Re: Clearances

[dhinchey <dhinchey@together.net>]

Dear Jean,

Thank you for your kindness. I have a very close friend who is suffering 
from the intergenerational trauma
associated with emmigrating from Scotland. It was passed down to him 
through his family.He was an alchoholic and one of the best pipers I have 
ever met. He was a professional with a graduate degree. I happen to teach 
at one of the premier private schools in the US. We have teamed up to start 
a pipe band at the school, which is situated in Caledonia County , Vermont. 
His life is evolving now to his being a professional piper and a fine 
highland piping teacher. In this way he has changed gears radically and is 
taking a bath in Scottish music and the piping tradition. It is healing 
him. We will be over to Skye with our bunch of young pipers within the next 
three years. Life can indeed be grand.

Yours

Dale Hinchey




At 08:08 AM 10/4/00 +1000, you wrote:
>Dear Dale,
>
>I don't believe my own bit was "cleared" but all of my great aunts and 
>uncles certainly left Caithness.  No I am wrong, the youngest stayed on 
>the croft of  Lappan until his death. However there has been a wide 
>scatter of cousins around the world because there was a large family and 
>not enough to support them and their descendants.Perhaps this was an 
>aftermath of the Clearances, but until Margaret completes our particular 
>area of research, we will not know for sure. Please keep writing - I for 
>one find your input most interesting.
>Jean
>
>
>
>
>>> >
>>> >Dear List,
>>> >
>>> >This post hit a tender spot.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >The fact is that the apology would be relatively meaningless. Save for a
>>> >relatively few individuals, the gruesome details of the Highland 
>>> Clearances
>>> >are
>>> >not known. Even today the main curriculums of schools only pay the
>>> >Clearances Lip service. They do not tell the bald truth. The fact that the
>>> >Agents of Sutherland
>>> >trampled women to death in the street, some of whom were pregnant, burned
>>> >old folks in their homes, and generally did ethnic cleansing before the
>>> >term was invented is not a part of status quo British History in the 
>>> middle
>>> >school or high school levels of education , as it should be. If it was it
>>> >might actually spawn Scottish nationalism.Therefore it would seem that
>>> >government funded education is functionally but not morally justified in
>>> >padding the truth of it.
>>> >
>>> >For those interested in how the British developed their Imperial 
>>> techniques
>>> >and how they were applied around the world, the laboratory for that was
>>> >indeed Scotland.[One of the few countries to understand this fact 
>>> later was
>>> >Thailand, which never took the British East Indias Company bait to go to
>>> >war.]The Scots and many other indiginous peoples had their societies, and
>>> >their ancient traditions, and their very languages compromised by it. It
>>> >was an international right of cultural passage which invoked the 
>>> industrial
>>> >revolution around the world and
>>> >introduced the age of materialism in which we now find ourselves.
>>> >
>>> >Of course its not all bad news, but any apology by the Scottish Parliament
>>> >for failing to protect its indiginous peoples can only be predicated upon
>>> >an official history which bares it all in sordid detail. My immediate
>>> >Scottish ancestors in Canada were ashamed of being SCottish. It is only
>>> >recently that the later generations have reintroduced themselves to pride
>>> >in their culture, in the process having to overcome the associated plagues
>>> >of depression and alchoholism transmitted intergenerationally, and fed by
>>> >poverty in the Americas.
>>> >
>>> >Apology, by all means, but an informed apology.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >Dale Hinchey
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >At 11:59 PM 10/28/00 +0100, you wrote:
>>> >>   From the Times, 28 September....                      Scotland may say
>>> >>sorry to unwilling emigres        BY FRASER NELSON
>>> >>CANADIANS, Australians and New        Zealanders could soon be offered
>>> >>something they never expected - an        apology for the Highland
>>> >>Clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries. A        cross-party group of
>>> >>MSPs called yesterday for the Scottish Parliament to        "regret" the
>>> >>clearances and "extend its hand in welcome to the descendants        of
>>>the
>>> >>cleared people who reside outwith our shores".        They also 
>>> detailed a
>>> >>second agenda: to set up a new Clearances Centre        in the Highlands
>>> >>where descendants could come to search for information        about their
>>> >>deported ancestors.        Fergus Ewing, SNP Member for Inverness, told
>>> >>Parliament yesterday that        Scotland should follow what was now an
>>> >>internationally established        example.        "The genocide and
>>>ethnic
>>> >>cleansing which has taken place against in        America and Australia
>>>has
>>> >>been acknowledged long ago," he said. "The time        has now come to
>>> >>acknowledge the suffering of the Highlander."        Jamie Stone, a
>>>Liberal
>>> >>MSP who proposed the motion, told Parliament        that much economic
>>>good
>>> >>could come from such an apology. The Highlands, he        said, could
>>>serve
>>> >>as a starting block for tourists in search of their        cleared
>>> >>relatives.        "We all know our American friends are very, very 
>>> keen to
>>> >>find their        roots," he said. "If they discover their ancestors come
>>> >>from Ayrshire, let        them go back down the road. If they go to John
>>> >>o'Groat's, let them boost        the economy of Caithness and 
>>> Sutherland."
>>> >>      The idea of an apology was, however, treated with caution by two
>>> >>Gaelic        MSPs who said that the history of the clearances was not
>>> >>clear-cut.        John Farquar Munro, a Liberal MSP for Skye, said: "I am
>>> >>not sure the        Scottish Parliament should apologise for this. In
>>> >>truth, our own clergy        were as guilty as anybody in this. They told
>>> >>their flock that it was God's        will for them to leave their homes
>>>for
>>> >>the benefit of the great white        sheep."
>>> >Personal Web Page: Dale Hinchey <http://personalweb.smcvt.edu/dhinchey>
>>> >Where I teach:Saint Johnsbury Academy Web
>>> >Page:<http://www.state.vt.us/schools/stj/>
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>>> >
>>>
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>>
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>
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