XPost: soc.culture.irish, soc.culture.scottish, soc.culture.british   
   XPost: uk.politics.misc   
   From: allan@EASYNET.CO.UK   
      
   "Ciaran"  wrote in message   
   news:45B29F21.5030605@ciaran.com...   
   > allan connochie wrote:   
   >> "Ciaran"  wrote in message   
   >> news:45B1C91D.8080500@ciaran.com...   
   >>> The Highlander wrote:   
   >>>> On 18 Jan 2007 12:13:48 -0800, "scally"    
   >>> "That is how we feel about Scottish Gaelic. We have to fight for it   
   >>> again. A tremendous blow was inflicted on the Gaelic language and   
   >>> culture at Culloden and the Highland Clearances. The language and   
   >>> culture were devastated.   
   >>   
   >> Actually no the language wasn't devastated by Culloden. The population of   
   >> the Highlands and hence the actual number of Gaelic speakers rose sharply   
   >> in the century after Culloden. Likewise even after the period commonly   
   >> called The Clearances the language was still very strong. A more   
   >> significant turning point may well have been in the 1880s when the   
   >> Education Act insisted that English was the to be the language of   
   >> education and supposed furtherment. Gaelic in the end was totally   
   >> excluded for a short period only (unlike Scots which was virtually   
   >> excluded for a century) and the authorities (by authorities I mean   
   >> Scottish) realised total exclusion was impracticle. It was let back into   
   >> the system but remained greatly neglected and in reality discouraged.   
   >> Hence many Gaels themselves gradually threw off their own language (just   
   >> as many Lowlanders discarded Scots) because of the lure of English   
   >> combined with the neglect and low esteem the authorities gave to the   
   >> traditional languages of Scotland.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Allan   
   > So the crime of more recent origin - all the more reason for just   
   > compensation for the wrongs done to the Scots.   
      
   Wrong and ill conceived education policies may be a mistake but is it a   
   crime? Who is the guilty party who should give any compensation? And more   
   interestingly who is the wronged party who should receive it? Are you really   
   suggesting that the Scottish people should pay themselves compensation for   
   their parents/gran-parents/great grand-parents turning away from Scots and   
   Gaelic? Isn't that a bit silly?   
      
   Allan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)