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Alan Currie of West Lothian, Scotland will represent Clan Currie at the Annual Service of Commemoration for the Battle of Culloden. The event will be held on Saturday, April 13, 2002. The service, to be held at the Culloden Memorial Cairn, is being conducted by The Gaelic Society of Inverness. "The event is held as close as possible to the actual day of the battle in 1746, April 16" commented Alan Currie. "The service will commence at 11:00 am and will last approximately one hour." The program will be conducted in Scots Gaelic as well as English. As part of the service, Currie will lay a wreath on behalf of the Clan at the cairn erected to memorialize the battle and all that died that day.
This year marks the eighth year that Currie has participated in the service, which was first held in 1925. "Many MacMhuirich/Currie’s participated in the battle", explains Currie. "Iain McMhuirrich, 19th Chief of Clan Currie was one of many Highlanders that fought and died on Drumossie Moor (the original name for the battlefield) alongside the MacDonalds of Clanranald and other clans." Later that day, Currie will join with members of The White Cockade Society and return to the cairn for their own service of commemoration. This will take place at 1:00 pm at the time of the actual battle. The Battle of Culloden marked the last stand of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, to regain for the Stuart dynasty the throne of Britain. Accompanied by an army of less than 5,000, the Prince’s road-weary army faced a formidable force of over 9,000 Englishmen led by the Duke of Cumberland. Outnumbered and ill-prepared, the Highlanders went into battle with a courage which has passed into legend, and which today Scots the world over still salute. The defeat, or perhaps more appropriately named massacre at Culloden did not end with the battle itself. For days afterwards, Cumberland’s forces hunted and routinely exterminated any man, woman, or child that was loyal to the Prince. In the following year, new laws or Disarming Acts were put into effect essentially eradicating the old Highland ways. Weapons were confiscated, the playing of bagpipes were forbidden and the wearing of tartan or any form of highland dress was outlawed. The acts would remain in place until a repeal was enacted in 1782. For more information on the ceremony, contact the Clan Currie Society at (908) 273-3509, or via e-mail at clancurrie@mail.com.
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