SaveGaelic.org Website and Forum Updates

We are currently moving our website and forum to a new server. While this move is in progress our forum will be offline. We will send out a newsletter when everything is back to normal so if you have not already done so, you might want to sign up to our newsletter.

Book Your Ideal Hotel and Save

Queen learns the Gaelic language

Source: Grampian TV

It's emerged the Queen is learning the Gaelic language. Her majesty's interest's been welcomed by agencies fighting to secure its future. They say it's never to late to learn as we have been finding out.

The Queen seen here at St Andrews last month is said to have surprised a member of the Royal Protection Squad who has Harris connections and can speak Gaelic. In a visit earlier to the West Highlands she apparently turned to him and said: Ciamar a tha sibh - how are you?

Gaelic development agencies say it just goes to prove that we now have the Queen's Gaelic as well as the Queen's English. Other members of the Royal family have also given the thumbs up to the language. Prince Charles here giving his backing and support during a fact-finding visit to Sabhal Mor Ostaig - the Gaelic College on Skye.

Click here for the full article.

Gaelic TV channel endorsed by watchdog

Source: The Herald

THE creation of a Gaelic digital television channel came a step nearer yesterday as Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, said the project was a priority for the future of broadcasting in the language.

SMG, owner of Scottish TV and Grampian, will be allowed to reduce its Gaelic programming in peak time from 26 to six hours a year but in return will be expected to contribute between £1m and £1.5m over three years, considerably more than it originally proposed, to the digital channel.

Neil Fraser, chairman of the Gaelic Media Service, which was set up to expand Gaelic broadcasting, welcomed Ofcom's support but expressed concerns over funding.

Pressure is building on the Scottish Executive and the BBC, the most likely broadcast partner for the channel, to come up with the funding. The Gaelic Media Service wants the executive to at least restore Gaelic broadcasting investment to pre-devolution levels, which would be £12.8m, and the service has started negotiations with the BBC.

Click here for the full article.

Open Source Goes Gaelic

Source: eGov Monitor

Open source office software which has been translated into Gaelic using public funds is to be made freely available to schools in Scotland.

A beta version of the OpenOffice suite specially adapted to the Gaelic language was launched on 2 June.

The open source software was said to have performed well in trials at a school in North Lanarkshire, with the final product due to be distributed to Gaelic language schools in the Autumn.

The translation project was funded by the Scottish Executive through the education body, Learning and Teaching Scotland.

Click here for the full article.

Cò i an fhìor Comhairle Gaidhealach?

Source: The Scotsman

THERE is a lot of reason for encouragement in the new Gaelic language plan from the Highland Council. In addition to the aim of increasing the number of speakers of the language in the Highlands, the plan also promises Gaelic education where there is demand and gives a definition of what demand means.

Of just as much interest is the fact that the council will enter into contracts with outside bodies, such as the Pre-School Association (CNSA) to provide intensive Gaelic tuition for very young children, and a variety of other services such as after-school clubs.

The attitude seems to be a very Roosevelt-style "Whatever works" approach. Which is very far removed from the traditional bureaucratic antipathy towards the language which insisted that the public sector must provide everything or it would not happen, and if the public sector did not have the resources then nothing could go ahead.

Click here for the full article.

Councils told: take Gaelic seriously

Source: The Herald

THE Scottish Executive will not tolerate tokenism from public bodies in their commitment to promoting Gaelic, the minister responsible for the language warned yesterday.

Peter Peacock, whose portfolio covers education and young people as well as Gaelic, said he would be prepared to order any recalcitrant body to comply by use of ministerial direction, but only as a last resort.

He was speaking in Inverness yesterday after the launch of Highland Council's strategy for Gaelic. Under the terms of the recent Gaelic Language Act, all public bodies are required to prepare such a document or persuade the authorities that it is inappropriate in their case. Highland Council is the first to unveil its efforts.

It sets out how the council proposes to increase the number of Gaelic speakers in the Highlands, particularly through education, although it comes at a time of a chronic shortage of Gaelic secondary teachers. It also promises to enhance the use of the language and culture within the council itself.

Click here for the full article.

Gaelic's boom can continue 'if teacher shortage is resolved'

Source: The Scotsman

THE growth of Gaelic education has been faster than anyone predicted and can improve further if it is promoted properly and a teacher shortage is resolved, it has been claimed.

Boyd Robertson, senior lecturer in Gaelic at Strathclyde University, made the claim amid plans to mark the 20th anniversary of the first classes taught in Gaelic with a conference organised by Highland Council.

The first Gaelic medium education (GME) units opened in Inverness and Glasgow in 1985 with just over 20 pupils.

This year, 2,008 children are being taught through Gaelic in 61 primary schools and 307 in 18 secondaries, with another 638 youngsters in 60 pre-school nurseries.

Scotland's only all-Gaelic primary, in Glasgow, expects to have a roll of 200 next session, while a new school for three to 18-year-olds will open in the city next year. An all-Gaelic primary is also planned for Inverness to cater for 150 pupils.

Click here for the full article.

Gaelic section for heritage site

Source: The BBC

Conservation group Scottish Natural Heritage has launched a Gaelic section of its website.

The launch comes after Gaelic was given new status as a language in Scotland with the Scottish Parliament's approval of the Gaelic Language Bill.

Many of the body's Gaelic and bilingual publications are now available on the website, including a Gaelic version of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

SNH advises the Scottish Executive on conservation and other matters.

Click here for the full article.

Immersion is vital to save sinking Gaelic

Source: The Scotsman

GAELIC will get official status when the Queen signs off the new Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill in July. But how will this new-found "respect" save the language from extinction?

