Scottish Is...
Join Us The Third Thursday of Every Month To Find Out What... "Scottish Is"
Mobile's First Ever Scottish Fiddle Concert
Ed and Neil Pearlman in Concert
Ed Pearlman, a fiddle player from Maine who specializes in the traditional music of Scotland and Cape Breton, performs with his son Neil on piano, in concert, Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 7:00pm at Larkins Music Center (Mobile Symphony office) at 257 Dauphin Street in downtown Mobile. Pearlman has worked with many of the top musicians in his genre, and has toured throughout the United States, Canada and Scotland playing tightly interwoven, heartfelt and rhythmic fiddle music from Scotland, Cape Breton and beyond, blended with infuences introduced by his son Neil, whose own music at the keyboard seamlessly mixes Scottish traditional tunes with Latin, funk, and jazz.
Scottish Attire is encouraged!
Presented by the Scottish Society of Mobile.
Tickets for the March 1, 2012 concert are $10.00.
For ticket information contact: 251-473-6990 or 251-421-7027
Alabama's Link to Scotland
Alabama has the second largest population of people of Scottish heritage in the USA. In part the Alabama flag design was selected because the St. Andrews cross was a "Christian symbol, the symbol of truth, honor, courage, and defiance against tyranny, and is never ending."
Some debate has arisen lately over the source of the original design of the Alabama State Flag. When in doubt, read the instructions: “The Alabama State Flag was authorized by the Alabama Legislature on February 16, 1895, by Act number 383. According to the Acts of Alabama, 1895, the state flag was to be a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white. The bars forming the cross were not to be less than six inches broad and were to extend diagonally across the flag from side to side. The act did not designate a square or a rectangular flag.”
A small but vocal group has been trying to rewrite the history of the Alabama flag to claim Irish origins rather than Scottish. The State of Alabama flag has absolutely no connection whatsoever with the so called "flag of St. Patrick", which was in fact, never used by St. Patrick, but was an invention of the English occupiers of Ireland and was created to be used in the regalia of the newly created Order of Saint Patrick, established in 1783 as the premier chivalric order of the Kingdom of Ireland, and later in the arms and flags of a number of institutions.
Even on the Emerald Isle, and on St. Patrick's Day no less, this flag is not widely flown by Irish people who, for the most part, do not recognize it as their own. It is seen as a British symbol, and is used by regiments of the British Army. The flag was first designed by British authorities in Dublin Castle in the 17th century as a counterpart to the English St. George's Cross. The flag also forms part of the coat of arms of the then powerful Duke of Leinster, the premier peer in the Irish House of Lords.