Embassy Row

Great Scots

Sir Sean Connery, the world’s best-known Scotsman, arrives in Washington today to celebrate National Tartan Day, an annual commemoration of Scottish-American heritage.

Mr. Connery is part of a delegation that includes members of the Scottish Parliament and a leading Scottish member of the British Parliament. British Ambassador David Manning will host his first Tartan Day reception tomorrow, carrying on a tradition begun under his predecessor, Christopher Meyer. Meanwhile, members of Congress are working on a House Tartan Day resolution.

All of this activity is little known outside Scotland and the Scottish-American community, but hundreds of Scottish-heritage groups are working to make the annual celebration as big as St. Patrick’s Day. Tartan Day is celebrated in large and small activities throughout the United States, where an estimated 11 million citizens claim Scottish ancestry.

In April 2002, nearly 10,000 bagpipers marched in New York City in a celebration dedicated to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks six months earlier. President Bush last year sent a Tartan Day message to Scottish soldiers in Basra, Iraq.

In Washington, Sen. Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican who introduced a Tartan Day resolution in the Senate in 1998, has hosted two celebrations on the West Terrace of the Capitol. Mr. Connery was the featured guest at the April 2001 ceremony.

Mr. Connery, best known outside Scotland for his definitive portrayal of James Bond, is recognized in political circles for his advocacy of Scottish independence and his support of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Angus Robertson, an SNP member of the British Parliament who is accompanying Mr. Connery, told Embassy Row that Scotland and the United States are “inextricably linked through history.”

At least 11 American presidents and about half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had Scottish roots. April 6 commemorates the date in 1320 when Scottish nobles signed the Declaration of Arbroath, often called the Scottish declaration of independence, which influenced American patriots more than four centuries later.

The Tartan Day delegation also includes Jack McConnell, the first minister of the Scottish Parliament; George Reid, the Parliament’s presiding officer; and Finance Minister Andrew Kerr. Mr. Reid, who also will attend celebrations in New York, had to cancel a morning news conference planned for tomorrow at the National Press Club, but Mr. Robertson still is scheduled to speak at Georgetown University’s Rigg’s Library at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

“I am honored to join great ambassadors for Scotland like Sir Sean Connery in helping promote Tartan Day in the United States,” Mr. Robertson said.

“This helps cement the long-standing links of our two countries and hopefully will convince many of you to visit Scotland and enjoy the golf, [Scotch] whisky, history, beautiful scenery and much, much more.”

Aznar at Georgetown

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will take a teaching position at Georgetown University after he steps down later this month, after his party’s defeat in the March 14 elections.

Mr. Aznar, a close ally of President Bush in the war in Iraq, will serve as an associate professor and teach international relations and political studies, a government spokesman said yesterday in Madrid.

Although the two-term prime minister was not a candidate for re-election, his party was defeated by the Socialists three days after the Madrid train bombings, blamed on the al Qaeda terrorist network.

“I am greatly looking forward to this opportunity with Georgetown University,” he said in a statement.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.