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The confused Gaelic identity of Dermot Mac Flannchaidh
12 years ago
General
First, the shocker. (Not really.) Dermot Mac Flannchaidh is not my real name. My real name is withheld, but D.M.F. is not it.
I've been taught since I was little that my father's family came from Ireland and Scotland. Though neither my father nor I were born there, and I've never even been to Europe. I was born in Hawai'i and raised in the Marshall Islands - I'm as much a tropics-loving kama'āina haole as you can get. But for as long as I can recall, my dad has been a collector of fine Gaelic culture - mostly music. I grew up loving it too, and my Gaelic identity was set early.
But then I asked my dad, where our family came from. He said "gall way", which I looked up, and found...Galway. I learnt as much as I could about Galway, in the early 1990s before availability of Internet. I'd always liked the name Dermot, so he became my alter ego from a tender age. When he needed a surname, I decided on Mac Flannchaidh. I had studied beginner's Irish, and learnt some basic vocabulary, grammar, etc. I'd also always liked the name Clancy, which is based on the surname Mac Fhlannchaidh (notice the "fh", which goes unpronounced), but it seemed to violate the grammar rules I had been taught, so I dropped the first "h" and made it Mac Flannchaidh to personalize it. (I only found later on the Internet that the "Mac Flannchaidh" form is practically nonexistent - it's traditionally "Mac Fhlannchaidh". Eh.) Meanwhile, my parents also bought me Scottish Gaelic books. I wondered why...
Turns out, that when my dad said "gall way", he was saying "Galloway", which is actually...in southwestern Scotland. I have no idea where he learnt that pronunciation (perhaps from his own father?), since "gal uh way" is more common. I was rather embarrassed - it made me a Plastic Paddy. Well...yes and no. See, Scotland has three major historical Gaelic regions - the Highlands (the most famous), the Outer Hebrides, and Galloway. The Highlands were part of the Ulster-based kingdom of Dal Riata since Late Antiquity and were Gaelic early on. The Outer Hebrides were settled largely by Norwegians during the Viking era, but were gaelicized in time. But Galloway was very different - it was previously already Anglo-Saxon and Brythonic, having been associated with the historical regions of Northumbria and Strathclyde. But during the Viking era (and this is relevant to Galloway, if you'll bear with me), Norwegians and Danes had also heavily settled the coasts of Ireland. (It was actually from extant colonies in Ireland that Iceland and the Faroe Islands were originally settled - they remain Scandinavian in language and character.) Not long after, those who remained in Ireland also assimilated into Gaelic culture (as in the Outer Hebrides), and they became known as the Gall Gaels ("foreign Gaels"). Then, in the late Middle Ages (like contemporary with Plantagenet-era England), Gall Gaels from Ulster heavily settled the southwest corner of what is now Scotland, in what would become Galloway (named after the Irish Gall Gaels). Galloway was soon gaelicized too. But unlike the Highlands and Hebrides, this could not last - Galloway remained surrounded on land by the Scottish Lowlands, and by a few centuries ago had become predominantly Scots (Anglo-Saxon) speaking. But I took comfort that I was not exactly wrong - we were still practically Irish, as Galloway was settled late by Irish, and Ulster was practically a stone's throw away from Galloway across a sea channel - Galloway is practically East Ulster. (Excuse the high number of "practically"s. :P) But thereafter, I realized it would be awkward to claim an Irish identity, as Galloway is decidedly in Scotland, not Ireland. And we weren't Highlanders, and I felt no particular affection for the Lowlands. So I revised my identity as more simply Gaelic - Galloway is transitional between Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man anyway - a crossroads of the Gaelic world.
