At the Hands across the Sea Conference held at An Lanntair in Stornoway (24-25th March 2022) Ray and Kathryn presented their paper “‘Play Me Something’: poetic storytelling and the context of cultural resilience”. This paper offered an exploration from a ‘longer-view’ in regard of subalternity and tensions over both Scottish Gaelic and Breton cultural resilience, minority language and culture expression, as well as salient issues of island identity and place, through the lens of Tim Neat and John Berger’s award-winning film Play Me Something (1989).
“On the small, Gaelic island of Barra, the island’s issues of subalternity and resilience are related in the context of the distant island-city of Venice by a mesmerising storyteller. The latter’s poetic powers simultaneously summons the parallel island voices of tradition and modernity while the Gramscian dimension of his tale implicitly offers an analytical framework with which the creative artist can nurture an innovative approach to cultural resilience and resistance.”
Burnett and Burnett, 2022
For details on the conference: “Film-Poetry, Hybridity and Cultural Resilience in the Scottish Highlands & Islands and Western Brittany” 24-25th March 2022, An Lanntair, Stornoway, Lewis. Organised by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and the University of Western Brittany (UBO/HCTI). Organisers: Lindsay Blair (UHI) & Camille Manfredi (UBO/HCTI).
Burnett and Burnett Play Me Something: poetic storytelling and the context of cultural resilience Title SlideMarch 2022
Play Me Something: poetic storytelling and the context of cultural resilience
Ray Burnett, Kathryn Burnett, Scottish Centre for Island Studies, University of the West of Scotland
As in the present 2014 referendum era, so in the earlier pivotal 1979 referendum period, there was a similar identifiable output of creative activity over the ‘national question’ – a struggle over identity and place. A notable feature of the latter was its intermediality, in particular the output of dramatists (John McGrath, 7:84 Scotland) and film-makers (Douglas Eadie, Mike Alexander, Tim Neat) with poets, singers, musicians, tradition-bearers and collectors (Hamish Henderson, Sorley MacLean, Margaret Bennett).
Of particular significance on this salient was the extensive filmic work of Douglas Eadie, Mike Alexander and Tim Neat and their engagement with the poetry, song, music and tradition of Scotland’s Scots and Gaelic communities – a common cause engagement that extended to the minority cultural output of Brittany (Tri Yann, Gilles Servat, Youenn Gwernig Alan Stivell, Claudine Mazéas).
It was progressive artistic work based on a recognition that the promotion of minority languages, cultures and traditions has an inherently political dimension: an alignment in a wider war of position over the contested terrain of land and language that acknowledged a tension between the limiting specifics of grounded community cultural referrals and a necessary engagement beyond, on a wider societal and political field.
This paper explores this tension over cultural resilience through the lens of an award-winning film from this earlier era – Tim Neat and John Berger’s Play Me Something (1989). On the small, Gaelic island of Barra, the island’s issues of subalternity and resilience are related in the context of the distant island-city of Venice by a mesmerising storyteller. The latter’s poetic powers simultaneously summons the parallel island voices of tradition and modernity while the Gramscian dimension of his tale implicitly offers an analytical framework with which the creative artist can nurture an innovative approach to cultural resilience and resistance.
Mr Ray Burnett,Scottish Centre for Island Studies, is a writer and researcher on transnational dimensions of Scotland’s cultural and social history, with particular regard to the highlands and islands, and long-standing engagement with the issues of a subaltern Scotland. (burnett.ray@gmailcom)
Dr Kathryn A. Burnett, Scottish Centre for Island Studies, Senior Lecturer, University of the West of Scotland teaches inter-disciplinary Masters programmes in Creative Arts Practice and Media. Research includes representation of remote and island spaces; Scottish cultural heritage contexts for applied creative practice incl. archives, cultural place narratives, visuality of rurality and its mediatization. (kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk)
Sgrùdadh air riaghladh com-pàirteachail agus fèin-stiùireadh coimhearsnachd a tha bunaiteach ri bhith a’ toirt taic do choimhearsnachdan dùthchasach Gàidhlig
Access Iain’s full preliminary report as a pdf here:
This research study builds on the legacy of the Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community research (GCVC)[1] through exploring community agency and participation factors relevant to how Gaelic development interventions engage with the Gaelic vernacular community.
This small research project sought to gain an initial understanding of the extent to which community agency and participation are observable at the community level in relation to policies aimed at local Gaelic development priorities. Sustaining the position of Gaelic as a viable community language will require that development agencies and communities work together to strengthen the socioeconomic and sociolinguistic conditions which will enable a better future for the language. A key recommendation from the research is that a LEADER-type programme be adopted to put Gaelic development on a sustainable pathway for change.
