Comunn Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis 15 Giblean 2023
Madainn mhath, a chàirdean, agus fàilte oirbh.
Tha sinn a’ cruinneachadh air an làraich eachdraidheil seo gus comharrachadh agus cuimhneachadh orrasan a chaill am beatha air latha fliuch, fuar earraich air an t-siathamh latha deug den Ghiblean, seachd ceud deug, dà fhichead ’s a sia, air Mòinteach Dhruim Athasaidh. Tha sinn, cuideachd, a’ cuimhneachadh orrasan a mharbhadh anns na h-uairean is làithean an dèidh a’ bhlàir. Blàr Chùil Lodair. Blàr nach do mhair ach uair a thìde ach a dh’fhàg seula mhaireannach air aignidhean agus ann an cridheachan Ghàidheil agus Albannaich. Chan eil mòran fhaclan neo ainmean nar n-eachdraidh a tha a’ dùsgadh uimhir de dh’fhaireachdainnean unnainn ‘s a tha Cùil Lodair.
Tha Comunn Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis air a bhith a’ cumail seirbheis cuimhneachaidh aig a’ chàrn seo bho naoi ceud deug còig thar fhichead - faisg air ceud bliadhna - agus tha e na urram mòr dhomh-sa a bhith a seo an-diugh mar Cheannard Comunn Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis airson na bliadhna-sa. Bu mhath leam taing a thoirt dhan Chomunn airson a’ chuiridh, agus taing air leth a thoirt do dh’ Ailean Caimbeul, a th’ air a bhith na Cheannard air a’ bhliadhna a dh’ fhalbh, agus a th’ air a bhith na thosgaire ionmholta airson na Gàidhlig, fad is farsaing, is thar bhliachnaichean, airson a stiùir is earail dhomh mun dreuchd.
Friends, on behalf of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, I welcome you all to the Society’s Annual Remembrance Service, which has been held here since 1925 - almost 100 years - for both Jacobite troops and Government troops who died on this battlefield 277 years ago, on the 16th day of April, 1746. We commemorate, also, those who lost their lives or suffered greatly in the days, weeks and months after the Battle of Culloden. Overall, in battle and beyond, some 3000 died - the majority of them were Jacobites.
For many of us no place-name in our history stirs the emotions more than does Culloden. Some facts about the battle are indisputable - it was the last pitched battle fought on British soil, it lasted less than an hour and it was the final defeat of the Jacobite cause. But what of the aftermath of the battle, and its significance in Scottish and British history? Evaluations of its impact on us as a nation, a people, are not so easily agreed on. Historians and academics may differ in their views; historical sources, both written and oral, may be accepted or dismissed.
I am neither a historian nor an academic, nor can I claim that any of my family had a direct link to the battle. Though Lord George Murray was one of Prince Charles’s commanders - they did not always see eye to eye - I cannot, in all truth, claim him as an ancestor.
I am a Gael, a Gaelic speaker, and I am greatly honoured to be here today as Chieftain of the Gaelic Society of Inverness for the coming year. The Society was established in 1871 for the purpose of cultivating the language, poetry and music of the Highlands and, generally, furthering the interests of the Gaelic-speaking people. My late father-in-law, Murdo Macleod, had a long association with the Society and it was with him and the family that I first attended the Culloden annual commemoration service many years ago. I was struck then by the diverse groups of people who were present at the service, honouring those who gave their lives for causes they believed in. The number of attendees and groups at the service has grown significantly since then. This site has become a place of pilgrimage for many of you, and I know that there are people here today from around the world. You are all most welcome.
Whilst the Gaelic Society honours those lost in the battle with the annual remembrance service, the National Trust for Scotland is the custodian of this historic site. It is the Trust that is responsible for the conservation of the battlefield. In front of us here is an area where over 1500 people lost their lives in 1746. They are buried in mass graves, some with headstones, added in 1881, as was the memorial cairn here. Among the names are clans MacGillivray, Mackintosh, Fraser, ‘Mixed Clans’. In recent years visitor numbers to the battlefield have greatly increased and measures have had to be taken to halt the deterioration of the ground around the stones. This was a battlefield and it is also a burial site. I ask everyone to treat the graves area, in particular, with the greatest respect as you move around the site.
In 2007 I was privileged, as a BBC Radio nan Gàidheal producer, and in collaboration with the National Trust, to produce many of the dramatised bilingual audio accounts that can be heard in the award winning Visitor Centre. A few weeks ago I visited the centre again to reaquaint myself with these recorded voices. As I listened I thought not just of the characters’ stories but of the writers who had brought these stories to life in both Gaelic and English - the late Seonaidh Alick MacPherson and the late Janet Paisley, both of whom I had the pleasure of working with on the Culloden project. It was a poignant reminder, as was hearing the voice of the late Simon MacKenzie, a much loved and respected actor, of their personal contributions to Gaelic and to Scots. Today, in addition to those lost on the battlefield and beyond, I would like to pay tribute to all those who have helped to ensure that the Culloden story is told in whatever form that may be.
Culloden remains different things to different people.
Och, a Theàrlaich òig Stiùbhart,
’s e do chùis rinn mo lèireadh;
O young Charles Stewart,
it is your cause which has left me wretched.
In her landmark book, Songs of Gaelic Scotland, the academic and singer, Dr Anne Lorne Gillies, describes the song, Mo Rùn Geal Òg / My Fair Young Love, from which these lines are taken, as “the abiding Gaelic memory of the Battle of Culloden: a woman is left behind, weeping for the husband she has lost and for the life she will now have to lead. Such women were to be found in every household in the Gaelic-speaking area of Scotland.”
In this case, the woman was Christina Ferguson of Contin, in Rosshire, just half an hour’s drive from here. She composed it for her husband, William Chisholm, who was the standard bearer to the Clan Chisholm at Culloden. He died defending his men in a barn, fighting off the Duke of Cumberland’s soldiers single-handedly with a sword.
Whenever I hear or read these opening lines I am immediately taken here to Culloden. Substitute ‘mo lèireadh’ with ‘ar lèireadh’ and I feel it could equally apply to our language and culture. It is an interpretation that I lean towards, personally.
Och, a Theàrlaich òig Stiùbhart,
’s e do chùis rinn ‘ar’ lèireadh;
After Culloden there was a marked change in the Highland way of life. Elements of
Highland culture were proscribed and the language was further suppressed. Gaelic went into a long-term decline hastened by what might be described today as institutional prejudice against the language - and that persisted well into the last century.
In the Western Isles this past week island communities have been commemorating the emigration, 100 years ago, of almost 600 islanders to Canada and the United States. On this day in 1923, the 15th of April, the SS Marloch sailed from Lochboisdale in South Uist with almost 300 islanders bound for Canada; a week later on the 21st of April, the SS Metagama left Stornoway in Lewis with over 300 islanders on board, also bound for Canada. The majority of those emigrants would have been Gaelic speakers; thus, mass emigration following on from the losses of the Great War, also contributed to language decline in the Western Isles which continued throughout the twentieth century.
Undoubtedly, there have been good news stories and there is much to be proud of over the last half-century: a National Centre for Gaelic and Culture in Skye, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary; Gaelic-medium education in rural areas and in Scotland’s major cities, progress that my two daughters have benefitted from, having done all of their schooling, from the age of 5 to 18, through the medium of Gaelic at the Glasgow Gaelic School; a Gaelic radio station in BBC Radio nan Gàidheal; the BBC and MG ALBA delivering a Gaelic television channel, BBC ALBA, and digital content to audiences across Scotland, the United Kingdom and beyond; The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, which aims to secure the status of Gaelic as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language; Comunn na Gàidhlig and its youth initiatives; the Gaelic Books Council’s support of Gaelic writers and publishers; Fèisean nan Gàidheal’s musical and arts tuition for young people. And yet, and yet…we await the most recent Scotland Census figures from 2022 with a certain trepidation.
My own personal view is that if Gaelic is to survive and prosper, well into this century and beyond, inter-generational transmission of the language is key for growth and sustainability; in particular, in island communities where the language is still, but only just, a living, daily language.
The late Murdo MacFarlane, the Melbost Bàrd from Lewis, whose works I have recently edited, was a champion of Gaelic. Although he was, at times, pessimistic about the survival of the language and spoke in pretty sobering terms of the grim prospect of its demise, he also took great pains always to encourage and exhort all of us who care about the language to be bold in our efforts to save it.
Ma tha èibhleag bheag bheò a’ Ghàidheil
Air fhàgail air cagailt do chridh’,
Neo sradag bheag bheò de dh’uaill
Ann an luach do chànain, rèist bi
‘G èirigh is às a leth buail,
Mun tèid i tur oirnn a dhìth.
If there is one small, burning ember of the Gael
Left on your heart’s hearth,
Or if you have even a small spark of pride
In the value of your language,
Then rise up and fight on its behalf,
Before it is fully lost to us.
I echo Murdo’s sentiment. On this solemn occasion, as we remember with respect the
fallen at Culloden, may we also reflect on the urgency that is required to advocate for the survival of the Gaelic language.
Clann nan Gàidheal ri Guaillean a Chèile.
