ABSTRACTS
Gall Gaedhel and Echtrainn: Gaels and Norse in Pre-Norman Ireland and the Isles
Annie C. Humphrey
The concept of western medieval Europe as a homogenous society is, thankfully, outdated in academia and declining in popular culture. The study of the relationships between different ethno-linguistic communities in pre-modernity reveals important developments in social interaction and the negotiation of peoples without states. Pre-Norman texts written in Irish which claim to tell the history of vikings in Ireland reveal contemporary attitudes about their descendants, the Hiberno-Norse. In these narratives, harsh judgment is given to Gaelic speakers who forsake their religion, language, and upbringing to join the Norse speakers in the Irish Sea Region. This depiction of transgressors who step between these communities codifies attitudes about birthright, transition, and identity. Gender is also important for this process, as men have different standards of masculinity in Norse and Gaelic societies, while women are permitted to intermarry and occupy space within both.This paper will examine the terms used to describe transgressive Gaels who enter Norse society and the broader contexts of what was at stake in medieval Ireland and the Isles.
Annie C. Humphrey is a fourth-year PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, writing their thesis on the depiction of the Norse in Middle Irish historical literature under the supervision of Seán Duffy. Annie holds a Certificate in Irish Studies from University College Cork, a BA in History and Medieval Studies from Rutgers University, and an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Connecticut. They are a recipient of a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Studentship from the Irish Research Council.
Storytelling as Feminist Rebellion: Tales of the Mingulay Midwife
Isla Parker
Stories have functioned as a form of entertainment and education in oral societies throughout history. But storytelling is also a powerful means by which a people can communicate ideas about what is expected and acceptable for various members of the community. The dominant social group in a given society can use stories to maintain conformity to accepted patterns of behaviour. Where the dominant social group is male, as it was in the Gaelic-speaking communities of rural Scotland into the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries, fairy legends carry disciplinary messages for women and children “warning them about behaviour considered by the patriarchal society to be unacceptable”. In the Gaelic tradition, stories about women who mysteriously disappear are allegorical of the very real issues of domestic abuse and murder. Such tales function as a threat to “deviant” women who challenge gender expectations within the community.
However, stories can also be a “weapon for the weaponless”. While threats might be coded into story, marginalised groups in society can also use tales to covertly communicate ideas which subvert traditional gender expectations. Such messages might be dangerous to state explicitly and are often coded into tales making the message available only to those who “need” it. This paper will explore how the character of the Mingulay midwife might have functioned for women as a kind of “feminist rebellion” against gendered expectations and limitations in traditional Gaelic-speaking communities. The supernaturally gifted Mingulay midwife offers an opportunity for the celebration of female knowledge and power within a patriarchal society.
Isla Parker is a Research Masters student in Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow with a specific interest in women’s role in the traditional storytelling practices of Gaelic Scotland. In her undergraduate dissertation for which she received First Class Honours, she explored the storytelling practices of women in Gaelic Perthshire in the nineteenth-century based on Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray’s folklore collection. This year, in the same vein, her research will bring to light women storytellers from the Outer Hebrides whose contribution to Gaelic folkloric tradition has hitherto been overlooked.
New Speakers, New Norms: Manx Language Revitalization and Linguistic Change
Erin McNulty
This paper discusses the language use of New Speakers of Manx. Like many regional minority languages, both in the Celtic-speaking world and further afield, Manx underwent linguistic obsolescence in the 19th and 20th centuries, which ultimately progressed to language death. In more recent times, the Manx language has seen a revival, which has increased speaker numbers. Among minority languages, Manx is unusual due to the fact that the community of speakers of the modern variety of the language is entirely made up of New Speakers, the majority of which have had no direct contact with traditional native speakers.
In this paper I compare the language use of young New Speakers of Manx who have acquired the language through formal education, either through Manx-immersion or English-based instruction, with that of older teachers of Manx. An analysis of a number of verbal forms collected from a spoken corpus reveals differences between these three groups of New Speakers. The paper discusses the innovations these younger speakers seem to be making in their language use which differentiates them from older New Speakers of Manx, and explores the possibility that these younger speakers are developing their own linguistic norms.
Erin McNulty is a first-year PhD student in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow. She is interested in endangered and minority languages, especially those that are undergoing revitalisation. Her work takes place in the Manx Gaelic speech community in the Isle of Man, a community of which she is a member. Her PhD project (“Life after ‘Death’: The Impact of Sociolinguistic Factors on the Structure of Revitalised Manx”) investigates the impact of social, ethnographic, and identity factors on the linguistic structure of New Speakers of minority languages, using Manx, to inform wider research on endangered languages.
Irish Jacobite Revolts against the Glorious Revolution in the Caribbean
Harry Lewis
In 1688, the ‘Glorious Revolution’ saw the Catholic King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, deposed by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, the Dutch Stadholder William. In the following decades, the supporters of the exiled monarch and his descendants, known as Jacobites, led a series of rebellions in Britain seeking to restore the Catholic Stuart line. While these unsuccessful risings have received much attention, the activities of Jacobites in the wider English and later British empire in the Caribbean has been little appreciated.
In 1689, upon hearing of the revolution in Europe, Irish servants, labourers and planters rose in support of the Catholic James II across the region, in particular in the Leeward Islands. While historians have noted these revolts, the prevailing historical narrative portrays them as spontaneous and limited and that the English Empire in the Americas largely supported the revolution.
Based on evidence derived principally from the Royal, National, and French Overseas Archives, and speaking to the themes of colonialism and protest movements, this talk would seek to outline the true scale and nature of these risings and the threat they represented to the revolution settlement in the English and later British Empire. Through a series of case studies, this talk would demonstrate the significant links between the Caribbean risings and the conflict in Ireland and Scotland then led by James II.
Harry Lewis is just starting his third year as a PhD student in History at the University of Edinburgh looking at Jacobites in the Caribbean from 1688 to 1750. Mostly, this work looks at the Stuart court in exile and their connections to Jacobites in the British, French and Spanish empires in the Caribbean. He has a newly published article out on the subject of Jacobite pirates in the Bahamas and another that is to be published later this year on Jacobite pirates and Madagascar.
Scottish Orientalism: A Distinctive Scottish Attitude in the British Colonial Enterprise in India
Subhashis Pan
In the process of British colonizing enterprise, Scotland also became a part of this process as a result of the Union Act of 1707. But in the colonial era in India, Scotland showed a different attitude towards the subject colony which is unlike the British one. The ‘benevolent’ Scottish attitude towards the subject people in India contributed largely to the representation of the colony as it is, beyond any constructive myth.
This paper would endeavour to disentangle the distinctive Scottish participation in the British colonial mission in India. The Scottish participation in the process did not permeate their ruling authority over the natives but in the process they also contributed to the betterment of the natives in different fields. Now, the factors behind such Scottish approach would be in focus with reference to some Scottish scholar-administrators who shaped the native culture and identity. The discussion would be engaged in the distinctive Scottish orientalism towards India in the nineteenth century.
Subhashis Pan is currently pursuing a Ph.D in the Dept. of English, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, West Bengal, India. He served as a Guest Lecturer in Bankura Christian College for almost three years. His area of research is Scottish Orientalism in the 19th century Indian subcontinent. Besides, he takes academic interests in areas like Victorian literature, Dalit literature, Indian English drama among many other fields. He has participated and presented research articles in a number of National and International Seminars/Conferences.
Two Scotsmen in China in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Zhuodan Yao
The way that Scotland participated in the expansion of the British Empire as a junior partner during the nineteenth century was exemplified by the old adage relating to the role each nation had played in the Empire: “the Irish fought for it, the Scottish and Welsh ran it, and the English profited from it”. In running the Empire, Scotland’s colonial service had won itself wealth and status, and Scotsmen who worked in the overseas colonies also enjoyed many benefits. These Scotsmen developed a unique way of seeing themselves and the Orient through their activities of administration and cultural exchange. Prominent among them were James Stewart Lockhart and Reginald Johnston, who were both sent to China on Empire commissions. Both men adopted a “counter-colonial” perspective as they were helping the Empire run the marginal territory of Weihaiwei in China. Their Scottish backgrounds helped them develop a sensitive eye for indigenous customs and folk cultures, which led to the development of a critical viewpoint questioning the colonial activities that were being imposed on China. Such new perspectives made Lockhart and Johnston stand out from other colonial officials who administrated the East with the idea of improving the ‘backward’ Orient. James Stewart Lockhart and Reginald Johnston looked at the colonized peoples not from a Euro-centric standpoint, but rather from a place where they believed that the rootedness of a culture is what makes the nation, just like in Scotland.
