Artykuły

Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"



As any Scottish nationalist will tell you, it was on August 23 1305 that the Scottish hero Sir William Wallace was dragged six miles through the streets by a horse to the City of London's Smithfield market.
In front of a baying mob he was hanged, then, while barely still alive, drawn and quartered before being beheaded.
But this afternoon, exactly 700 years ago since those horrific scenes, London hosted far kinder proceedings for Wallace with a "symbolic funeral" service in Smithfield which had an empty coffin as its centrepiece.
Organisers said it was a fitting tribute to Wallace, whose story inspired the historically flawed 1995 Hollywood movie Braveheart.
Back in 1305 there was nothing so decorous as a burial for the man whose army beat a far larger professional English army at Stirling Bridge on September 11 1297 and who evaded capture for more than seven years. After his execution, a day after being found guilty of treason at Westminster Hall, his head was put on a spike at London Bridge and the quarters of his body displayed as warnings in Stirling, Perth, Berwick and Newcastle.
But at today's service at 3pm at Smithfield's Priory Church of Bartholomew the Great, there was far less gruesomeness as 300 people packed the aisles to commemorate Wallace. More than three times as many inquired in vain about tickets yesterday and the Scottish Nationalist party (SNP) hosted a short memorial service at Westminster Hall this morning.
Wallace historian David Ross, a key organiser of the church service and convenor of the William Wallace Society, said the church service was to give the Scottish hero the proper "mourning he never had". Mr Ross, 47, arrived in London on Sunday after walking 450 miles on the same route English soldiers dragged Wallace along after his capture in Robroyston, Glasgow.
Ahead of the service this morning in Smithfield, there was no Braveheart blue face paint in evidence, but a number of Scots, who arrived to leave tributes at the Wallace memorial plaque fixed to a wing of St Barts hospital, very close to the church.
Among them were Anna Ward, 66, and her daughter Elizabeth, 40, whose family is from Hamilton, Lanarkshire. Anna Ward said: "We both live down here in London and Essex but wanted to come along today to pay our respects.
"It is important to honour a man who fought for his beliefs, who was not an old man lying in his bed wishing about what he should have done ... he is a Scottish hero we should be proud of and did meet an awful end here."
She said today was a special day but that Scots in London remembered Wallace the whole year round. "My husband was in hospital at St Barts and when I visited I would always see some flowers or a poem left at the plaque," she said.
Among the tributes today was a poem from "Andy" which said: "Forever in our hearts and minds and souls. An inspiration to all who dare follow their goals."
Ted Christopher, from Stirling, the singer of the Bannockburn Band, sang a specially written song, I'm Coming Home, at today's service. He said: "They are taking the service very seriously. Obviously the coffin is empty but it is going to be filled with tributes and letters for Wallace. The song is about his spirit finally coming home."
After today the casket will be taken to Stirling, where there has been a 220ft high Wallace memorial since 1869, before ultimately being buried in Kentigerns in Lanark, where Wallace was married.
The anniversary has prompted some debate in the Scottish media about what Wallace means for the country now and whether he is celebrated enough.
Mr Ross told Scotland on Sunday at the weekend that Scottish children were not educated enough about Wallace and other aspects of their history. He said: "It is a very Scottish thing that we don't want to pay tribute about our past ... [at school] I learned about the Battle of Hastings ... I remember the date 1066 but I learned nothing about Wallace."
Some commentators have suggested the inaccurate Hollywood schmaltz of Braveheart, which ends with Mel Gibson screaming "freeeddddoommmm", has not helped.
The Scottish Tory MP Malcolm Rifkind noted in the Sunday Times recently that the film had been appropriated by the KKK and other extremist rightwing groups in the US and had caused problems.
He added, however, that the wave of nationalism started by Braveheart had receded in Scotland, which, with its own devolved assembly, was now a more confident, forward looking-place. He claimed anti-Englishness had also waned and cited a poll that six out of 10 Scots even supported England in last year's European football championships in Portugal.
In the article, written with the paper's Kenny Farquharson, Mr Rifkind says: "It is telling that this summer's Wallace 700 commemorations look rather insignificant when set alongside the extraordinary pomp of last month's anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, with its near-canonisation of Admiral Nelson ... but then, maybe Britain's need to celebrate a victory over the French is currently more pressing than Scotland's need to celebrate a victory over the English."
Today in Smithfield, Mr Christopher noted that St Bartholomew's was London's oldest church, completed in 1123, and joked: "We [in Scotland] don't have many buildings that old - you [the English] burned them all down."
But he and band road manager Robert "Ziggy" Walton, also from Stirling, were impressed by one card left among the tributes which said: "To the memory of a great Scotsman from a regretful Englishman."

assembly- zgromadzenie
bay- ujadać
behead- ściąć (kogoś), skrócić o głowę
capture- pojmanie, ujęcie
centrepiece- chluba, przedmiot dumy
convenor- osoba zwołująca zebranie
decorous- stosowny
devolve- przekazywać (prawa, odpowiedzialność)
drag- wlec, ciągnąć za nogi i ręce
evade- unikać, umykać
flawed- wadliwy, błędny
gruesomeness- okropieństwo, koszmar
inaccurate- nieścisły, niedokładny
pay one’s respect- składać komuś wyrazy uszanowania, oddać komuś cześć
plaque- tablica pamiątkowa
prompt- podsuwać (myśl), pobudzać, nakłaniać
quarter - ćwiartować
recede- zanikać
schmaltz- sentymentalizm, egzaltacja
spike- ostrze, szpikulec
wane- zmniejszać się



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