Siol nan Gaidheal

Siol nan Gaidheal ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}, meaning "Seed of the Gaels") is a minor Scottish ultranationalist<ref name="BBC" /> and ethnic nationalist group which describes itself as a "cultural and fraternal organisation".<ref name="when">Template:Cite book</ref>

The first incarnation of the group was founded by Tom Moore in 1978, though it became defunct twice and was re-established by Jackie Stokes in 1987 and again in 1997.

Though the group publicly disavows politics, SnG has been variously described by commentators as anywhere from "traditionalist"<ref name="td">Template:Cite book</ref> to "crypto-fascist" or "proto-fascist".<ref name="td"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="BBC">Template:Cite news</ref> Members of the group have been banned from membership of the mainstream nationalist Scottish National Party since 1982.<ref name="history">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Name

The name, properly spelled {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), is Scottish Gaelic for 'Seed of the Gaels'. The term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} has numerous meanings, most commonly translated as "breed, brood, lineage, progeny, seed".<ref>Mark, C. (2004). The Gaelic-English Dictionary. Routledge. Template:ISBN</ref>

History

First incarnation (1978Template:Ndash1985)

The first incarnation of Siol nan Gaidheal was founded in 1978 by Tom Moore, a Scot who spent his childhood in the United States.<ref name="found1978">Template:Cite book</ref> It grew in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 devolution referendum, despite being shunned by the mainstream nationalist Scottish National Party, whose ruling executive attempted to ban SnG from the party as early as 1980.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In September 1980, the SNP launched an inquiry into the group, with Colin Bell as vice-chairman.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> SnG was fully proscribed after the SNP's 1982 conference. The 1320 Club, which was banned by the SNP in 1968, merged into SnG in the same year.<ref name="barberis">Barberis et al, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, p.409.</ref>

The early Siol nan Gaidheal was described by the historian Peter Lynch as "a collection of radical militants who favoured direct action tactics and tended to make vague threats of violence".<ref name="Flag">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Throughout the 1980s, Siol nan Gaidheal published a magazine called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} [sic]Template:Efn (Scottish Truth), which has been described as having a rhetoric which was "anti-communist, neo-fascist and sometimes violent in tone".<ref name="bipo">Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2003). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups. p. 408.</ref> Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's personal security was stepped up in Scotland after members of SnG tried to accost her outside the Conservative Party conference in Perth in 1982.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Some members of SnG formed an unofficial paramilitary wing called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (AnG; "Army of the Gael"), which was responsible for a number of petrol bomb attacks against Labour and Conservative party offices in Glasgow and Dundee in 1982. Eight of the organisation's members were arrested following an arson attack on the home of the chief executive of Glasgow chamber of commerce in 1983.<ref name="found1978" /><ref name="Flag"/> Against the background of internal division and arrests of members, the first incarnation of Siol nan Gaidheal eventually folded in 1985.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Second incarnation (1987Template:Ndash90s)

Siol nan Gaidheal was re-established in 1987 by Jackie Stokes, a member of the Scottish Republican Socialist Party. This second incarnation of the group explicitly rejected violence.<ref name="suntel">Template:Cite news</ref> By 1988, it claimed a membership of 300.<ref name="bipo" /> Its activities included, in 1989, erecting a cairn in memory of Willie McRaeTemplate:Mdashwho was sympathetic to SnG, and possibly at one point a member<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Mdashalong with Michael Strathern. By the early 1990s, however, Stokes had suffered a heart attack and then kidney problems, which effectively killed the organisation.<ref name="suntel" />

Third incarnation (1997Template:Ndashpresent)

Siol nan Gaidheal and Connolly Society at protest in 2007.

Template:Expand section Jackie Stokes eventually re-established Siol nan Gaidheal for a second time in 1997, this time concentrating mainly on its website and online discussion forum.Template:Citation needed Chapters were set up in the United States and in Canada as a focus for the Scottish diaspora in North America.Template:Citation needed Stokes died on 24 July 2001, leading to a downturn in the group's activity.Template:Citation needed In May 2006, SnG held its first Ard Fhèis (party annual conference) in 14 years in Dalwhinnie.Template:Citation needed

Siol nan Gaidheal actively campaigned for Scottish independence during the 2014 independence referendum, though the mainstream Yes Scotland campaign distanced itself from SnG.<ref name="Gilligan">Template:Cite news</ref> The group made headlines in the run-up to the referendum for heckling Labour MP Jim Murphy on his visits to Dundee and Montrose.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Gilligan"/>

Siol nan Gaidheal has marched at pro-independence demonstrations organised by All Under One Banner. In 2018, the online magazine Bella Caledonia criticised AUOB for platforming what it described as a "fascist", ethnonationalist group. AUOB replied that while Siol nan Gaidheal's banner was not welcome, it was unable to physically ban the organisation from its marches.<ref name="Tolerating Intolerance">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Political campaigner Math Campbell, who founded the pro-independence group English Scots for Yes, said that Siol nan Gaidheal's presence left him and others feeling unwelcome: "They claim they have moved on from those days, when Siol Nan Gaidheal members later went on to be involved in the Scottish National Liberation Army, setting fire to houses and intimidating New Scots. We'd like to believe that claim, but the Siol Nan Gaidheal official website, right now, still contains articles saying things like 'every English incomer is suspect, the good with the bad', and talking of Scottishness being linked to ancestry and birthplace, the so-called 'blood and soil' position adopted by fascist groups worldwide." In a Facebook post, Siol nan Gaidheal responded by saying that its website is "somewhat unrepresentative of the current Siol nan Gaidheal".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 11 January 2020, an AUOB pro-independence demonstration in Glasgow marched behind a banner badged with the Siol nan Gaidheal symbol.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022, SNP MSP Evelyn Tweed apologised after being photographed holding an Siol nan Gaidheal banner at an AUOB march commemorating the Battle of Bannockburn.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Flag"/>

Aim and ideology

Template:Expand section Siol nan Gaidheal is an ethnic nationalist organisation that believes that politics must reflect "the ethnic nature of our people", and that "no foreign ideology, in this as in any dynamic area of our culture, may be purposefully accommodated into the fabric of our national life".<ref name="Politics">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Siol nan Gaidheal opposes "globalism" and multiculturalism,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and has called for Scottish politicians who oppose independence to face "appropriate and ultimate attention in some future Scottish government" for "crimes of treason against our Nation, Culture and People".<ref name="Politics"/>

Siol nan Gaidheal describes English residents in Scotland as "white settlers", and says of them; "every English incomer at present is suspect, the good along with the bad".<ref name="Tolerating Intolerance"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Siol nan Gaidheal has been branded as "proto fascists" by former SNP leader Gordon Wilson.<ref name="BBC" />

See also

• Ailtirí na hAiséirghe, an Irish fascist political party active 1942–1958

References

• The Hollow Drum, Arnold Kemp, Template:ISBN, pp166–172
• Britain's Secret War, Andrew Murray Scott and Iain Macleay, Template:ISBN, pp 113–131.

External links

• Official website