Fèis Tir A’ Mhurain Committee Member, South Uist

A MESSAGE OF POSITIVITY AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF GAELIC

Gàidhlig is my language. It means home to me; it is a major part of my identity and my culture.
Speaking the language has always given me such pride, it is something I am and always will be
immensely proud of. Gàidhlig means a lot to me because it is something that my parents passed
onto me. I am lucky to have gained such a high level of fluency from my Granny through all the
years that I have spent with her listening to her talk, as well as hearing the language out in the
community so often.

It means such a great amount to me as it is not only the language of me and my family, but of my
ancestors before me, which leaves me with a very strong connection to the island, the people and
to the language itself. Gàidhlig is such a major part of our history and is something that is majorly
important to us as a community and as islanders.

Gàidhlig has always been an interest of mine between learning all the different phrases and
discovering old Gàidhlig words and their meanings. To me Gàidhlig is powerful. Personally, I find it
easier at times to express things in the Gàidhlig than I do in English. I find that poems, plays,
stories and songs are always extremely moving and capturing when portrayed through the
medium of Gàidhlig.

Gàidhlig has already given me so many incredible opportunities, from making films for Film G to
attending Fèis Tir A’ Mhurain. Through my entire primary years, the Fèis gave me the chance to
speak Gàidhlig more and use it through the arts, and has led me to be able to join the committee
and give other children that same opportunity that I had as a young child. One thing that I am sure
of is that it will bring many more amazing opportunities in all the years to come. Gàidhlig has
always been one of my passions and is what I am wanting to go to university for, as I would like
my career to be in Gàidhlig.

I would like to see Gàidhlig not only continue in Uist but to grow. In my opinion, to see the
language grow and in order to keep it alive we have to accept changes in the way we speak it and
we need to keep a strong Gàidhlig presence in the community.

Just like many other languages, the vocabulary and the grammar are being created. I think that it’s
important we move on with the times while also holding onto the importance of some of the
words and phrases passed through many generations.

I think we should aim to have more opportunities to use Gàidhlig in our employment and in
situations out of our homes.

I would personally like to see more and more young people using Gaelic, and using it as their daily
language with their friends as well as their families. I would like to see an increase in Gàidhlig on
social media and more opportunities to use the language in modern settings.

I think that it is important for the education sector to allow for more immersive learning in order to
ensure the richness of the language found in Uist is kept for many generations to come. We need
to ensure that we keep the language getting stronger and keeping it alive for many more years.
I think that we need to encourage more and more people to learn the language and I would like to
see more opportunities for support to be given to learners.

It is important to me that this island continues to use the language and that we stay away from the
mindset that Gàidhlig is dying, because when that mindset is accepted then that is when we will
lose the fluency and natural spoken language.