SCOTTISH NEWSLETTER -...
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SERVING THE SCOTTISH COMMUNITY OF GREATER VICTORIA EDITOR: LARRY SCOTT The 155th Victoria Highland Games are Coming! SCOTTISH NEWSLETTER APRIL 1, 2018 VOLUME 3: ISSUE 4 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Victoria Highland Games Are coming 1 Upcoming Events: April 2 Upcoming Events: May 3 History of Scottish Gaelic 4 Contact Information: Scottish Groups, Dance Instruction, Businesses 5 Stick Tournament and the Victoria Strongman Challenge with a full line-up of current and past world and national champions. Be part of one of North America’s longest running festivals, here in Victoria. One hundred and fifty-five years is a long time in Victoria, but that’s how long the Victoria Highland Games and Celtic Festival has been running. This year’s event will be another feather in the Balmoral for Victoria’s Scottish and Celtic community as we host the World Heavy Events Championship, with the top 11 ath- letes from across the world competing in activities like the Caber Toss, the Hammer Throw and six other strongman events. The festival actually starts on Sat- urday May 12 th , a week before the Games themselves, with the Tartan Parade, the Tilted Kilt pub crawl, a concert and the Clan Torchlight Ceremony on the lawns of the Parliament Buildings. The Victoria Highland Games component takes place on May 19, 20 and 21 and this year is expected to be the larg- est ever, attracting over 25,000 people to Topaz Park. Apart from the World Heavy Events Competition, the Victoria Highland Games will be hosting the Canadian Invi- tational Drum Major Championship, the McNamara Cup for Gaelic Football and “The Victoria Highland Games has become a premier destination in North Ameri- ca for people looking for the best festivals of Scottish and Celtic music, dance, sport and heritage”, said Jim Maxwell, President of the Victoria Highland Games Association. Massed pipe band performances on both Saturday and Sunday, Highland dancing on Sunday and Irish dancing on Monday are must-see events. Simon Fraser University Pipe Band has con- firmed that it will attend. The Games are completely volunteer- run. “It’s a bit daunting”, says Volunteer Co- Chair, Kristina Stewart. “We have over 400 volunteer slots to be filled! We have a great team of volunteers from years past, but we could always use more, and we have some pretty fun roles to fill this year! I mean, where else can you help run a Haggis Hurling compe- tition or sell tickets to a soundtrack of pipe bands?” “I’m looking to the Victoria communi- ty to help spread the word about the opportuni- ty to participate as a volunteer in the Games – it’s a great way to really experience the event from the inside, not to mention give you free admission and lunch!” Would-be volunteers can find information via victoriahighland- games.com – select Participate / Volunteers. Article was contributed by Kristina Stewart— Volunteer Coordinator at VHGA.
Transcript of SCOTTISH NEWSLETTER -...
S E R V I N G T H E
S C O T T I S H
C O M M U N I T Y O F
G R E A T E R V I C T O R I A
E D I T O R :
L A R R Y S C O T T
The 155th Victoria Highland Games are Coming!
SCOTTISH NEWSLETTER
A P R I L 1 , 2 0 1 8 V O L U M E 3 : I S S U E 4
I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E
Victoria Highland Games Are coming 1
Upcoming Events: April 2
Upcoming Events: May 3
History of Scottish Gaelic 4
Contact Information: Scottish Groups,
Dance Instruction, Businesses 5
Stick Tournament and the Victoria Strongman
Challenge with a full line-up of current and
past world and national champions.
Be part of one of North America’s longest running festivals, here in Victoria. One hundred and fifty-five years is a long time in Victoria, but that’s how long the Victoria Highland Games and
Celtic Festival has been running. This year’s event will be another feather in the Balmoral for Victoria’s Scottish and Celtic community as we host the World Heavy Events Championship, with the top 11 ath-letes from across the world competing in activities like the Caber Toss, the Hammer Throw and six other strongman events.
The festival actually starts on Sat-urday May 12th, a week before the Games themselves, with the Tartan Parade, the Tilted Kilt pub crawl, a concert and the Clan Torchlight Ceremony on the lawns of the Parliament Buildings. The Victoria Highland Games component takes place on May 19, 20 and 21 and this year is expected to be the larg-est ever, attracting over 25,000 people to Topaz Park. Apart from the World Heavy Events Competition, the Victoria Highland Games will be hosting the Canadian Invi-tational Drum Major Championship, the McNamara Cup for Gaelic Football and
“The Victoria Highland Games has become a premier destination in North Ameri-ca for people looking for the best festivals of Scottish and Celtic music, dance, sport and heritage”, said Jim Maxwell, President of the Victoria Highland Games Association. Massed pipe band performances on both Saturday and Sunday, Highland dancing on Sunday and Irish dancing on Monday are must-see events. Simon Fraser University Pipe Band has con-firmed that it will attend. The Games are completely volunteer-
run. “It’s a bit daunting”, says Volunteer Co-
Chair, Kristina Stewart. “We have over 400
volunteer slots to be filled! We have a great
team of volunteers from years past, but we
could always use more, and we have some
pretty fun roles to fill this year! I mean, where
else can you help run a Haggis Hurling compe-
tition or sell tickets to a soundtrack of pipe
bands?”
