Was Robert Burns really a radical?

Written at a time of political repression, were Robert Burns’s late poems covertly radical, or are contemporary academics reading their own leftist values into history? Murray Armstrong on the battle for the soul of Burns Night

“Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,” wrote Robert Burns in 1793, a line that will be sung or recited countless times between this weekend and next at Burns Night suppers around the world where haggis, neeps, and tatties will be served and the “immortal memory” will be toasted.

But what will they celebrate? A sentimental nationalism is usually attached to “Scots Wha Hae”, and a masonic-style of brotherly love to that other favourite, “A Man’s a Man for a’ That”. Burns suppers have had the reputation of being little more than backward looking all-male piss-ups and in the 1930s the poet Hugh MacDiarmid condemned Burns clubs for their “canting humbug” that “preserved his furniture and repelled his message”.

Related: Bob Dylan: Robert Burns is my biggest inspiration

“Scots Wha Hae” is full of radicalism: “Tyrants fall in every foe! Liberty’s in every blow! Let us do – or die!!!”