Then came this year, when I decided to tag along with my family at the local Scottish Festival. Like many overseas Scottish festivals, it was heavily Highlands-flavored (clans, kilts and bagpipes are iconic symbols). But overall it was very multicultural, with lots of Pan-Celtic cultural items to sift through. And I finally ate haggis (loved it), and Scottish shortbread (loved it), and it all felt so natural. In one of the tents at the festival, we found an electronically-connected genealogical surface where we could find family certificates. So, having a good Galwegian surname (confusingly, "Galwegian" means from "Galloway", not "Galway" - perhaps a contributor to the original confusion mentioned above), we obtained an authenticated certificate of our family's origin. ...it certainly was interesting, but it was about as un-Gaelic as you could get. Our family had previously lived in southeast Scotland - the one region of Scotland that had pretty much never been Gaelic - and they had settled in Galloway only a few centuries ago, when the Gaelic language there was already dying out. And then maybe a few generations later, our branch of the family emigrated to the New World. They had become Galwegian by identity (with perhaps at least some local intermarriage), but in all likelihood had never been formally gaelicized. I felt...a little let down. And it gets better - before the family had lived in southeastern Scotland, they had previously lived......in Dorset. In the West Country, in southwest England. Arrr, matey.
Oh well. I guess we can't pick where our ancestors came from or what languages they spoke. But we can pick our identities, and I was born and grew up with the identity I had. Still, transcontinental migration can have a way of confounding family memories, especially when intermarriage is added to the mix. I think this video best describes the feeling.
The silver lining: The name Dermot is not unknown in Scotland either - the name came from ancient Irish mythology and its Gaelic usage is probably two thousand years old - it was probably known to the earliest Gaelic settlement in Scotland. The name has many forms though - Diarmaid, Diarmuid, Diarmad, Diarmid, Dermot, Dermit, and even Kermit (from the surname Mac Dhiarmada), etc. I've even personalized the name in some other languages - Japanese ダーメット (Dāmetto - a Japanese friend once even cutely called me ダメち Dame-chi), Greek Διθαρμάτης (Ditharmátēs, from *Di-tharma(i)t-), and Marshallese Jierm̧wij (I was raised in the Marshall Islands, afterall). If I'm feeling whimsical enough, maybe Nahuatl Tialmatl because of my affection for Mexico.
I've been taught since I was little that my father's family came from Ireland and Scotland. Though neither my father nor I were born there, and I've never even been to Europe. I was born in Hawai'i and raised in the Marshall Islands - I'm as much a tropics-loving kama'āina haole as you can get. But for as long as I can recall, my dad has been a collector of fine Gaelic culture - mostly music. I grew up loving it too, and my Gaelic identity was set early.
But then I asked my dad, where our family came from. He said "gall way", which I looked up, and found...Galway. I learnt as much as I could about Galway, in the early 1990s before availability of Internet. I'd always liked the name Dermot, so he became my alter ego from a tender age. When he needed a surname, I decided on Mac Flannchaidh. I had studied beginner's Irish, and learnt some basic vocabulary, grammar, etc. I'd also always liked the name Clancy, which is based on the surname Mac Fhlannchaidh (notice the "fh", which goes unpronounced), but it seemed to violate the grammar rules I had been taught, so I dropped the first "h" and made it Mac Flannchaidh to personalize it. (I only found later on the Internet that the "Mac Flannchaidh" form is practically nonexistent - it's traditionally "Mac Fhlannchaidh". Eh.) Meanwhile, my parents also bought me Scottish Gaelic books. I wondered why...