“I’m looking to the Victoria communi-
ty to help spread the word about the opportuni-
ty to participate as a volunteer in the Games –
it’s a great way to really experience the event
from the inside, not to mention give you free
admission and lunch!” Would-be volunteers
can find information via victoriahighland-
games.com – select Participate / Volunteers.
Article was contributed by Kristina Stewart—
Volunteer Coordinator at VHGA.
Tartan Day Celebration 12:00—4:00 pm, April 7th
Centennial Square
78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band, Gaelic Choir, Highland Dance Team, Knacker’s Yard, Irish Dance
Victoria Highland Games Association
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Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan Service April 8, 10:00 am
St. Aidan’s United Church, Victoria (on St. Aidan’s St. near Cedar Hill X Rd. & Shelbourne)
Don your tartan and join us for this special service. Piper Roger Hind will pipe in the Tartan and there will be singing by the Victoria Gaelic Choir. Light refreshments will be served in the hall afterwards. If you would like to provide a few goodies to add to those provided by the “tea committee” of the church, that would no doubt be appreciated!
Sponsored by Sons of Scotland Benevolent Association.
For more information please contact Irene at (250) 652-5773 or [email protected]
Vancouver Island Piper’s Club Pipes & Drums of The Canadian Scottish
April 7, 8:00 pm
Venue is Sergeants Mess at the Bay St Armoury, Victoria.
For parking enter from Field St. off Douglas, going north.
Drop In Admission is $10.00
Cash bar.
Brentwood Scottish Country Dancers Fun Fridays are held on every 2nd Friday of month.
These are all simple dances called. Fun Friday for April 2018 is
April 13 from 7:00-8:30 pm at 1229 Clarke Rd. in Brentwood. Free 1st
time and $3 drop in fee thereafter. [email protected]
April & Beyond — 2018
Annual Workshop and Ball Vancouver Island Scottish Country Dance Society Saturday, April 7, 2018
Registration started Feb.1st, 2018
For the links to Workshop and Ball: http://viscds.ca/workshop-and-
spring-social/ Any questions, please e-mail to
Robert & Pauline Hughes of Aberystwyth, Wales joined the Victoria Welsh Society for its annual St. David’s Day luncheon, held at the University Club on March 3, 2018.
If you let it go, maybe it will stop screaming.
Hermann
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The Clan Torchlight Ceremony
Saturday, May 19, 8:00 pm
Location for this event is the BC Legisla-ture lawns. The ceremony is free and is open to general public. For more info:
www.victoriahighlandgames.com
Springtime in Ireland, Scotland & Wales Small group pilgrimage.
May 10-31, 2018.
Contact: [email protected]
155th Victoria Highland Games & Celtic Festival 2018
May 19-21 at Topaz Park
www.victoriahighlandgames.com
Conversational Gaelic Immersion June 4-8, 2017
Edelweiss Club Hall, Victoria $350 per person. Pamphlet with April newsletter.
Contact Nickie Polson [email protected]
Vancouver Island Piper’s Club
Andrew Lee (of SFU Pipe Band) 8:00 pm—May 5, 2018
Venue is Sergeants Mess at the Bay St Armoury, Victoria.
For parking enter from Field St. off Douglas, going north.
Drop In Admission is $10.00 Cash bar available.
Brentwood Scottish Country Dancers Fun Fridays are held on every 2nd Friday of month.
These are all simple dances called. Fun Friday for May 2018 is May 11 from 7:00-8:30 pm
at 229 Clarke Rd. in Brentwood. Free 1st time and $3 drop in fee thereafter.
Upcoming: May 2018
Tilted Kilt Pub Crawl Wednesday, May 16
Sponsored by Lighthouse Brewing. For tickets contact Jim Maxwell at
[email protected] See website for details.
http://victoriahighlandgames.com/games/schedule/pre-games-events/
tilted-kilt-pub-crawl/
Annual Victoria Tartan Parade 11:00 am—Saturday, May 12, 2018
Parade starts from Centennial Square at 11:00 am and proceeds down Government Street to Legislature Lawn. Wear your tartan and walk in the parade! Bands wishing to participate, contact Jim Maxwell at [email protected]
Vancouver Island Scottish Country Dance Society
May Ceilidh 7:30-10:00 pm, May 26
City Light Church Hall 550 Obed Avenue, Victoria $8.00 Admission
Music by Mary Ross.
