I’m not sure about my brothers, but I’ve been eager with anticipation for some public acknowledgment of our vast ancestral lands which are rightfully ours, but now lived on by others in Scotland.
Alas, so far there has been silence.
Even with world leaders and climate elites gathering in Glasgow for another climate summit. One would have at least expected Justin, whom has been making a speciality of land acknowledgments, to have given a grave voiced mere mention to the Cumming clan’s ancestral lands.
It might even prompt the Scots to get with the new morality of our time. It’s certainly long overdue.
Back here in enlightened Canada, institutions are following Justin’s examples these days of land acknowledgements. Every Canadian primary and high school, college and university and anyone else being important and polite on Canadian soil, whenever two or more are gathered in the government’s name.
It has replaced, “let’s bow our heads in prayer.”
Things started to fall apart for the Cumming’s – spelled Comyn in those days – on February 10, 1306. Sir John Comyn, at 32 years of age, was stabbed to death by Robert the Bruce at the altar in Greyfriars Chapel in Dumfries.
That’s a fact. My grandparents had mentioned it. Dad, in his callous disregard for the painful past when farming in the present could have cared less, but today it’s all there on the internet, complete with a portrait of Sir John.
At that point in the early 1300s the Comyn’s were the largest landowners in Scotland, having vast holdings throughout the country. Sir John had royalty on both sides of his pedigree.
Now the reason for the stabbing isn’t definitive. Batches of people do seem to get upset at the Cumming’s through the years. According to the internet, when Robert the Bruce ran from the church, Sir Robert Fleming went back in “to finish the job.”
Both Sir John and Robert the Bruce were ‘Joint Guardians’ of Scotland, after the recent demise of Sir William Wallace, of recent movie fame, who held that post for a wee while.
Wallace was a landless soul, but had an ability to motivate folks. He probably would be paid to give Ted Talks, or be an evangelist on TV, or another Randy Hillier, if he was circulating today.
But being Wallace had no land, he deserves no mention whatsoever at world events of importance, like this climate conference.
Several years before being stabbed to death in church Sir John had fought in the first war for Scottish Independence. Today they have referendums on the topic. He was sent as a prisoner to the Tower of London, but was released on the condition that he fight the French in Flanders on behalf of the English. Which was where he was when Wallace gathered an army and fought his Scotland battles, before being publicly executed in a horrible way.
At the time of the stabbing, Sir John’s son of the same name fled down to England. He returned as a young soldier in 1314 to fight for Scotland and was killed in the Battle of Bannockburn.
If you want to know how a clan can go from royalty, living on estates that would put Downton Abbey to shame, to living down a long lane in a farmhouse on the eighth concession in a cold land, with not a servant or footman in sight, there you have it.
It’s been a damn hard thing to live with, that shame and rage at the cruelty, over the past 800 years. People say you should get over it, but having property taken after your clan chief was murdered in cold blood, for no apparent reason other than being a Cumming, leaves permanent scars.
One is at a loss on how to get Justin to notice.
Perhaps my brothers and I could set up a sod hut on Parliament Hill, with a grazing Ayrshire cow tethered to a stake, a sucking calf at her side. At least I have a kilt, complete with that wee dagger that fits into the sock.
A piper could be summoned, to play every evening and morn.
The Buchans’ are part of our clan, but it’s best if they stayed away. They tend to be hot-tempered towards Justin, when we’re vying for his sympathy.
Ian Cumming, Reprinted with permission, originally published Nov 2 in Ontario Farmer.
when will the descendants of the Anglos move back to
Germany(from England)?? (by the way ,Germany never existed)
the franks to leave Gaul(France)
Kate,
Your about to witness OUR POLITICIAN’S FAILURE with this globalization experiment as reality and our infrastructure choke points don’t disappoint in it’s path from our China trade and away from reality of needing products created here.
They’re blaming the weather on global warming as their incompetence is revealing in their leadership decisions.
They can print and create as much money and credit as possible but it’s not going to help with real life infrastructure failures.
We desperately need to start sorting through Scotland’s past to figure out what descendants owe other descendants and come up with a solution ( cold hard cash, baby ) that will soothe the wounded souls of those who read history books and their clans.
You got to wonder if Ian Cumming is now on some kind of government watch list for making a really good point.
Mr Cumming, did somebody not explain you are white you privileged bastard? Nothing more for you, you have had it too good, too long.
Thanks! Too funny but I’m sure way back there is that kind of story in everyone’s past. Even those living in sod huts can be replaced by roving hordes of white supremacists (Mongols are now as white as Vikings) but only those chosen by the Wokists are entitled to be compensated let alone have the right to complain a little.
My ancestor was driven out of Connecticut to the wilds of New Brunswick and his lands confiscated. I want my ancestral lands back.
My migratory ancestor from France publicly claimed to be a mere baker, but hidden among the family secrets is an Attestation* that he was an unacknowledged heir to the Duke of Anjou in the 1640s, thus giving us a True Blood connection to the Throne of France. I defy anyone to prove otherwise. Those lousy Republicans stole my ancestral lands and killed my royal relations, and I want them back. Also Quebec, b/c it’s a royal colony.
That’s how it works, right?
*Not really, but I identify as a royal heir if it gets me stuff.
You can’t have your royal colony of Quebec back because it’s not yours. It belongs to the Queen in Right of Canada, who inherited it from her ancestors who had it by right of conquest and occupation, same as your ancestors got it from the aboriginals. I know, because my regiment was with General Wolfe when he won it fair and square on the Plains of Abraham for his King. (There’s no going back, because they built a shopping centre on it, I hear.)
