Those tenuous Celtic Connections...

Sure, it brightens up a dreich Glaswegian January. Sure, it provides entertainment and employment to some. Sure, some of it is interesting. But, let's face it, a lot of it is shit. A lot of it is bland. In short, it's music to sit on your arse to.

There are always some jewels though - Shane MacGowan and the Popes, Vatersay Boys or this year's Mogwai offering. Too much of it though remains bland, uninspiring and commercial. Faded rock stars know they can add something acoustic to give their product a 'Celtic' veneer and provide a pay cheque. It's only a matter of time before Mumfart and Sons make an appearance.

Not only does Celtic Connections need to be more challenging and obnoxious but it needs to be more... Celtic.

Language is at the root of Celtic identity and unfortunately there seens to be too little of it at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. In the beginning, I can remember the likes of Anne Lorne Gillies giving Gaelic classes and Gaelic having some sort of profile in the official programme.

Like the morbid Royal National Mòd, Celtic Connections seems to be the nice but boring neighbour when compared to what the Bretons, Welsh or Basques do.

When organisers of the Turas Roc nan Cànan Ceilteach back in 2008 wrote to Donald Shaw - CC chief and member of supermarket-muzak band Capercaillie - they received no reply. This despite three genuine Celtic rock bands being available - Na Gathan and Oi Polloi singing in Scottish and Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs singing in their native Breton. The tour went ahead and was covered by BBC Alba on their notable Rapal programme that can still be found here.

So, here are some vids to remind the publicly funded of Celtic Connections that grassroots Celtic music that you can actually move your arse to still exists. At the very least, here's hoping they can bring the mighty Les Ramoneurs across again. Unfortunately, the late and great Yr Anhrefn from Wales are no longer with us...

Gaelic space punks v. Tradfest

What was once the Edinburgh Folk Festival has now become 'Tradfest' after a brief stint as 'Ceilidh Culture'. There's probably a fair bit of it that is worth seeing - Gaelic songs and poems from Perthshire don't often get an airing for example. However, far too much of 'trad' music seems to involve... people sitting down to 'enjoy' the often furious dance music of the past and/ or a misty eyed regurgitation of a long-gone culture. The point being that's it's ok to remember the past and learn about our 'tradtional' music as long as the current generation is creating something of its own for the future.

Sometimes, 'Celtic' fests can accommodate alternative music such as Les Ramoneurs who regularly play the Lorient festival in Brittany. There is a a feeling that in Alba such music is looked down upon by those for whom traditional is a profession.

This is probably why we won't see the likes of Basque-language punk-ska band, Hesian, in Dùn Eideann at Tradfest....


Though our nearest equivalent, Oi Polloi, is playing 3 gigs in 24 hours. Most importantly, two of these are in conjunction with the launch of a Gaelic sci-fi novel by Tim Armstrong. Tim once played in trad ground breaking indie-rock band Na Gathan, dabbled in some Gaelic electro-pop and fronted the superb Mill a h-Uile Rud who took their Seattle-based Gaelic punk around Europe with Oi Polloi with a BBC Alba film crew in tow.

One of the gigs is in a Leith Walk record shop and the other is on a boat. Dìreach far out a dhuine... Get your tòn along to one or both of them.

Auld Songs for Scottish Studies: Fichead Bliadhna

Surely it is a human right for children to be educated about their own nation and culture, especially if part of their indigenous culture is a marginalised one. I have long wished for Scottish education to come up with something like 'Scottish Studies', if only to counteract the ignorance that regularly surfaces in our media regarding Scotland and her history and culture. This naked and shameless ignorance was this week displayed by two of our politicians - one a Tory and the other claiming to be a Scottish nationalist.

Gaelic was never spoken here...

Jackson Carlaw, a candidate for the leadership of the Toxic Party in Scotland and SNP MSP Paul Wheelhouse - that's him above with more hair than historical accuracy - both claimed that Gaelic was 'never' spoken in the south of Scotland. No evidence was offered for this probably because all evidence points to Gaelic being spoken throughout the Lowlands at one point or another. For example it was spoken in parts of Galloway until the 1700s with the last Gaelic speaker of Carrick reputed to be a Margaret McMurray who lived until the time of Robert Burns' birth. It survived on Lomondside, Stirlingshire, Aberdeenshire and Perthshire until recent decades. Despite this Wheelhouse oiled the wheels of the Scottish-cringe bandwagon and Carlaw gleefully hauled his rotund frame aboard with his usual baggage of ignorance and bigotry to deride Scotrail for having the nerve to put Scottish language on their station signs. And all this... in Scotland!

Can't these tax-paying rebellious Scots be crushed or something? Or else, could some lackey burn down their houses again and hoof them off to Canada? Certainly, Carlaw is regarded as something of a 'loose cannon', even amongst Tories, and has form on the racist front.

...nor here.

Whatever, its a topic that's been oft covered here. Most of the opposition to Scottish kids learning about Scotland has unsurprisingly come from Labour and Tory. Is the 'Union' so worth saving that it means that ordinary Scots will be impoverished because of tribal party loyalty? Paul Wheelhouse proves though that ignorance and stupidity is not the preserve of one party.

