heritage

Island Poets through Portuguese

Audrey and Christie

Our collaborator, Marina Yazbek Dias Peres, has excelled herself in her mission to bring Island Voices documentaries to Portuguese speakers around the world, this time re-rendering two of our most recent productions from our Extensions page! Lovely work, Marina!

“Jamaicana no País de Gales” offers a documentary slice of Jamaican life in Wales, featuring Audrey West, poet, artist, and community worker.

And “Shetlandês em Glasgow” gives us a parallel treatment of Shetland poet Christie Williamson’s life in Glasgow.

Clilstore units have also been created for each of these films. You can simultaneously view the films and read the transcripts for Audrey here, and for Christie here.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

AAS: Wellbeing and the Environment

Le Gordon Wells

“So, beauty and tenderness and a way to express – that is really what I want to say.”

Black throated diver or arctic loon (Gavia arctica) swimming on a loch, Benbecula, Outer Hebrides, Scotland By Alex Cooper

“Loriana Pauli speaks movingly of the visceral pain she feels, as an ornithologist and eco-warrior, at the loss of species from Berneray and North Uist: in particular, the Black-throated Diver, alongside other domestic and shoreline birds. ‘Solastalgia’, (coined from ‘Nostalgia’), is a term which represents a new form of psychological distress caused by all the ecological changes people suffer because of the climate crisis. How do we cope with this, she asks the Aire air Sunnd heritage wellbeing group?”

Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, North Uist Historical Society, is grateful to MG Alba’s Trainee Community Content Creator, Fiona MacIsaac, for recording and editing this video.

This series of videos for the Aire air Sunnd Wellbeing group is cumulatively collected on the dedicated Phase 2 Videos page.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

AAS: Wellbeing, Stories, and Gaelic

Le Gordon Wells

Gordon Wells talks about his view of the importance of stories and the place for Gaelic to the Wellbeing group in the Aire air Sunnd project led by Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath (North Uist Historical Society). He has recorded English and Gaelic versions of this talk. Click on any link below to get to the YouTube video.

Wellbeing, stories & Gaelic (in English) – full talk

Wellbeing, stories & Gaelic (in Gaelic) – full talk

Both English and Gaelic talks can also be viewed in two parts each. In part 1 Gordon recounts a story about his uncle, Norman Maclellan, supplemented with some family photos. In part 2 he offers some general thoughts and reflections, particularly in relation to language, arising from this family story. The Gaelic parts are accompanied by optional YouTube subtitles, which can further be auto-translated into the language of your choice through the YouTube settings wheel.

Wellbeing, stories & Gaelic (in English) – Part 1

Wellbeing, stories & Gaelic (in English) – Part 2

Wellbeing, stories & Gaelic (in Gaelic) – Part 1 (subtitled)

Wellbeing, stories & Gaelic (in Gaelic) – Part 2 (subtitled)

The original Gaelic version of Anna Sheonaidh’s article in An t-Uibhisteach, referred to in the first part of Gordon’s talk, and an English translation are available here: https://gordonwellsuist.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/ban-uibhisteach-ann-an-india/

Access to the articles referred to in the second part of Gordon’s talk is freely available here: https://guthan.wordpress.com/research/

More information on the Island Voices contribution to Aire air Sunnd is available here: https://guthan.wordpress.com/aire-air-sunnd/

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

AAS: Phase 2 Launch Video

Le Gordon Wells

A series of short videos is planned for public release by the Aire Air Sunnd (AAS) Wellbeing Group. These record aspects of a series of sessions (physical and virtual) held in Phase Two of the project. Island Voices is happy to provide the online platform for these through our YouTube channel.

In the first video, Jessica Wood, CEUT‘s co-researcher from Aberdeen University, describes how the Wellbeing Workshops were shaped, sharing some of the important findings from the co-created 2023 community survey. “These in turn informed the follow-on community-led research, demonstrating how community members can become researchers themselves through learning from working alongside professional researchers.”

