This chapter presents various contexts for Derick Thomson's thought and work. It provides a brief overview of the history of Gaelic in Scotland and of Scottish nationalism, and some general observations on the topic of linguistic and cultural revival. It also summarises Thomson's double commitment to revitalisation of Gaelic and Scottish political independence and outlines his involvement with the SNP. As Thomson never wrote any definitive treatise on his vision of the Gaelic revival, the chapter brings together opinions he expressed in essays, book chapters and pamphlets on the subject. It mentions Thomson's relationship to Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar and Hugh MacDiarmid, and finally his engagement with revivalist initiatives in Wales and Ireland.

Gaelic in Scotland

Several resources that outline the history of Gaelic in Scotland are now available: apart from McLeod's recent Gaelic in Scotland, which provides a general introduction and focuses on movements and policies between 1872 and 2020, the reader can also consult The Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language (2010), edited by Moray Watson and Michelle Macleod, Kenneth MacKinnon's older study Gaelic: A Past & Future Prospect (1991) and Thomson's own overviews included in Gaidhlig ann an Albainn/Gaelic in Scotland and in Why Gaelic Matters. The following passage, which is based on these sources, presents a summary of selected important events and tendencies in the history of the language for the sake of convenience.

Scottish Gaelic (Gaidhlig) belongs to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family and is closely related to Irish (Gaeilge) and Manx (Gaelg) and more distantly to Welsh (Cymraeg), Cornish (Kernewek) and Breton (Brezhoneg). Regarding the emergence of Gaelic in the territory of today's Scotland, Gilbert Márkus, in his monograph Conceiving a Nation: Scotland to ad 900, seeks to rectify a widespread narrative of Gaelic migration from Ireland to Scotland, on the basis of recent archaeological evidence: