possibly Celts, but if so then Britons, not Gaels) were conquered by the Dal Riada, aka the Scots, a tribe of Gaelic Celts from Ireland.

Tartan was worn by Celts for thousands of years before they ever came to the British Isles, but the patterns (known as setts) had no significance.

Even up to the '45 (the defeat of Scottish rebels in 1745 after the union with England in 1707), few clans had a clan tartan, probably no more than a dozen of them, but were identified mostly by sprigs of different plants worn in their hats.

Tartans with some kind of meaning, including clan tartans, mostly, with these few exceptions, date after highland dress was legalised in 1782, having been banned in 1746, and mechanised woolen mills having been started in the interim, and especially gained momentum after the King gathered the Scottish clan chiefs in London in 1822.

It is at this point that Irish kilts enter the picture, in the 19th century (1800s for the numerically challenged), to largely disappear again by World War Two. They were suggested as Irish national dress, and were plain colours, not tartan, mostly either green or saffron.

As pointed out elsewhere, pipers in military units on both the Irish and British sides of the border still wear the saffron kilt, e.g. in the Royal Irish Regiment (British Army), the Irish Air Corps and the 28th Infantry Division of the Irish National Army. Pipers in the London Irish Rifles (a British Territorial Army unit, i.e. similar to the National Guard in the US) wear solid coloured kilts in something called 'Hodden Grey'.

Irish tartans having specific meanings are a post-war thing, mostly worn by Irish Americans and mostly designed by Scottish and even English woollen mills. They mostly represent Irish counties, although there are two unrelated sets of Irish county tartans designed by different mills, or represent Ireland itself, but there are seven or eight different tartans for Ireland. There are also tartans for each of the four traditional kingdoms, and for maybe a dozen Irish clans and/or names (and no, that does not include any Scottish clans that may be represented in Northern Ireland).

So, all that said, if you have Irish roots and want to wear a kilt, then why not wear a green or saffron one, or a tartan that represents Ireland or the county your people come from? Even if there is a tartan for your Irish clan or name it is likely to be an expensive special order, but you can still afford something relevant without selling the farm.

[macwilkin]

Pipers in the London Irish Rifles (a British Territorial Army unit, i.e. similar to the National Guard in the US) wear solid coloured kilts in something called 'Hodden Grey'.

Actually, that's the London Scottish that wear Hodden Grey, along with their affiliated regiment, the Toronto Scottish. The pipes and drums of the London Irish Rifles (both units are now part of the London Regiment) wear saffron kilts.

You'll see a picture of a LIR piper on the front cover of a book on the regimental association's web site:

http://www.londonirishrifles.com/books.cfm

Regards,

Todd