Video

A Faculdade Gaélica da Escócia

Faculdade Gaelico We were delighted to receive another Portuguese contribution from our new collaborator Marina Yazbek Dias Peres, to add to the Children’s Parliament in Benbecula film she’s already done for us. This time, Marina chose to do a Portuguese version of our film about Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye.

A wordlinked transcript with the video embedded is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12087

Marina promises more is yet to come. Muito obrigado, Marina!

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.

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Gress Memories – Sgìre a’ Bhac

Le Gordon Wells

“Fàilte oirbh gu fear eile de na còmhraidhean a tha seo, aig Comann Eachdraidh Sgìre a’ Bhac.”

Ishbell MacDonald (Ishbel Bhobshie), her brother Dòmhnall and John MacDonald (Swannie) chat with Coinneach Mòr.

Another wordlinked transcript has been created for this recording, with CIALL assistance:

https://clilstore.eu/cs/11942

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Gaelic in Shetland

Le Gordon Wells

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Lewis-man Donald S Murray is a Shetland resident. As an established writer, mostly in English, how does he keep his Gaelic going while living away from the Ness community where he acquired it?

Following on from our recent “Jamaican in Wales” feature, that’s a key question underlying this second small collection of videos in our Island Voices extension series looking at language use in an “exile” context. Again, we have added poetic recitation to the standard documentary plus interviews format in our Language Capture and Curation model, with the narrative documentary also being reduplicated in English. All films in the collection can be accessed through the above poster in either landscape or phone-friendly portrait layout.

As Donald freely acknowledges, he mostly uses his Gaelic for talking rather than writing, and we’ve duly given greater weight in this package to his conversational voice, though we’re pleased to also platform some of his less well-known Gaelic poetry. While he obviously has many Gaelic speakers in his ever-widening readership, there will also be many non-speakers of Gaelic who, up until now, will only know his “voice” through the written English page. Here he speaks openly and frankly in what he accounts his native language, establishing direct unfiltered contact with his home community in Lewis. At the same time, YouTube subtitling allows others to read his words as he speaks, with the on-off choice of auto-translation into a wide range of other languages, English among them. (Click the Settings Wheel to view the full range and select your own preference.)

The conversation component has additionally been split into three parts, for the benefit of learners or non-speakers of Gaelic, each equipped with optional closed caption subtitles. The “omnibus” edition is intended for those with no need for such assistance.

In Part 1 Donald talks about his family background and upbringing, first in East Kilbride and then in Ness, Isle of Lewis. He also talks about community and school influences and how they affected his acquisition of Gaelic. A spell of work and then university studies followed on the mainland, before he returned to the Western Isles to teach, first in Lewis, and then Benbecula. He also refers to challenges he had to overcome during these stages of his life.

In Part 2 Donald talks about life as a Gaelic speaker in Shetland, noting how he maintains his speaking skills through long-distance conversations and frequent radio interviews. He points out the relative infrequency of his writing in the language as a common feature amongst fluent Gaelic speakers who normally practise their literacy through English, so his writing about his home community is often a process of translation from Gaelic in his head to English on the page. He regrets the lack of theatre-based literary work in the Western Isles, and highlights the value of the short story format in an island community setting. One advantage of now living away from Lewis is the greater freedom he now feels to express critical opinion freely.

In Part 3 Donald talks in some detail about the difficulties he encountered in first writing his novel, As the Women Lay Dreaming, and then in talking about it afterwards, often in relation to dealing with varying experiences of trauma at personal as well as community levels. The theme returns in a very different community context in The Salt and the Flame, exploring urban American tensions through Gaelic emigrant eyes. He is thankful for his father’s encouragement of his wide reading interests as a young boy in Ness, which are reflected in the book alongside the wider research he conducted as part of the writing process.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

O Parlamento de Crianças

Le Gordon Wells

Um pequeno documentário em Português sobre um encontro do Parlamento de Crianças de Uist e da Barra

At Island Voices we welcome participation and contributions from speakers, learners, and researchers of any age and stage in multiple languages from all over the globe!

Marina Yazbek Dias Peres is a student in the Research Program at Princeton High School, New Jersey, in the USA. In this program, each student learns to research, and conducts their own project over the course of three years. Marina’s research project is focused on “uncovering the motivation behind the preservation of dying/endangered languages, and analyzing the causation behind the lack of their use”.

Marina is bilingual in English and Portuguese, and is also studying French and Mandarin in school. During discussion of her research topic with Gordon Wells she kindly offered to add Portuguese to the Island Voices list of “Other Tongues“, choosing the Children’s Parliament in Benbecula film in Series 2 Generations. We were happy to accept! Perhaps her example will inspire others like her to take an interest and think about participating too?

A wordlinked transcript with the video embedded is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/11930

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Alasdair Tuxy – Sgìre a’ Bhac

Le Gordon Wells

“Fàilte oirbh gu còmhradh eile ann an-seo aig Comann Eachdraidh Sgìre a’ Bhac …”

Alasdair Campbell (Alasdair Tuxy) is interviewed by Coinneach MacÌomhair at Breivig Pier.

And with CIALL assistance, another wordlinked transcript has now been created on the Clilstore platform:

https://clilstore.eu/cs/11912

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Taighean-tughaidh playlist

Le Gordon Wells

Island Voices has created a new playlist on the YouTube video channel for the collection of recordings made about Uist’s taighean-tughaidh – thatched houses. First contributions have come from Tommy MacDonald, telling some of the history from the site of Tobhta Mhic Eachainn and its connection to the “French Macdonalds”, and then quizzing his wife Betty on her memories of being raised in a taigh-tughaidh.

These recordings have been broken up into bite-sized manageable chunks.

In the first two from Tobhta Mhic Eachainn, Tommy presents some stories about Neil MacEachan and his son Alexandre – the “French Macdonalds” – from the remains of Neil’s original house, which was later to be visited by the Duke of Tarentum in an act of filial homecoming following the Napoleonic wars. The video descriptions include links to Clilstore online transcripts for both of these clips, which are also optionally subtitled.

The conversation with Betty comes in four parts. In the first section Betty recalls who built her house (her grandfather), and aspects of her childhood life on the croft, including the herding and milking of the cattle, as well as some of the thatching process as she remembers it.

In the second part Tommy and Betty go on to discuss some of the stiff challenges that would be entailed in keeping a traditional thatched house on a par with modern standards. Talking about the cèilidh culture of earlier times, Tommy recalls how stories would be shared between family members and visitors – some of which remain unexplained to this day.

In the third section Betty and Tommy’s attention turns towards food and drink, and the important place of staples such as eggs and milk – and sometimes rabbit. Services such as electricity and water were a relatively recent introduction. They recall some of the other thatched houses in the area, with a handful having been done up to meet modern standards.

Finally, in the fourth part, Tommy and Betty share memories of more recent times, when a thatched house was converted into a hostel for tourists, under Betty’s mother’s care. In the early days visitors would often stay for weeks, helping out on the croft, and they are fondly remembered. To end, more stories are shared of amusing and perplexing incidents.

Again, Clilstore links are available in the video descriptions, with auto-translatable subtitles an additional option for learners or non-speakers of Gaelic.

The seventh video in the playlist is a longer “omnibus” edition of the Tommy and Betty conversation, which is presented without transcript or subtitles.

With Tommy planning further recordings in the community we can expect more additions to this work in progress in coming weeks, with ongoing CIALL support and in collaboration with the UHI archaeologists based at Cnoc Soilleir.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean