Galwegian Gaelic - 1500 and After

1500 and After

An important source for the perception of Galwegian language is the poem known as The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy. The poem, written somewhere between 1504 and 1508 portrays an ideological, historical and cultural conflict between William Dunbar (representing Lothian, and Anglic Scotland) and Walter Kennedy (representing Carrick and Gaelic Scotland). Dunbar ridicules Kennedy's Heland ("Highland") accent and Erische ("Irish") language, whilst Kennedy defends it, saying calling it "all trew Scottismennis leid" and telling Dunbar "in Ingland sowld be thy habitation." The importance is that, from a Lothian perspective in the early sixteenth century, Carrick and Galloway still represented Gaelic Scotland, just as Lothian did Anglian Scotland. Note also that Kennedy is referred to as "Heland". Although Kennedy's surviving works are written in Middle Scots he may also have composed in Gaelic. In the Flyting, for instance, Dunbar makes big play of Kennedy's Carrick roots (albeit in the rankly insulting terms that are part of the genre) and strongly associates him with Erschry, "Irishry" which meant in other words the bardic tradition; the term Irish in Scotland signified Gaelic generally:

Sic eloquence as thay in Erschry use,

In sic is sett thy thraward appetyte.

Thow hes full littill feill of fair indyte.

I tak on me, ane pair of Lowthiane hippis

Sall fairar Inglis mak and mair perfyte

Than thow can blabbar with thy Carrik lippis.

Such eloquence as they in Irishry use

Is what defines your perverse taste.

You have very small aptitude for good verse-making.

I'll wager, a pair of Lothian hips

Shall fairer English make and more polished

Than thou can blabber with thy Carrick lips.

Alexander Montgomerie (1545? - 1610?) was also a Gaelic speaker, and was termed the "Hielant Captain"; various Gaelic terms and phrases can be found in his works.

George Buchanan, himself a Gaelic speaker, writing in 1575, reports that Gaelic was still spoken in Galloway. In the middle of the century, 1563–1566, a report by an anonymous English military investigator informs us that the people of Carrick "for the most part specke erishe".

After this, there is much ambiguous and indirect evidence that the language was spoken, if only fragmentedly, into the eighteenth century. Margaret McMurray (died 1760) is one of the last speakers we know of by name, although there are some suggestions that Alexander Murray (1775–1813), the linguist, may have learnt it from his aged father who was a local upland shepherd.

It is safe to say, though, that the Galwegian language died out somewhere between 1700 and 1800. It is notable though, that nearby areas such as the Isle of Man, east Ulster (especially Rathlin Island and the Glens of Antrim) and Arran all had native Gaelic speakers into the 20th century.