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Taisce Bheo: Galway Voices

Le Gordon Wells

Galway Voices JPG We’re pleased to play online host for six new Irish voices on the Taisce Bheo na nGael/Stòras Beò nan Gàidheal project run by the UHI Language Sciences Institute, with support from CIALL. These recordings were all co-ordinated by Brian Ó Curnáin of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Jimí and Pádraig discuss and recount anecdotes about their ancestors and their life in the upland small arable areas of Cois Fharraige, west Co. Galway. The first to come to the area was Micil Chearra, and his wife Peigí Ní Dhonnchú from Baile na mBrobhach. They went to live in Clochar (na) Lára on a holding owned by a landlord by the name of Common. They were expelled from their holding, due to a falling out with the Blakes over hare hunting and the little black hound of Micil Uí Chearra. The story of the fairy hare remained in family lore. Jimí remembers Séamas Mhicil, his grandfather. He had a story about a man from Glenicmurrin who got lost in mist on the hills but came to the Cearra home in Clochar Locha, and was grateful to have made it there safely. Both relate incidents involving the poitín distilling. Jimí explains the supernatural origin of the saying ‘I’ll make you change your smile, like Máirtín Mhaitiú did to the ghost.’ Jimí heard his grandmother talking about milking the milk cow and saying prayers that Jimí acquired from her. And he says three of them, including finally the renowned An Mharainn Phádraig.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12092

In Muireann Ní Churnáin agus Brian Ó Curnáin (1) Muireann tells us about her current school life in fifth year at Coláiste an Eachréidh, Athenry, Co. Galway: the school subjects and her academic interests: history and art. She has great praise for the school staff. She talks to her brother Brian about their life in Ros Muc, in the west of Co.Galway, and the move to the Galltacht (English speaking area) in the east of the county, and how she quickly learned English. She also changed her Irish so that she would be better understood in Gaelscoil Riada. It was after the move that she was able to learn ballet in a ballet school in Galway city. She really likes ballet and would like to practice professionally as a teacher. She tells about her travels, especially about her visit to the USA.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12090

In Muireann Ní Churnáin agus Brian Ó Curnáin (2) Muireann tells about the family ski holidays: the hard and easy pistes, the beauty of the mountains and the surroundings, ski accidents and dangers of skiing, as well as safety in groups, and the craziness of the après-ski and even an interesting comparison to ballet. Muireann and Brian went to visit their brother, Dara, when he was working and skiing in Val d’Isère in France fo a season, but Muireann thinks that such a long stay would be too much for her. Brian then turns the conversation to school life and study. Muireann thinks that students now have many advantages because of the information revolution. She then discusses various problems that teenagers are thought to have in their lives. She is very interested in live music, in the likes of Tyle the Creator and Brockhampton. Brian and Muireann follow the rappers Kneecap, although Muireann is not impressed by the drug culture she thinks they are associated with. Both of them discuss the Irish Revival in the context of music fashion and the media.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12091

With Dara Ó Curnáin, Seán Concanonn describes his childhood, his working life, his relations and life in Montiagh (South), Claregalway, Co. Galway. He discusses sports: hurling and football. He describes dairy farming, raising piglets, farm horses, thatching, and of course sowing and spraying spuds! Chicken eggs and young roosters were brought to Galway and sold to shopkeepers. Pigs were killed and eaten at home. Seán also describes the high rates of emigration during his youth in the 1950s and its toll on hurling teams. He spent a short spell working in England with his brother and a while in hospital in Galway with a diagnosis of tuberculosis.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12089

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Half a Million Hits & Other News

Le Gordon Wells

Six months after our “Island Voices make sense” Hogmanay post we can now note a midsummer milestone and a couple of other updates!

Firstly, we passed the half-million mark of hits on the YouTube channel on June 26th:

Not bad for a “minority language” channel! Many thanks to all our contributors over the years!

