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[The following is a shortened version of the original article.]
Prolific, profound, witty, and opinionated, Canadian author Ken McGoogan made waves recently when he suggested that Canada adopt Scotland as a new territory. Celtic Life International recently spoke with the scribe about his Celtic connections.
Prolific, profound, witty, and opinionated, Canadian author Ken McGoogan made waves recently when he suggested that Canada adopt Scotland as a new territory. Celtic Life International recently spoke with the scribe about his Celtic connections.
What
are your own roots? My roots are Scottish, Irish, and French
Canadian. In Scotland, DNA research led me to meeting Jim McGugan, a long-lost
“cousin” who lives in Arbroath; and from there to the island of Gigha in
Kintyre, where our earliest ancestor is buried. In Ireland, I have tracked my
ancestor Michael Byrnes to New Ross, County Wexford, where he was a
contemporary of Patrick Kennedy, a forebear of American president John F.
Kennedy.
Why
are those roots important to you? Tracking my roots drove me
to scrambling around on Cruach MhicGougain in Kintyre, and to having many other
fun adventures. The process not only gave me a whole new sense of self, but
inspired two books: How the Scots Invented Canada and Celtic Lightning: How the
Scots and the Irish Created a Canadian Nation. Unearthing my own roots inspired
me to conceive of what I call “cultural genealogy.” Canadian intellectuals
hunker down with geographers and sociologists. That’s a mistake. We assume
geography’s limitations and cease investigating our collective past at the
western edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, like genealogists, we should keep
sleuthing. This nation’s history crosses the Atlantic. And, given that nine
million Canadians trace their roots to Scotland and Ireland, it does so more
often to those two countries than to anywhere else.
From
your perspective, what are the biggest challenges facing Celtic Canadians
today? I see Celtic culture in Canada as egalitarian,
pluralistic, and progressive. So I worry about the emergence onto the world
stage of a powerful right-wing partnership led by Theresa May and Donald Trump,
or the Tories of Little England and the Republicans of the ‘Wild Wild West.’ I
worry that, together, they might create some great libertarian beast and set it
slouching towards Canada.
Are Celtic Canadians doing enough to preserve
and promote their heritage? Not really. In my own small
world, that of books and authors, we have regressed. Once upon a time, Canada
and Scotland shared a writers-in-residence program. One year, a Scottish writer
would come to Canada for three months. The next, a Canadian writer would spend
three months in Scotland. One of the founders of that program told me recently
that we Canadians were the ones who dropped the ball. We should be fostering
closer relations with Scotland and Ireland, creating linkages of all kinds -
cultural, economic, and political - not watching excellent initiatives wither
and die.
What
can be done to change this? We could start by waking up to the
great wide world. Obviously, we face domestic challenges. But the current
leadership of the country next door, backed by tens of millions of citizens,
wants to create a society in which everyone carries a gun and only the wealthy
can afford education or health care. Celtic Canadians should smell the coffee
and start casting about for stronger alliances elsewhere - beginning with
Scotland and Ireland.
(To read this piece in full, along with much else, pick up the magazine by going here.)
(To read this piece in full, along with much else, pick up the magazine by going here.)
