Alan, your Irish "friend" wrote:

If you like wearing a kilt for the sake of wearing one, (I imagine this is the case)... Fair enough.
If that is what he believes, I wonder why he in the first place bothers to send you an email unless he himself has some interest in kilt wearing.
In my case, at least, he is absolutely right. I have neither Scottish nor Irish roots and I couldn’t care less whether men have been wearing kilts in Ireland or not. The fact that the kilt in Scotland is mostly formal wear does not bother me either.
I wear a kilt because I like to. I wear it because of the comfort and variety to my wardrobe and because it is different in what I shall call a good way.
When I buy a kilt in a certain tartan, it is because I like the colors, and Alan, I think your Irish National looks good. I might buy one myself some day.

People don’t laugh, really, seeing a man in a kilt. Your young “friend” must live on another planet. Not even in a country like mine where kilts are very very rare (Scotsmen and Irishmen drove west, not east) they will. When people address me they very seldom take me for a Scotsman. To them I’m just a Dane wearing a kilt. The way it is.
By the way I have German roots on both sides – some 120 years ago. Accordingly I could wear “Lederhosen”. I couldn’t even think of doing it.

Greg

www.dress2kilt.eu