No partner or experience needed.
www.viscds.ca
Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir & Victoria’s Starlight Pops Choir
Saturday, 7:00 pm, May 12, 2018 Dave Dunnet Theatre @ Oak Bay High School
Adults $29; Seniors $27; Students (with i.d.) $12 Tickets online www.ywmc.ca or tel 604 878-1190
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History of Scottish Gaelic Excerpts from Wikipedia
It is commonly accepted by scholars today that Gaelic was brought to Scotland, probably in the 4th–5th centuries CE, by settlers from Ireland who founded the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata (see map below) on Scotland's west coast in present-day Argyll.
Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish are-as north of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. This was spurred by the intermarriage of Gaelic and Pictish aristocratic families, the political merger of the two king-doms in the early 9th century, and the common threat of attack by Norse invaders. By 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, where Pictish was more likely supplanted by Norse rather than by Gaelic. However, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation (which may have begun generations earlier) was clearly under way. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, and Pictish identity was forgotten. By the 10th century, Gaelic had become the domi-nant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland was less even and less complete. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west, as well as in West Lothian and parts of western Midlothian. Less dense us-age is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. This latter region is roughly the area of the old Kingdom of Strathclyde, which was annexed by the Kingdom of Alba in the early 11th century, but its inhabitants may have continued to speak Cumbric as late as the 12th century. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken: the area shifted from Cumbric to Old Eng-lish during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. After the Lothians were con-quered by Malcolm II at the Battle of Carham in 1018, the elites spoke Gaelic and continued to do so until about 1200. However commoners retained Old English. With the incorpo-ration of Strathclyde and the Lothians, Gaelic reached its social, cultur-al, political, and geographic zenith in Scotland. The language in Scotland had been developing independently of the language in Ireland at least as early as its crossing the Druim Alban ("Spine" or "ridge of Britain", its location is not known) into Pictland. The entire country was for the first time being referred to in Latin as Scotia, and Gaelic was recognised as the lingua Scotia.
Many historians mark the reign of King Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm III) as the beginning of Gaelic's de-cline in Scotland. In either 1068 or 1070, the king mar-ried the exiled Princess Margaret of Wessex. This future Saint Margaret of Scotland was a member of the royal House of Wessex, which had occupied the English throne from its founding until the Norman Conquest. Margaret was thoroughly Anglo-Saxon, and is often credited (or blamed) for taking the first significant steps in anglicis-ing the Scottish court. She spoke no Gaelic, gave her children Anglo-Saxon rather than Gaelic names, and brought many English bishops, priests, and monastics to Scotland. When both Malcolm and Margaret died just days apart in 1093, the Gaelic aristocracy rejected their anglicised sons and instead backed Malcolm's brother Donald as the next King of Scots. Known as Donald Bàn ("the Fair"), the new king had lived 17 years in Ireland as a young man, and his power base as an adult was in the thoroughly Gaelic west of Scotland. Upon Donald's ac-cession to the throne, in the words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "the Scots drove out all the English who had been with King Malcolm". Malcolm's sons fled to the English court, but in 1097 returned with an Anglo-Norman army backing them. Donald was overthrown, blinded, and imprisoned for the remaining two years of his life. He was the last Scottish monarch to be buried on Iona, the one-time centre of the Scottish Gaelic Church and the traditional burial place of the Gaelic Kings of Dàl Riada and the Kingdom of Alba. That being said, it seems clear that Gaelic had ceased to be the language of all of Scotland by 1400 at the latest. It disappeared from the central Lowlands by c. 1350 and from the eastern coastal lowlands north of the Mounth not long afterwards. By the mid-14th century what eventually came to be called Scots (at that time termed Inglis) emerged as the official language of gov-ernment and law. Scotland's emergent nationalism in the era following the Wars of Scottish Independence was organised using Scots as well. Until the 14th century, Gaelic was referred to in English as "Scottis", i.e. the lan-guage of the Scots. By the end of the 15th century, how-ever, the Scottish dialect of Northern English had ab-sorbed that designation. English/Scots speakers referred to Gaelic instead as 'Yrisch' or 'Erse', i.e. Irish. King James IV (d. 1513) thought Gaelic important enough to learn and speak. However, he was the last Scottish mon-arch to do so. To see full article go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Scottish_Gaelic
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Scottish Culture:
Saltire Society of Victoria: Contact is the Provost, Irwin Henderson 250 382-1779 or the society’s Scrivener, Gordon Robinson 250-477-8317.
