Quote Originally Posted by MacSpadger View Post
Thank you for taking the time to explain these views, but I just can't get my head around it, sorry.

Maybe I am small minded, or a product of my upbringing. I don't know. I was born in the Grampian region and went to college in Inverness. (I also know that I was conceived in Kingussie, my mother told me that and added "and I had a heavy cold at the time". Sometimes mithers can clipe too much). We were taught Gaelic and Highland dancing at primary school, (what you might call Elementary School), and told the history of The Gaels, as it was understood at the time, (we were told the Gaels shared elements of culture witht the Ancient Greeks, so they might be Kelts?), but I don't get this "Celtic" or even "Pan-Celtic" thing at all, it's just alien to me, it really is.

It's like saying "I found out my great grandfather was Japanese so I am going to wear an Indian turban as a symbol of Eastern identity". In my head, I just can't get it to make sense at all. I think it's time I bowed out again before I get dizzy.
I'm happy to oblige with possible explanations, though I'm somewhat dismayed that I have failed to help you understand. Perhaps one more try, from a slightly different angle is in order.

As I mentioned before, I see people's connections to the traditional Scottish kilt as a scale ranging from rock solid to unrelated. On the one end, a Highlander born in the Highlands, who continues to reside there, and comes from a family of kilt wearers dating back to the belted plaid would have the most direct connection. The Congolese sapeurs wear the kilt purely out of appreciation for its sartorial value and probably have the least relationship to the Highland tradition.

The great semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce identified three main types of signs: symbols, indexes, and icons. The first two are germane to this discussion because a symbol is a sign that carries meaning by customary association, while an index signifies by means of relationship, such that smoke is an index of fire. For a Highlander, the kilt could be seen as a symbol of clan and homeland. For Celts more generally, the kilt is an index of Celtic identity because it is the distinctive garment of a one particular group of Celts (Highland Scots).

Leaving aside the whole Pan-Celtic thing for a moment, the Irish are at least Gaels. Roper has written that until fairly recently (in the greater scheme of things) the Highland Scots and the Irish were considered to be one people. Dal Riata and all that. For people of Irish extraction then, it is not such a stretch to appropriate the dress of their fellow Gaels anymore than it is for Lowland Scots to do so.

The fact that this happens more in the diaspora than it does in the old country is not lost on academics. In fact, diaspora studies is a fairly recent and rather vibrant addition to the academy. Anyone who is truly interested in understanding the phenomenon of kilts in the diaspora would be well advised do some research into that area.

As an example of how it works on a systemic level, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1985) enshrines not only people's right to preserve the culture they brought with them upon immigration, but also urges them to enhance their cultural background. With legislation like this, is it any wonder that Canadians of Celtic background would wish to embrace a form of ethnic attire, even if it requires an broadly inclusive, ahistorical view their ancestry?

I believe that the rise of transnationalism in a globalized world has caused a reconsideration of what it means to construct cultural identity; Xmarks is actually a perfect example of this, as people from many backgrounds and different places come together for a common interest. The traditional identity of a person born into a specific place and culture, surrounded by similar folk, and having little contact with outside has given way to the intermingling of the local and global, hybrid or hyphenated identity, and flexibility in making connections between things that traditionally might never have intersected.

Perhaps it is hard for some people to accept the spread of the kilt, rather than for them to understand it? Regardless of whether one agrees with the Irish wearing the kilt or not, it happens, as it does with people of other Celtic backgrounds.