• About

A collection of International Tartans

~ by David McGill

A collection of International Tartans

Tag Archives: scotland

The INTERNATIONALE Tartan

20 Sunday Oct 2019

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bread and Roses, Internationale tartan, scotland, tartan, tartan gift

The title of the design is taken from the universal anthem of the same name, and is intended to provide a common bonding theme for democratic socialists worldwide in keeping with the concluding line of the chorus: ‘The Internationale unites the human race’. The design itself can be reproduced to give that common theme a unique physical identity in the form of tartan. Although at times misused and cheapened, tartan has a broad popular appeal to people of all countries and is instantly recognisable.

An appropriate choice of colours in a tartan can give it a yet more specific identity – in modern parlance, a brand, and over time, by repetition, a recognisable brand. The colours for the Internationale tartan have been chosen to reflect those linked to the socialist movement, but with fashion in mind, by retaining their traditional red and (part) yellow colours, but in the softer tones implied in the battle-hymn of the Suffragettes: Bread and Roses.

‘As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day 
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts grey 
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing, bread and roses, bread and roses.

As we go marching, marching, we’re standing proud and tall.
The rising of the women means the rising of us all.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories, bread and roses, bread and roses.’

Illustrated below is an example of the best-selling item in Scotland’s tourist shops – the lambswool scarf: useful, stylish, light and comfortable to wear, and affordable.

At £20.00 (inc P&P) these exclusive tartan scarves make an ideal gift for family and friends, or maybe you just want to treat yourself. A donation of £5.00 from each sale will be made to local food banks. Get in touch to order one at info@internationaltartans.co.uk or click here.

The Tartan is Registered No. 11376 on the Scottish Tartans Register

internationale tartan

United by the Tartan – Scotland vs Japan Rugby World Cup 2019

11 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

japan, rugby world cup, Sakura tartan, scotland, tartan

On Sunday, the 13th of October, Scotland plays against Japan in their final group match of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. It’s all to play for as only the winners will qualify for the quarter-finals of the knock-out stage.

The as-yet-undefeated Japanese team known as the ‘Sakuras’ have been sensational so far beating world No 1 Ireland in their opening match and following up with wins against Russia and Samoa.

Japanese fans all over the world are gearing up for the occasion. This image shows three lovely young Japanese girls in Edinburgh dressed in their Sakura tartan outfits. It’s just a pity that they-re not playing in the front row for Japan! Or are they?

sakura taran

The SAKURA Tartan

19 Friday May 2017

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

sakura, scotland, tartan

These girls have just heard that Japan has been drawn in the same pool as Scotland for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and couldn’t wait to get themselves kitted out. The nickname for the Japanese team is ‘The Sakuras’ or ‘Cherry Blossoms’, the badge they wear on their team jerseys and, like the good supporters they are, our lovely trio is sporting their sakura tartan skirts and scarves in anticipation. If only all front rows looked this good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scotland won 45 – 10 on that occasion, but many commentators felt that Japan was unlucky to be playing only four days after their heroic 34-32 victory over South Africa – regarded by most pundits as the greatest upset in world rugby –  and had insufficient time to recover.

A scene from the Japan v Scotland match in the 2015 World Cup.

 

The Sunderland tartan

04 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

david mcgill, International Tartans, scotland, sunderland, tartan

Formed as Sunderland and District Teachers Association by Scotsman James Allan in 1879, Sunderland AFC have fielded hundreds of Scots in their 137-year history including twenty-two Scottish internationalist and several legends of the game including, in recent times, Ian Porterfield, scorer of the winning goal in the 1973 Cup Final, Jim Baxter and Ally McCoist. Such is the bond between Sunderland and Scotland that in 1895 when they played Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle Park in Edinburgh in the ‘Championship of the World’ title match as champions of their respective leagues, all 22 players were Scots (even the referee was a Scot). Sunderland won 5-3 and fielded ten full Scottish internationalists. Hearts could only field five.

The appointment of David Moyes as manager of Sunderland AFC sees a continuation of this extraordinary link between Scotland and Sunderland. He is the tenth Scot to manage the ‘Black Cats’. To commemorate this, International Tartans is offering a free kilt (or kilted skirt) in the

Sunderland tartan* to the first person who can answer the following questions:

1.Sunderland Association Football Club have played under two other names. What are they?

2. Sunderland AFC have played in four countries other than England. Which are they?

3. What is the link between James Allan, Sunderland AFC’s founder, and Robert Burns the poet.

sunderland tartan

*The colours of the Sunderland tartan are taken from the red, white and black of the team colours.

