Now that summer is coming to an end, we now look forward to the fall activities of the Society, the first of which will be our annual picnic that will be held at the home of Don Fraser on the 14th of September at 3:00pm. Members are requested to bring a side dish or desert to share. The SST will supply hamburgers, hotdogs, and sodas. The picnic replaces our normal monthly meeting.

Following on the heels of the picnic will be the Williamsburg Scottish Festival on the 28th of September. The Society will have a tent at the festival and those members who would like to volunteer to help staff the tent are requested to contact Debbie Clark who is setting up the time schedule. We need people to spend a couple of hours at the tent to meet people and answer questions about the Society. Of course you can spend the entire day there if you want to. Volunteers are need as well to help set up and take down the tent.

The Board of Directors met during the summer months to take care of unfinished business that pertained to Tartan Day 2002. A $500 donation was made in the name of the Scottish Society of Tidewater to the International Studies Department at Virginia Wesleyan College to assist students studying in Scotland. The Office of International Studies has named the fund the Scottish Society of Tidewater Fund.

The Board also met to resolve a problem with the planning of Tartan Day 2003. A conflict arose with the dates that were available to us from VWC. The weekend of April 4th was not available nor was any suitable weekend in April. The only weekend available was in mid March and it was felt by the Board that is was inappropriate to celebrate Tartan Day two to three weeks prior to the actual date. The Board voted to look for another location to hold Tartan Day and as soon as a firm location is locked in, we will inform all of you. As a reminder, there are many openings for anyone who would like to volunteer to be on the planning committee for Tartan Day.

Last, but not least for the month of September, will be the annual Neptune Festival Parade, September 29th at 3:00pm. Any and all members who would like to participate and march along with Nessie in the parade are invited to attend. We have not been given our lineup location at this time. When we do, we will let everyone know the location and time of assembly.

Hope to see you all at the Picnic and the Games!

Yours aye,
Larry

Back

Ahead of the Hangman Press proudly announces the publication of Rebel King (Book One) Hammer of the Scots, a work of historical fiction by Charles Randolph Bruce and Carolyn Hale Bruce, residents of Virginia Beach. This historical novel is the first of a series of four that the authors have planned about the struggles of Robert the Brus, the Scottish nobleman who went to war against 14th century Europe’s most powerful army to reclaim the throne of his ancestors.

After deposing Scotland’s king, John de Balliol, and having William Wallace executed for treason in August 1305, as depicted in the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart, Edward I or England moved to eliminate the strongest claimants to the Scottish crown, Robert de Brus, and his family. Hammer of the Scots is the story of that epic clash of wills.

The handsome and courageous earl of Carrick and Lord of Annandale, Robert de Brus, and his brothers, Scottish knights Edward, Alexander, Thomas and Nigel; Robert’s beautiful and spirited wife, Elizabeth de Burgh; his roguish nephew, Thomas Randolph; Edward, king of England, the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ who would enslave the kingdom; the debauched Aymer de Valance, Earl of Pembroke; Robert Wishart, patriot Bishop of Glasgow; Andrew Stewart, Robert’s young squire; Isabel McDuff, the countess who gave all to crown a king; Neil Campbell; Christopher Seaton; Robert Boyd; James ‘The Black’ Douglas, who pledged to follow Robert unto death and beyond; the wealthy and entrancing Christina of the Isles; the Macdonald brothers, Donald and Angus Og, smugglers and traders throughout the islands; and dozens of other, equally fascinating, characters bring the Scots’ struggle for freedom to these pages.

About ten years ago, designer and illustrator Randolph Bruce first had the inspiration to write about ‘The Bruce’ because of tales claiming descent from the Scottish king told him as a boy by his late grandfather. Years passed before the actual writing was started, and that as a screen play, rather than a novel. The release of the film Braveheart spurred him to proceed with his own effort, but it evolved into a novel, the story being too complex to tell fully in a movie-length script.

Carolyn, his wife, who is experienced as an advertising copywriter and author of two previously published pictorial histories on her hometown of Roanoke, Virginia, volunteer to help with editing and some rewriting, and again the effort morphed, becoming a collaboratively told saga of one people’s great struggle to be free.

In Hammer of the Scots, the pair’s first effort at writing fiction has produced an ancient story retold in modern form by writers sympathetic, but not overly so, to the Scots. One reader has commented, ‘...I don’t know where you got your information from, but it has a real sense of being there.’ Readers with intense personal combat experience have commented that the battle scenes described in the book read as authentic. In the words of a former SEAL team platoon commander with multiple combat tours in Vietnam, ‘I found I was reliving the actions and emotions of my past while reading the vivid battle scenes…’

Published by a newly formed publishing company, Bruce & Bruce, Inc., Hammer of the Scots is its first title under the imprint Ahead of the Hangman Press. The imprint gets its name from a tradition in Randolph’s family that his Bruce ancestors arrived in America after fleeing Scotland ‘one step ahead of the hangman.’

