Norman Johnson talks in Gaelic to Mary Morrison about the special role of the piper in many regiments in the First World War – Canadian, Australian, Indian, and others, as well as Scottish. He relates anecdotes heard from old soldiers in the war, and finishes with a special tune – Donald’s awa’ to war.
Mary made this recording for the “An fheadhainn tha laighe sàmhach” project led by the North Uist Historical Society, Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath.
Dr Nicola Carty at Glasgow University has put out a call for adult learners of Gaelic to take part in a new research project. It’s intended to help develop resources for learners.
You don’t have to go to her. She will come to you. And you get paid for your time!
Click on either of the images (English or Gaelic) to find out more.
Four new pages have been added to the Guthan nan Eilean/Island Voices website in the past week. They bring together selections from the additional recording work that has been ongoing in the community since the original Series One and Two were completed.
The four themes are Bonnie Prince Charlie, The Great War, Gaelic Journeys, and Storytellers. Between all four you will currently find links to 48 separate recordings in four different languages. This number is liable to grow further as more recordings in these areas are made and added to the pages. The pages also contain links to relevant blogposts about the individual recordings, as well as Clilstore versions in some cases.
You can access the pages just by clicking on the above links in this post, or you will also find tabs for the pages across the top of this site and in the sidebar to the right, below the links to Series One and Two and others. Happy viewing/listening/reading!
The number of people subscribing to the Island Voices WordPress site has passed another milestone. We now have over 2000 followers around the world! If you would like e-mail notification of new posts, please just sign up in the right-hand sidebar – just below the “Follow on Facebook” invitation.
Entering the New Year naturally offers an opportunity for reflection on progress in the year just passed as well. And there’s no doubt that the centenary since the outbreak of the First World War added special poignancy to the annual marking of time on this occasion. An fheadhainn tha laige sàmhach is an ongoing community project which has already yielded some wonderful recordings. More will no doubt be forthcoming in 2015.
Some 2014 online statistics for Island Voices underline the levels of interconnectedness between what we do here and the interests and language learning aspirations of people right across the globe. The number of visits to this WordPress site continues to grow year on year, as does the number of countries from which those visits come – 99 in 2014 (compared with 87 in 2013).
As usual, the YouTube channel outscores even the WordPress site – 154 different countries again. The UK, USA, and Canada are the “big three” as before, but it’s interesting to note new entries in the “top ten” this year, with both Brazil and the Philippines now making a significant showing for the first time.
Readers who are particularly interested in statistics may also wish to compare these 2014 snapshots with the more detailed figures up to mid-2013 in the “Digital Literacies” report on the project’s research page. While one can speculate endlessly over the reasons, it is any event encouraging to note that the growing local interest in the work of Island Voices appears to be matched at international level. Happy New Year!