This auld sang is very apt. Runrig again. It lays bare the attitudes of the Anglicised education system in Scotland until at least the 1970s. The process that started in the 1600s when Inglis was renamed 'Scots' and Scottish as 'Gaelic' reached its nadir during a century of clearance aimed primarily at the Celtic or 'Erse' speaking population. The bitterness of those in power towards the 'barbarity' of the indigenous Scots language and its speakers continued after the Clearances with Gaelic speaking children variously having skulls hung around their necks, being belted or caned or just being ridiculed. As a policy, it was very effective. Even in areas of Scotland that were Gaelic speaking within the past century, some locals will confidently tell you that 'Gaelic was not spoken here'. Even some older Gaels still wonder at why people would actually want to learn Gaelic.

This was Runrig's 'Another Brick in the Wall' and it was born of first-hand experience. Even to some Scots, we are just Porridge Wogs. Fichead Bliadhna...

Ruith's a mhonadh
Ruith nam beann
'S mar sin dhan sgoil aig deireadh samhraidh
'Nar clann
Aig coig bliadhna dh'aois
'S gun facal Beurla 'nar ceann

Seo do leabhar
Sea do pheann
"Dean do leasan," thuirt iad riumsa
" 'S gunn eirich sibh suas anns an t-saoghal
'S gheibh sibh an adhart ann

Fichead bliadhna'airson firinn
B'fheudar dhomh feitheamh
'S b'fheudar dhomh lorg
Fichead bliadhn' de bhreugan
Thug iad eachdraidh air falbh bhuainn

Dh'ionnsaich sinn a leithid ann
Canan's bardachd, bardachd Bheurla
Ceol na Gearmailt
Eachdraidh na Spainnt
'S b'e sin an eachdraidh mheallt

Bhon sgoil do'n oilthigh chaidh sinn ann
A' leantail foghlum, tuilleadh foghlum
Mar amadan air deiradh streang
Seorsa de dh'fhoghlum 'nam cheann

Fichead bliadhna'airson firinn
B'fheudar dhomh feitheamh
'S b'fheudar dhomh lorg
Fichead bliadhn' de bhreugan
Thug iad eachdraidh air falbh bhuainn

Ach dh'eirich mi suas anns an t-saoghal
Fhuair mi deise, 's fhuair mi leine
Fhuair mi aite ann an suilean dhaoin
Fada bhon mhonadh mi'n drasd

Carson a chùm iad eadchraidh bhuainn
Innsidh mi dhut, tha iad gealltach
Mas èirich clann nan Gaidheal suas
Le ceistean sireach is cruaidh

Fichead bliadhna'airson firinn
B'fheudar dhomh feitheamh
'S b'fheudar dhomh lorg
Fichead bliadhn' de bhreugan
Thug iad eachdraidh air falbh bhuainn

Nuair a thoisich mi air lorg
Cha do chreid mi mo shuilean
Obair olc

Freedom of the moor
Freedom of the hill
And then to school at the end of summer
Children,
Five years of age,
Without many words of English

"Here is your book
Here is your pen”
Study hard that's what they told me
"And you will rise up in the world
You will achieve"

Twenty years for the truth
I had to wait
I had to search
Twenty years of deceit
They denied me knowledge of myself

I learned many things
The English language, the poetry of England
The music of Germany
The history of Spain
And even that was a misleading history

Then on to further education
Following education, more education
Like puppets on the end of a string
Our heads filled with a sort of learning

Twenty years for the truth
I had to wait
I had to search
Twenty years of deceit
They denied me knowledge of myself

And I did rise in the world
I found my suit, I found my shirt
I found a place in the eyes of men
Well away from the freedom of the moor

But why did they keep our history from us?
I'll tell you they are frightened
In case the children of Gaeldom awaken
With searching and penetrating questions

Twenty years for the truth
I had to wait
I had to search
Twenty years of deceit
They denied me knowledge of myself

"Many a thing I have seen in my own day and generation. I have seen the townships swept, and the holdings being made of them. The people being driven out of the countryside to the streets of Glasgow and to the wilds of Canada, such as them that did not die of hunger and plague and smallpox while going across the ocean. I have seen the women putting the children in the carts which were being sent from Benbecula and the Iochdar to Loch Boisdale, while their husbands lay bound in the pen and were weeping beside them, without power to give them a helping hand, though the women themselves were crying aloud and their little children wailing like to break their hearts. I have seen the big strong men, the champions of the countryside, the stalwarts of the world, being bound on Loch Boisdale quay and cast into the ships as would be done to a batch of horses or cattle in the boat. The bailiffs and the constable and the policemen gathered behind them in pursuit of them. The God of life and He only knows all the loathsome work of men on that day."

Edinburgh Roc, whisky and German sweeties

Roc na Gàidhlig saw three excellent Gaelic-singing rock bands of differing genre deliver some roasting new Gaelic music to a bitterly cauld Forest Cafe in the new Gaidhealtachd of Dùn Eideann. I once saw the Forest described as a kind of 'hippie Starbucks'. Does that mean a laidback cafe with broken windows and one toilet cubicle per 100 people? Whatever, in this age of cynical capitalist greed that sees bankers getting golden handshakes while all sorts of working folk - including those at Johnnie Walker and Tamdhu - facing the dole, it's good to see some kind of cooperative venture apparently succeeding.

