Celtic Lightning: How the Scots and the Irish Created a Canadian Nation

by Ken McGoogan

With Celtic Lightning, bestselling author Ken McGoogan plunges into the perpetual debate about Canadian roots and identity: Who do we think we are? He argues that Canadians have never investigated the demographic reality that informs this book—the fact that more than nine million Canadians claim Scottish or Irish heritage. Did the ancestors of more than one quarter of our population arrive without cultural baggage? No history, no values, no vision? Impossible.

McGoogan writes that, to understand who we are and where we are going, Canadians must look to cultural genealogy. He builds on the work of Richard Dawkins, who contends that ideas and values (“memes”) can be transmitted from one generation to another. Scottish and Irish immigrants arrived in Canada with values they had learned from their forebears. And they did so early enough, and in sufficient numbers, to shape an emerging Canadian nation.

McGoogan highlights five of the values they imported as foundational: independence, audacity, democracy, pluralism and perseverance. He shows that these values are thriving in contemporary Canada, and traces their evolution through the lives of thirty prominent individuals—heroes, rebels, poets, inventors, pirate queens—who played formative roles in the histories of Scotland and Ireland. Two charged traditions came together and gave rise to a Canadian nation. That is when Celtic lightning struck.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Canada, Scotland

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 22, 2015

Reviews

[Mary Soderstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken McGoogan writes good books. Books that are so carefully researched and well written that you don't even realize just how much you are learning! This one covers about 1000 years of history in Canada as well as Scotland and Ireland, with fascinating stories of people who made the world we know today. Highly recommended.

[Andy Pandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising and informative. And surprisingly informative.
We have this national myth in Canada in which we were formed by the two solitudes of the English and the French. Hooey.
The Scots and 1st Nations were arguably as important. Certainly the latter. What an evisceration of history that is only now being corrected, to minimize the historical contributions of the 1st Nations to this country that they inhabited first, that is named after a Huron-Iroquois word (Kanata) for "village."
And that is not what this book is about. But it is in that spirit, in recognizing the Scots, and also Irish contributions. Thank you Ken McGoogan for helping set the record straight!

[Mila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking. Who knew the Scots and Irish played such an important role in the formation of Canada? I like his style of writing and as this book is essentially a brief biography of 30 people, I appreciated the way McGoogan introduced each chapter with a paragraph summarizing the highlights, allowing me the option to skim through the rest if I so desired; which I must confess I did for a few lives.

My favourite guy is John Knox, who wanted all Scots to learn to read so that they could interpret the Bible for themselves. I really like the way McGoogan puts it:

"And democracy is what Knox fostered with his emphasis on literacy and education. Why he acted is secondary. If he viewed education as subsidiary to religion, the end result, the slow-motion explosion of literacy and analytical thinking, is what signifies. A theological education develops the ability to handle abstractions and clarify arguments. Soon enough, Scottish farmers were disputing the fine points of scripture and winning arguments by quoting the Bible chapter and verse. From there they moved to philosophy, literature, and science."

My favourite gal is Grace O'Malley aka The Pirate Queen - just because she was a PIRATE.

I learned why Robert Burns is so important to Canada and McGoogan states "No other poet, and in fact no other writer, period, has inspired anything approaching this level of commemoration in Canada." However; I did wish McGoogan would have translated the poem that apparently "Burns speaks in the voice of the common man, illustrating the sentiment that inspires this affection:"

Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, and stares, and a' that,
Though hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that.
For a' that, and a' that,
His ribband, star and a' that,
The man of independent mind,
He looks and laughs at a' that.

Naturally, I also came away with another book to put on my to read list; Ulysses by James Joyce who "was honoured by Time magazine as one of the one hundred most important people of the twentieth century."

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the individual chapters in the book and learned things about Scottish, Irish and Canadian history. The chapters stand well on their own and the writing is always interesting and colourful.

But does the author demonstrate his thesis that the Scots and Irish forged a "Canadian nation"? No, not even close. The book is arranged as a string of pearls and the thread of the argument isn't strong enough to pull them together. Good stories, poor historiography.

[Alex Mulligan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first dive into McGoogan, and a good place to start! A thought provoking book that is based on McGoogan’s thesis that Canadian ideals- democracy, audacity, perseverance etc- are handed down from the Irish and Scottish tradition. The book is essentially 30 mini-biographies about Irish, Scottish, and Canadians (of Irish or Scottish descent) who influenced current Canadian ideals.