Rebel King (Book One) Hammer of the Scots is available in hardback for $28.95 and paperback for $19.95 from Ahead of the Hangman Press, P.O. Box 64007, Virginia Beach, VA 23467-4007. Please add 4.5% Virginia sales tax plus $1.30 per hardback or $.90 per paperback shipping. Checks, Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, and Discover cards are accepted. Additional information is available at www.Robert-d-Bruce.com.

Charles Randolph Bruce will be the speaker at the October St. Andrew’s Society of Tidewater meeting (see Celtic Calendar, page 4, or this issue of the Tidalaire for details). Bruce will discuss how he went about writing and researching his book. Copies will be available for purchase and signing at the meeting. If you are a Scottish Society member and would like to attend, please contact Carolyn Barkley at 468-5829 or cbarkleyis@cox.net so that we will have enough tables set up that evening.

Martha Alexander
Bernadette McClain
Laurin Wittig

Back

On July 16th, the Internal Revenue Service granted the Scottish Society of Tidewater, Inc. exemption from federal income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the IRS code effective as of 7 February 2002.

The Society may now apply for public money or grants for cultural and educational projects or programs such as the Richard S. Baird Scholarship fund and the Tartan Day celebration.

Contributors who make a cash donation or donation of services in kind may list that donation as a deduction on their federal income tax return.

This exemption will greatly aid the Society in its stated purpose of promoting the preservation and study of Scottish culture, music, art, history, folklore, dance, literature, athletics, and all things distinctively Scottish.

Many thanks go to Rita Hamilton and Sandy Macgregor for all of their hard work in preparing all the needed forms and documents for submission to the IRS.

A recalcitrant flower pot and stand has led to my downfall with some unexpected side effects!

As a thrifty Scot, I wintered over two common ferns rather than allowing them to freeze and then throwing them away and purchasing two more this spring. The wintered over just fine, creating an interesting find when someone would check the hall bath only to discover two ferns taking a shower periodically throughout the winter.

The stand these ferns normally used is a stool that used to be a counter stool with its wooden seat removed. I placed on fern on a tile that was placed where the seat was and placed the other fern underneath where the ring that was used as a footrest is. To keep the stool from looking too weird during the winter, I placed an empty plastic pot in the top. This pot, throughout the winter must have expanded and shrunk and conequently gotten wedged into the top of the stand.

Determined to get these ferns back outside, I turned the stand on its side and tipped everything up. I placed one foot on the bottom of the pot and then grabbed two of the legs of the stool and then pushed. Nothing happened. Determined, I then mightily pushed and yanked and pulled. This effort really was effective. I actually flew! I did try to levitate for a short while but was unable to maintain my airborn position. I flew over the three steps from the entry stoop to the concrete walkway below, landing on my left side. Thanks to our half-Siamese black cat, Baritone White eyebrows (call-name Bart) acting very worried and upset while standing at the door looking out, Ham found me very quickly.

A short stay in the hospital for a fractured pelvis was followed by physical therapy and graduation to a walker to a cane to only an occasional cane (function of the weather which I can now accurately predict). The unexpected benefit is that I currently walk without a limp. That bad knee said ‘thank-you-verymuch-for-the rest!

I promise not to garden on the fly anymore and to limit my strenuous and daredevil activities. Therefore, I am now considering skydiving or snow boarding instead.

Thank you for each one of you for your phone calls, visits and cards.

Many members of the Society attended the Potomac Celtic Festival in Leesburg in early June. As you can see, our own trio of Celtic chefs helped make the Sunday morning clan breakfast a successful event. From left to right, Mike Lawler, Bo Barkley, and Charlie Austin with Jim Finnegan, the clan coordinator of the festival (and originator of the breakfast event) looking on.

C.G. Miller (left) and Bo Barkley (right) represent their clans during the parade of tartans on Sunday at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. See this issue of the Tidalaire for a picture of Carolyn Barkley and Ham Hamilton at Grandfather.

Tidewater Pipes & Drums placed first out of nine Grade 4 bands at the Celtic Festival of Southern Maryland in April. It was the Bands first time competing since being upgraded from Grade 5 last year and they won it in dramatic fashion, by sweeping first-place votes from all four judges. The band’s soloists also enjoyed a successful day. Check out the band’s web site at http://tpandd.exis.net.

Thanks to Jim Roberts, Pipe Major, Tidewater Pipes & Drums for this report which didn’t fit in the May/June issue.

The Cuideagh o’Corn o’Uishebeathe Society is setting up a tent at the Williamsburg Scottish Festival on September 28th. Society members will be conducting a minimum of 3 whisky tastings for the public and possibly one for the honored guest. This is a great opportunity to volunteer by pouring, delivering the samples or the oatcakes, etc., as well as an opportune time to come out and renew a membership that may have lapsed and meet the current active members. Please contact Mike Lawler at william.lawler@verizon.net for further details.

