Scotland’s Gaelic Language
After centuries of decline the Scottish Gaelic language is fighting back.
At a glitzy party in Edinburgh in September 2008 a new Scottish television channel was born. BBC ALBA provides a range of programmes from news to music to documentaries in Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig). It was a successful result following decades of campaigning by language activists. The channel, a partnership between the BBC and MG Alba, is seen by many as vital for the future of the language.
Currently BBC ALBA is only available to viewers who receive satellite television. Most people in Scotland cannot see the channel, but despite this obvious drawback, audiences have reached 600,000 per week, which is ten times the number of Scottish Gaelic speakers. A campaign is already underway to make it available to more viewers through Freeview and other sources.
Scottish Gaelic culture and history
The new channel is not the only example of the creative ability of Scottish Gaelic speakers. A young woman from the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland called Julie Fowlis, who sings only in Gaelic, has entranced English-speaking listeners to BBC Radio Two who chose her as their Folk Singer of the Year in 2008.
Talented young Gaelic singers and musicians creating new sounds from old tunes are also a vital part of the Celtic Connections festival. Playing on the same platforms as internationally-acclaimed musicians from a range of cultures, they draw tens of thousands of people from all over the world to Glasgow through the dark days of late January.
It is an amazing cultural renaissance and would suggest a bright future for Scottish Gaelic but the reality is rather different. After centuries of decline the language is still in need of intensive care. Gaelic arrived in this country from Ireland before it was even known in Scotland. It was one of the Indo European group of Celtic languages and part of a European civilization that predated the Romans and gave us the first single European currency. Gaelic was one of several languages spoken in Scotland at that time. The 1st King of Scotland, Kenneth MacAlpine was a Gaelic speaker. It was the language of the Royal court for hundreds of years after that and was spoken across most of Scotland.
Robert the Bruce spoke Gaelic. So did Rob Roy, and many villages, towns, hills, mountains and lochs across Scotland still carry Gaelic names. The last battle fought on British soil, at Culloden moor in 1746 near the Highland capital of Inverness, is often blamed for starting the decline of the Gaelic language and culture.
Today’s Gaelic language speakers
The Highland Clearances through the rest of the 18th and 19th centuries accelerated the decline. A Scots Gaelic diaspora was created across the globe but at home the number of speakers was in freefall. Today, only 60,000 people use the language every day.
The healthiest Scottish Gaelic speaking communities are still found in the Western Isles in places like Uist, Barra, Eriskay and Skye. Pockets of Gaelic speakers can be found across the Highlands and thousands of Gaels also live in Scotland’s cities, particularly in Glasgow. Many young people leave the islands to further their education and to find work. Most do not return, but now their children have a better chance of speaking the language of their ancestors because of easier access to Gaelic medium education.
Keeping the Gaelic language alive
The fight back started in the 1970s when groups of determined parents demanded that their children be taught in Scottish Gaelic. This movement gathered pace through the 1980s and into the 90s. Now there are Gaelic language medium units in schools throughout Scotland, teaching thousands of children in subjects from history to music. A dedicated Gaelic primary school was established in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, in the 1990s. The roll continued to grow at an impressive rate when many other schools in the city faced closure due to the falling birth rate. In 2006 pupils moved to a larger school where teaching is now available at secondary level.
Political support has been vital. In the year before the Glasgow pupils moved to a larger school, the Scottish Parliament passed the Gaelic Language Act. A new agency called Bòrd na Gàidhlig was set up to protect and promote the language through a national plan for the language.
Efforts to bolster and revive Scottish Gaelic have enjoyed cross party support from the Conservative Governments of the 1980s and 90s, the Labour Governments in London and in coalition with the Liberal Democrats in Edinburgh and now the Scottish National Party, which was elected in 2007. This political backing and financial support have drawn a positive and increasingly confident response from within the Gaelic language community. Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic College in Skye, is enjoying unprecedented success in attracting students, many from abroad.
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