Hey, there may be some tosspots involved in these things but that's life. Show me one microcosm of human activity that doesn't include some conflict with those involved.

Speaking of tosspots... senile Tory Hibee and Edinburgh Evil News columnist John Gibson failed to show up for Roc na Gàidhlig. As did his fellow pro-ignorance campaigners Iain Whyte and Michael Blackley. If only they'd known that Edinburgh Gael and punk 'legend' Ruairidh Polloi was handing out whisky to all who wished a wee slug of the uisge-beatha.


High-Commissioner aint really my taste but recent weeks have seen me have plenty of the good stuff. Frau Wind and Cloud was fortunate enough to score a birthday-present bottle of Cadenhead's 2001 bottling of an 11yo bourbon hogshead Inchgower at 61%. Beautiful stuff and classic Inchgower. A fruit-salad nose gives way to honey and salt on the tongue. Superb stuff. It also goes great with 'Salzige Heringe' - a kind of salty liquorice chewy sweet from the north of Germany.

It's also the time of year that our Deutsch freunden start eating the stollen that they baked a few weeks previously. This sugary fruit-loaf type of thing goes well with our old Ileach friend Lagavullin 16. The 'Lag a' Mhuillinn' btw was picked up for a mere £30 odd from Wine Rack - another store facing the good auld capitalist axe.

With the boom and bust brothers of Tory and New Labour looking to win the right to run/ruin 'Great' Britain sometime next year - and both of them seeking to plunge the Great Satan into even deeper debt with more spending on nuclear weapons and foreign wars - then it has to be time for Scots to seriously think about going it alone.

Dùn Eideann recognising it's Gaelic past and present

This week saw Edinburgh's much maligned cooncil publish it's Gaelic Language Plan. This has been a rude awakening to those in Dùn Eideann who claim that the city has absolutely no Gaelic history or present. These people include perennial bigots like the Tory Hibee and all round jakie John Gibson who has been peddling his drivel in the much declining local Evening News for longer than i can remember. Add to this Michael Blackley's biased piece of 'news' on this issue and city Tory fuehrer Iain Whyte (note the Gaelic name) who claims that Gaelic is as foreign as French or German!

I wonder if Iain Shyte could point to many French/German placenames in Edinburgh? Or detail French/German church services going back centuries? Or famous poets of these tongues buried here? Of local school kids or rock bands using these languages? No, of course he can't and that's why Iain Whyte is just another ignoramus and bigot.

Perhaps he should read his own council's Language Plan which states:

Many place names derive from Gaelic, such as Balerno (Baile Àirneach, sloe settlement), Craigentinny (Creag an t-Sionnaich, fox rock), and Dalry (Dail Fhraoich, heather slope). Edinburgh, through much of its history the nation’s capital and leading centre of commerce, learning and the arts, has continually drawn people of all languages and cultures, including Scotland’s Gaels. Among the best known of those who spent significant parts of their lives in the capital over the centuries are poets, writers and musicians: from Donnchadh Bàn Mac-an-t-Saoir (Duncan Ban Macintyre, 1724-1812), who lived and wrote here in the later 18th century and whose grave lies in Greyfriar’s churchyard; Niall MacLeòid (Neil MacLeod, 1843-1924), perhaps the most popular Gaelic poet of the 19th century, Alasdair MacIlleMhìcheil (Alexander Carmichael, 1832-1912), editor of the folklore collection Carmina Gadelica, the 20th century poets Somhairle MacGill-Eain (Sorley MacLean, 1911-96) and Deòrsa mac Iain Deòrsa (George Campbell Hay, 1915-84), to Donnie Munro of Runrig.

The full plan is available to read by clicking here.

The plan could be stronger - for example, there is no stand alone Gaelic primary school yet in the pipeline. Glasgow is already looking to open its 2nd such school and Inverness is now planning to extend it's own bunsgoil due to demand. However, it will be a pleasure to see 'Fàilte do Dhùn Eideann' signs on our city boundaries and local signs in Tollcross.

Gaelic of course plays a major part in Edinburgh's history - we can see this in the local placenames left by past Gaelic-speaking communities as well as in the stories of past kings such as Malcolm Canmore. However, Gaelic is still a living part of Edinburgh. It may be a small part but do we really want to go down the road of denying 'minorities' rights and services?

One example of this is the forthcoming Roc na Gàidhlig 2009 which will showcase some contemporary Gaelic music and culture and not just auld folk songs. Funnily enough it features two Edinburgh bands who sing in Gaelic. Maybe the likes of John Gibson, Iain White (or Johann Blanc to give him his preferred Franco-Germanic moniker) and Michael Blackely could make it along, if not to throw horns at the Gaelic thrash of Atomgevitter, then to engage in some robust discussion with young Gaels. See you at the Forest folks.