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Chan ann tric a thig na prìomh rudan anns a bheil ùidh agam còmhla.

Tha loidhne tiub agus stèisean ùr gu bhith a’ fosgladh ann an Lunnainn aig deireadh na mìos seo – leudachadh air an Northern Line gu Battersea Power Station.

Tha mi daonnan toilichte nuair a dh’fhosglas rathaidean-iarainn ùra ach tha ceangal sònraichte aig seo ri ceòl roc.

Fiù’s mur eil thu air Animals le Pink Floyd (1977) a chluinntinn, tha mi cinnteach gum faca tu an còmhdach – fear de na dealbhan còmhdaich LP as suaicheanta riamh!

San dealbh, chithear muc plastaig os cionn stèisean cumhachd Battersea. ‘S e muc a bh’ ann a chionn ’s gun robh an clàr stèidhichte air an leabhar Animal Farm le George Orwell, (a tha a-nis ri fhaighinn sa Ghàidhlig – taing Aonghas Phàdraig Caimbeul!)

Leis an fhìrinn innse, chan e clàr sona a th’ ann idir – tha an cuspair gu math dorcha, tha an ceòl gu math gruamach agus aig an àm, is gann gun robh Roger Waters agus David Gilmour, prìomh sgrìobhadairean òrain a’ chòmhlain fiù’s a’ bruidhinn ri chèile. Ach aig an aon àm, tha an ceòl cho math is gu bheil e daonnan a’ toirt togail dhomh, gu h-àraid an t-òran Dogs – air a bheil fear de na solothan giotàir as fheàrr riamh.

Dhùin an stèisean cumhachd ann an 1983 ach thathar a-nis a’ togail flataichean is oifisean san togalach agus tha feum air deagh sheirbheis còmhdhail dhan sgìre.

Nis, tha an dà chuid an clàr agus an stèisean cumhachd fhèin cho suaicheanta is gu bheil mi an dùil is an dòchas gum bi muc ainmeil Pink Floyd a’ nochdadh san stèisean ann an dòigh air choireigin! Mural le mucan ann is dòcha?

Chì mi nuair a thèid mi ann!

Tha mi gu bhith a’ dol gu Lunnainn air an ath mhìos agus thèid mi air an loidhne ùr fhad ’s a bhios mi ann is sgrìobhaidh mi mu dheidhinn an seo.

Agus fhad’s a bhios mi ann, tha mi an dùil fear de na tursan rèile as ainmeile am measg nan trainspotters a dhèanamh. Seo an Kennington Loop – turas goirid is toirmisgte ach gu math mòr-chòrdte do dh’aficionados Underground Lunnainn! Tha i cho ainmeil is gu bheil lèine-t fiù’s ann airson innse dhan t-saoghal gun do rinn thu e!

Dè th’ anns an lùib?

Bidh a’ mhòr chuid de na trèanaichean air meur-loidhne Charing Cross an Northern Line a’ crìochachadh ann an Kennington. Bidh na daoine a fàgail na trèana agus bidh an trèana an uair sin a’ tionndadh air lùb Kennington agus a’ dol gu tuath a-rithist bho stèisean Kennington. Chan eil e ceadaichte do luchd-siubhail a dhol timcheall air an lùib – ach bidh gu leòr dhaoine ga dhèanamh co-dhiù,

Feuchaidh mi ri a dhèanamh (ged a bhios an t-eagal orm gun tèid mo shadail dheth leis an dràibhear!) agus ma bhios mi soirbheachail, ceannaichidh mi an lèine-t!

Alasdair

Air m’ fòn làimh: Pink Floyd, Animals (1978), 8/10; Big Audio Dynamite, Live in Glasgow 2011 (bootleg – bha mi ann!) 9.5/10 – còmhlan cho Lunnainneach sa ghabhas!

A’ leughadh an-dràsta: Lonely Planet guide to Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait Islands (2001)

A few years ago, I had a revelation about Gaelic. I was visiting the natural history museum in London with my family at the time, back in the day when Dippy the Dinosaur was still in the Lobby.

We were in the cafè and I was waiting to order food. There were three people out front serving and there were a couple of people in the kitchen area who they were talking to via walkie-talkie.

As you’d imagine, they were talking in English but I noticed that every single one of them had learnt English as a second language.

This is of course very common in London – and indeed in most places today. We speak to second language fluent English speakers ever day and don’t think twice about it. Why? Because it’s normal!

As a Gaelic speaker, my revelation was that in a situation like this, the use of Gaelic between a group of people who are all or mainly fluent second language Gaelic speakers would be likely to be seen by some as artificial and condemned as such both by those who are anti-Gaelic and amongst some within the Gaelic community.

Of course, Gaelic and English aren’t the same thing. Gaelic is a minority language and sometimes there are different factors to be considered over and above pure communication. But not in this case. To paraphrase Fraud – sometimes a language is just a language.

I learnt Gaelic, I use Gaelic every day. There’s nothing artificial about it. And even if there was, what does it matter?

But in the Gaelic world, the need for authenticity is so great that some Gaelic spearkers not only consider learners or use of Gaelic outwith traditional Gaelic communities as artificial but even call Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the national Gaelic college in Skye and attempts to promote Gaelic in Stornoway artificial. I’ve heard this often over the years and the social media controversy over the last few days is nothing new.

Part of the problem is a simplistic understanding of the word community. As a sociologist, I often joke “every time I hear the word community I reach for my gun”. But there is a serious point behind this. The idea that only communities of the type you get in a rural areas are real or authentic communities ignores the fact that the vast majority of people in Scotland don’t live in communities like that. And more importantly, it ignores the fact that the communities of the type perceived as authentic have actually changed a lot too.

I live in Glasgow. I don’t know my neighbours more than to say hello to. I don’t see them socially. I don’t bump into them at local events – in fact there are few local events. And this isn’t a new thing. I’m pushing 50 and the experience was largely the same for my parents who grew up in Glasgow and were born in the late 1940s. It’s certainly the experience of my children and most of their friends.

But I do live in a community – I have many friends who live in other parts of Glasgow and I see them regularly and I have a sense of community which isn’t just based on the small area I live in and based on me knowing the people who live closest to me. This isn’t individualism or being anti-social – it’s just a different type of community. A type of community which enables me to use Gaelic very regularly.

Basically, the talk about “real” communities in the Gaelic context doesn’t only hold that using Gaelic in an urban area is artificial but condemns urban community itself as being artificial. This is clearly daft particularly given that Scotland is particularly urbanised country.

And the discussion of “real” communities fails to recognise how much they’ve changed. In recent years, rural communities have become far more like urban communities due to various social changes. As Tim Armstrong has pointed out, the Gaelic community in traditional communities are becoming more like urban networks. When people are comparing Hebridean communities with new Gaelic communities, they are often comparing idealised versions of these communities or communities as they were before Internet 2.0 (and to quote Big Country’s song Beautiful People, I suspect that to some extent “things were never what they used to be”) .

In fact, differences between native speakers and fluent learners and between urban and rural communities are smaller than they’ve ever been before and they are more interlinked than ever so I think it’s time we laid all the talk of artificiality to rest once and for all.

And most important of all, languages are social and not biological. Nothing social is artificial. And even if it was, using English in new contexts would be just as artificial.

The Gaelic world is and always has been diverse and I for one welcome this.

It’s time for more Gaelic use and less judgement of who and where this it is done IMHO.

Alasdair