Gaelic had a place in every corner of country

The map and the history of Scotland are covered with the fingerprints of the Gaelic language.

The Scottish kingdom was created by the Gaelic-speaking Scots who came across from Ireland and created a union with the Picts in the North-East, the Welsh-speaking Britons of Strathclyde and the Angles in the South-East. For many years their capital was in Dunfermline and the extent of their linguistic influence can be seen by the spread of place names such as Dundee, Dumfries, Drumchapel, Milngavie, Balerno, Kilmarnock, Stranraer etc. Gaelic place names are only absent from a small area in the north-east and the south-east of mainland Scotland. Robert the Bruce, whose powerbase was in Ayrshire, had a Gaelic-speaking mother. James IV, who died at Flodden in 1513, was probably Scotland’s last Gaelic-speaking king.

Problems with the teaching of other modern languages are not a valid reason for abandoning the language of the people who created Scotland. Learning Gaelic gives access to a vibrant musical and literary culture that enhances the life of the learner, regardless of where one lives.

Ronald Cameron, Fort William

I SYMPATHISE with some of the points made by M Lindores as regards language teaching in our schools, but it is wrong to claim that “Gaelic has never been spoken anywhere in Scotland except the Highlands and Islands”.

My native Fife could hardly be described as “Highland”, but as the ongoing Place Names of Fife project makes clear, the majority of place names in that county are Gaelic or Gaelic-Pictish compounds. In The Flyting Of Dunbar And Kennedie, the Lowland Scots-speaking poet William Dunbar pokes fun at his contemporary Walter Kennedy for speaking the Gaelic of his native Carrick in Lowland Ayrshire, and Gaelic is known to have survived until the 17th century in Galloway, which is about as far south as you can get in Scotland without crossing the Border into Cumberland.

Harry D Watson, Edinburgh

IN RESPONSE to M Lindores’ ill-informed letter, I would like to offer the following facts:

Presently, only 0.08 per cent of the Scottish budget is spent on Gaelic each year and a significant percentage of that goes to education, and would be spent on education in any case. This is a valuable investment albeit relatively small scale in the overall scheme of things.

2001 census figures showed that there are over 90,000 people in Scotland with some ability in the language. The same information shows that, out of the 353 electoral wards in Scotland, there are no wards in which there are no Gaelic speakers.

There are currently upwards of 1,000 people in employment where Gaelic is used in the workplace.

Gaelic education continues to grow with over 400 children going into Gaelic-medium education each year – these numbers will greatly swell when the dedicated Gaelic schools in Edinburgh, Fort William and Portree open within the coming years. These children have as much right to Gaelic language books as their peers have to English ones, in a civilised society in a Scotland where Gaelic has official status and should have equal respect with English as enshrined in legislation supported by all political parties.

Research published by the Scottish Government last year showed that 81 per cent of Scotland’s population want Scotland to retain its Gaelic identity. It beggars belief that M Lindores should resent support for Gaelic in these circumstances.

J A MacKay, Ceannard (CEO),

Bòrd na Gàidhlig