Once again I bring you an article written by Cousin Pat MacAdam for the Cape Breton Magazine. Many of you wrote saying how much you enjoyed his piece in the Winter Issue:

By Pat Mac Adam

Charles de Gaulle looked down his ample patrician nose at his fellow countrymen and pronounced the French Republic ungovernable. In what must have been a moment of utter pique and sheer frustration, he exclaimed: "How can one govern a country that has 350 kinds of cheese?"

What might he have said had he been a local politician in industrial Cape Breton? Someone once described Eastern Nova Scotia as: "rainy days, Holy Days and MacDonalds."

At one time, DOSCO, the coal and steel company, had 650 MacDonalds on the payroll and 150 of them were named John.

One day, a car left Glace Bay headed for Sydney with five John MacDonalds in it - Jack "Spud", Johnny "Angus Summer John", Johnny "Flat", Johnny "Billy Big Archie" and Johnny "Billy Allan Cape North". Behind them, in a second car, were two more John MacDonalds - Jack "The Snake" and "Antigonish Jack."

Nicknames were the only means of singling out the many MacDonald families.

The late Tony Mackenzie lived in Egerton, near Merigomish in Pictou County. He was a retired history teacher who collected and published Scots' folklore. He attended St Francis Xavier University "off and on" and left to work on hydro lines and in construction when funds ran out. He earned an Arts degree in 1947 and 12 years later an Education degree.

He joked that he attended university for three terms - "Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower".

Tony has two modest best-sellers on Maritime bookstore shelves and a third in the oven. His history, THE HARVEST TRAIN, is about Maritimers who rode the trains to western Canada for the grain harvest. His second book is titled THE IRISH IN CAPE BRETON. His third chronicles visits of Gypsies to Atlantic Canada.

He collected nicknames.

His favourite was the "Pickle Arse" Petries. The story goes that a Petrie was sitting on a barrel of pickled herring, fell into a political argument and then into the barrel of brine when the wooden cover caved in. He was wedged there firmly for some time and when he was finally extricated his posterior was pickled.

The "Pickle Arse" Petries are not to be confused with the "Proud Arse" Macleans who were the very first family in Iona to build an outdoor privy.

Most nicknames reflect an ancestor, a physical characteristic, place of birth, a deformity or a misfortune.

Johnny "The Nun" worked at a convent. Billy "Concrete" had a son nicknamed Carl "Reddi-Mix". "Jim the Bear" had a son named "Colin the Cub". "Waterloo Dan" was a miner who had been branded in his youth. When he stripped in the colliery washhouse, there, printed backwards across his cheeks was "Waterloo No. 2", a campaign ribbon he won when he backed into a red-hot stove.

History does not record how "Rotten Archie" came by his nickname. It could be from the Gaelic word "rotan" that means red-faced. "Hughie the Crock" could have been a boozer or his nickname could be from "cnoc", the Gaelic word for hill pronounced "crok".

One can only wonder how "Big Angus the Clap" got his name. To give him the benefit of the doubt, the Gaelic word "clab" means garrulous.

Then there are the "Split the Winds". Their nickname was earned when the matriarch, without intending to, uncorked a blast of stomach gases that shook the stained glass windows and loosened the Stations of the Cross from the walls of St. Anne's Church in Glace Bay.

Tony MacKenzie's eyes gleamed when he related the story of "Five Mile Annie" who was married to "Two Storey Dan". She got her nickname because she drove her old car so slowly and he got his because he was so tall he didn't need a ladder to paint the side of a house.

One day, "Two Storey Dan" had to resort to using a ladder and fell off. When Annie heard the news her only question was: "Did he spill any paint?"

There are no footnotes anywhere to tell how the "Blue" Macdonalds earned their nickname - unless it was for their Tory upbringing.

Angus "Blue" was a much-loved local politician in Glace Bay. He parlayed his job as a miner and his volunteer work with the Canadian Legion and Little League Baseball into a lifetime position on Town Council.

Like so many of his peers, Angus "Blue" left school at an early age to help support his family. His formal education probably ended with Grade Six. Angus "Blue" was known for his propensity to mangle the English language. He could, on occasion, make Mrs. Malaprop sound like an Oxford don.

Addressing voters, he referred to them as "my dear constitionaries". If elected, he promised he would "do something about the 'LIGHTNING' system on South Street".

During a Town Council meeting he advised those present he had difficulty pronouncing Clerk Enso Antonello's name and thereafter would refer to him as "the Dago". No offence was taken by Enso or by "Blue's" fellow Councillors.

Angus "Blue" clashed once with Prime Minister Mike Pearson who was at a Legion Atlantic Command convention soft-selling his government's approach to bilingualism and biculturalism.

"Listen, Bye", he told the PM, "if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for us guys down here." Then, for good measure, he threw in a few profane broadsides.

Ever the diplomat, ever conciliatory, Mike Pearson replied: "We aren't trying to legislate language for anyone. It doesn't matter a whit what language Canadians speak - English, French or the language of the previous speaker." Angus "Blue" was smart enough to quit when he was behind.

The morning paper the next day carried a photo of Angus "Blue" wearing his blue Blazer and beret, both carrying Legion crests - with his arm around Mike Pearson's shoulder.

The Hot Stove League that gathered on fine evenings on Senator's Corner in Glace Bay under the chairmanship of "Big Cy" MacDonald was always good for the latest Angus "Blue" miscue - like the night he went to Vince MacGillivray's Funeral Parlour wearing his brand new "double-chested suit and Stilson hat" from Hughie MacIntyre's haberdashery.

Angus "Blue" didn't live to experience "NIAGARA", the new wonder drug for erectile difficulty. Nor did he ever indulge himself in one of those new fangled JU-JITSU bathtubs with water jets.

"Big Cy" and Angus "Blue" were in common agreement on one thing.

"Everybody thinks we are backward down here in Cape Breton. Did you know that last year 10,000 Upper Canadian and American tourists drove down here to see the SEVEN MILE BRIDGE?"

The Seven Mile Bridge is about 75 feet across - including approaches - and spans a narrow stream at Howie Centre. It is seven miles from Sydney.

"Now, who's backward?"

"Big Cy" was always on the lookout for an unsuspecting foil. He liked to refer to a two-storey wooden frame house just off Senator's Corner as Glace Bay's first dual-purpose complex. Currie's Funeral Parlour occupied the ground floor and Nova Scotia's Social Services Department leased the top floor.

"Ahhhhh, yes, Glace Bay's very first dual purpose facility - WELFARE upstairs and FAREWELL downstairs."

His rapt listeners collapsed in laughter when he told them about a local old age pensioner who married, for the first time, at age 83 and fathered a child.

"It was Glace Bay's first case of in vino fertilization".

One hundred Cape Bretoners are traveling on a bus heading towards Edmonton, AB, they pass a sign that says Maximum 90, 10 of them jump out.

Pat McAdam in his piece above speaks of the proliferation of persons with the Mc Donald surname in Cape Breton. The same phenomena existed in the little village of Estrella when Michael, Laughlin and their cousin, Ronald moved in. Out of 18 or so kids in the Phillip's School, 15-16 of them were sure to be Mc Donalds at any one time. Cousin Frances Santos de Dios (nee McDonald) and her daughter, Amy, recently shared with me pictures of two of Ronald's offsprings.

The top picture is Dallas Mc Donald, son of Francis, and the bottom pic. includes among others, "Buck's dad Francis in the white shirt.The bottom photo was taken sometime between 1917 and 1922

and

"The name Gillis, generally spelled Gillies (but with the same pronunciation) in Scotland, is one of the oldest and most widespread of Highland surnames. In Gaelic it is Mac Gill 'Iosa -- "son of the servant of Jesus". The middle word, "gill(e)", corresponds to the French word "garçon" in that it can mean "boy" or "servant". Since the mid-1800s in Scotland the term "ghillie" has meant a hunting or fishing guide, another type of servant.

Some authorities claim that the name Malise, which appears in Scottish documents from the twelfth century on, derives from Mac Gill 'Iosa. Others contend that it comes from Maol Iosa -- "the tonsured one of Jesus". In either case, the name has obvious ecclesiastical origins.

There is another tradition that the name comes from an early Christian missionary in the Arisaig area, a certain St. Elias. This is highly doubtful but it does hint that the Gillises have been there much longer than the MacDonalds. It is very likely that the name derives from various men who served the Church in some lay capacity. One should remember, however, that many of the parochial clergy of the pre-Reformation Highlands did marry: hence, names such as MacTaggart (son of the priest), MacPherson (son of the parson), MacNab (son of the abbot) and MacVicar. After all, they were pretty far from Rome and could avoid some of the papal regulations!

In almost all of the various "Clans and Tartans" books the Gillises are listed solely as a sept in the Badenoch/Strathspey area who are a part of Clan MacPherson. As a result, many non-MacPherson Gillises in Nova Scotia and elsewhere wear the MacPherson tartan unwittingly. True, there is a Gillies sept in the Badenoch/Strathspey area who are a part of Clan Chattan but they have no connection with the West Coast and Hebridean Gillieses except for the common surname. Almost all the Gillises in eastern Canada are descendants of emigrants from Moidart, Morar, Skye and the Outer Hebrides. Most of these people would have come from MacDonald of Clanranald's and MacDonnell of Glengarry's territories (South and North Morar). It is only in the past few years that theses Gillises have been listed as members of Clan Donald and their home areas indicated on the Clan Donald maps.