And after extended “18th anniversary” celebrations, we’ll be taking a bit of a social media breather over the summer break, but not before also noting the June publication of an abridged version of the comprehensive account of the Island Voices project in Language Issues, the NATECLA journal: “Island voices ‐ Guthan nan Eilean ‐ Hebridean language capture and curation, 2005‐2023: an overview”

Abstract:

This is an abridged version of an article providing a comprehensive description of the Island Voices/Guthan nan Eilean language capture and curation project as it stood in Spring 2023, available in full on the project’s website. The introduction presents information on its main features and aims, the linguistic rationale focussing on the primacy of speech and the salience of bilingualism, and the Hebridean community context in which the project operates. A shortened account of the project contents and chronology follows, divided into four separate sections or phases: Staff-led Production, Participatory Production, Multilingual Diversification, and Research Alignment. In conclusion, connections to further research and development projects and opportunities are sketched out, and some final reflections question a polarising juxtaposition of local versus global interests while pointing towards responsibilities alongside the opportunities this kind of work entails. Describing a primarily oral project through written text presents a challenge. Copious footnotes point to online samples of the materials discussed, and readers are encouraged to engage through the screen as well as the page in order to extract full benefit. The original article is bookended by a preamble and postscript, which offer written exemplification from short, transcribed extracts. It can be accessed through the following link: https://guthan.wordpress.com/2023/06/01/eighteen-years-of-island-voices/

(NB. It may be worth noting that, while it is of course great that Language Issues readers now get a chance to learn about the project through their own journal, the original – and full – article is still freely available on our research/reports page.)

CEBacplaylist1 Lastly for now, we were also pleased in mid-June to add the ninth and final film in the Comann Eachdraidh Sgìre a’ Bhac playlist of excellent community-made and subtitled videos to our Clilstore collection, with CIALL support. This is foundational work which, quite apart from its Gaelic learning support function, provides standardised transcriptions of authentic speech which can be used in a number of other important applications as well. We’ve now gathered together all nine clips with their Clilstore transcripts on a single dedicated Sgìre a’ Bhac page. Thanks and congratulations to the Comann Eachdraidh!

We look forward to coming back after the summer with more exciting developments…

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Vatisker Memories – Sgìre a’ Bhac

Le Gordon Wells

Talking to Coinneach MacÌomhair, Alexina Graham and Mal Macleod remember growing up in Vatisker.

With the support of CIALL, here’s another film from Comann Eachdraidh Sgìre a’ Bhac that has now been added to the Clilstore platform combining the YouTube video with a wordlinked transcript.

You can find the Clilstore unit here: https://clilstore.eu/cs/11981.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Shaetlan Voice in Exile

Le Gordon Wells

Select any video clip in this landscape format, or use the phone-friendly portrait layout.

Shetlander Christie Williamson is the focus of this third “poets in exile” collection in our experimental extension of the Island Voices “capture and curation” model into new contexts and languages. This follows on from Jamaican in Wales with Audrey West, and Gaelic in Shetland with Donald S Murray, all supported by CIALL.

As the documentary reveals, while Christie has been a resident of Glasgow for over twenty years, he has also travelled extensively to present his poems around the world, while keeping a firm grip on his Shetland roots from which he derives so much inspiration. The documentary also presents snatches from his poetry and a conversation with Chris Stout. Lengthier examples are presented in additional video clips.

In the first poetry clip, Christie recites a selection of his Shetlandic poems from his collection “Oo an Feddirs”. In the second clip he reads from “Doors tae Naewye”. The third clip features contributions to the collections “Break in Case of Silence”, and “What Winter Wants”.

The examples of unscripted speech are from a conversation in which Christie talks to fellow Shetlander Chris Stout, who is also now a Glasgow resident.

In Part 1 the topics covered include Shetland schooldays and hostel living, ferry journeys to the mainland in student days, and what living in Glasgow is like for Shetlanders.

In Part 2, they talk about what it’s like to go home to Shetland for visits, and how mobile phones, particularly in the wake of Covid, have enabled Shetlanders to keep in closer contact.