Sons of Scotland Benevolent Association: www.sonsofscotland.com For inquiries, Grand Chief is Keith Feir. Contact 250 652-5773 or [email protected]
Victoria Gaelic Choir: The group sings in both Gael-ic and English. www.victoriagaelicchoir.com
Victoria Highland Games Association: President is
Jim Maxwell. www.victoriahighlandgames.com
The Celtic Connection: Burnaby based tabloid pub-
lishing since 1991. www.celtic-connection.com
Websites:
The Scottish Banner is a digital download subscription service. View at: www.scottishbanner.com
Celtic Life International has both print and digital sub-scriptions at www.celticlife.com For sample you can click https://celticlife.com/best-of-celtic-life-international-2017
Scottish Review is edited by journalist Kenneth Roy,
www.scottishreview.net
Rampant Scotland is a site begun in 1996 and written by
Alan Scott at: www.RampantScotland.com/letter.htm
Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners. Did you
ever work in the UK? You may be eligible for a pension.
[email protected] www.britishpensions.com
Dance Instruction:
Brentwood Scottish Country Dancers: Contact [email protected] for more detailed infor-mation. Classes happen at Brentwood Centre.
Vancouver Island Scottish Country Dance Society: www.viscds.ca Weekly classes for various levels of ability. Further information may be had from Dora Dempster, [email protected]
Bon Accord Highland Dancers: Lynne Griffiths. Tel. 250 479-7804 [email protected]
Glengarry Highland Dancers: Carolyn Phillips-Cusson. Tel. 250 758-0208 or email for information to [email protected]
Kathleen Laurie School of Highland Dance: Tel. 250 213-9627 [email protected]
Katie Dean School of Highland Dance: H 250-920-3513 cell 250-514-8110 [email protected]
O’Brien School of Irish Dancing: Teachers — Mairead O’Brien/Crystal vanBoven. www.obrienirishdance.com Tel. 604 340-2370.
Victoria Highland Dance Association. Sponsors competitions, etc. Contact at www.vhda.weebly.com
Victoria School of Irish Dance: www.victoriairishdancers.com Contact Alison Paladini at 250 888-9421 or [email protected]
Victoria Area Pipe Bands:
BC Pipers` Association serves solo Highland Bagpipers, Scottish Drummers and Pipe Bands in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. www.bcpipers.org
Castle Cary Pipes and Drums. www.castlecarypipesanddrums.ca
443 Squadron RCAF Pipe Band. P/M Stephen Kelly [email protected] or [email protected]
Greater Victoria Police Pipe Band. www.gvppb.com Pipe Major James W. Troy; Drum Major Randy Evans.
Pipe Band of the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s). Drum Major Glen Ereaut, contact at [email protected]
Saanich Peninsula Pipe Band. www.saanichpeninsulapipeband.blogspot.ca
78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band. www.78fraservictoria.ca/ Pipe Major Steve Kelly Sr.
2136 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps Pipes and Drums. www.2136cadets.ca
VanIsle Caledonia Pipe Band. Pipe Major Cole Griffiths Tel. 250 857-5260 www.vanislecaledonia.com
Local Businesses With Celtic Flavour:
Bard and Banker Scottish Pub, 1022 Government St, Victoria www.bardandbanker.com
Caledonia Meats. Haggis makers. Email: [email protected] or 250 857-5260.
Craigdarroch Castle, 1050 Joan Cresc, Victoria. Built by Scottish coal baron Robert Dunsmuir. https://thecastle.ca/
Fraser Orr’s Butcher and Deli, 108-1931 Mt Newton Cross Rd., Saanichton. Haggis, Scotch pies, etc. www.fraserorrsbutcher.com
Freedom Kilts, 1919 Fernwood Rd, Victoria www.freedomkilts.com
Irish Linen Stores, 1019 Government St, Victoria www.irishlinenvictoria.com
Irish Times Pub, 1200 Government St, Victoria www.irishtimespub.ca
Island Bagpipe, 5775 Alder Way, Nanaimo www.islandbagpipe.com Bagpipes and much more.
Lion Rampant Scottish Pub, 6777 Beaumont Ave., Duncan. www.lionrampant.ca
North of Hadrian’s Kilts and Celtic Clothing, 264 Island Highway, Victoria www.northofhadrians.com
Out of Ireland Irish Importers, 1000 Government St., Victoria: www.outofireland.ca
If you would like to be on the email mailing list for the Scottish Newsletter, please advise Larry Scott by email at [email protected] Distribution is by email only and is free of charge. Businesses are listed as a communi-ty service; there is no paid advertising in the newsletter.
