A collaboration between BrewDog and Victory Brewing Company: U-Boat
BrewDog Russian Doll IPA
The ‘small’ cheese and meat board at BrewDog Glasgow
Jacker de Viande
Burgers, chips and onion rings at Jacker de Viande
Our last afternoon we spent — once again — in the Valhalla of craft beer: BrewDog Glasgow. Even though some of the beers I had hoped to try were sadly unavailable, we managed to try quite a few new or rereleased beers, accompanied by a couple of nice local cheeses and meats. Seriously, we need a BrewDog bar in Brussels soon!
Our last meal before boarding the bus homeward again was atJacker de Viande. Not bad, but BMB is still number one in the burger department!
And that was the end of another fabulous trip to Scotland again. I’m missing it already!
Last weekend, Belgian members of the Clan MacLaren were present again at the Clans’ Days to pay homage to kinsmen fallen in the Great War, at the Menin Gate in Ypres and Tyne Cot Cemeterynear Passchendaele.
Just spent a great weekend at the music festival Na Fir Bolg. As expected I wasn’t the only one in a kilt, although some of the garments that would probably identified by their wearers as a kilt, would not really qualify as such by a strict definition…
An advantage of going somewhere as a group, is that it is more likely I actually appear in some photos. So, to conclude this trip report, here are some photos taken by my travel companions in which I actually appear.
Saint Patrick’s Day, the only day each year I wear my saffron kilt. Although sometimes I get the question wether I’m Irish even if I’m wearing a kilt in a—to me clearly—Scottish tartan, most people associate any kilt with Scotland, and rightly so.
But there certainly is such a thing as an Irish kilt, and saffron kilts have been around as an expression of Irish nationality for over a hundred years!
The ancient Irish actually wore the léine, a linen tunic with voluminous sleeves and a hemline reaching the knees or higher, often dyed with saffron, which turned out quite yellow on linen. When there was a revival of Gaelic nationalism in the nineteenth century, the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association—two major nationalist organisations, both concerned with Irish identity—wanted a ‘costume’ or national form of dress. The léine was considered to be too difficult to be updated to the fashions of the day, so they adopted the garment of their Gaelic cousins in Scotland: the kilt, dyed either green or saffron. Used on wool, the saffron dye gave it a bit more of an orange-brownish colour, the one we associate today with saffron kilts.
The school uniform of St. Enda’s School for Boys (1908) included the saffron kilt.
Nowadays the saffron kilt is mainly worn by pipers of Irish regiments, often without a sporran.