Sgrùdadh air riaghladh com-pàirteachail agus fèin-stiùireadh coimhearsnachd a tha bunaiteach ri bhith a’ toirt taic do choimhearsnachdan dùthchasach Gàidhlig
Tha an sgrùdadh rannsachaidh seo a’ togail air dìleab an leabhar-rannsachaidh ‘Staing na Gàidhlig anns a’ Choimhearsnachd Dhùthchasaich’2 tro bhith a’ sgrùdadh factaran riaghladh com-pàirteachail agus fèin-stiùireadh coimhearsnachd a tha a’ buntainn ri leasachadh na Gàidhlig anns na coimhearsnachdan dùthchasach Gàidhlig. Tha an sgrùdadh seo mar a’ chiad cheum ann a bhith a’ togail tuigse air dè na ceanglaichean com-pàirteachais a tha follaiseach aig ìre na coimhearsnachd a thaobh poileasaidhean a tha ag amas air leasachadh na Gàidhlig ann an sgìrean ionadail. Tha toraidhean an rannsachaidh stèidhichte air co-chomhairleachaidh agus sgrùdadh ann an dà sgìre dhùthchasach Ghàidhlig, aon ann an taobh an iar Leòdhais agus an sgìre eile ann an taobh tuath an Eilein Sgitheanaich. Chaidh an rannsachadh seo a dhèanamh aig àm cuingealachaidh COVID-19, agus mar sin, bha an rannsachadh a’ sireadh sealladh ionadail a thaobh a bhith a’ gabhail ri dùbhlain mar sin agus sgrùdadh a dhèanamh air dòighean anns am faod coimhearsnachdan tighinn a-mach às na suidheachaidhean sin.
Tha na ciad toraidhean bhon rannsachadh seo a’ sealltainn gu bheil na feartan a tha bunaiteach do riaghladh com-pàirteachail agus fèin-stiùireadh coimhearsnachd caran briste mar a tha iad sin a’ buntainn ri poileasaidh Gàidhlig agus cùisean dealbhaidh ceangailte ri gnìomhan sòiseo-chànanachas an luib choimhearsnachdan fa leth. Tha ceanglaichean gu ìre lag eadar poileasaidhean cànain agus na coimhearsnachdan dùthchasach Gàidhlig a-rèir freagairtean bho na coimhearsnachdan a ghabh pàirt anns an rannsachadh seo. Tha e cudromach gum bi suidheachadh na Gàidhlig mar chànan coimhearsnachd stèidhte air bunait sheasmhach agus airson sin tachairt feumaidh co-obrachadh agus conaltradh nas fheàrr a bhith ann eadar na buidhnean-leasachaidh oifigeil airson gum bi com-pàirteachas ann a tha comasach le bhith a’ dèiligeadh leis na duilgheadasan bunaiteach sòiseo-eaconamach agus sòiseo-chànanach a tha nan cnapan-starra do bhith a’ togail agus a’ cleachdadh na Gàidhlig an luib choimhearsnachdan.
Thathas a’ moladh modhan-leasachaidh na Gàidhlig a chur air slighe ùr agus radaigeach, stèidhte air prògram coltach ri LEADER. Bhiodh goireasan agus dealbhadh leasachaidh sòiseo-chànanachais aig ìre ionadail fo smachd dhìreach urrasan coimhearsnachd ionadail agus / no co-chomainn. Thathas cuideachd a’ moladh gum bu chòir prìomhachasan leasachaidh na Gàidhlig aig ìre ionadail a bhith stèidhichte air fòram riochdachail coimhearsnachd a tha ag obair fo sgèith urrasan coimhearsnachd / co-chomainn. Ann a bhith a’ stèidheachadh fòram riochdachaidh airson a’ choimhearsnachd dhùthchasaich Ghàidhlig, coltach ri ‘Seanadh Saoranach Coimhearsnachd’, tha seo air fhaicinn mar eileamaid chudromach ann a bhith a’ dèiligeadh ris an neo-chothromachadh deamocratach anns an dòigh anns a bheil poileasaidhean a tha buntainn leis a’ Ghàidhlig air an dealbhachadh agus air an cur an gnìomh anns na sgìrean dùthchasach Gàidhlig.
Iain Caimbeul
Iain Campbell specialises in small-language policy and planning with extensive experience and knowledge of Gaelic language development processes. Career experience has included project management; strategy development; socio-economic and economic impact analysis; change management and policy reviews; benchmarking; and evaluations of public sector programme initiatives.
Iain Campbell is currently a Research Fellow with the Language Sciences Institute of the University of the Highlands and Islands. Recent employment positions have included: Director of Hecla Consulting and Senior Manager of the Soillse Gaelic Research Project. Iain Campbell has held public sector appointments as a Board Member, Cathraiche (Chair) and CEO of Bòrd na Gàidhlig; a Board Member of MG ALBA and a Member of the BBC Trust Audience Council for Scotland. https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/persons/iain-caimbeul
An exploration of agency and participation factors relevant to supporting Gaelic vernacular communities.
This research study builds on the legacy of the Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community research (GCVC)1 through exploring community agency and participation factors relevant to how Gaelic development interventions engage with the Gaelic vernacular community. The study is a first step in developing an understanding of the extent to which community agency and participation are observable at the community level in relation to policies aimed at local Gaelic development priorities. Research outputs are based on consultations and surveys in two rural Gaelic vernacular districts, one in west Lewis and one in the north area of Skye. This research was conducted during the period of COVID-19 restrictions, and thus sought to ascertain local perspectives on adapting to such challenges and to explore mechanisms by which the communities can emerge from these circumstances.
Preliminary research outputs signal that the critical factors of community agency and participation are fragmented as these relate to Gaelic policy and socio-linguistic planning matters amongst individual communities. Linkages between language policy and the vernacular Gaelic group are weak according to the members of the two communities who participated in the research. It is critical that Gaelic as a community language is set on a sustainable footing. This will require cooperation and communication linkages to be strengthened between official development bodies and relevant communities in order to address current socioeconomic and sociolinguistic problems which act as barriers to normalising Gaelic as the language of the community.