People of Europe – the proof that we enjoy having you here

08 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

brexit, david mcgill, europeean tartans, International Tartans, scotland, tartan

People of Europe, we enjoy having you here in Scotland – and here’s the proof: a gift of your very own tartan to make you feel welcome. If your country isn’t represented here and you would like it to be, let us know and we’ll design a tartan for you.
For a short history of our National Tartans please click here.
Cyprus
Cyprus
Denmark
Denmark
Finland
finnish tartan
France
France - the Auld Alliance
Germany
German tartan
Greece
Greece
Iceland
Icelandic tartan
Ireland
st patrick's tartan
Lithuania
Lithuanian tartan (2)
Norway
norwegian centennial
Poland
Polish tartan
Portugal
Portugal tartan
Romania
Romania, the Spirit of tartan.jpg
Spain
Spain
Sweden
swedish tartan

A Tartan for Mexico

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

david mcgill, mexico, scotland, tartan

What do Scotland and Mexico possibly have in common (apart from common humanity that is?) Well one thing is the Golden Eagle. We may think it’s our national bird, but Mexico actually has it depicted on their flag. In any event, why would we not be grateful to the country that gave us chocolate, chillies and corn? What would life be like without them? So, the gift of a national tartan seems like a small reward.
The colours are taken from Mexico’s national flag which is made up three vertical stripes. The left, green stripe stands for hope, the middle white stripe represents purity, and the right red stripe represents the blood of those who died fighting for Mexico’s independence. Viva Zapata! Viva Mexico!
Mexico

The LIVERPOOL REDS Tartan – You’ll Never Walk Alone

23 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

david mcgill, edinburgh, International Tartans, liverpool reds, scotland, tartan

The history of Liverpool Football Club stretches back over 120 years. For the first half of its life the club enjoyed mixed success combining championship wins with relegation. The cosmopolitan nature of the City of Liverpool itself ensure that Liverpool players were drawn from different parts of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, but there was a particular affinity with Scotland, so much so, that they were nicknamed ‘Team of all the Mac’s’.

But it was to be one Scotsman in particular who was to lead Liverpool FC to greatness in the second half of its life. That man was Bill Shankly. Some eight years after he first applied for the position, it was in 1959 that he was finally appointed and the modern history of Liverpool began.

Bill Shankly was the first of a new breed of football club manager who exerted total control over the signing of players and team selection. His management skills, allied to his socialist principles, his passion for the game, and his total dedication to the club, saw the formation of a football club which would become renowned throughout the world, both for its ethos and style of play. His legacy was a succession of managers moulded in his style who between them were to bring extraordinary success, not only in League and Cup, but with five European Championships. But it was a show tune written in 1945 that was to change the status of Liverpool Football Club from merely legendary to iconic.

In 1963 the local pop group, Gerry and the Pacemakers, took the Rodgers and Hammerstein song ‘You’ll never walk alone’ to No. 1 in the Hit Parade. It was immediately adopted by supporters and has become synonymous with Liverpool Football Club, and an anthem known throughout the footballing world and beyond. The words were eventually added to the club badge and stand above the entrance to Anfield.

The Liverpool Reds tartan is a tribute to the supporters of Liverpool Football Club worldwide.

1
2
3
4
5

Auld Alliance still alive after 700 years

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Events, Media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

auld alliance, chris paterson, rugby, scotland

Fans preparing for Scotland’s opening match against France in this year’s Six Nation Championship are getting themselves decked out in the Auld Alliance tartan. Jointly commissioned by the Consul-General and the Director of the French Institute in Edinburgh, the Auld Alliance tartan combines the colours of the Tricolour of France with the Saltire of Scotland.

1

Becoming a fan of the Auld alliance tartan is the easiest conversion Scottish rugby legend Chris Paterson ever made.

2

 The Guarde Ecossaises on their way to the barricades in Stade de France!

3

Fans rehearsing ‘Flower of Scotland’ call for a ‘wee’ refreshment break under the watchful eye of the local priest.

John Muir- Three Days That Saved The World

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Events

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

david mcgill, earth preservation, International Tartans, john muir, Roosevelt, scotland, Yosemite

THREE DAYS THAT SAVED THE WORLD

Thoughts on the death of John Muir, Christmas Eve, 1914

John Muir’s earth

John Muir’s earth

One of the most poignant of the stories that have emerged from the commemorations marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War is the one about German and British troops laying down their arms and emerging from their trenches to exchange greetings and share rations on the Western Front on Christmas Eve 1914. Some even say that a football match took place though evidence is scant. If it did, what a pity it wasn’t a game played for two years each way. Football could then truly have justified its claim to be ‘the beautiful game’. The sad irony is that this spontaneous outburst of goodwill lasted for only a few hours and foresaw four years of senseless slaughter and destruction resulting in the deaths of tens of millions, leaving much of central Europe as a vast wasteland.

