Divided Gaels: Gaelic Cultural Identities in Scotland and Ireland C. 1200-1650 »

University of Edinburgh

In this detailed and absorbing study, Wilson McLeod challenges the familiar view that Gaelic Scotland and Gaelic Ireland formed a cultural unit during the late middle ages and early modern period. Dr McLeod's examination of the surviving sources, especially formal bardic poetry, shows that Ireland was culturally dominant. While Scottish Gaeldom attached great significance to the Irish connection, Irish Gaeldom, McLeod argues, perceived Scotland as peripheral.