Remembering the canoe-borne anti-nuclear protesters of the Eskimo Republic

Ewan McVicar

Just a tap on the shoulder from the long arm of coincidence, perhaps, but it does seem timely that, just as the National Museum of Scotland has unveiled its Cold War Scotland exhibition, veteran folk-revivalist, songwriter and publisher Ewan McVicar has transferred his book The Eskimo Republic: Scots Political Folk Song in Action 1951-1999 on to a freely accessible website.

With its copious resources of recordings, videos and interviews with singers, songwriters and activists, The Eskimo Republic provides invaluable insight into the development of Scots political song, including those from the period, also documented in the museum exhibition, when sustained protests were prompted by the arrival in 1961 of American Polaris submarines and their depot ship the USS Proteus in the Holy Loch.

These fervent, sometimes canoe-borne protests gave rise to typically witty and acerbic songs such as The Eskimo Republic and Ding Dong Dollar, both of which emerged from the industrious political song-writing collective established by Morris Blythman under the pseudonym of Thurso Berwick.

McVicar, now 83 and based in Cromarty, is enshrined in the Scots Trad Music Hall of fame for his contribution to traditional culture, not least for educational aids such the influential Scotland’s Songs website he created for Education Scotland. As he writes in his introduction to The Eskimo Republic, “Scots folk song has always included a stinging dose of fervent political protest and social comment, but from 1951 on the dosage has increased and become more scouring and scourging in its intent and effect.”

According to the folklore of Scottish anti-nuclear resistance, when confronted by canoe-borne protestors as the Proteus entered the Holy Loch, its captain dismissed them as “just a bunch of goddam Eskimos”. McVicar can’t confirm that the American actually said that, “but it’s still a great story”.

This prompted the republican-minded Blythman, aka Thurso Berwick – who as a teacher at Alan Glen’s school fostered McVicar and many another talent through his Ballad and Blues Club – to hijack that “Eskimos” label, as McVicar explains. “Morris said, ‘There are Eskimos in Alaska and in Russia and Canada and I never heard of any of them being involved in a war, never mind starting one. So let’s be Eskimos.’”

The result was The Eskimo Republic:

Where there is nae class and there is nae boss

Nae kings nor queens and damn the loss

When you get boozed up for a six-month' doss

In the Eskimo Republic.

These days, “Inuit” may be the approved term, but Eskimos they remain in the annals of Scottish anti-nuclear protest. Another gem from that same songwriting collective was Ding Dong Dollar, with its reprise of “Oh ye cannae spend a dollar when ye’re deid…”

“One of the key things about the Scottish songs is their use of humour,” says McVicar. “I remember someone saying that when the CND marches went from Aldermaston to London, people would join the Scottish contingent because they had the best songs. The classic song in England was Don’t You Hear the H-bomb’s Thunder?, written by science fiction writer John Brunner. In Scotland we had, Ding Dong Dollar.”

In the Seventies, McVicar met the late Ian Davison, another prolific songmaker and secretary at that time of Scottish CND, and they went on to form the Scottish CND Buskers: “We would support demos by writing and singing new songs and going down to Faslane Peace Camp and singing them there.”

Blythman and Davison may no longer be with us but at least one of the “Eskimos”, Jim McLean, is still writing songs that are being absorbed into the tradition.

The Eskimo Republic website, however deals with far more than that Cold War period, ranging through songs celebrating the audacious reclaiming of the Stone of Destiny in 1950 as well as 17th and 18th century Scots political songs, Jacobite or otherwise. As McVicar says: “These songs are part and parcel of our history.”

For further information visit https://theeskimorepublic.website and www.nms.ac.uk