 |
|
            
|
 |
 |
Clan Currie To Participate in 2005 Ceremonies Commemorating The Battle Of Culloden Alan Currie, Convener of the Clan Currie Society for Scotland, will represent Clan Currie at the Annual Service of Commemoration for the Battle of Culloden. The event will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2005. The service, to be held at the Culloden Memorial Cairn, has been conducted annually since 1925 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. 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. The battle and its aftermath are explained in detail by Clan Currie’s traveling exhibit, “Loyalty and Exile: The Jacobites and America,” which had its debut at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in 2004 as part of the National Tartan Day ceremonies. The exhibit, which was produced in cooperation with The Drambuie Collection of Edinburgh, is now available for loan to museums and Scottish societies by request. About The Gaelic Society of Inverness
The Gaelic Society of Inverness was established in 1871 for the specific purpose of “cultivating the language, poetry and music of the Scottish Highlands and generally furthering the interests of the Gaelic-speaking people”. It has continued this work for over 130 years. The Society has, since 1926, held an annual Culloden Anniversary Service each April on the Saturday nearest to the actual date of the battle. This is held at the Cairn and all those who wish to remember the fallen at Culloden are welcome to attend the Service, which is conducted in Gaelic. Since it began the Society has been active in supporting Gaelic in many ways, including:
More recently, supporting the establishment of a Gaelic Language Board and providing financial assistance for ‘Faclair na Pàrlamaid’ (‘Parliamentary Dictionary of Terms’) published in May 2001. Central to the Society is a series of between eight and ten meetings, held in each winter in Inverness, at which invited speakers present papers to the Society. The Society regularly publishes a selection of these research papers in its, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. Most recently, the Society hosted a lecture on the life and work of Niall MacMhuirich, one of the authors of the famed Red Book of Clanranald, by Professor William Gillies of the University of Edinburgh. All enquiries about the Society should be directed to, Mrs. Anne Souter, Secretary, 15, Green Drive, Inverness, IV2 4EX, e-mail anna@gsi.org.uk.
Home •
History of the Clan • Clan
Leadership • The Currie Tartan •
Clan News clancurrie@mail.com
|
