This is a past event
This event brings together PhD students, early career researchers and any other interested parties to explore the Gaelic history, culture and language of Scotland and Ireland beyond the issue of land. Although not denying the importance of the land question in the history and culture of these regions, the dominance of the issue often means that other interesting avenues of research do not get the prominence they deserve. This conference therefore seeks to bring people together to create an arena for discussing new ideas, and hopefully to find avenues for future research projects.
Location: Humanity Manse Seminar Room (HMG1), 19 College Bounds, University of Aberdeen
Programme
Friday May 9
12:00 – 13:00: Lunch and Welcome
13:00 – 14:30 – Panel 1: Modern Ireland
David Blair, Queen’s University Belfast
- Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh: promoting ‘Irishness’ through sport, narratives in GAA mediated-events televised by RTÉ
Lauren Brancaz, University of Aberdeen
- St. Columba – a figure of reconciliation in Northern Ireland?
Sara Brennan, Heriot-Watt University
- Selling the Celtic City: Commodifying Irish-Language Heritage in Contemporary Urban Ireland
14:30 – 15:00 – Tea and Coffee
15:00 – 16:30 – Panel 2: Modern Scotland
Liam Alastair Crouse, University of Stirling
- ‘Turning a new leaf?’ Digitisation: Gaelic and ebooks
Louise Senior, University of Aberdeen
- From Atomic City to Renewable County: the influence of energy policy on social relationships in Caithness
Calum MacLeod, Consultant in Sustainable Rural and Regional Development
- Beyond “Philanthropists, Megalomaniacs and Serious Sportsmen”: Gaelic Language Policy and Sustaining Scotland’s “Difficult” Places
17:30 -18:30 - Keynote Address
Professor Rob Dunbar, Edinburgh University
- ‘Gaelic and the Independence Referendum: Speaking our Language?’
Please note that this event is ticketed, as it is being run in collaboration with the University's May Festival. Those wishing to book a place are advised to email festival@abdn.ac.uk in order to guarantee a place, as only a limited supply of tickets may be available through the conference on the day. Further details on this talk may be found at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mayfestival/documents/main-programme.pdf To be followed by a wine reception and dinner c.8pm for conference participants.
Saturday May 10
9:00-9:30 – Tea and Coffee
9:30-11:00 – Panel 3: Gaelic Culture
Ronne Gibson, University of Aberdeen
- Gow the Gael: An Alternative History of Scottish Fiddle Music
11:00 – 11:30 – Tea and Coffee
11:30 – 13:00 – Panel 4: The Gaels and the MIlitary
James de Haan, Trinity College Dublin
-‘Obedience and Peace’: The Actions of the Church within the Diocese of Kilmore
Ben Thomas, University of Aberdeen
- The Highlands and the British Empire in the Age of ‘High Imperialism’
Niall Bartlett, University of Glasgow
- The First World War in the History of Gaelic Scotland
13:00-14:00 – Lunch
14:00-15:30 – Panel 5: Reimagining Gaelic History
Katie McCullough, University of Guelph
– The Language of Improvement: The Highland Society of London and the Preservation of Gaelic, 1778-1850.
Shaun Kavanagh, University of Glasgow
- The Greenock Highlanders, 1790-1886: The Reassessment of a 'people set apart' in the context of a Scottish Port Town
Maggie Scull, King’s College London
- One Church?: The Catholic Church and the 1981 Hunger Strikes
Language Without Land Paper Details
Modern Ireland
David Blair - Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh: Promoting ‘Irishness’ through sport, narratives in GAA mediated-events televised by RTÉ
This paper analyses a selection of Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh’s radio and television GAA commentaries, 1949-2010, highlighting various characteristics of his unique commentaries which contributed to the exclusivity of GAA games for consumption by an Irish audience. Particular attention is given to his bilingual commentaries and the incorporation of Irish history which links Gaelic sport to cultural nationalism. As well as the work of Watson (1996) on Irish language content and Sara Brady (2007) on the development of GAA sport, this paper cites Washington and Karen (2001) on mediated events, specifically their ascertain that ‘television does not present us with a sports event but with a sports event that is mediated by television’. It argues that while certain aspects of Ó Muircheartaigh’s commentaries have been lost in the modern broadcast, with the support of RTÉ television the GAA continues to promote ‘Irishness’ which gives the impression of continued exclusivity.
David Blair is a post-graduate MA of Queen’s University Belfast in English (Broadcast Literacy), and undergraduate studies in Modern History also at Queen’s. His research interests are primarily in mediated sports narratives and their relationship with identity themes, and he plans are to pursue a research PhD in this area.
Lauren Brancaz - St. Columba – a figure of reconciliation in Northern Ireland? Can St. Columba be viewed as a symbol of peace in Northern Ireland? His teachings have been embraced by a variety of Christian denominations in the region, including Protestantism and Catholicism. In March 2013, a statue of St. Columba was unveiled to the public in Derry/Londonderry. Its inauguration was supported by the leaders of the four main Churches on the island of Ireland. Similarly, Derry/Londonderry UK City of Culture 2013 has presented St. Columba’s legacy as a bridge between British and Irish cultures. Is the re-investigation of Colm Cille’s heritage in the process of fostering greater cooperation and unity between the different communities of Northern Ireland, and also between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland? Lauren comes from the Savoie region in the French Alps, and did an M.Litt in Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. She is now in the third year of her Ph.D. in Aberdeen, which focuses on the survival of modern Celtic identities. Alongside her research, she is also a teaching assistant for the French department.
Sara Brennan - Selling the Celtic City: Commodifying Irish-Language Heritage in Contemporary Urban Ireland
In this paper I will examine how the Irish language is currently being integrated into efforts to ‘brand’ urban areas as ‘authentically Irish’. Focusing on two Irish-language advocacy organisations that use economic arguments to promote Irish within their local business communities, this paper will discuss the place and value attributed to Irish and the ‘authentic’ Irish identity it indexes on the domestic and international markets of the globalized new economy. Both organisations, however, operate in urban areas situated outside the Gaeltacht, the Government-defined regions long perceived as the home of the real native speaker and the repository of Ireland’s linguistic tradition. This paper will thus also explore the dynamics of extending the linguistic heritage and traditional identity historically associated with the rural Gaeltacht to cities and towns with less institutionalised connections to the Irish language.
Sara Brennan is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Grounded in critical ethnographic sociolinguistics, her research focuses on issues of political economy, commodification and place branding in the context of the business-oriented promotion of the Irish language.
Modern Scotland
Liam Alastair Crouse- ‘Turning a new leaf?’ Digitisation: Gaelic and ebooks
This paper seeks to investigate the importance of the digital revolution to the Scottish Gaelic publishing industry, considering the opportunities which it offers to minority language communities. It then surveys the level of interaction which Gaelic, and specifically publishing, has had with the digital world. The past few years witnessed the global rise of the ebook and Scottish Gaelic is increasingly taking advantage of this popular platform. The paper then concludes with a series of recommendations and prospects for consideration.
Liam Alastair Crouse is the recipient of the Gaelic Books Council's scholarship to pursue an MLitt in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling, where he is researching the Scottish Gaelic book market.
Louise Senior - From Atomic City to Renewable County: the influence of energy policy on social relationships in Caithness
Despite its geographically marginal position, Caithness finds itself at the centre of a burgeoning renewable energy industry. This brings opportunities for collaboration and conflict, for economic diversification or decline. After decades of economic dependence on Dounreay Nuclear Power Establishment, Caithness is once again in the midst of a social and economic upheaval. Using data collected during long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I will describe how history, public policy, regional governance and local businesses and people interplay to produce a unique local context for development and implementation of renewable energy policy to which different actors are responding in different ways. Drawing on Ingolds’ dwelling approach, I will suggest a theoretical stance which provides a useful way to consider the multitude of relationships inherent in producing such social change.
Louise Senior is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. My thesis, based on long-term fieldwork in the far north of Scotland, explores the role of power in changing social relationships with the environment and focuses primarily on encounters with the wind and debates surrounding wind farms. I previously completed an MSc in Development Anthropology at Durham University and a BA (Hons) in Youth and Community Work at the University of Huddersfield. I have worked widely with vulnerable people in a variety of community settings in the UK.