It is recommended that a new and a radical approach based on a LEADER-type programme be adopted to put Gaelic development on a pathway for change. The suggested new approach would put resources and local sociolinguistic planning under the direct control of local community trusts and/or cooperatives. The research also suggests that a community forum be established under the auspices of local community trusts/cooperatives. The establishment of a representative forum for the Gaelic vernacular community, analogous to a citizens’ assembly, will be an important element in addressing the democratic imbalance which community members attach to the current approach to language policy and planning as this relates to Gaelic development actions within the vernacular community.
Access Iain’s full preliminary report as a pdf here:
See also: Ó Giollagáin, C., Camshron, G., Moireach, P., Ó Curnáin, B., Caimbeul, I., MacDonald, B. and Péterváry, T. (2020) Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community: A comprehensive sociolinguistic survey of Scottish Gaelic (GCVC). Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.
Creating an “Island Space” in the Land of Colmcille
by Professor Mairéad Nic Craith
This year is a special anniversary of Colmcille (also known as Columba). Oral history suggests that Colmcille was born in Gartán in County Donegal around 521 AD. That makes this year his 1500th birthday. Although he was of royal descent, Colmcille decided to dedicate his life to Christianity and was sent to St Finnian’s monastery in County Down. While there, Colmcille secretly copied a book of psalms that Finnian had brought back from Rome. Finnian was angry that a copy had been made without his knowledge and appealed to the High King that the copy was rightfully his, but Colmcille refused to give it up. Tensions between the two monks may have served as the catalyst for the battle of Cúl Drebene where some 3,000 lives were lost. Following the dispute, Columba went into self-imposed, penitential exile, vowing to win as many as 3,000 souls for Christ. He established a new monastery on the Hebridian island of Iona where Conall, the King of Dal Riada, had granted him the site.
It is no accident that the story of Colmcille is still with us today after 1500 years. According to Hallam and Ingold (2008), traditions must be worked at to be sustained. Commemorations of Colmcille go back centuries, but a particularly important milestone occurred in 1997, when the then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and a Minister of State in the Scottish Office, Brian Wilson, launched a new initiative commemorating the saint. Mary Robinson spoke about “creating an island space … in which Ireland and Scotland can share what they have in common.” (https://www.president.ie/en/media-library/speeches/signatures-on-our-own-frequency-the-sabhal-mor-ostaig-lecture-by-president) Since then a number of acts of commemoration have occurred. This blog focuses on three of these, with reference to mapping.
The first map, Tír Cholmcille (2003), conceptualised by Roy Pedersen was designed to challenge the way we look at the lands of Ireland and Scotland. We have become so used to looking at maps in a particular way that we forget there are other ways of seeing the world. As Dennis Woods (1992) says of the power of maps, “from their inception, it has been essential that states appear as facts of nature, as real enduring things”. Tír Cholmcille, which can be viewed at https://colmcille.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Colmcille-Map.pdf, puts Ireland and Scotland on one single map. Although there is no change in geography, the map is a radical change in perspective. A change in angle on the map encourages people to look again at the image they have of the two countries and the physical connection between them.
The second map is entitled Slí Cholmcille. The route that together landscapes and communities in Ireland and Scotland which are associated with Colmcille and can be viewed here: https://colmcille.net/st-columba-trail/. The route begins in Ireland, the land of Colmcille’s birth, and ends in Scotland, the land where he is buried. En route, one travels across many islands, beginning with Tory Island, off the coast of Donegal. There is a legend associated with Colmcille on Tory island, suggesting that the island’s ruler initially denied Colmcille permission to build a monastery there. Colmcille sought a compromise and proposed that he only required as much land as would be covered by his cloak. Thinking that he could hardly refuse such a small piece of land, the ruler agreed. However, when Colmcille threw down his cloak, it magically expanded until it covered the entire island. The furious ruler set his vicious dog on Colmcille. When the saint saw the beast coming, he blessed him and asked him to die, which the dog duly did!! When the ruler saw this, he repented and granted permission for Colmcille’s monastery.
The third example is a story map entitled Columba’s Scotland. This was designed by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) in 2021. HES commissioned poetry about places associated with the saint which can be viewed at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ae1235fda91c489e83a414a0d580d4fb.
Scottish islands which feature on the story map, include Eileach an Naoimh, where tradition holds that Columba’s mother is buried. Iona is the island that is most strongly associated with the saint; following a successful £3.75 million appeal, the the Iona Community’s residential and guest accommodation next to the Abbey was re-opened this summer.
All three maps have profound implications for Irish and Scottish communities. In re-imagining the geography of Ireland and Scotland, Tir Cholmcille draws attention to the proximity of these countries to one another. Although legend has it that Colmcille left Ireland and headed to Scotland as a penance for his misdeeds, the map may tell another story. Perhaps Colmcille didn’t necessarily perceive Ireland and Scotland as separate entities and, rather than leaving Ireland, was simple moving northwards from one Gaelic community to another that in need of Christianisation.. The re-orientation of the map draws attention to the shared Gaelic culture, which is particularly strong in the islands. The partnership between Bòrd na Gàidhlig in Scotland and Foras na Gaeilge in Ireland, which has supported these initiatives, has strived to deepen connections between the Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic language communities. The Gaelic dimension has been enhanced with the presentation of placenames in the original Gaelic rather than in an English translation that served to disconnect many islanders from the land and placelore.
The re-mapping of the Colmcille story (as well as the 1500 celebrations) have given Scottish islands an opportunity to come centre-stage. The centrality of islands in the Columba narrative is important since we tend to think of islands as edge places – a tendency that is reinforced by the power of maps to interpret in “a scientific manner”. Maps affirm states, and states affirm maps. Doreen Massey (1994) calls this the politics of location. We have come into a mind-set that assumes a core and a periphery, a centre and an edge – and you can’t have one without the other, but the islands are always seen as at the “edge”, but this is not the case in relation to islands in the Colmcille narrative.
