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Annual Battle Of Culloden Ceremonies Set for April 14, 2007
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 14, 2007 at 11:00 AM. The service, to be held at the Culloden Memorial Cairn, has been conducted annually since 1925 by The Gaelic Society of Inverness. 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. "Many MacMhuirich/Currie’s participated in the battle", explains Alan Currie. "Iain MacMhuirich, a senior member of the family 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." 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. For additional information about the Gaelic Society of Inverness, visit their website at www.gsi.org.uk.
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