Zhuodan Yao is a PhD student in School of Critical Studies at University of Glasgow. They are from China and came to Glasgow in 2018 to start their research project on Orientalism and Celtic Identity in Fin-de-siècle Scotland.
The Contradiction of Gaelic Involvement in the 1644-45 Royalist Rebellion: Recovering Repressed Memories from Scotland's Formative Period
Johnnie Gallacher
The early modern civil wars in Britain and Ireland comprised a formative period for institutions and society in these islands. Not least in Scotland, where the period’s associated cultural strands comprise the underexamined underbelly of the national psyche. Only by remembering and coming to terms with these aspects of her past can Scotia overcome the traumatic experiences of her formative period.
As a contribution to this effort, two distinct cultural-historical strands of the Scottish/Irish collective unconscious have been identified. The Gaelic clans and the Lowland/Ulster Scots Covenanter tradition. Particular focus is paid to the Gaelic contribution to the Royalist rebellion of 1644-45, its context, greater meaning and legacy; some of which seems paradoxical to the present-day perspective.
The Covenanters’ proto-republican Scottish Revolution battled against the Stuarts’ tyrannical absolutism. Meanwhile, Gaels were mainly to be found in the Royalist ranks. As a Highlander, it was initially surprising and disheartening to learn of the prospect of Gaelic Royalism during such a crucial historical juncture in Scotland’s societal development; the transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. However, upon further investigation, it became clear that Royalism was not the ideology per se of the Gaels, who possessed an independence of character and whose military engagements could be ascribed proxy war status. Whilst these two strands are indeed very distinct and different, they need not conflict any longer. Both traditions encouraged passive subjects to become active citizens, and so both identities should be recognised as equals and then fully embraced.
Johnnie Gallacher has recently finished a Masters degree in Archaeology at the UHI and also holds a degree in the same subject from the University of Edinburgh. He holds a keen interest in the conflicts of the modern period and their lasting impacts on society. However, his studies have mostly focused on grand narratives of prehistory. This incongruence helped him to craft a very distinctive historical narrative.
Geographies of Assertion: Protest and Resistance on the Annexed Estates 1752-1784
Juliette Desportes
Borrowing from Iain Robertson, this paper looks at eighteenth-century Highland protest and resistance as acts of assertion, placing the emphasis on the ‘people’s’ perspectives and their motivations for resistance. It focuses on the ways Annexed Estates tenants continually resisted the commercialisation, privatisation and criminalisation of ‘improvement’, as an ideology and as an infraction upon their space. Acts of assertion were complex, highly localised, and defy categorisation into neat typologies of resistance. This paper has identified three distinct if interconnected ways used by the tenantry to assert their rights: legal protest through petitions and negotiation, land occupation, invasion or encroachment and the continuation of customary practices such as the provision of hospitality. Historiography of Highland protest has largely noted the supposed passivity of Highlanders and the absence of collective action before the 1870s. Explanation has rested in the remoteness and inaccessibility of the Highland’s physical geography, the erosion of the clan system, and a lack of a collective consciousness in the face of that ‘improvement’ which left little space, figurately and literally, for protest. The focus to date on large-scale collective action has missed the ways resistance took an everyday and local form. Geography provided opportunities for, rather than impediments to, resistance. The Highlands were only inaccessible and remote for some. For the tenantry, hills provided shelter not just from bad weather but from law enforcement. For these reasons, protest should not be understood as reactionary but rather as outcomes of people’s understandings of their own landscape.
