It is
strange how one story can lead on to another. When I attend Edinburgh festival I hear many
stories - and the one on Thomas Muir (1765 - 1799) stood
out this year. I had never heard of Muir, even though I grew up in Edinburgh
and not only studied higher History, I also taught history in primary
schools! Muir came from Glasgow, studied
Law and later worked in Edinburgh.
I passed
Martyr's monument Edinburgh and a statue of William Pitt with a bird on his
head in George street. I read a great read - 'Scotland's Future History' by Stuart McHardy. He writes of the
Scottish cultural resurgence the past fifty years. He writes that the term “War
of Independence’ is a big insult – as Scotland was a country before England –
and has never been a part of England. We never had to win our independence.
Information on Scotland from 1740 – 1760 is only held in libraries in Michigan,
Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Australia – and not to be found in any Scottish
libraries.
I read of
the radical Thomas Muir - an incredible Scot - who along with others, set up
the Convention of the Societies of
Friends of the People in 1792 and dared to march for democracy. For which
he was sent by the then Scottish Secretary of state to Botany Bay. A true
radical thinker, he was one of the Scottish
Political Martyrs. He is better known abroad than here in Scotland. He
escaped for Botany bay which was virtually unheard of.
McHardy
writes of Scotland’s lost mythology. In books on Celtic Briton – there is no
mention at all of Scotland’s clan system – while there is mention of Ireland’s
Celtic heritage. In 1997 there was a
conference at Moray House college on the teaching of Scots language and
Scottish history in Scottish schools and introduced in 2011 in the Curriculum
for Excellence. The first time Scottish history in our schools curriculum.
Since 1872 only English language taught . Both the Scots and Gaelic language –
mother tongue are now allowed to be taught.
As I was
reading of Thomas Muir it all sounded so familiar to today. We still have this
privileged Eton elite that works to maintain their own interests.
It feels sad that nothing much has changed the past two centuries since our poet Robert Burns - who tried to imagine a better world for all, with his words such as "A Man's a Man for a that." ..
 |
| Monument Edinburgh (left) for Scottish Political Martyrs |
When Burns wrote his poem ‘Scots Wa Hae’, in a footnote he wrote how he had
been inspired by Bruce's "glorious struggle for Freedom, associated with
the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient."
Burns may
even have met Thomas Muir in Edinburgh - was he writing about the Scottish free
thinkers who dared to march for democracy?
A few days
later I read Michael Gray’s report in the National newspaper on an artists’
portrait of Thomas Muir being unveiled at my local art gallery, Lillie Art Galleries, snd also of Alex Salmond’s recent talk on Muir.
Strange how
one story leads to another really…..
Stuart
McHardy – Scotland’s Future History
This book is a short guide that
raises several issues that include -
Brodgar of Ness site recently found in Orkney of an ancient temple older than
Stonehenge or the Pryamids, the largest Neolithic stone structure in Britain;
Kilmartin glen ritual stones; Highland Tales; the Jacobites after Culloden; of
the influence of the German speaking Norse settlers, the indigenous PIcts.
"There is a subject called
British history, but as far as I can discover it consists of English history,
with an occasional side-glance at Scotland at times when Scotland crossed
England's path. This is a society devoted to the study and furtherance of
Scottish history, and it seems a little odd to me that this educational policy
should still prevail. It is calculated to condition the Scottish mind into
turning instinctively towards London with the submission of the Moslem turning
towards Mecca." Lord Cooper,
President of the court of Session, to the Scottish history Society 1948. MORE on Stuart McHardy's excellent book in a
separate blog.
