County Cork tartans and Arsenal tartan

[O'Callaghan]

Talking of soccer tartans, my favourite club, Arsenal FC, who are based in North London where there are lots of Irish, have a registered tartan 'for Scottish Arsenal fans' as they say. It's not bad looking. It's mostly red, which is to be expected as their 'strip' (uniform in US speak) is red and white, and as well as red and white it has yellow (the colour of their 'clash' shirts for playing teams that wear red) and it has some sort of violet shade in there for reasons unknown.

The only things I have seen online in the Arsenal FC tartan, unfortunately, are a collar and lead for a dog, LOL! We don't even own a dog. There may be some here who at that point would go out and acquire a dog, but our cats wouldn't like it.

I have now found a wide range of stuff, including kilts and fabric, in Arsenal Football Club tartan, at www.internationaltartans.co.uk

So, no need to get a dog, LOL!

They have a few other obscure tartans there as well. Apparently they design custom tartans and they designed that one. They have a few other soccer clubs and some US states as well. Unfortunately, I don't think they are necessarily any cheaper than getting something custom woven.

They have St. George's tartan too. What a concept - an English tartan!

[billmcc]

I have now found a wide range of stuff, including kilts and fabric, in Arsenal Football Club tartan, at www.internationaltartans.co.uk

They have a few other obscure tartans there as well. Apparently they design custom tartans and they designed that one. They have a few other soccer clubs and some US states as well.

There are several US state, national and district tartans I haven't seen before. The Florida tartan has too much white in it for my tastes. Gunnar and Barb T. may be interested in the Iceland tartan.

[Gunnar]

There are several US state, national and district tartans I haven't seen before. The Florida tartan has too much white in it for my tastes. Gunnar and Barb T. may be interested in the Iceland tartan.

Whoa!!!!! I just HAVE to get that!!!!

[CameronTaylor]

There are several US state, national and district tartans I haven't seen before. The Florida tartan has too much white in it for my tastes. Gunnar and Barb T. may be interested in the Iceland tartan.

Where do I find these ? I've tried several times but I can't find a list of tartans anywhere on that site.


CT - I want an Aresenal kilt (Go Gunners !)

[billmcc]

Where do I find these ? I've tried several times but I can't find a list of tartans anywhere on that site.

CT - I want an Aresenal kilt (Go Gunners !)

Cameron,

The Arsenal tartan is with the district tartans here:
http://www.internationaltartans.co.uk/district/

National tartans here:
http://www.internationaltartans.co.uk/national/

Corporate tartans here:
http://www.internationaltartans.co.uk/corporate/

Rocky provided a link for the US state tartans.

[CameronTaylor]

Thanks Bill, that wasn't coming up no matter where I was looking for some reason.
That said :

OOOOHHHHH! I'm in love with that one, I NEEEED an Arsenal kilt now.


CT - yes NEEEED

[BoldHighlander]

I have now found a wide range of stuff, including kilts and fabric, in Arsenal Football Club tartan, at www.internationaltartans.co.uk

Interesting site, however they make it sound like the Scottish Tartan Museum in North Carolina is now defunct!! (below)

The Scottish Tartans Society, including its branch and museum in North Carolina, which was at one time universally recognised as the unofficial 'authority' on tartans, is now defunct.

http://www.internationaltartans.co.uk/health-warning/

I think that'd be news to Matt!!!

Also:

Scots mercenaries were in great demand for their fighting prowess. Thus tartan cloth was not an uncommon sight in countries throughout Europe, and in many cases became part of local dress.
For example, during the Kalmar Wars between Sweden and Denmark, an army of 550 Scottish mercenaries passing through the Gubrandsval valley, in what is now Norway, in 1612 en route to Sweden in 1612, were routed by local farmers. Their plaids of tartan cloth became woven into the local ‘bunad’, a traditional costume which survives to this day. There are also tartans woven for women’s dresses in Sarna in Norway which are probably derived from tartans worn by Scottish soldiers who fought in Sinclair's expedition to Norway in 1738-40.

There is also a Dutch tartan, which is a Mackay tartan woven in the colours of the Dutch flag, which dates back to the 300 soldiers who fought in the Netherlands for Gustavus Adolphus in 1631.

http://www.internationaltartans.co.uk/national/

Okay, first the Sinclair "Raid"/Expedition was in 1612, *NOT* 1738-40. It was the failed expedition ambushed in Norway that they mention above:

The Scottish Expedition in Norway in 1612

Sinclair's Club of Otta - learning from the Battle of Kringen 1612

Also, they are wrong about the Dutch Mackay tartan. This tartan does *NOT* date back to the Thirty Years War, and is in fact of more recent origin woven in honor of the connection between the Scottish & Dutch Mackays. During the Thirty Years War the Mackay Regiment was described wearing a tartan that (color wise) corresponds to the dark green /blue & black Modern Mackay tartan seen today.

The Dutch MacKay is a tartan designed in 1965 by the late John Cargill, for and registered with the Scottish Tartan Authority, (formerly the Scottish Tartan Society), in honor of the significant roll of the “Dutch Mackays” in Clan and Dutch National History. There are in fact two Dutch tartans, the standard and a dress tartan which switches the thin orange line with an azure, a blue wide line with a white and a thin white line with a red. These tartans are based on the official Clan Mackay tartan and are in their National colors of orange, black, azure and white, with the above changes in the “dress” version.

They really need to get their facts straight

[macwilkin]

Caveat Emptor:

http://kiltmaker.blogspot.com/search?q=missouri+tartan

Regards,

Todd

[BoldHighlander]

Caveat Emptor:

http://kiltmaker.blogspot.com/search?q=missouri+tartan

Regards,

Todd

And there you have it ladies & gents!

Thanks Todd!

[O'Callaghan]

Caveat Emptor: http://kiltmaker.blogspot.com/search?q=missouri+tartan Regards, Todd

What I take from this is that Mr. McGill at International Tartans goes his own way and designs his own tartans without any regard for what may be already registered. To be fair, though, the tartan mills do exactly the same thing. For example, there are about a dozen different tartans that claim to represent Ireland, and about half of those are so similar to eachother that it is fair to say that plagarism is involved somewhere.

That's quite apart from the two tartans for every Irish county already discussed, although I think it's necessary to point out that at least those two sets maintain a complete lack of any similarity, aside from perhaps sometimes using the same colours in a different arrangement, which I believe is reasonable given where the colours come from.

I will have to check to see if McGill's Arsenal tartan is the official tartan of the soccer club. After reading this article it is possible that it may not be, and indeed I thought it looked slightly different. OTOH, it matters little if it isn't, as all I had seen previously in Arsenal tartan were dog accessories and I have no dog. That doesn't mean I'll buy it, in fact I'm probably far too cheap, LOL!

The comments on the three different explanations of the poem on the site are a warning that he is economical with the truth. The anecdote about the North Carolina tartan order is also a warning that he may not be able to deliver the tartans that he pictures. The latter is more worrying than a little blarney. The origins of many tartans involve more than a little blarney.

However, what wasn't brought out in the article is that the person who commissioned the North Carolina tartan probably did so because the Carolina tartan is the official tartan of BOTH North and South Carolina, so he probably took the view that NC didn't have its own tartan as such. I have no axe to grind there, with no connection to either state, but I could understand such a PoV.

McGill's view that anyone can design a tartan and call it what they like seems about right to me, and is nothing more than the mills do all the time. I can see how it would upset Matt Newsome though. Some of Matt's crticisms seem valid, e.g. plagiarism and lack of availability, and others not so much, i.e. I care very little if there are two (or more than two) tartans of the same name, although I would prefer to have that information.