When you’re six-foot-six and carry a sword, who cares if your favorite color is purple?
Terry Kilpatrick has loads of Celtic family history, and he’ll tell you there’s more to his traditional clothing than meets the eye.
By Karen Cotton
kcotton@wyomingnews.com
Terry Kilpatrick towers over six feet six inches tall - a funny sight when coupled with a kilt.
But he wears his family’s colors proudly as well as the heavy two-handed claymore sword strapped to his back.
Much like Kilpatrick, other Scots and Irishmen and women will dress to the nines in traditional garb for the three-day Cheyenne Celtic Musical Arts Festival.
The festival takes place in downtown Cheyenne at the Cheyenne Depot Plaza.
Kilpatrick offered to demonstrate how a Scot draws a blade.
His sword made a loud clinking sound as he pulled it from the scabbard.
Apparently, traditional Scottish warriors were little used in office settings as he nearly took out the wall behind him with the long, hefty blade.
He showed how the three-inch-wide sword once was used in combat to run someone through and said the edges weren’t sharpened because they would crack upon impact.
Kilpatrick likes buying items that relate to his family heritage, which is why he got hooked on the Estes Park Longs Peak Scottish and Irish Highland Festival a while ago.
“I wanted one here,” he said of Cheyenne’s Celtic Musical Arts Festival that is in its second year and has doubled in size.
The other two originators of the festival are Mary and Jim Angell, along with the help of Bob Bradshaw, projects director for the City of Cheyenne.
Jim and Kilpatrick are both members of Musical Chairs, one of the festival’s headliners, along with Ceol Ceili, Canned Haggis, The Molly Magpies, Gobs O’ Phun and Claddagh.
“I’ve been in Musical Chairs forever,” Kilpatrick said.
He plays the bass guitar and a small accordion in the group.
He wrote the song, “Emerald Shore” that is loosely based on Scottish/Irish history.
The band recorded it a month ago, but their album won’t be out until next year.
Kilpatrick said that there’s enough of a Scottish and Irish influence in Cheyenne that he knew a festival like this would fly here.
He said he and a friend took out a Wyoming map once and took a look at street names and places.
Names popped out such as Douglas, Campbell and Scottsbluff that definitely have Celtic roots.
He continued to explain the significance of his garb.
That’s not a purse he’s wearing at the front of his kilt - it’s a sporran, a flask for Scotch. In the middle of the flask, he pulled out a built-in shot glass.
The Scots definitely do some things right.
His sock dagger has a purple jewel on top of it and is called a Skean Dhu Dirk Dagger. Purple is Kilpatrick’s favorite color. And as long as he has a dagger, who’s going to argue the point?
“When you wear these, you put them in the sock of your dominant hand, so mine lies in the left,” he said.
Every bit of his clothing represents the clans he belongs to.
“That’s why people seem mismatched, they’re representing their families,” Kilpatrick said.
His last name, Kilpatrick is a sept of two clans, Clan Douglass and Clan Colquhoun.
A sept is a subdivision of a clan that a clan chief adopts as their clan.
Kilpatrick’s background is full of Scottish and Irish clans: Colquhoun, Douglas, Patterson, Bell and O’Maoaine.
“There is more to our clothing than meets the eye,” he said.
His tam, or hat, had a pin in it with the phrase, “Sije Puis,” which means, “If I Can.” That’s his Clan motto.
“I can’t wait for the festival to get here: I’m like a kid during Christmas,” Kilpatrick said. “We put so much time into planning and getting it all together. I can’t wait to see it unfold.”
The Cheyenne Celtic
Musical Arts Festival
The former Union Pacific Depot is where Celts will be able to find out genealogical information about their clans.
The festival will include Scottish and Irish dancing with local and regional dancing groups.
Stonehouse Grille from Fort Collins will sell authentic haggis at the event.
The Plains Hotel will sell Scotch eggs, which Jim said, are hardboiled eggs that are packed in sausage and fried on a stick.
The Plains Hotel also will host Scotch tasting on June 30.
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle’s Fridays on the Plaza concert series will feature the Indulgers, a band with heavy Celtic influences.
Mary said people in Cheyenne haven’t witnessed a calling of the clans before, which will take place June 29.
Historically speaking, clans would be called together to unite for a war or something of an equally important nature, Jim said.
The calling of the clans involved a big bonfire and each chieftain of the clan would be called to the fire.
But that was Europe - and several centuries ago. Here in Cheyenne, they’ll have a small fire that will be regulated by the fire department.
This Celtic festival also includes free music workshops from bodhran, or Irish drum making, to fiddle playing, which will all take place at the Plains Hotel on June 30.
Cheyenne Celtic Musical Arts Festival schedule
When: June 29-July 1
Where: Cheyenne Depot Plaza
June 29
5:30-8 p.m. Wyoming Tribune-Eagle’s Fridays on the Plaza concert series with The Indulgers
8:30-9:30 p.m. Canned Haggis
9:30-10 p.m. Calling of the Clans with Bob Armstrong
10-11 p.m. Canned Haggis and Musical Chairs jam
June 30
10 a.m. Mass pipe band marching from 17th and Capitol to the Cheyenne Depot Plaza. A Stage (Main Plaza Stage)
10:30-11 a.m. The City of Denver Pipe Band (with dancers)
11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Celtic jam
1-2 p.m. The Kilted Celts
2:15-3 p.m. Colorado El Jebel Pipes and Drums
4-6 p.m. Ceol Ceili
8-10 p.m. Musical Chairs. B Stage (under a tent)
11:15-11:45 a.m. Scottish Pride Highland Dance School of Cheyenne
11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Dep. Ray Nelson poetry reading
1:30-2:30 p.m. Reed School of Irish Dance
2:45-3:15 p.m. En Avant Dance Studio of Cheyenne
3:30-4 p.m. Kelly Davis - poetry reading
Celtic instrument workshops
1-2 p.m. Mark Hill, bodhran workshop
2-3 p.m. Sarah Clements, fiddle workshop
3 p.m. Dance workshop conducted by the Scottish
Country Dancers of Colorado
Where: All workshops are held at the Plains Hotel, 1600 Central Ave. Call 638-3311.
Scotch tasting
When: June 30, 7 p.m.
Where: Plains Hotel
More info: $40 per ticket - limited space available, tickets available at the Plains Hotel. Call 638-3311 ext. 4603.
July 1
A Stage
10-10:30 a.m. Kirking of the Tartans, Father Bob Spencer
11-11:45 a.m. Seamus & Andy (Tom and Jake McIntosh of Cheyenne) (duo)
12:30-2:30 p.m. Claddagh
3-5 p.m. Gobs of Phun B Stage
11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Molly Magpies (duo)
12:30 p.m. Jennifer and Marianne Goodland
More info: Everything at the Cheyenne Celtic Musical Arts
Festival is free with the exception of the Scotch tasting. Call the Cheyenne Depot Museum 632-3905, Jim and Mary Angell,
635-3498. The festival is sponsored by a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Cheyenne Downtown Development Authority, and the Cheyenne Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