Turns out, that when my dad said "gall way", he was saying "Galloway", which is actually...in southwestern Scotland. I have no idea where he learnt that pronunciation (perhaps from his own father?), since "gal uh way" is more common. I was rather embarrassed - it made me a Plastic Paddy. Well...yes and no. See, Scotland has three major historical Gaelic regions - the Highlands (the most famous), the Outer Hebrides, and Galloway. The Highlands were part of the Ulster-based kingdom of Dal Riata since Late Antiquity and were Gaelic early on. The Outer Hebrides were settled largely by Norwegians during the Viking era, but were gaelicized in time. But Galloway was very different - it was previously already Anglo-Saxon and Brythonic, having been associated with the historical regions of Northumbria and Strathclyde. But during the Viking era (and this is relevant to Galloway, if you'll bear with me), Norwegians and Danes had also heavily settled the coasts of Ireland. (It was actually from extant colonies in Ireland that Iceland and the Faroe Islands were originally settled - they remain Scandinavian in language and character.) Not long after, those who remained in Ireland also assimilated into Gaelic culture (as in the Outer Hebrides), and they became known as the Gall Gaels ("foreign Gaels"). Then, in the late Middle Ages (like contemporary with Plantagenet-era England), Gall Gaels from Ulster heavily settled the southwest corner of what is now Scotland, in what would become Galloway (named after the Irish Gall Gaels). Galloway was soon gaelicized too. But unlike the Highlands and Hebrides, this could not last - Galloway remained surrounded on land by the Scottish Lowlands, and by a few centuries ago had become predominantly Scots (Anglo-Saxon) speaking. But I took comfort that I was not exactly wrong - we were still practically Irish, as Galloway was settled late by Irish, and Ulster was practically a stone's throw away from Galloway across a sea channel - Galloway is practically East Ulster. (Excuse the high number of "practically"s. :P) But thereafter, I realized it would be awkward to claim an Irish identity, as Galloway is decidedly in Scotland, not Ireland. And we weren't Highlanders, and I felt no particular affection for the Lowlands. So I revised my identity as more simply Gaelic - Galloway is transitional between Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man anyway - a crossroads of the Gaelic world.
Then came this year, when I decided to tag along with my family at the local Scottish Festival. Like many overseas Scottish festivals, it was heavily Highlands-flavored (clans, kilts and bagpipes are iconic symbols). But overall it was very multicultural, with lots of Pan-Celtic cultural items to sift through. And I finally ate haggis (loved it), and Scottish shortbread (loved it), and it all felt so natural. In one of the tents at the festival, we found an electronically-connected genealogical surface where we could find family certificates. So, having a good Galwegian surname (confusingly, "Galwegian" means from "Galloway", not "Galway" - perhaps a contributor to the original confusion mentioned above), we obtained an authenticated certificate of our family's origin. ...it certainly was interesting, but it was about as un-Gaelic as you could get. Our family had previously lived in southeast Scotland - the one region of Scotland that had pretty much never been Gaelic - and they had settled in Galloway only a few centuries ago, when the Gaelic language there was already dying out. And then maybe a few generations later, our branch of the family emigrated to the New World. They had become Galwegian by identity (with perhaps at least some local intermarriage), but in all likelihood had never been formally gaelicized. I felt...a little let down. And it gets better - before the family had lived in southeastern Scotland, they had previously lived......in Dorset. In the West Country, in southwest England. Arrr, matey.
Oh well. I guess we can't pick where our ancestors came from or what languages they spoke. But we can pick our identities, and I was born and grew up with the identity I had. Still, transcontinental migration can have a way of confounding family memories, especially when intermarriage is added to the mix. I think this video best describes the feeling.
The silver lining: The name Dermot is not unknown in Scotland either - the name came from ancient Irish mythology and its Gaelic usage is probably two thousand years old - it was probably known to the earliest Gaelic settlement in Scotland. The name has many forms though - Diarmaid, Diarmuid, Diarmad, Diarmid, Dermot, Dermit, and even Kermit (from the surname Mac Dhiarmada), etc. I've even personalized the name in some other languages - Japanese ダーメット (Dāmetto - a Japanese friend once even cutely called me ダメち Dame-chi), Greek Διθαρμάτης (Ditharmátēs, from *Di-tharma(i)t-), and Marshallese Jierm̧wij (I was raised in the Marshall Islands, afterall). If I'm feeling whimsical enough, maybe Nahuatl Tialmatl because of my affection for Mexico.
LeChevalier
~lechevalier
So where is the problem? Irish or Scottish is mostly the same ;-D
Dermot Mac Flannchaidh
~dmf
OP
Don't let them hear you say that. :P I think one of the biggest wedges between Irish and Scottish identity, was the Reformation. Catholics vs. Protestants. And, of course, I am neither.
