Posted on 01/20/2007 4:52:00 PM PST by blam
Poles in Scotland now have their own plaid
EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The latest Scottish clan now has its own tartan with colors that include the red and white of the Polish flag and dark blue representing Scotland.
"I want to buy a kilt because I am living in Scotland," Sebastian Flasza, owner of Rock and Roll Tattoo and Piercing in Edinburgh, told The Times of London. "But I am a Polish Scot. I feel this represents me. Oh, aye."
Poland and Scotland have a long common history. Bonnie Prince Charlie, the ill-fated Stuart heir, was half-Polish, and there is also a myth in Poland that Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity movement, is descended from Sir William Wallace, the Scottish nationalist executed by the English in 1305.
More recently, 20,000 Poles remained in Scotland after World War II. But the huge influx came after Poland joined the European Union.
International Tartans produced the Polish plaid at the request of an Edinburgh man whose grandparents settled in Scotland.
Polish tartans are popular both for wearing in Scotland and as gifts for friends back home. But Ewelina Wroubel, a student from Poland, said her boyfriend back home refuses to wear his kilt outside the house, although she thinks he likes it.
Lots of Poles in Scotland. I've met a few there. Their own tartan is a little goofy--they can always wear Stewart or Black Watch to show their national affiliation....
International Tartans produced the Polish plaid at the request of an Edinburgh man whose grandparents settled in Scotland
To be picky, the 'plaid' is the thing worn over the shoulder in 'No. 1' dress. It matches the 'tartan' of the kilt.
A kilt and plaid in different tartans would be ugly and make one vomit....
Tartanski Pingski
Can you just "invent" a tartan? Or is it like a heraldic device that has to be registered in order to be legitimate?
Considering the tales of Polish airmen and ground troops following the fall of Poland in WW2, they just about rate their own county.
Would it kill them to publish an image of the tartan?
Ambrose Bierce, in The Devil's Dictionary (1911)...
KILT, n.: A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in America and Americans in Scotland.
Good for them. A fortunate combination.
Polish Scots ping. (Or Scottish Poles ...)
Not sure if there's a Bagpipery angle here, but it's a curious thing ...
A bit more history connected with Bonnie Prince Charles.
Charles had aligned himself with a group of clans that were fighting in Scotland. He was on the losing side. Many of the Scots from the losing clans immigrated to the US, to North Carolina. They began working in logging and harvesting pine rosen/pitch in NC. Those people came to be known as Tar-heels. North Carolinian's to this day are known as Tar-Heels because of those Scottish immigrants.
Heh heh. Kids will be kids. Better watch out for the Ladies From Hell, though.
Q: What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?
A: Shoes
But what if he's Polish? Don't they wear Fruit of the Loom?
Argh! Who put "plaid" in the headline??!? It's a "tartan", not a "plaid."
My personal answer: " Whatever he pleases -- more...or less..."
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