I wanted to relay an incident that I encountered recently. There is a local Celtic shop that rents and sells kilts. Their rentals have always been limited to Black Watch. While visiting this past weekend with a friend (who was getting measured for his rental to wear at my wedding), the owner and I were discussing the fact that they were also going to have some Irish tartans for rental sometime soon. She mentioned that it was very hard to find the real Irish County tartans, and I mentioned how my Laois tartan was from House of Edgar. She staggered me when she said that 'Not even they have the 'real' Irish tartans'. I asked her to elaborate, and she pointed me to a swatch book with the 'Only REAL Irish tartans that are registered'. I could hardly contain my laughter when she flopped open the Marton Mills book with the recently designed County Crest Tartans. I tried to explain that these were created by Marton Mills based on the County Crest, and yes they were registered, but as an alternative to the other County tartan. She insisted that she was right and I was wrong (a trend in this store...they seem to have the market cornered on misinformation).

They are planning to begin sales of 'REAL Irish tartan kilts', and are going to use the same sales pitch to their other customers regarding which are the 'official' County tartans. Now I completely understand that there is no 'official' Irish County tartan per se, and that House of Edgar is usually the source of what is accepted as the County tartans, but for people who boast to be the local authority on all things Celtic, I think they need to at least clarify their facts a little...

I am only hoping that someone can educate some of the customers before they get something they were not expecting.

(PS...this is not a knock on Marton Mills or their tartans. I am actually a fan of the fact that they created something as an alternative for Irish tartans...and I plan to purchase a few...)

Thanks for letting me rant,

KL