Arts of Independence by Alexander Moffat and Alan Riach sampler

introduction
division also emphasised this idea that Scotland was no more than a
region. Our institutional education system in Scotland neglected and
oppressed literature in the Gaelic and Scots languages (with one glaring
exception), not to mention works of art and music by Scottish artists and
composers. Things changed radically in the second half of the 20th
century, from the establishment of the Scottish Arts Council in 1967 to
that of the National Theatre of Scotland in 2006, though there is no Scottish
National Theatre building to house the company. Art galleries established
in Stornoway, in Orkney, the new Shetland Museum in Lerwick –
all these new initiatives since the Second World War herald new possi bilities,
new beginnings in particular localities far from the major cities. Yet the
legacy of long-standing institutional neglect of, and hostility to, the full
inheritance of the arts of Scotland is still with us. Perhaps it is the most
difficult of all the obstacles we have to overcome to find the sense of value
that would endorse and justify the validity of Scottish independence.
That is what this book sets out to do.
It begins with the cultural argument for Scottish independence set out
boldly, as it was in the newspaper article and the conference lecture. This
argument is followed by the first dialogue between us, prompted by Sandy
Moffat’s response to Alan Riach’s essay. The first dialogue explores those
questions not addressed by the cultural argument, disposing of some that
are almost clichés in the public discussion, pausing on others that require
further thought. Familiar lines everyone has heard about the economic
argument and whether or not Scotland and England are ‘Better Together’
or ‘Stronger Apart’, and the paradox of self-suppression in Scotland’s
story, what some have termed ‘inferiorism’, compared to the political and
cultural self-projection of the United States after 1945, the various forms
of relationship between national governments, the arts and people generally,
are all discussed, and we end Part One with an evocation of an exemplary
day festival in the Scottish border town of Langholm.
Part Two looks at the Union, from the Union of the crowns in 1603,
to the Union of the parliaments in 1707, to the fruits the Union brought,
financially and culturally, through the 18th and 19th centuries, to the rise
of the British Empire and the central significance of the Union to all that
the British Empire means. We explore aspects of this significance through
facts, details, anecdotes, personal experiences, and an overall picture of
accumulated details giving an impression of what the relation between
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