Against this background the peaceful death of one man some 6000 miles away seems relatively insignificant, but John Muir was no ordinary human being, for his legacy was the prevention of even more senseless destruction in the name of so-called ‘progress’. Although much of what he preached about the conservation of our natural heritage only came into being after his passing, nevertheless his influence is felt to this day. And we can be thankful for that.

It is said that ‘history teaches fools’ and ‘those who forget it (history) are doomed to repeat it’. And doomed we might have been if not for this eccentric genius and a remarkable three days spent by two men in the wilderness of North America.

John Muir was born in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland in 1838 and emigrated with his family to the United States of America in 1848. Throughout his life he developed an ever-growing fondness wild places and wild creatures. Largely self-taught this son of East Lothian became a poet, philosopher, preacher, inventor and mountaineer, as well as an expert in the fields of botany and geology.

His journeys into the vast wilderness of 19th.Century America brought him to discover the oneness and order of the natural world in which ‘every rock, plant and animal is a golden thread in the infinite fabric of life, and from which no fibre can be pulled without spoiling the whole.’

‘When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with all the other stars, all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty. This show is eternal.’

This extraordinary man, regarded today as the ‘Father of Conservation’, was truly ahead of his time. His passionate concern for the future of our planet, allied to a unique clarity of thought and expression, enabled him to influence the world’s most powerful men. His legacy in the form of America’s National Parks is there for all to see and enjoy. There is no actual record of their conversations, but perhaps by sprinkling a little Muir-esque imagination into what we do know, we can glean how they might have felt and corresponded.

John Muir

y3y5y4y2

        Scenes from Yosemite

The following postcard was written by John Muir to his wife Louisa at their family home in Martinez, California. Muir was spending two nights in the wilderness of Yosemite with President Teddy Roosevelt.

 letter

It is generally understood that it was this ‘adventure’ that persuaded Roosevelt to introduce the concept of ‘National Parks’ in the USA.

The following postcard was written by President Roosevelt to John Muir a few weeks after he returned to Washington:

2

The John Muir tartan was created in 1998 by David McGill for the 150th anniversary of John Muir’s arrival in the United States and was launched at a reception in the San Francisco Bay area City of Pleasanton in 2002 when Muir’s grand-son accepted an inscribed tartan clock and picture frame on behalf of the Muir family. It is registered on the Scottish Tartan Register No.2682.

The colours in the John Muir Tartan were chosen to represent what Muir first saw, and invited us all to see, long before man walked on the moon: the earth spinning silently through infinite space.” The postcards to his wife Lousia, depicted above were distributed at the exhibition – “In the Footsteps of John Muir” –  by Scottish photographer Ken Paterson at Federal Hall in New York City in April 2013. Framed copies of Ken Paterson’s photographs are available and can be seen at www.kenpaterson.co.uk. The latest exhibition in his ‘Famous Scots’ series is on Thomas Blake Glover and is currently on display in the Scottish Parliament.

 

 

 

Fair Trade: the birth of the Tartan Tees

09 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by internationaltartans in All about tartans, Tartan Tees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cotton, ethical trading, Fair Trade, Fair Trade Nation, Fair Trade Tartan, Fair Trade tartan tee shirt, fair trading, scotland, tartan, tee shirts, World Fair Trade Day

We were delighted to be involved in Edinburgh’s first Fair Trade Fiesta in May 2014 – the celebration of World Fair Trade Day and of Scotland’s status as only the second country in the world to be awarded Fair Trade Nation status.  It was only logical to design the Fair Trade tartan!

Fairtrade tartan

But the design of the tartan was just the beginning…… what about using the tartan design to raise some funds for Scotland’s Fair Trade legacy? We had many ideas (some of which might yet see the light of day) but the one we liked best was the idea of a Fair Trade tartan tee shirt, using the design in two ways: as a tartan globe, since the Fair Trade movement is worldwide and the ever popular ‘I heart‘ legend and sourcing fairly traded, ethically produced tee shirts, printed in the heart of Edinburgh.  And here they are!

i heart fairtrade mock up Fairtrade Mock Uo

They are available in both adult and children’s sizes and we are, as usual operating the ‘ten per cent solution’ to our sales: ten per cent of our proceeds will be donated to a Fair Trade fund to continue the legacy of the first fantastic Fair Trade Fiesta!

Here is the heart tee shirt modelled by a teenager of our acquaintance………..DSC_7862

You can order this and many other Tartan Tees here http://www.internationaltartans.co.uk/#%21fair-trade/cg47

← Older posts
Follow A collection of International Tartans on WordPress.com

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Like us

Like us

Contact us

info@internationaltartans.co.uk
www.internationaltartans.co.uk
0044 7717 538 487​

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy