Quote Originally Posted by BobsYourUncle View Post

Am I OK wearing a Scottish clan kilt to an Irish pipe band ball, or will I invoke the anger and ire of those who experienced the troubles? I am a new member of a pipe band. The band is Irish, has an Irish name, is sponsored by and meets at the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Many of the membership are actually Irish citizens, and many of them experienced the troubles personally.

Question # 1: Given the role of Scottish protestant settlers in Northern Ireland, and of Scottish troops of the British Army in Northern Ireland, do I risk causing anger if I wear my Scottish clan kilt to the ball?

Question(s) # 2: What attitudes do the Irish have regarding Scottish people? Favorable, unfavorable? What insights do our Irish members have on this? What insights do our Scottish members have on this? Conversely, how do the Scottish feel toward the Irish?
Do you wear the kilt day in and day out? If not, then why wear Scottish Highland dress to an "Irish" function in the first place?

In terms of your specific questions, as Jock pointed out, you're an AMERICAN in AMERICA. Despite the fact that we may fancy ourselves "Scottish-this" or "Irish-that", it seems a little silly to import an ancient conflict into our modern American lives, borrowing trouble, so to speak. Lord knows we have plenty of "ancient conflicts" of our own that we probably need to address better...

For those persons who will be at the event and were actually personally touched by these issues, I suspect they have come to their own conclusions and don't need a bunch of newly self-discovered "American Celts" stirring the pot!!

David