Calum MacLeod - Beyond “Philanthropists, Megalomaniacs and Serious Sportsmen”: Gaelic Language Policy and Sustaining Scotland’s “Difficult” Places
This paper provides an overview of contemporary public policy for the Gaelic language within the framework of the ‘new rural paradigm’, emphasising an assets-based approach to sustainable rural development. It critiques the National Gaelic Language Plan with particular reference to heritage and tourism. Case-studies drawn from the Western Isles are used to examine the complex and multifaceted relationship between language, culture, economy and environment in pursuing sustainability objectives. The paper also briefly discusses implementation issues associated with delivering the National Gaelic Language Plan in practice.
Dr Macleod is a Consultant in Sustainable Rural and Regional Development
Gaelic Culture
Ronne Gibson - Gow the Gael: An Alternative History of Scottish Fiddle Music
This paper will posit an alternative history of Scottish fiddle music based on a re-examination of the biography and impact of Niel Gow (1707–1807), the so-called ‘father’ of Scottish fiddle music. The prevailing Lowland narrative, which charts a path from Gow through James Scott Skinner (1846–1927) to Hector MacAndrew (1903–1981) and is based primarily on published collections of tunes in music notation, misrepresents not only Gow, whose background combined elements of Highland and Lowland culture, but also the practices of fiddle players in Scotland more generally, most of whom were either not musically literate or placed significantly less importance on the printed text than scholars tend to do today. The paper will also feature an historiographical analysis, highlighting the prejudices and short-comings of the received history of Scottish fiddle music, and an interrogation of printed sources of music notation to demonstrate the historical tension between aurality and literacy in performance. Ultimately, the Gaelic chapter in the music’s history affords an entirely new perspective which, while in ways complimenting the Lowland narrative, also significantly challenges its reception in the present.
Ronnie Gibson is a graduate student at the University of Aberdeen. The topic of his PhD research is Scottish fiddle music and its transmission from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the present. The project combines historical investigations into old music collections and documents with ethnographic studies (including interviews with fiddlers) in what is ultimately an interrogation of tradition.
Ruairidh Maciver -Bhon Èipheit, Dun Èideann agus Cnoideart na Gàidhealtachd: Three Poetic Responses to the Battle of Alexandria, 1801
The names of certain battles in which the men of the Highlands and Islands took part have become part of the collective consciousness of the Gaels. Killiecrankie (1689), Culloden (1746), Waterloo (1815) and The Somme (1916) need no introduction, but a battle of arguably equal import to the Gaelic community of its time has all but been forgotten: The Battle of Alexandria (1801). Alexandria was a victory in which the Highland regiments, under the leadership of Sir Ralph Abercrombie (1734-1801), were to the fore, and its signifcance to the early-nineteenth century Gaelic community is clear in the poetic record. The Morar soldier-poet, Alexander MacKinnon (1770-1814), composed his first-hand account of a battle in which he had fought and been wounded, aboard a Naval ambulance ship off the coast of Egypt. In Edinburgh, the Strathconon bàrd, Donald MacDonald (1780-1832), recounted the scenes of celebration in the capital that day, before turning his attention and his ire on Napoleon Bonaparte. And in the Gàidhealtachd, Allan MacDougall (1750c-1829) – official poet to the ‘Last of the Chiefs’, Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry (1771-1828) – composed a piece seemingly inspired by a letter sent home to Glengarry from Alexandria. This paper will examine the different perspectives that these three poems provide with regards to the Battle of Alexandria. It will also consider what these poems can tell us about the impact of the military and the broadening geographical horizons of the Gaels in the early-nineteenth century. More widely, it will look at how the Gaelic poetic tradition was adapted and utilised to make sense of the military order of the British Imperial Army at the turn of the nineteenth century.
Ruairidh Maciver has an MA (Joint Honours) in Celtic and Scottish Literature (2007) and an MLitt in Gaelic with Scottish Studies (2008) from Glasgow University. Following his MLitt, he spent three years working for BBC Scotland as a researcher, and subsequently worked as a Communications Officer with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. He is beginning the second year of his AHRC funded PhD within the Celtic and Gaelic department at the University of Glasgow, focusing on ‘Gaelic Poetry and the British Military Experience, 1756-1914’. His research interests include - Gaelic song and poetry as an historical source; the military history of the Gaels; the influence of Macpherson’s Ossian on Gaelic culture; and the history of Gaelic scholarship.
Barry Wright - A consideration of Horse Racing in the eastern Highlands, circa 1660 to 1915.
This paper will challenge existing historiography relating to the history and development of horse racing in Scotland from the early modern period to the twentieth century. It is my intention to demonstrate that the influential paper presented by John Burnett, which discusses the development of modern racing tracks from popular sites of racing festivals in Scottish history, failed to adequately consider horse racing festivals in the eastern highlands. Evidence from a variety of sources such as contemporary maps, diaries, archival sources and newspapers will be presented to identify the locations of these race courses and the importance of these festivals to highland society.
Having completed his undergraduate and Masters studies in History with the Open University and UHI respectively, Barry will be commencing a PhD in September titled ‘The use of water therapies in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and their relationship to the development of Spa towns in the region, circa 1600-1900.’ He hopes to secure funding from the Wellcome trust for this project and to develop the research further to investigate the medical marketplace throughout the region and the relationships that health providers such as Apothecaries and Physicians had outwith the Highland region.
The Gaels and the Military
James de Haan - ‘Obedience and Peace’: The Actions of the Church within the Diocese of Kilmore
Nearly every major study of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland during the Irish Civil War has focused solely on the upper echelons of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, leaving many diocesan bishops unexamined. Many of these bishops are thus unfairly categorized as aloof, or even callously uncaring, as a result of this perceived absenteeism. This paper seeks to reverse that trend, and thus focuses solely on the small, rural, largely peaceful diocese of Kilmore, and its then bishop Dr. Patrick Finegan, during the civil war. Despite Bishop Finegan's reputation as being rigid, conservative, and unyielding, this research found that he was, in reality, a man who truly cared about his diocese, and who worked hard to keep the peace and lead the faithful through a highly tumultuous, frightening time in a manner he felt was most befitting of a bishop.
James de Haan is a PhD student at Trinity College, Dublin, where he also earned an M.Phil in Modern Irish History. He acted as lead researcher for New York Times Best-Seller Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan, and currently specializes in Ecclesiastical Irish History.
Ben Thomas – The Highlands and the British Empire in the Age of ‘High Imperialism’
Given that the land struggle was a distinguishing feature of the Highlands and Islands in the late nineteenth century it is perhaps unsurprising that the historiography of the region at this time has focused overwhelmingly on the crofters’ war. However, whilst this has given us a fairly complete picture of the crofting movement and the politics of land reform, such a focus has left other areas of Highland life at this time underexplored. In particular, we know comparatively little about how the people of the Highlands engaged with many of the wider trends affecting the people of Britain, and this focus has tended towards the exceptionalisation the region and its people in the overall British picture. This paper therefore explores the Highlands region’s engagement with the British Empire in the last years of the 19th century, to ask to what extent we might begin to think of the Highlands and Islands beyond the issue of the land question. In doing so it asks whether the apparent flowering of Empire-related enthusiasm on display at the very end of the century was a flash in the pan caused by unique circumstances, or whether it might be considered indicative of the region’s pride in its place within the United Kingdom.
Ben is a third year PhD at Aberdeen University, where he has also been a research assistant on a project exploring the lives of Irish Catholics in Canada in the 19th century. His thesis is entitled ‘Cultures of Empire in the Scottish Highlands, c. 1876-1902’, and this explores the relationship between Highland society and the British Empire in the age of ‘high imperialism’. He is also the organiser of this conference.
Niall Bartlett - The First World War in the history of Gaelic Scotland The years 1914 to 1918 receive peripheral attention in general narratives of Highland history. Despite the First World War's impact on Gaelic society - for example, the Gaelic speaking population declined by more than a sixth between 1911 and 1921 - the human experience of the conflict has been missed in analyses shaped by 19th century themes of land politics. This obscures the conflict's broader importance, such as its undermining of the social and cultural foundations of Highland land hunger, its acceleration of the trends which would define the 20th century Highlands, and the fundamental alteration of crofting society which enabled these. Through statistical and literary evidence, this paper addresses how the War changed Gaelic society and the greater prominence it deserves as a result of this. Niall is a native of Lewis pursuing a PhD at the University of Glasgow, where his research considers the trajectory of modern Highland history between c.1886 and 1939. This involves tracing the processes which transform the socially and culturally cohesive crofting communities of the late 19th century into the depopulated and culturally fragmented ones of the 20th century, and the role of the First World War in causing this change.