It is only in Glengarry County, Ontario, that the older form M(a)cGillis has survived. The name was brought there by settlers from Morar, many of whose relatives settled in Antigonish County and the Margaree area of Cape Breton. In 1851, there were 359 M(a)cGillises in Glengarry - born in that Ontario county, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Scotland. The first M(a)cGillises to settle in Glengarry were veterans of the Revolutionary War, some of whom had served in Butler's Rangers.

Many of the early settlers in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia spelled their name at times as either Gillis or Gillies. Today there is only one family that I know of in Cape Breton who spell their name "Gillies". These are the relatives of a late settler, William Gillies (1827 - February 13, 1909), who came to Little Mabou or Colindale from Earnasaig, Morar, in 1865. Two of his older sisters had married in Scotland and had emigrated to Glengarry many years before. Both are recorded in the parish of St. Raphael's by their maiden name "McGillis". Margaret Ann Gillis, co-compiler of this family record, is a grand-daughter of this William Gillies and the Hon. Allan J. MacEachen is one of his grandsons.. (N. B.: The premiere Gaelic bard of early Glengarry was Anna Gillies, who also came from Morar.)

Most of the Gillises of Cape Breton, Antigonish and P.E.I., as well as the M(a)cGillises of Glengarry, are Roman Catholics. However, there are Presbyterian Gillises in Cape Breton and P.E.I., most of whose ancestors came from the Isle of Skye. The Catholic Gillises came mainly from Glengarry's and Clanranald's lands, as Fr. Allan MacMillan points out in To the Hill of Boisdale when he states that most settlers with this name arrived from Moidart and Morar, with a few others from Barra or elsewhere.

There were some Gillises in the Lac Megantic area of Eastern Quebec who came from the Isle of Lewis. At one time their minister was the Rev. Donald Gillies who grew up on St. Kilda, the outermost of the Western Isles. This island was evacuated in the early 1930s and there are very few native St. Kildans living today. My sons and I had the pleasure of meeting the Rev. Donald Gillies, who delivered one of the scholarly papers at the first North American Congress of Celtic Studies. This conference, held at the University of Ottawa in 1986, was organized and chaired by my late friend, Dr. Gordon W. MacLennan.

Besides Gillis, Gillies and M(a)cGillis, one may also include the name MacLeish as another variant on our Gaelic name. The noted American poet, Archibald MacLeish was very conscious, and proud, of his Hebridean background. (see: National Geographic Magazine, November, 1974, p.p. 690 - 717). In Ireland the name often appears as McAleese. The president of that country in 2000 was Mary McAleese (Maire Mhic Ghiolla Iosa).

In one rare reverse migration, a James Gillis (b. Montreal, April 7, 1802-Feb. 24, 1864) was sent to Scotland in 1817 to study for the priesthood. He was sent on to Paris, France, in 1818 and later became a bishop in Scotland. His biography is in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Another "famous" Gillis was the late Jimmy "Dubh" Gillis (July 11, 1870- Aug. 30, 1965) of Strathlorne and Upper Margaree. He was the eccentric schoolmaster-poet who published several books, among them The Cape Breton Giant. He once printed the enigmatic statement, "I was twice in the United States, I do not say so for the sake of boast." Besides being an off-beat scholar, Jimmy "Dubh" was a Gaelic singer, a fiddler and a piper. One hopes that his music was better than his poetry!

John H. Gillis "Angus H." of Southwest Margaree gained national attention when he walked across Canada in 1906. He left Sydney on February 3rd and arrived in Vancouver at midnight on September 24th. He then joined the Vancouver Police Force. John H. died of TB at the young age of 29.

This is but a cursory account of our surname. Much more could, and should, be done on this topic. Let is suffice to say that our name, in its various guises, is one to share in pride!

The name Gillis or Mac Gill'Iosa translates readily into Arabic as "Abd el Mesiah".

There is a beautiful Gillis tartan available. It was devised for the Gillieses of Clan Chattan and is fairly recent. Personally, I always wear the Ancient Clanranald tartan.

Jimmy "Dubh" Gillis once taught at Judique Intervale School, my last font of knowledge before leaving for the wilds of Upper Canada. No, I wasn't one of his students!"

Allan J. Gillis wrote this piece for Stephen Gillis' home page.Click here for Stephen's Page: Stephen Gillis

You Know You Live In Cape Breton When:

1.Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway;

2. "Vacation" means going to Halifax for the weekend;

3. You measure distance in hours;

4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once;

5. You often switch from "Heat" to "A/C" in the same day;

6. You use a down comforter in the summer;

7. Your grandparents drive at 100 km/h through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching;

8. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events;

9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked;

10. You think of the major food groups as deer, meat, fish and Keiths;

11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them;

12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the Canadian Tire store at any given time;

13. You design your kids Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit;

. 14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow;

15. You think lingerie is tube socks and flannel pajamas;

16. You know all 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction;

17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when you're in a hurry, because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town; And finally, You Know You Live In Nova Scotia When.......

18. You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your

friends who live in Cape Breton.

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