Although most closely associated with Iona, Colmcille is connected with many Scottish islands. In Canna, the archivists put together a series of sounds and images of places that are linked with the saint for a video which can be viewed here: https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-feast-day-of-st-columba. While there is no absolute historical evidence, John Lorne Campbell (from Canna) argues persuasively that Canna was the summer home of Columba, and that it is the mysterious island of “Hinba” or “Himba” that is mentioned in the Columban diaries. The video highlights the archaeological connections of Canna and St Colmcille, and the soundtrack features Gaelic music.
It would be impossible to establish concrete historical evidence for every aspect of Colmcille’s life, but there is also a sense in which the facts do not matter (Nic Craith 2013). Whether the character of Colmcille is historical or semi-fictional is irrelevant for the purpose of tradition-bearing, although most people believe in his historical reality. The ‘history’ of Colmcille continues to be regenerated and remade, and his significance for island place-making has become layered. In “How Myths Die”, Lévi-Strauss (1974) argues against the disappearance of myths. They can be transformed, exhausted even, but they do not disappear. Instead, they can be recreated or re-actived
In the case of Columba, one is dealing with a ‘truth story’ rather than a true version of events (a distinction I first heard from John Bell at Greenbelt, a Christian arts festival, in Cheltenham). It is a story that resonates with Scottish communities (see Ian Bradley) https://www.dailyadvent.com/gb/news/140d401e921f7b8c01a6e0ba65129a9a-Celebrating-St-Columba-our-grumpy-but-muchlauded-saint-who-was-born-1500-years-ago) Although not the patron saint of either Ireland or Scotland, Colmcille’s popularity was such that his relics were carried in front of the Scottish army at the Battle of Bannockburn. There is a sense in which Colmcille is the real patron of the Gaels of Dal Riada. His 1500th anniversary has generated many creative initiatives, from poetry to music to art. Accompanying this blog is the image of a new icon that was commissioned from iconographer Pavel Lupu. This beautiful (copyright) image is yet another example of the continuing tradition of a popular saint.
References
Hallam, Elizabeth and Ingold, Tim (2008) “Creativity and Cultural Improvisation: An Introduction”. In: Elizabeth Hallam and Tim Ingold eds, Creativity and Cultural Improvisation, Routledge.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1974) “How Myths Die”, New Literary History, 5(2), pp. 269-81.
Massey, Doreen (1994) Space, Place and Gender, Polity Press.
Nic Craith, Mairead (2013) “Living Heritage and Religious Traditions: Reinterpreting Columba/Colmcille in the UK City of Culture”, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 22(1), pp 42-58.
Woods, Dennis (1992) The Power of Maps, Guilford Press.
“Little Islands at the Edge of the Ocean” – Celebrating ColmCille 1500
by Ray Burnett
Scotland’s islandscapes are a variegated multiplicity of intricate and ceaselessly shifting combination of land, sea, and seaways. Each offers a bifocal physical and cultural prism, a ‘way of seeing’, through which individual and communal sense of place, identity and islandness expresses itself and societal relations of power and authority, dominance and subalternity map themselves out on a contested maritime terrain.
As explored further (Burnett 2021) in the Scotland and Islandness book edited edition, the earliest recorded layer of Scotland’s islandscape can be considered as that of the 6th to 8th centuries, when the protohistory of the late Atlantic Iron Age overlapped with the Early Christian era – the ‘Age of the Saints’, the age of the Word.[i] Confined to the islandscapes of the Hebrides, the essay sought to trace and tease out some aspects of this period through a specific focus on ‘islandness’.
One of the premises underpinning Scotland and Islandness was an awareness of the significant contribution our islands and island communities have made to the cultural, political, and social history, not just of Scotland, but of the wider transnational world of Europe and beyond.[ii] A significant dimension of this has been the enduring residual culture legacy of the Early Christian era. Over two millennia of settlement history, successive generations of scholars, bards, story-tellers and community tradition-bearers have ensured that a cultural palimpsest of multi-layered texts and lore, traditions and arts, practices and beliefs, has accumulated across Scotland’s far reach of islandscapes.
In concluding his Life of St Columba, Adomnán of Iona wrote that it was no small favour conferred by God that ‘one who dwelt on this little island on the edge of the ocean’ should have earned a reputation that had reached across the three corners of Spain and Gaul and Italy beyond the Alps, even to Rome itself, ‘the chief of all cities.’[iii] Paradoxically, assessing fully the significance of the Early Christian era across all of the Hebrides involves acknowledging a critical paradigm shift: a move away from seeing everything from an Iona, Columban and Dal Riata perspective. Two important projects, both accessible online, are important in this regard.
The Papar Project
The Papar Project originated in a 2001 conference on the theme of ‘The papar in the North Atlantic: Environment and History’. It focuses on a distinctive feature of the Early Christian era in both the Western and Northern Isles (and Iceland), namely, island place names containing the word papar (a reference to priests or monks). The names are to be found in a great arc from Papil, Unst in Shetland, through Pabail, Lewis and Pabaigh, the Barra Isles in the Outer Hebrides, to Pabay on Skye and Papadil on Rùm. Significantly none are to be found in the Argyll islands, south of Ardnamurchan Point.