Beyond McGoogan’s interesting thesis, the book is packed with fascinating stories of those who contributed to Irish, Scottish, and/ or Canadian history. There were many familiar names but many more unfamiliar names of Celtic heros.

At times some of the biographies felt dry and long, but for the most part, this was an informative and interesting book. I think McGoogan is correct in thinking Celtic traits have influenced Canadian collective culture.

[Diane Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well.......I had no idea how little I knew about the country I was born in and have lived in since birth [a long time ago!] For instance, I have been to the Palliser Hotel in Calgary many times and had NO IDEA there was an actual person named John Palliser and the accomplishments achieved by this man.
Most of the other names in this book I had at least heard of. :|
This is a very well-written and extremely well-researched, informative and interesting story about how our country came to be and those people and their ideas who figured prominently in its creation.
It can be a bit dry in places but sometimes you have to adopt a "just the facts, ma'am" approach to getting those facts out there.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Rod Endacott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great theme, that of how Canada is largely based on Scots and Irish qualities, but I found the writing dry. It foundered in details a history buff would enjoy. I really enjoyed learning about some of the characters "behind" Canada, in particular the "grandfather" of British Columbia, Sir James Douglas, a Scots/Creole married to to half Cree woman. Having grown up in Vancouver, BC, it helped me understand my pluralistic roots . . . "you're from elsewhere, welcome!" And, he championed first peoples rights.

[Raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I felt the author was trying to stretch famous Scotspeople and Irishpeople to some connection to Canada, even if a bit thin. I was hoping to read more about Irish-Canadians and Scottish-Canadians who built the country and not writers or politicians from Scotland and Ireland with a tenuous relationship with Canada.

Still, it had Thomas d'Arcy McGee at least.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

That delightful and clever place where history, geography, biography, memoir, and travelogue congeal into a single, eminently readable, book. Thank you, uncle Ken, for the fun romp through Canada's Celtic-laden place in the world.

[Chris MacDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this more but it just isn't that compelling. I'd rather the real narrative of the immigration and creation of Canadian culture and society with such strong celtic roots. Instead it tells stories of different famous celts (some in Canada, many not).

[Dave Oram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and name drops Kelowna's O'Flannigans pub once.

[Mystic Faerie ✨️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5⭐, rounded up)

[Colleen Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful patriotic, feel-good, informative book on Celtic-Canadian heritage. I didn't quite buy into Ken's thesis in regards to showing how Irish and Scottish individuals who never came to Canada, or visited but were not citizens, displayed or helped to originate core Canadian values. These individuals were still fascinating to read about, but I think it's a stretch to say that someone like William Wallace informs the cultural identity those of us of Celtic ancestry have today.

The book is filled with so much research, but Ken keeps each section, and each figure/group within the section, light, short, and entertaining. The photographs taken by himself and his wife, Sheena, really personalize the text.

[Lynne Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a history book that groups together all sorts of Irish and Scottish people who changed the world while they were alive, this one is for you.

This book is more of a collection of mini-biographies than a detailed description on how the Scots and the Irish changed Canada, but each individual written about certainly did shape the world during their time, and often you can see those changes right here in Canada.

A really interesting read.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed reading Celtic Lightning I did not see for the most part how most people written of in this book really helped to forge Canada as a nation. I think for the most part Ken McGoogan can make this claim only in the most tenuous of terms. I would have much preferred the book to actually featured people of Scottish or Irish backgrounds who helped to forge Canada, like the few he did actually mention Palliser, McGhee and James Douglas.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a proud Canadian, fantastic read. I highly recommend this book to all who would like to know about the intrinsic factors that make Scots, Irish, Canadians , do what we do. In the process of reading the five values that the author uses to guide his book, infuses into your psyche. A very good book . Truly enjoyed my reading experience, kudos.

[Christopher Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a review of the Celtic influences that hlped to create Canada, this cannot be beaten. But the repetitions that occur throughout the book, which may have been because the book was cobbled together from other books by the author, distracted me enough to lower my rating.

[Georgina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Cool to learn Scottish and Irish history and how that relates to my values as a Canadian. It's a long read so I broke it down to only a couple pages a day but otherwise loved it.

[Joan]

I loved it - the story of several Celtic strong characters and their contributions to the world.