We are all Jock Tamsons bairns.
To Edinburgh and the Gathering of the Clans. What does it mean to be Scottish? An imagined community, cobbled together by a quasi-Victorian set of images (tartan, bagpipes) I arrived at Dublin airport only to have Edward Roden confiscate my contact lense solution. How many planes does Aer Lingus lose to lipstick and deodorant? The question remains unanswered.
Tomorrow at Edinburgh castle a parade of 125 clans will commence. But what defines being Scots? An accent? That would exclude many public school clan chiefs. Mr MacIntyre thinks the tourist board ought to send him to New York not the "place-men" of the Scots parliament. . I swear if I hear one more bagpipe serenade of Scotland the Brave I will do violence unto someone. The Gathering 2009 crowd could not be nicer. Top marks. Today I saw the "Lechfeld Osterreich Highlanders" nice but very serious in their Scottishness, ja doch. Gruss Gott!