These place names derived from the legacy of Norse incursions into Scotland’s seaways and islands but what was the nature and purpose of the early Christian presence the Norse would encounter? Were the settlers of these places followers of a cenobitic or eremitic monastic life, or priests present in a pastoral capacity? In the latter context, an important dimension of the papar project was its environmental focus, including close examination of the origin, formation and function of anthropogenic raised soils, an evident link to agriculture (see Simpson et al., The Papar Project: agricultural assessment).
The project also considered the nature of the Norse impact on the ‘papar’ and the final detailed report on The Hebrides(following an earlier report on the Northern Isles) is of considerable importance in relation to the nature of secular island settlement in the Hebrides in the latter part of the Early Christian era as well as the spiritual and ecclesiastical dimension of the Hebridean islandscape.
Eòlas nan Naomh, ‘Saints of the Uists’ is an initiative launched in 2018 between Glasgow University Celtic Department and Ceòlas, the community charity based in South Uist dedicated to the promotion of the Gaelic language and Gaelic culture of the Uists. Much smaller in scale and tighter in focus than the Papar project, this study from an island studies perspective is no less important. From its university base, the Glasgow University contribution has been to draw together current academic studies on the early and medieval Christianity of Uist; to identify sites and placenames of interest in regard to the latter and to discuss the saints associated with these sites in the Uists. It has been a deep and extensive enquiry and the detailed information already collated online at Eòlas nan Naomhprovides an excellent digital platform to enable the project team to take forward their principal aim: ‘to stimulate further discussions on the sites in question and the role of the Uists in the early Christianity of the Western Isles’.
The Eòlas nan Naomh online resource illuminates in readily accessible form a key historical era of Scottish island studies and the Eòlas nan Naomh Project Introduction essay should be regarded as ‘Essential Reading’ with its comprehensive accompanying Bibliography providing an excellent link for those interested in further ‘Recommended Reading’.
This wealth of academic work on Uist hagiotoponyms has been augmented by the parallel community cultural work of Ceòlas. With a focus on the early saints whose dedications and traditions are prominent in the Uists – Cainneach, Donnan, Brìde, Donnan, for example – the Early Uist Saints Project has been collecting and recording information on these saints as transmitted through the oral tradition and indigenous knowledge of the predominantly Gaelic-speaking island communities of Uist. This work on the islandscape of ‘the saints of Uist’ thereby provides an integral community framework through which the deep knowledge of locality and oral history of the Uists can be celebrated and disseminated.
Ceòlas has described this work as a contribution to Slighe Chaluim Chille, the Columba Trail, a project that seeks to raise awareness of the legacy of St Columba across the competing representations in the religious history of Ireland and Scotland. Through a focus on Derry, a city with deep Columban associations, Màiréad Nic Craith (Nic Craith 2013) has traced the reshaping of these divergent historical narratives in a contemporary setting. Contextualising the emergence of a fresh narrative that seeks to redefine the Columban city of Derry ‘as a common heritage space for a previously divided people’, the study underlines the contribution such initiatives can make in the distinct cultural context of Scotland and most especially the Hebrides.
Colmcille 1500: A feast for Scottish island focus
Over 2021 in Ireland (the country of Columba’s birth and formative years) and Scotland (the country of his exile and death) the 1500th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated through a rolling calendar of diverse events, many online, organised under the rubric of Colmcille 1500 (521-2021). The rich programme of online public lectures and wider research commentaries are all of interest but in relation to the Scottish islands, particularly but not exclusively the Hebrides, and as 9th June – the Feast Day of St Columba of Iona approaches – three contributions focusing specifically upon island place and islandness invite particular mention.
The first is an article by Gilbert Márkus, a distinguished scholar in this field in the current (May 2021) Innes Review. In ‘Four blessings and a funeral: Adomnán’s theological map of Iona’ Márkus examines the last chapter of Adomnán’s Vita sancti Columbae (i.e. his Life of St Columba) which is devoted entirely to Columba’s movements around Iona in the final days of his life. In this account he elicits the spiritual themes and outlines how they are structured spatially, revealing Adomnán’s mental map of the island. Adomnán thereby invites the reader to see how salvation is revealed in time and space, in movement, and in dwelling within the spatial order of an islandscape established by Columba’s blessings.
The second recommendation is to draw attention to the public lectures series Colm Cille 1500: Téacsanna agus Traidisiúin / Columba 1500: Texts and Traditions that the Royal Irish Academy will be running from 25 August to 13 October 2021. The full programme, available here contains much of relevance to the ‘Age of the Saints’ in Scotland. One contribution of particular interest from a Scottish island studies perspective, however is the lecture by Professor Thomas Owen Clancy, University of Glasgow entitled Tír, tráig, tuile, ‘Land, strand and tide’: Colum Cille’s voice and the poetics of place’, to be given on 8th September 2021.
Thirdly, Professor Jonathan Wooding, Honorary Professor, Medieval and Early Modern Centre, University of Sydney will deliver a lecture as part of the Trinity College, Dublin Columcille in Context programme on 29 June 2021 entitled Peregrinatio in the Careers of Columcille and his Monastic Family. As is made clear by Jonathan Wooding in his lecture abstract, it is a contribution of direct relevance to the Scottish islands and the notion of ‘islandness’. The presentation will examine instances of peregrinatio in the western Scottish and Atlantic islands from the 6th to the 9th century by which time Columban monks were making voyages to islands lying far to the north and north-west. The contribution will consider the different theological ideas that are found in the accounts of these journeys, as well as their implications for studies of settlement, including recent fieldwork in Iceland.