Clan MacKenzie will hold its annual general meeting at the Williamsburg Scottish Festival. If you have a MacKenzie in your family tree, here’s a great opportunity to join forces, meet nice folks, and become an official clan member. For information nformation about the AGM and other MacKenzie activities that weekend, please email Mike Lawler at william.lawler@verizon.net.

Scottish Country Dance is a modern form of country dancing popular in Scotland and England in the 18th century. It involves sets of 6 to 10 men and women, dancing to the driving tempo of reels, jigs and strathspeys played on the fiddle, accordion, flute, piano, drums and sometimes pipes. The dances are composed of formations that require a certain skill and attention to footwork, phrasing and patterns. The dance often combines solo figures for the ‘first’ couple in the set with movements for all the dancers, although there is consideration variation. Many of these dances derive from traditional sources such as old manuscripts and printed dance collections with a number devised within the past 50 years. This fusion of the traditional with the modern are part of the attraction of Scottish Country Dancing.

The Scottish Country Dancers of Tidewater have been an affiliated group of The royal Scottish Country Dance Society of Edinburgh, Scotland since 1985. Classes are held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, City Hall Avenue and St. Paul’s Boulevard, downtown Norfolk (across from MacArthur Mall), Thursday evenings-7:30 pm to 10:00 pm-from September through May. No partner is needed.

For further information, please contact Annett Harris at 587-4126 and aharrisscd@aol.com or by calling Jan Watson at the Will O’The Wisp, 496-8037.

A six week beginners course will be offered at the Bayside Recreation Center in Virginia Beach on Tuesdays, October 15 through November 19. Apply directly through Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation. Information about registering can be found on the city web site at www.vbgov.com.

Our own Tartan Belle, Lynnette Fitch, shown here at the 2002 Virginia Tartan Ball with the Mayor of Richmond, the honorable Rudolph C. McCollum, Jr., has written an account of her summer trip to Nova Scotia that will be serialized in the next several issues of The Thistledown, beginning with the first two segments in this issue.

Introduction and the CAT Ferry

Members of the MacAulay clan have established a democratic process for the election of their chief, which could be a blueprint for other disbanded clans.

The momentous decision was taken after a lively debate on the subject at the 2002 gathering of the MacAulay clans at Tulloch Castle Hotel in Dingwall on August 2nd. Clan Secretary Hector MacAulay said the clan had disintegrated more than 200 years ago and many years of research had failed to trace the bloodline of its former chiefs.

The clan decided the way forward was to select a new chief and create a new blood line. It was decided that the clan commander, Ian McMillan MacAulay, who is in his early eighties, should take on the role. But Lord Lyon, Robin Blair, rejected his appointment to the chiefship. Hector MacAulay said: ‘this was despite the fact that he had been commander for five years and the world wide clans supported him one hundred per cent.’

The Lyon ruled that a clan commander with no proven blook link to a past chief must serve in that appointment for 10 years before being proposed for chiefship. The clan had been keen to unite the Macaulay clans of Lewis, Lochbroom and Ardencaple, near Helensburgh, but the Lord Lyon’s ruling claimed that to recognize the chief of the Ardencaple MacAulays as clan chief would disenfranchise many members who originated from other branches.

Disappointed by this ruling, clan members decided to look for another way forward and they considered a resolution to confirm Ian McMillan MacAulay as clan chief and put in place a democratic process whereby the chief would be elected by all clan members for a period of five years. This was passed by members, and Ian MacMillan MacAulay will be their new chief for the next four years because he was elected last year. There will then be an election if anyone wishes to stand against him. If not, he will be automatically re-elected. The resolution also said that the chief should be resident in Scotland, but this was not agreed upon.

Hector MacAulay said that, although clan members oversees were keen that the clan should have its roots in Scotland, with the chief resident in the country, there was a strong eeling that there were clan members in other parts of the world who would make very good chiefs. A further resolution, put forward by the Association in Australia, was to maintain the status quo and wait another five years for the Lord Lyon’s approval of Ian McMillan MacAulay of Drumbeg as chief. Hector MacAulay said this resolution had been decisively defeated.

He said the situation had been closely watched by a number of other disbanded clans, which are beginning to resurrect themselves. ‘There is a lot of interest from abroad in resurrecting these clans and they don’t know how to elect a chief, so we are trying to lead the way. This is probably the first time that the clan has set up the democratic process to elect its chief in this way and it could be the way forward for other clans,’ he said.

For more information on the officially process of selecting chiefs according to Scots law can be found on pages 22-28 of the Scottish Clan and Family Encyclopedia by George Way of Plean, the Romilly Squire.