New Perspectives on Gaelic History
Katie McCullough - “The Language of Improvement: The Highland Society of London and the Preservation of Gaelic, 1778-1850.”
This paper explores efforts by members of the Highland Society of London (est. 1778), a voluntary association, to preserve and promote the Gaelic language in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. More broadly, Gaelic played an important role in the Society’s enlightened improvement discourse. To members of the Highland Society of London, Gaelic was the ‘language of improvement’ because illiterate Highlanders were to be taught to read in their native language (among other subjects) and the HSL supported various educational endeavours in the Highlands and Islands, working in collaboration with other societies such as the Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools. To many British improvers, improvement and education went hand-in-hand; people could not progress if they could not read; however, education was also to play a role in the preservation of Gaelic. Through the act of teaching people to read in Gaelic, members of the Society argued, the language would literally be preserved within the Highlanders themselves.
Katie Louise McCullough is a doctoral candidate at the University of Guelph. Her dissertation, entitled: “Building the Highland Empire: The Highland Society of London and the Formation of Charitable Networks of Support, 1778-1855,” explores the charitable networks instituted by the Highland Society of London (est. 1778) in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Members of the HSL created transatlantic institutional links with which to provide social and economic improvement to Highlanders located in Great Britain and North America, as well as working to preserve Highland culture, during a time of intense economic and social change.
Shaun Kavanagh - The Greenock Highlanders, 1790-1886: The Reassessment of a 'people set apart' in the context of a Scottish Port Town
In the eighteenth century the Clyde port towns gained international prominence through commercial networks with North America and the West Indies. One commentator has suggested that Greenock, with its developing industries and infrastructures, may be taken as the ‘archetypal port town of the Western Lowlands.’ Migration to Greenock from the Highlands had certainly been occurring at an intense rate from the aftermath of the 1745 Rebellion. The Highlanders of Greenock were instrumental in developing notable institutions in the town, notably several Gaelic chapels, Highland societies, Gaelic sports clubs and a Highland school. Yet a previous study of the experience of Highland migrants in Greenock has suggested that due to the decline of Gaelic-speaking and the relatively low membership of Highland societies the Highlanders in the town were 'deliberately rejecteing their Highland background'. Therefore, this talk will attempt to analyse the definition of urban Highland identity and culture, and attention will be given in this talk to the extent to which these institutions offered as a means of expressing Highland individuality.
Shaun is a 2nd year PhD student at the University of Glasgow, where he is also a teaching assistant on the modules ‘Scotland's Millennium: 1000AD-1999’ and ‘Migrant Nation: Scotland and the Modern World, 1745-1975’. His PhD Thesis is entitled The Irish and Highland Migrants' Experience in Greenock, 1832-1886
Maggie Scull - One Church? The Catholic Church and the 1980-81 Hunger Strikes
The Nicene Creed, an affirmation Catholics make at every mass, states: “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church”. Yet the Catholic Church remains organisationally divided between three tiers: the clergy, hierarchy and Vatican. Do those divisions in rank also divide the Church in thought? This paper focuses on the Catholic Church’s response to the 1980-81 hunger strikes at HM Maze/Long Kesh Prison, in Northern Ireland. Many Irish clergymen became directly involved with trying to end the strike as some were closely related to the striking prisoners. Meanwhile, Irish hierarchy members called for prison reform while their English counterparts claimed the Catholic strikers were committing suicide. Removed from the hunger strikes both geographically and politically, the Vatican never made a public announcement concerning the morality of the strike. However, Pope John Paul II did send a personal envoy to speak with hunger striker Robert ‘Bobby’ Sands. Recently released British government archival material suggests the Pope, through his messenger, disagreed with the principle and morality of the strike. The 1980-81 hunger strikes therefore raise the question: is there really one Catholic Church?
Maggie Scull obtained her European History BA from Boston University in 2011 and her MA in Modern History from King’s College London in 2013. She received a distinction in her Master’s dissertation examining the Catholic Church and the 1980-81 hunger strikes in HM Maze/Long Kesh Prison, Northern Ireland. Maggie is currently working towards her PhD on the Catholic Church and the Northern Irish Troubles, 1969-1998.
For further information please contact Ben Thomas: ben.thomas@abdn.ac.uk
- Hosted by
- RIISS, University of Aberdeen
- Venue
- HMG1, Humanity Manse, 19 College Bounds