Each lecture is in a programme of virtual events that are accessible online. They promise to be of great interest in this celebratory ColmCille 1500 year and beyond.
Márkus, G. 2021 ‘Four blessings and a funeral: Adomnán’s theological map of Iona’, The Innes Review 72 (1): 1–26 DOI: 10.3366/inr.2021.0279.
Nic Craith, M. 2013 ‘Living Heritage and Religious Traditions Reinterpreting Columba/Colmcille in the UK City of Culture’ Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 22 (1): 42-58 DO1: 10.3167/ajec.2013.220104.
Simpson, I.A., Crawford, B. and Ballin Smith, B. (n.d). Papar place-names in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland: A preliminary assessment of their association with agricultural land potential. Access online at: The Papar Project: agricultural assessment.
Links to ColmCille 1500 Lectures Series and Events detailed:
29th June 2021 Professor Jonathan Wooding, Honorary Professor, Medieval and Early Modern Centre, University of Sydney as part of the Trinity College, Dublin Columcille in Context programme, on ‘Peregrinatio in the Careers of Columcille and his Monastic Family’.
[i] Although there is a vast legacy of prehistoric settlement in the islands, it is only with the named places, people of the AIA and the oral and written history and tradition of the EC era that a sense of attached across the centuries begins.
[ii] This ‘contribution’ has been unquestionably negative as well as positive not least for other global island communities over the European colonization and British imperial eras.
[iii] Sharpe, R. (1995), Adomnán of Iona, Life of St Columba, Harmondsworth, p. 233
Colmcille: An Icon of Shared Heritage Irish and UK Keynote Plenary June 2021
Professor Mairéad Nic Craith discusses Columba/Colmcille’s contested symbolism, creative practice research legacies, links and inspirations between Ireland and Scotland. Alongside Mairéad on the panel are Professor Máire B Ní Annracháin and Dr Brian Lacey as they each contribute their rich expertise to the 5th June 2021 Keynote Plenary: “Colmcille: An Icon of Shared Heritage” | Irish & UK Joint Ambassadorial Addresses. You can view all three of these excellent presentations via this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CSG8tS1EN8
Scotland’s islands are diverse, resourceful and singularly iconic in national and global imaginations of places ‘apart’ yet readily reached. This collection of essays offers a fascinating commentary on Scotland’s island communities that celebrates their histories, cultures and economies in general terms. Recognising a complex geography of distinct regions and island spaces, the collection speaks to broader themes of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, narratives of place and people, the ideas and policies of island and regional distinctiveness, as well as particular examinations of literature, language, migration, land reform, and industry. With a view to placing ideas and expressions of islandness within a lived reality of island life and scholarship, the collection provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the value of continued and expanding research commentaries on Scotland’s islands for both a Scottish and an international readership.
This book should instantly appeal to scholars of Island Studies, Scottish Studies, and Regional Studies of northern and peripheral Europe. Readers with particular interests in the sociology and history of Scottish rural and northern Atlantic communities, the cultural histories and economies of remote and island places, and the pressing socioeconomic agenda of small island sustainability, community building and resilience should also find the collection offers current commentaries on these broad themes illustrated with local island examples and contingencies.
Earlier this year (a very cold and bracing Oban in February!) the Scottish Centre for Island Studies ran a two day event in association with SGSAH and COST New speakers of minority lanaguge network. The programme of the event can be seen below but it included a series of engaging talks and ‘walk abouts’ from both experienced and less experienced researchers interested in the relationships between remote and rural culture, minority language contexts and the research opportunities and complexities around enterprise and development in these terms for Scotland, and beyond.
“Really helpful event with lots of inspiring ideas to explore for my PhD”
“Thank you for organising this- it’s been really great!”
“It was brilliant tae be in Oban, and tae haa the contact wi’ the place and talk aboot wir’ subject in context.”
“Underlined the veracity of cross-disciplinary research methodologies as a PhD approach.”
“The varied programme was really nice.”
“Having a speaker from the Isle of Man was great!”
“The location worked extremely well.”
The mix of papers was very interesting and provided different disciplinary context to the subject of minority language.”
“Visiting local agencies and hearing their perspective was very useful.”
“Thank you for putting together such a refreshing event!”
Only suggestions for improvement were that a few speakers were a bit “too quiet”, that the SAMS venue was a bit ‘far out’ from Oban but our car-share policy got everyone there and back fine J, and we could (should) have delivered more of the actual event in Gaelic! All very helpful and we’ll certainly take these on board for future events.
Thanks to everyone for all their feedback and comments and most especially for such great participation and enthusiasm for the event.
Kathryn
Special thanks goes to James Harrison @Culture Vannin, Isle of Man, to the team at the Furnan Gaelic Centre, Oban and to Norman Bissell, Scottish Centre for Geopoetics.
Dates: Tuesday 21st – Wednesday 22rd February 2017
Venue: SAMS (Scottish Marine Institute), Oban
Arts and humanities students and supervisors are invited to participate in this two day co-hosted (COST and SGSAH) inter- disciplinary event that will provide an opportunity to examine the interface between new minority language speakers, cultural entrepreneurship and research good practice in island and remote rural communities. The event seeks to build networks and share knowledge at all levels of research enquiry. With a focus on sharing examples of arts and humanities doctoral research and community policy case studies, participants will experience Scotland’s west coast community of Oban and participate in a range of ‘walking and talking’ research activity as well as key presentations, site visits and round table di scussions.