All films in the collection (including additional versions of the documentary in Gaelic and English) can be accessed through the above poster in either landscape or phone-friendly portrait layout.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Tales from Local History Sites

Le Gordon Wells

Tommy Macdonald tells some of the history of Clann ‘ic Mhuirich (“Clan Currie”) from the ruin of the ancestral home in Stilligarry, South Uist, and recounts some tales from other nearby sites.

In Part 1, he relates where Clann ‘ic Mhuirich came from, and when, and how they came to settle in Uist eventually. Their hereditary bardic role spanned centuries of Scottish history, before petering out with the loss of patronage, of skills, and eventually of manuscripts.

In Part 2, Tommy explains how Stilligary came to be known as “Baile nam Bàrd”. He goes on to talk about changes of the Mac Mhuirich family name. The impressive size of the ruin and some archaeological finds point to their importance in the community, and the power the family could exercise through their poetic and scholarly skills. He finishes with a short recitation.

In Tobhta Fhearchair, Tommy goes on to tell some of the history of the Beatons from the ruin of Fearchar’s home on the boundary between Tobha Mòr and Dreumasdal. He explains that the Beatons were renowned as doctors, especially in the West of Scotland, with strong connections to Skye and Islay as well as Uist. He refers to the work of Alasdair Carmichael (Carmina Gadelica) to illustrate their knowledge of plants and their uses, while acknowledging that Fearchar himself may not have been as knowledgeable as his forebears. A finishing quote from Martin Martin underlines the family’s historical association with the medical profession.

At Dùn Raghnaill, built for Clanranald, Tommy relates the story of why it was built – to protect the clan chief Mac ‘ic Ailein from his own family – in a time of sometimes bloody sea-borne raids along the Minch. According to local history, it was later used to imprison a daring sea-faring Mac Mhuirich, whose hereditary bardic skills were such that the style of his composition from within the prison walls of the song “Mulaid Prìosanach ann an Dùn Raghnaill” was sufficient for him to be recognised and identified by his own estranged father.

All four films – with optional subtitling available for learners or non-speakers of Gaelic – have been added to the taighean-tughaidh playlist. This work is supported by CIALL.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Taigh Lawrence

Le Gordon Wells

Iochdar resident Lawrence Iain Alasdair ’ic Raghnaill (Lawrence MacEachen) recently entertained Tommy Macdonald in his home for a chat about his beautiful taigh-tughaidh (thatched house). At Island Voices we were privileged to be able to record their conversation, which we have now added to our “Taighean-tughaidh” playlist on YouTube.

As with the earlier recordings of Tommy and Betty, this conversation is presented in two alternative formats. Fluent speakers may choose simply to watch the whole thing in one go in the “omnibus” version, without any need for recourse to learning aids.

On the other hand, the full conversation has again been broken up into smaller parts, each of which is also supported by auto-translatable subtitles and a wordlinked transcript for the benefit of learners or non-speakers of Gaelic. Links to the transcripts are given in the YouTube video descriptions.

In Part 1, Tommy introduces us to Lawrence in his thatched house in Iochdar, South Uist, inherited from his aunt. Lawrence explains how it had been used as a byre for a time before he did it up again for his own use. It’s due for re-thatching again – in some respects a less arduous task than it used to be.

In Part 2, Tommy and Lawrence discuss the shaping of the roof and the corners of the traditional thatched houses to lessen the impact of the Hebridean gales, as well as the ease of use of local stone to build the thick walls. Lawrence has been told his is the only thatched house in the north of Scotland with a permanent resident, though others have been done up for holiday lets in accordance with sometimes strict planning regulations. There used to be many more of these houses in Iochdar.

In Part 3, Tommy and Laurence talk about some of the other thatched houses they remember, and discuss alternative thatching materials, including marram grass, heather, and rushes. Each has its own qualities, with different materials likely to be used in different areas. Care needs to be taken when gathering roofing materials.

These recordings have been enabled through the ongoing support of the UHI-led CIALL project.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean