Tom Nairn

Tom Nairn (born 2 June 1932) is a Scottish political theorist of nationalism. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, UK.

Life

Nairn was born on 2 June 1932 in Freuchie, Fife. He attended Dunfermline High School and the Edinburgh College of Art before graduating from the University of Edinburgh with an MA in Philosophy in 1956. During the 1960s he taught at various institutions including the University of Birmingham (1965-6), coming to prominence in the occupation movement at Hornsey College of Art (1967–70), after which he was dismissed. He was at the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam from 1972–76, and then worked as a journalist and TV researcher (mainly for Channel 4 and Scottish Television, Glasgow) before a year at the Central European University with Ernest Gellner (1994–95) and then setting up and running a Masters course on Nationalism at University of Edinburgh (1995-1999). In 2001 he was invited to take up an Innovation Professorship in Nationalism and Cultural Diversity at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, leaving in January 2010. Returning to the UK he was fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study of Durham University (2009).

Nairn

Coordinates: 57°35′10″N 3°52′08″W / 57.586°N 3.869°W / 57.586; -3.869

Nairn (/ˈnɛərn/ NAIRN; Gaelic: Inbhir Narann) is a town and former burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around 16 miles (26 km) east of Inverness. It was the county town of the wider county of Nairn also known as Nairnshire.

The town is now best known as a seaside resort, with two golf courses, award winning beaches, a community centre/mid-scale arts venue ( Nairn Community & Arts Centre), a small theatre (called The Little Theatre) and one small museum, providing information on the local area and incorporating the collection of the former Fishertown museum.

History

King James VI of Scotland visited the town in 1589 and is said to have later remarked that the High Street was so long that the people at either end spoke different languages, Scots and Gaelic. The landward farmers generally spoke Scots and the fishing families at the harbour end, Gaelic. Nairn, formerly split into Scottish Gaelic- and Scots-speaking communities, was a town of two halves in other ways. The narrow-streeted fishertown surrounds a harbour built by Thomas Telford while Victorian villas stand in the 'West End'. It is believed that the Duke of Cumberland stayed in Nairn the night before the battle of Culloden.

Nairn (surname)

Nairn is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

See also

County of Nairn

The County of Nairn was a general purpose county of Scotland, with the burgh of Nairn as the county town, until 1975, when, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the county area became one of the eight districts of the two-tier Highland region. The county of Nairn survived for registration purposes and, at the same time, the Nairn lieutenancy was defined as having the boundaries of the new district. In 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, the local government district was merged into the unitary Highland council area.

Geography

The county (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Inbhir Narann), was described in 1846 as:

Nairn can be seen from several distant points such as Ben Rinnes, a peak that is a common point of distant view to such places as the former county of Inverness and Longman Hill in the former county of Banff. To the north, Nairn is bounded by the Moray Firth.

Functions

Nairn (Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Narann) is a land registration county.

Nairn is a lieutenancy area, defined as the district of Nairn as abolished as a local government area under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994.