 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Siol nan Gaidheal" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Siol nan Gaidheal Sìol nan Gàidheal | |
|---|---|
 Black and white saltire used by the group. | |
| Founder |
|
| Founded |
|
| Newspaper | Firinn Albannach (1980s) |
| Ideology | |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Siol nan Gaidheal ([ˈʃiəl̪ˠnəˈŋɛː.əl̪ˠ], meaning "Seed of the Gaels") is a minor Scottishultranationalist[4] andethnic nationalist group which describes itself as a "cultural and fraternal organisation".[5]
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"[6] to "crypto-fascist" or "proto-fascist".[6][7][4] Members of the group have been banned from membership of the mainstream nationalistScottish National Party since 1982.[8]
The name, properly spelledSìol nan Gàidheal ([ˈʃiəlˠ̪nəŋˈkɛː.əlˠ̪]), isScottish Gaelic for 'Seed of the Gaels'. The termsìol has numerous meanings, most commonly translated as "breed, brood, lineage, progeny, seed".[9]
The first incarnation of Siol nan Gaidheal was founded in 1978 by Tom Moore, a Scot who spent his childhood in the United States.[1] It grew in the immediate aftermath of the1979 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.[10] In September 1980, the SNP launched an inquiry into the group, withColin Bell as vice-chairman.[11] SnG was fully proscribed after the SNP's 1982 conference. The1320 Club, which was banned by the SNP in 1968, merged into SnG in the same year.[12]
The early Siol nan Gaidheal was described by the historian Peter Lynch as "a collection of radical militants who favoureddirect action tactics and tended to make vague threats of violence".[13] Throughout the 1980s, Siol nan Gaidheal published a magazine calledFirinn Albannach [sic][a] (Scottish Truth), which has been described as having a rhetoric which was "anti-communist,neo-fascist and sometimes violent in tone".[14] Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher's personal security was stepped up in Scotland after members of SnG tried to accost her outside theConservative Party conference inPerth in 1982.[15]
Some members of SnG formed an unofficial paramilitary wing calledArm nan Gaidheal (AnG; "Army of the Gael"), which was responsible for a number ofpetrol bomb attacks againstLabour andConservative party offices in Glasgow andDundee 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.[1][13] Against the background of internal division and arrests of members, the first incarnation of Siol nan Gaidheal eventually folded in 1985.[16]
Siol nan Gaidheal was re-established in 1987 by Jackie Stokes, a member of theScottish Republican Socialist Party. This second incarnation of the group explicitly rejected violence.[17] By 1988, it claimed a membership of 300.[14] Its activities included, in 1989, erecting acairn in memory ofWillie McRae—who was sympathetic to SnG, and possibly at one point a member[18]—along with Michael Strathern. By the early 1990s, however, Stokes had suffered aheart attack and then kidney problems, which effectively killed the organisation.[17]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2018) |
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.[citation needed] Chapters were set up in the United States and in Canada as a focus for theScottish diaspora inNorth America.[citation needed] Stokes died on 24 July 2001, leading to a downturn in the group's activity.[citation needed] In May 2006, SnG held its firstArd Fhèis (party annual conference) in 14 years inDalwhinnie.[citation needed]
Siol nan Gaidheal actively campaigned forScottish independence during the2014 independence referendum, though the mainstreamYes Scotland campaign distanced itself from SnG.[3] The group made headlines in the run-up to the referendum for heckling Labour MPJim Murphy on his visits to Dundee andMontrose.[19][3]
Siol nan Gaidheal has marched at pro-independence demonstrations organised byAll Under One Banner. In 2018, the online magazineBella 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.[20] 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 theScottish National Liberation Army, setting fire to houses and intimidatingNew 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 aFacebook post, Siol nan Gaidheal responded by saying that its website is "somewhat unrepresentative of the current Siol nan Gaidheal".[21]
On 11 January 2020, an AUOB pro-independence demonstration inGlasgow marched behind a banner badged with the Siol nan Gaidheal symbol.[22] In 2022, SNP MSPEvelyn Tweed apologised after being photographed holding an Siol nan Gaidheal banner at an AUOB march commemorating theBattle of Bannockburn.[23][13]
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2018) |
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".[24] Siol nan Gaidheal opposes "globalism" andmulticulturalism,[25] 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".[24]
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".[20][26] Siol nan Gaidheal has been branded as "proto fascists" by former SNP leaderGordon Wilson.[4]