I refuse your reality and substitute my own. Quebec is the traditional lands of my ancestors. 🙂
I am willing to meet you for a pissing match at Pierre’s grave sometime, win/lose we would at least improve the local environment.
Winner gets to drop a deuce straight into the skeletal mouth of Pierre the Destroyer.
6-beer minimum?
If you are interested in Scottish history, I recommend this site. Bruce tell a good story.
https://www.youtube.com/c/ScotlandHistoryTours
To the Victor go the spoils…
It is well past time to think we can go back and try and settle time tattered grievances. Every country in the world, every family in the world has a basis somewhere in time to b*tch and complain about the unfairness in life. The people that make everything work today are the ones that can accept that their grievances belong in the past and they get on with making the best life they can for themselves and their family. All of these people just want to be left the hell alone and let them get on with their lives. If we cause no harm or do not impinge on other’s rights why the hell can’t governments and other busy bodies just leave us the hell alone instead of trying to impose their standards on us. The Indigenous people that came here 10,000 years ago were a Stone Age society that were overpowered by a stronger more developed society. That is a fact, they have had five hundred years to come to grips with that. It didn’t take them long to accept the advantages that they attained, now they want their land back, well snowflakes it doesn’t work like that. To the politicians, bleeding hearts, and ingrained socialists that try to impose their Utopian ideals on the rest of us the sooner you get with the program the better it will be for everyone. The Indigenous have no desire to go back in time and live like their ancestors did, so get over your admonishments and pronouncements that try to make us feel guilty. In other words just leave us the hell alone and let us live our lives as we see fit, our patience and compassion can only go so far.
‘Unceded’, as in, nary a seed were planted therein.
Poseurs who acknowledge the Indian tribe’s traditional territory upon which (insert event here) is happening are the worst of hypocrites. Unless the person dutifully mouthing those (Stockholm Syndrome-like) pieties offers to leave such land he is only tormenting that racial remnant identity group with expectations of reclamation of the territory that the other 94% of residents have no intention of leaving. The Indians were defeated culturally, technologically, and physically whether or not they signed treaties. The tragedy of the post contact apartheid, enshrined in the Indian Act that continues to this day and with progressives raising expectations of reinforcement and inversion – will not end well.
Farnworth, the BC Minister in charge while Horgan is out due to his cancer, was it the vax? Well Farnworth’s comments started with the ‘ situated on the lands of the Salish people’ garbage before he gave his update on the flooding situation in BC.
a full blood nishnabe(sp, ya l know) buddy of mine got drunk on university grounds once.
got banned. now every time there’s a presentation, seminar etc comes the famous ‘acknowledgement’
so far no one can explain the hypocrisy. correct, *has* explained.
Sounds like pay-back to me, Cumming! Your piteous claim about cruel dispossession doesn’t have a jambe to stand on. Your ancestors stole the land from the Picts! Frenchman! 🙂
From Wikipedia:
” … the Comyn clan is of Norman or Flemish origin. The surname is either a place-name, possibly derived from Bosc-Bénard-Commin, near Rouen in the Duchy of Normandy,[6] or from Comines, near Lille, in France.”
Oh come on. Everybody knows that Scotland’s Pict population was fully corrupted by the Norse raiders more than a thousand years ago, to say nothing of William the Bastard’s successful Norman southern incursion of 1066 and subsequent expansion throughout the “British Isles”. It’s also worthy speculation that Roman soldiers (true descendants of Romulus and Remus) posted along Hadrian’s Wall, were willing to part with a portion of their paltry pay for a bit of warmin-up on the north side of the wall. Of particular concern to me is the injection of Spanish blood into the MacMaster clan after seamen washed ashore following the destruction of the Spanish armada in 1588 under the guns of Sir Francis Drake.
What always bemuses me about the entire Scottish Question is the fact that after the death of Elizabeth they selected James of SCOTLAND to come down south and become James I.
The Scottish created the United Kingdom.
Sure I am grossly simplifying the story, but then again so to most of the Scottish Independence people.
WW2. My Ukrainian grandfather kicked off his farm land by both Germans and Russians. Sent to a forced labour camp. Constantly told to “prove” he wasn’t Jewish (uncircumcised was his good fortune). So, I guess I own land in the Ukraine! Justine, drop your pants. Prove you are a man, because my grandfather suffered far worse you pot smoking part time drama teacher who is in a trust fund aaaand making bucks off every jab. Sorry. Rambling between thoughts……
I am not a prejudiced man.
I hate you all equally.
There is some “equity” our hordes of unionized victims will never understand.
We should introduce a whole bunch of “purity tests” onto our gullible emoters.
These terrible infants deserve torture confusion and doubt.
Mr Cummings says it well.
Shall we demand you prove your status as a “True scotchman” and “Real Indian” or a “Pure Blood Fully Vaccinate Patriot” of Trudopia..
Those who play divide and conquer always win .
In the beginning.
Then the blood bath begins again.
The pain,the loss and obvious madness,finally penetrates even the most stupid (Or we kill them).
And then the cycle repeats.
Martin Luther King’s message resonated with sane citizens.
Obama,Butts and Suzuki are from the other side,if they are remembered at all, it will be for the small vicious nature they share.
This is soooo sad….!!!
But then again, I’m in no way Greek-descended, but I’m still pissed off about Thermopylae!!! And while Roman only in spirit, Cannae never fails to irritate…