Key themes for the two day event include:
Sharing good practice on minority language community research engagement and brokerage with particular emphasis on doctoral experiences;
Inviting a better understanding of the minority language and culture issues facing communities, entrepreneurs, host communities and new minority language speakers and the research potential this offers;
Drawing on multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual contexts to inform discussions regarding (i) the commodification of minority language and new speakers, (ii) the role of language and cultural enterprise in local and national policy, (iii) ‘futureproofing’ minority language cultures in ‘fragile’ and remote places;
Realising the value of place/language as fluid/living cultural practice and enterprise with key community contributions including poet and writer Norrie Bissell, Isle of Luing, Scotland, and James Harrison representing CultureVannin, Isle of Man;
Developing a pivoting perspective by which both research undertaken, challenges presented and new questions yet to emerge can be brought forth and offered for review and critique by both new and experienced researchers together.
Investing in Small Island Recovery: Archipelagic Approaches to Sustainable Living
20 April 2012, North Unst Public Hall
Sustainable Economic Development versus Labour Market Escalators: The Role and Impacts of Different Agencies in Gaelic Arts and Culture Activities.
Mike Danson (University of the West of Scotland, Scotland) and Douglas Chalmers (Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland)
There is a positive link between a vibrant Gaelic cultural and artistic sector within the Gaelic heartlands of the Hebrides of north west Scotland and positive impacts on sustainability and growth of Gaelic-speaking communities. This is argued by both arts and cultural organisations but also by the economic development agency (HIE): “Investing in the native language and cultural traditions of the region…. can lead to population retention, inward migration, …greater entrepreneurial activity and business creation. Increasing cultural vibrancy… helps reinforce the culture of sustainable development across the region….the heart of everything that we do at HIE”.
Although they can lead to increases in the use of the language, attachment of local people to their community, and levels of local confidence, different investments and initiatives can create different outcomes. So, as well as community and private initiatives, significant public investment in the Gaelic media has been a strong provider of quality jobs and careers in the Gaelic heartland, helping to retain and attract families to the islands. However, there is a bias in the ‘Gaelic labour market’ in generating such public sector employment not in these areas but in the urbanised mainland cities. We explore the causes and dynamics of these developments and identify challenges for policymakers and supporters of the language and islands.
Kathryn A. Burnett and Tony Grace (2009) ‘Community, Cultural Resource and Media: Reflecting on Research Practice’ in Gordon, Janey (ed.) (2009) Notions of Community: A Collection of Community Media Debates and Dilemmas; Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2009. 310 pp., 5 ill.
ISBN 978-3-03911-374-3 pb.
This volume gets beyond simple descriptions of the values and processes involved in community media and is deliberately seeking argument and structured debate around the issues of this vibrant sector of the media. The contributors examine the dilemmas that have emerged within this sector and provide an incisive overview. The chapters use case studies and data research to illustrate the major debates facing community media, along with a sideways look at the dilemmas that community media practitioners and their audiences must engage with.
This collection provides an international perspective and covers the traditional formats as well as newer media technologies. It also gives some intriguing examples of community media, which get beyond simple good practices.
Contents: Janey Gordon: Introduction – Saba ElGhul-Bebawi: The Relationship between Mainstream and Alternative Media: A Blurring of the Edges? – Lawrie Hallett: The Space Between: Making Room for Community Radio – Janey Gordon: Community Radio, Funding and Ethics: The UK and Australian Models – Kathryn A. Burnett/Tony Grace: Community, Cultural Resource and Media: Reflecting on Research Practice – Katie Moylan: Towards Transnational Radio: Migrant Produced Programming in Dublin – Gavin Stewart: Selling Community: Corporate Media, Marketing and Blogging – Michael Meadows/Susan Forde/Jacqui Ewart/Kerrie Foxwell: A Catalyst for Change? Australian Community Broadcasting Audiences Fight Back – Kitty van Vuuren: The Value and Purpose of Community Broadcasting: The Australian Experience – Pollyanna Ruiz: Manufacturing Dissent: Visual Metaphors in Community Narratives – Janey Gordon: The Mobile Phone and the Public Sphere: Mobile Phone Usage in Three Critical Situations – Jason Wilson/Barry Saunders/Axel Bruns: ‘Preditors’: Making Citizen Journalism Work – Dimitra L. Milioni: Neither ‘Community’ Nor ‘Media’? The Transformation of Community Media on the Internet.
The final programme for the centenary celebration of Sorley MacLean’s life and work at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig June 15-18 2011 is now available at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s event website http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/clar-ama_en.html. The programme details a rich and distinguised list of poets, scholars, musicians, singers, and many friends and colleagues, coming together to celebrate Sorley’s life and work. The plenary speakers and academic paper abstracts are also detailed here in full.
On Wednesday the programme features a night of island music and poetry. Thursday and Friday offer two full days of academic papers, panel discussions, readings, island film screening, and exhibitions. On Saturday 18th June, and in association with Urras Dualchas Ratharsair, the island studies focus moves to Sorley’s birthplace, the island of Raasay for a full day of walks, talks, music and poetry. For specific details on how to book for this Raasay event please go to http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/A-Cholaiste/Naidheachdan/somhairle/raasay_en.html
On June 16th the Scottish Centre for Island Studies, University of the West of Scotland and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, will host a three day event, Ainmeil Thar Cheudan – Renowned over Hundreds, honouring MacLean’s legacy. As part of this celebration the event offers a screening of Somhairle MacGill-Eain: A Bhàrdachd agus A Shealladh, the 1986 BBC Alba Gaelic version (sub-titled) of Hallaig: the poetry and landscape of Sorley MacLean directed by Timothy Neat. The screening will feature a short talk by the director Timothy Neat, introduced by Ray Burnett, Honorary Research Fellow, Scottish Centre for Island Studies, University of the West of Scotland.
