Caitriona commits to the wrong clan

CAITRIONA Balfe, raven-haired star of Outlander, sported an amazing diamond engagement ring at the Golden Globes. Her show, about a time-travelling nurse, is a global smash. A Floridian in Fort Lauderdale told me she had Scots ancestry ‘four or five generations back’ but that she knew nothing of Scotland other than Outlander’s ‘Scots Jacobites v English redcoats’ mythologising. Those who believe that hokum about the ’45 are also those who think Blackadder Goes Forth is a Great War documentary, but at least Outlander pulls in the tourists. Now Dublin-born, Glasgow-based Caitriona is engaged to music-scene maestro Tony McGill. McGills descend from Clan MacGill of Galloway and the surname probably derives from ‘son of the lowlander’. Fans might have liked Caitriona to hook up with a scion of rebellious Clan Fraser. Instead, chances are Redcoat McGills aimed Brown Bess muskets at Bonnie Prince Charlie’s hordes at Culloden. History is nothing if not complicated.