Juliette Desportes is a second year SGSAH funded PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow. She researches how ‘improvement’, as an ideology and in its practical realisation, helped realise the Highland landscape ‘as it was’ and how it was conditioned by the specific sites and territories within which it emerged. Her working PhD title is ‘Geographies of Scottish ‘improvement’: the Annexed Estates, 1752-1784’, supervised by Professor Charles W. J. Withers and Dr Andrew Mackillop.
Outlander's Jamie Fraser: Rebel or Hero?
Alexandra Dold
The Outlander series has attracted attention from audiences across the globe. Much academic research explores the ‘Outlander effect’, building on broader scholarship on Scottish literary tourism as well as questions of genre and gender representations. Yet the importance of the original novel series for public understanding of the past has not yet received significant academic attention.
The Outlander series follows World War II nurse Claire’s time travel from 1945 to the 1740s, creating a fictional framework within which the readers then learn about the past alongside the main protagonist. Due to Claire’s English background and perspective, her first-person narration makes certain assumptions about Highlanders that reflect longstanding prejudices against the region and its people: they are barbarous, uncivilised and rebellious towards the British government. However, the longer Claire spends in the past, the more she comes to appreciate this way of life. When Claire and Jamie find themselves directly involved with the Jacobite Rebellion, they take on the longstanding trope of fiction of Jacobite heroes reflected in popular history writing of the likes of John Prebble but standing on contrast to an older historiography that marginalised the Highlands.
This paper explores the depiction of Jacobitism in literature through the example of Outlander’s Jamie Fraser and his involvement in the Jacobite Rebellion and sets it in the context of academic history writing. Gabaldon’s romanticised account of being a rebellious hero mirrors Sir Walter Scott’s and stands in direct contrast to the Jacobite rebel in history writing up to the twentieth century.
Alexandra Dold is a PhD candidate with the Centre for History at the University of Highlands and Islands. Her research focuses on the potential of literature as public history with a particular interest in history writing. The Outlander series features heavily in her research, including the creation of guided tours in Inverness.
Her fields of study are historical novels on the eighteenth century and Highland literature. She studied both my bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Bonn in Germany. She is currently teaching as assistant tutor at the Centre for History.
Conflicting Narratives - Narratives of Conflict? Popular Activism and Media Representations During the 2014 Referendum Debate
Maike Dinger
In popular memory, the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence has become synonymous with arts-based activism, grassroots engagement, and political protest. Apparent success in mobilising ‘forgotten’ segments of the national community has often been traced to the dynamism of Scottish cultural activism and continues to be framed in terms of a grassroots festival of democracy, creativity and political mass participation in the Scottish public sphere.
Against the backdrop of text-based nationalism, national communication (Anderson, 1983; Gellner, 1984), and conceptualisations of the public sphere (Habermas, 1962), this paper explores the role of arts-based activism during the 2014 referendum campaign. By analysing continuities and ruptures with previous culture-based movements for greater measures of self-determination, this paper focuses on the complex opinion-making processes in the public sphere, between politics, media, and activism.
In order to do so, texts detailing media representations of political participation, protest, and arts-based activism will be (historically) contextualised and compared to first-hand accounts of participants in the cultural referendum debate. By contrasting the often conflicting representations of the referendum debate and claims by its (key) participants, the complex interplay between official (campaigning) politics, elite media representations and appropriations through culture-based movements and activism will be scrutinised.
Based on this engagement with the different voices of the public debate, this paper will demonstrate that media representations and framings of the debate were not only influenced by the political issues at hand, but by larger narratives of Scottish self-identification and their contemporary interpretations – from cultural devolution to an image of Scotland as a nation of reasoned argument and public quarrel.
Maike Dinger is an AHRC-funded PhD researcher at the Universities of Stirling and Strathclyde. Her research focusses on the cultural debate on the 2014 Scottish independence referendum at the intersection of national politics and artistic and social representations. Research interests include cultural constructions of identity and memory, politics of artistic production, cultural criticism as well as negations of identity and politics in national literatures and popular culture.