The bill’s attempts to revive Gaelic are commendable if wrong-headed. It would be nice if Dumfries and Fife and the Lothians could be persuaded to have Gaelic language policies. But the hard fact is that, with Gaelic facing wipe-out, this well-meaning but ultimately impotent bill is likely to be as helpful in saving the language as a cough drop for a pneumonia patient.

Click here for the full article.

SaveGaelic.org Supports Gaelic Bloggers

You will notice that we have two additional pages on the SaveGaelic.org website. Members Blogs contains links to blogs owned and maintained by members of our forum. Although we do not necessarily support the views on other websites we are glad to see Gaelic being used by our forum members in this way. Each link to a blog is also followed by a link to it's owners profile on the SaveGaelic.org forum.

The second new page on the site is an Articles Archive. This is where we are going to build up a list of links to Gaelic related news articles. Most of these articles will feature on our homepage first and will then be added to the archive page for future reference.

Click here to see blogs already added.

An Achd: Hip hip, ho hum

Source: The Scotsman

The newest chapter in the history of Gaelic and the Gaels has just begun with the Gaelic Bill having passed through the Scottish parliament.

Although the Scottish Executive makes far too much use of the word, this time they were right, this was a historic day. We have the first law in many years which is connected to Gaelic. And differently from other Gaelic-connected laws, this one - at least in theory - is trying to help and protect us rather than wipe us out.

We should be thankful for the small mercies, and they do not come much smaller than this. It would have been more honest for the government to have called this law the Gaelic Board Act, because that is what we have. There is no word of the rights of Gaelic speakers, or where they can use their language, rights which are basic in other countries.

Click here for the full article. (Gaelic and English)

MSPs rule against Gaelic equality

Source: The BBC

MSPs have ruled out giving Gaelic equal status with English under Scottish law.

The Scottish Parliament unanimously approved the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill on Thursday.

Politicians voted down an SNP amendment to give the language "equal validity" with English and instead agreed that it should be given "equal respect".

Education Minister Peter Peacock, who has responsibility for Gaelic, said the decision marked a historic day for the nation's native tongue.

Click here for the full article.

Click here to comment on our forum.

Let's talk Gaelic, before it's too late

Source: The Guardian

This week, the Scottish parliament is to finalise a law that, for the first time, will give official status to the Gaelic language - on the face of it a great leap forward for an indigenous minority language that has had always to contend, at best, with official indifference.

Even within Scotland, there is no unanimity of support. It is a while since active repression took place - though I know people of my generation who had the living daylights beaten out of them for speaking Gaelic in school - but the official view is still tempered with suspicion of something that, quite literally, it does not understand.

Click here for the full article.

Gaelic Scots say fàilte* to 1st dual language jobs site

Source: Onrec.com

ScottishJobs.com, which links employers and employees by listing job opportunities online, has today announced the launch of Scotland’s first ever dual language Gaelic and English recruitment website.

As of today, Scotland’s leading independent jobs website is now uniquely able to cater to the employment needs of over 80,000 Gaelic speaking Scots and the employers who continue to use our 'second language' in everyday life.

The launch by ScottishJobs.com, which recently led one of Scotland’s largest ever voluntary sector initiatives with the Special Olympics Summer Games, follows a burgeoning revival of the Gaelic language in Scotland which only began to gather pace throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Click here to visit the Gaelic version of Scottish Jobs.

Click here for the full article.

Musical recalls friend of Gaelic folklore

Source: The Sunday Herald

A NEW Gaelic musical will pay tribute to the pioneering work of the late American folklorist Margaret Fay Shaw.

The musical, Taigh Màiri Anndra, is to be shown in May at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness and will tell the transatlantic life-story of the Pennsylvania-born woman responsible for collecting, archiving and preserving the songs and folklore of South Uist by means of film, photo graphy and music transcription.

Fay Shaw arrived on the island in 1928 with a passion for Gaelic music. After learning the language and marrying the Scottish aristocrat John Lorne Campbell, she spent much of the rest of her life collecting and recording local music and stories and tirelessly promoting them around the rest of Europe. She received four university degrees for her contribution to Gaelic and died last December at the age of 101.

Click here for the full article.

Grand Gaelic gathering is unveiled for Glasgow

Source: The Scotsman

AN AMBITIOUS plan to bring together the largest number of Gaelic poets and musicians ever assembled was unveiled in Glasgow yesterday.

The Flower of the West project, launched by the Glasgow Gaelic Arts’ An Lochran organisation, will promote Gaelic culture though the enduring work of the well-known Scots band, Runrig.

The idea is to bring to life - through music, song and poetry - the images from Flower of the West, a book written by Calum and Rory MacDonald of Runrig.

The story documents the brothers’ journey in spreading Gaelic culture across the world through music, verse and song.

Click here for the full article.

Road safety concerns raised over use of Gaelic signs

Source: The Scotsman

GAELIC road signs could be a traffic hazard in the Highland capital where few people speak the language, it has been claimed.

The issue has caused a split in Highland Council, which has decided to limit the use of bilingual signs to Inverness city centre, unless other areas specifically want signs in English and Gaelic.

Councillor Ron Lyon said: "I don’t consider Inverness to be a Gaelic town and there are very few speakers that you will hear on Inverness High Street. This is a phoney gimmick and a danger on the open road."

He was supported by David Munro, who said: "I am not anti-Gaelic, but this must be done sensibly ... less than 10 per cent of the people in Inverness speak Gaelic."

Click here for the full article.

Gaelic first for new UK passports

Source: The BBC

UK passports are to include details in Scottish Gaelic for the first time, it has been confirmed.

It will be used in all sections of new biometric passports with translations into EU member state languages.

The documents, which are set to be introduced in late 2005 or early 2006, are being designed by the UK Passport Service.

Scottish Secretary Alastair Darling said it is an "important recognition" by ministers of the Gaelic language.