The event is sponsored by Morrison Construction, Scottish Islands Writers Network, Creative Scotland and Scotland’s Islands.
Anyone interested in attending the event should visit the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig website www.smo.uhi.ac.uk or telephone 01471 888000.
Comharrachadh Ceud Bliadhna bho rugadh Somhairle MacGill-Eain
Diciadain 15 – Disathairne 18 Ògmhios 2011
Mar chomharrachadh air ceud bliadhna bhon rugadh Somhairle MacGill-Eain (1911 – 1996), tha Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Ionad Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig agus an t-Ionad Albannach airson Sgrùdaidhean Eilein aig Oilthigh Taobh Siar na h-Alba a’ toirt cuiridh dhuibh tighinn còmhla rinn aig comharrachadh de bheatha, de shaothair agus de na dh’fhàg e mar dhìleab.Am measg nan urramach ionadail, nàiseanta is eadar-nàiseanta a bhios a’ nochdadh ann, bidh Liz Lochhead, a chaidh a chur an dreuchd o chionn ghoirid mar Bhàrd-molaidh na h-Alba agus Aonghas MacNeacail. Bidh cuideachd an t-Ollamh Douglas Gifford, Timothy Neat, an t-Ollamh Máir Ní Annracháin agus Crìsdean MacIlleBhàin.
Gheibhear fuireach aig a’ Cholaiste airson £275 le trì oidhcheannan, biadh agus dìnneir na co-labhairt sa phrìs. Cosgaidh e £35 a bhith an làthair gach latha as aonais cosgais àite-fuirich agus tha prìsean sònraichte ann do dh’oileanaich.
Ma tha sibh ag iarraidh àite a bhucadh aig a’ cho-labhairt lìonaibh AM FOIRM AIR LOIDHNE seo a-steach no cuiribh fios gu Sandra Byrne air 01471 888 000 no air post-d.
Delegates can choose to stay on campus for the duration of the conference at a rate of £275 which includes 3 nights accommodation, full board and conference dinner. A daily delegate rate of £35 not including accommodation is also available, as are special discounted rates for students.
To book your place at the conference fill in our ONLINE BOOKING FORM or contact Sandra Byrne on 01471 888 000 or by e-mail.
Closing Date for registrations 29 April 2011
A Centenary Celebration of Sorley MacLean (1911-2011)
Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 June 2011
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye
In commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Sorley MacLean (1911 – 1996) Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and the Scottish Centre for Island Studies, Faculty of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland invite you to join in a celebration of his life, work and legacy.
It is anticipated that this event will offer a range of academic and creative responses to Sorley’s cultural and political legacy with particular attention to his deep roots and referencing of island culture, history and experience. Furthermore, this proposed event will explore, with both established and more recently introduced scholars and artists, the significance and importance of Sorley MacLean within the wider context of the national culture of Scotland, the cultural terrain of the Highlands and Islands, and the cultural engagement of the 20th century Scottish left.
The academic focus will be a two day event structured around a selection of papers and discussion panels, as well as performance and creative practice activity detailing both Sorley’s own work and his inspiration to others.
In keeping with the internationalist perspectives that permeate Sorley’s own work, the event will be framed as an opportunity to offer an appreciation of what experiences and understanding of island life and culture, and of an island sense of place and dwelling, specifically but not exclusively in reference to Scotland, informed Sorley in his creative work and commentary.
The Scottish Centre for Island Studies, at University of the West of Scotland will hold a centenary celebration research event in partnership with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI and the Sorley MacLean Trust. http://www.uws.ac.uk/schoolsdepts/mlm/sorley-maclean/index.asp
Ainmeal Thar Cheudan
A Centenary Celebration of Sorley MacLean (1911-2011)
Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 June 2011
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye
In commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Sorley MacLean (1911 – 1996) Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and the Scottish Centre for Island Studies, Faculty of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland invite you to join in a celebration of his life, work and legacy.
It is anticipated that this event will offer a range of academic and creative responses to Sorley’s cultural and political legacy with particular attention to his deep roots and referencing of island culture, history and experience. Furthermore, this proposed event will explore, with both established and more recently introduced scholars and artists, the significance and importance of Sorley MacLean within the wider context of the national culture of Scotland, the cultural terrain of the Highlands and Islands, and the cultural engagement of the 20th century Scottish left.
The academic focus will be a two day event structured around a selection of papers and discussion panels, as well as performance and creative practice activity detailing both Sorley’s own work and his inspiration to others.
In keeping with the internationalist perspectives that permeate Sorley’s own work, the event will be framed as an opportunity to offer an appreciation of what experiences and understanding of island life and culture, and of an island sense of place and dwelling, specifically but not exclusively in reference to Scotland, informed Sorley in his creative work and commentary.
Earlier this year (a very cold and bracing Oban in February!) the Scottish Centre for Island Studies ran a two day event in association with SGSAH and COST New speakers of minority lanaguge network. The programme of the event can be seen below but it included a series of engaging talks and ‘walk abouts’ from both experienced and less experienced researchers interested in the relationships between remote and rural culture, minority language contexts and the research opportunities and complexities around enterprise and development in these terms for Scotland, and beyond.
Scottish Centre for Island Studies 
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