Originally Posted by
Foxgun Tom
Ian, you should never change history to suit yourself!!!!
Tom
I don't, but it reminds me of the quote by Churchill, "History is written by the victors.” Personally, I've only known one Victor, Victor Sanchez, whereabouts unknown.
The originators of the oath attempted to rewrite history and destroy a culture as old, if not older than their own. This effectively was a compulsory oath to make them abandon their culture. So, the repeal came (Repeal of the Act of Proscription, 1 July 1782) and then the Highland/Lowland Clearances started about a year later. The only good thing that came from this travesty was Scotsmen being almost everywhere in the world today.
Which is worse, being stripped of your culture and ancestral home or both? Was the repeal an act of mercy to Scotsmen which unknown to them would be scattered in the four winds a year later?
If this outrageous oath had never surfaced in the past how common would the kilt be today? One can only wonder.
An unfufilled prophecy of the Clearances? Maybe not.
The ancient proprietors of the soil shall give place to strange merchant proprietors, and the whole Highlands will become one huge deer forest; the whole country will be so utterly desolated and depopulated that the crow of a cock shall not be heard north of Druim-Uachdair; the people will emigrate to Islands now unknown, but which shall yet be discovered in the boundless oceans, after which the deer and other wild animals in the huge wilderness shall be exterminated and drowned by horrid black rains (siantan dubha). The people will then return and take undisturbed possession of the lands of their ancestors."
--The Brahan Seer (Kennoth Odhar)
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