| QUOTE | | the saffron solid coloured kilt is NOT irish. The saffron coloured kilt was developed for the british army to be worn by ulster scots of the irish regiments. |
Not even remotely true.
In 1900 Seamas OCeallaigh of the Gaelic League asked Pádraig Pearse about developing an Irish national dress, perhaps based upon a pair of trews which had been found at Killery, County Sligo dated from about the 16th century in the Royal Irish Academy Collection in the National Museum in Dublin.
On October 26 Pearse wrote:
"...one would at first sight take them for a rather clumsily made and ill-treated pair of modern gentlemen's drawers. Frankly, I should much prefer to see you arrayed in a kilt, although it may be less authentic, than in a pair of these trews. You would if you appeared in the latter, run the risk of leading the spectators to imagine that you had forgotten to don your trousers and had sallied forth in your drawers."
The ancient dress of Ireland was the leine and brat, somewhat resembling a woman's chemise and a horse blanket. As a modern form of national dress, it suffers from the same limitations as the trews in the National Museum. As the Irish leine was traditionally dyed the color of saffron, the color saffron was chosen as the color if the Irish kilt. The saffron kilt first proposed by Pádraig Pearse (who read the Declaration of the Irish Republic on the front steps of the Dublin GPO in 1916), was worn by Bernard FitzPatrick and Pierce OMahoney while campaigning for home rule in Parliament in the 1880’s, by Douglas Hyde at his inauguration as the first President of Ireland in 1938, and is worn by the pipers of all three Army brigades and the Air Corps the Óglaigh na h-Eireann; the Irish Defense Forces, as well as pipers of the Royal Irish Regiment today. The saffron kilt sure as Hell was not invented by the British Army. It is an Irish kilt.
Distinctively Irish solid color kilts are also seen in dark greens, blues, and reds (solid colors, differentiating them from Scottish tartan kilts), primarily among Irish dancers (at least in the pre-Michael Flatley days), and there are many beautiful Irish county and national tartans available today (I'm particularly partial to the County Mayo tartan myself). That said, there is no evidence of kilts being worn by the Irish, saffron or otherwise, prior to 1900, and hardly anyone in Ireland who isn't in a pipe band ever wears kilts.
I've several good friends who wear the US Marine Corps tartan, despite the fact Marines were never issued kilts (best of luck if you'd like to get argumentative with them over their right to wear it!). If you want to wear an Irish kilt, do so with pride, but know the history behind it.
Éireann go Brách! |
LOA 