Divided Gaels Gaelic Cultural Identities in Scotland and Ireland c.1200-c.1650 [Hardcover]

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.

Introduction
1. Political and Cultural Background
2. Literary and Intellectual Culture in the Gaelic World
3. Scotland and Ireland: The Vision of Bardic Poetry
4. Separation and Breakdown
Conclusion
Appendixes
Bibliography
Indexes

The book is well written and beautifully produced. --Speculum

Scholars who approach the medieval and early modern histories of Ireland and Scotland from a 'British Isles' perspective will be grateful to Wilson McLeod for providing this original and provocative account of relations between the Irish and Scottish components of the Gaelic world in the years 1200-1650. The carefully edited and translated bardic poetry published here for the first time would in itself make this volume worthwhile, but it also contains many useful insights into a neglected topic. --American Historical Review