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Clan Gatherings - Learned Kindred of Currie

The Clan Currie Society, an American-based, international, non-profit cultural and educational organization, is the preeminent Scottish-American cultural society in preserving and promoting highland heritage at Scottish Games, ethnic festivals, as well as community groups and classrooms. The Society has over 3,000 members worldwide that gather via the Society’s website (www.clancurriegathering.org) and at special events and clan gatherings. The Society was originally formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1959 to further the knowledge and appreciation of the MacMhuirich (pronounced MacVurich) bardic dynasty. Today, the organization is a respected producer of outstanding programs and events to honor Scotland’s rich culture and ancestry. The Society’s signature events include The Pipes of Christmas – a musical celebration of Christmas performed on bagpipes and brass, harp and fiddle, and organ – and the annual observance of Tartan Day on Ellis Island. The MacMhuirichs served for over 700 years as professional poets to the Lords of the Isles and later to the MacDonalds of Clanranald among other prominent Highland clans and families. The Red Book of Clanranald, one of Gaelic Scotland’s literary treasures, was penned by successive generations of the MacMhuirich family. In more contemporary times, MacMhuirich poetry and short stories have been chronicled in Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica, Angus MacLellan’s Stories of South Uist, Thomas Owen Clancy’s The Triumph Tree (Scotland’s Earliest Poetry 550-1350) and An Laebhar Mor – The Great Book of Gaelic. The ancient and historic MacMhuirich name and its anglicized equivalent Currie can be found throughout the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Society’s scholarship program includes the Alex Currie Memorial Scholarship for Bagpipe, administered by the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts in Nova Scotia; the Pipe Major Kevin Ray Blandford Memorial Scholarship, administered by the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, Scotland; the Private Bill Millin Memorial Piping Scholarship administered by Lyon College in Batesville, AR; and the Col. William McMurdo Currie Memorial Scholarship for the Clarsach (Scottish Harp) administered by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. These scholarships are awarded annually to deserving young students. Plans are now underway to institute several additional scholarships for students wishing to further their studies in music, poetry, and dance. The Clan Currie Society is the Title Sponsor of the National Scottish Harp Championship of America. The Society also sponsors the annual Ladies Caber Toss Competition at the Cowal Highland Games in Scotland and the Harpist of the Day competition at the Richmond (VA) Highland Games and Celtic Festival. Clan Currie is now venturing into the field of documentary filmmaking and traveling exhibition production with a concentration on Scottish history and the arts. Past exhibitions have included, "A Celebration of Tartan," "The Life and Legacy of John Muir," "Scotland's Gifts," and "Loyalty and Rebellion: The Jacobites and America." The Society received one of its many Telly Awards for production excellence for “The Crafter’s Song”, their documentary film on National Tartan Day narrated by Academy Award-winning actor, Cliff Robertson. To commemorate their 10th annual observance of Tartan Day on Ellis Island, the Clan Currie Society commissioned the design of the new Ellis Island Tartan. The tartan is intended for the descendants of all whose ancestors came to America through Ellis Island regardless of ethnic origin. The Society has been recognized as the Honored Clan at a number of Highland Games and gatherings, including the Brodick Games on the Isle of Arran, the Bute Games on the Isle of Bute, and the Clanjamfry Scottish Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. The Arms of the Society were granted by the Court of the Lord Lyon, Edinburgh, Scotland on June 30, 2006. The star, or mullet, is a heraldic symbol frequently found on individual Currie family coats of arms in Scotland. The thistle wreath, or chaplet, represents the international community the Society has created in “promoting Scottish heritage in general and Clan Currie heritage in particular, involving domestic and international matters.”