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<\/a><\/p>\nAn unusual job call out from an island community has led to a whole new approach to supporting and developing the Gaelic language in one of its few remaining native-speaking communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Urras Thiriodh has been promoting a wide range of social and economic developments in the island of Tiree for the past 27 years, with Gaelic being one of its priorities. Part of the Inner Hebrides, Tiree is a small island of around 650 people, where just over 30% of the population are Gaelic speakers, a serious decline of over half in the past 40 years. Their chair, the well-known businesswoman, crofter and rural campaigner Rhoda Meek, wrote up her vision for the aspirations and immediate needs of the language in Tiree, and the call went out to see who could be interested in helping to realise the Trust\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n
Having tried the usual means of finding a Gaelic worker without success, the Tiree Trust decided to take an unusual approach to job recruitment. Instead of a rigid job description and hours being advertised, the Trust simply put out an open call for people interested in the possibility of working with them on various fronts – Gaelic prominent among them – and invited expressions of interest. No off-putting application forms or formalities at first, just \u201clet\u2019s have a chat and see what might work\u201d.<\/p>\n
Through the power of social media, that call reached Highland musician and broadcaster Mary Ann Kennedy, who was intrigued to find out more. Mary Ann runs her own business, the highly successful Watercolour Music studios in rural Ardgour, and has close ties with Tiree through her father, Alasdair. Following discussions between herself and Trust General Manager, Phyl Meyer, they settled on an innovative solution which will see Mary Ann working as part of a Gaelic team alongside young Gaelic-speaking local islander Lauren MacArthur.<\/p>\n
Mary Ann will be working a hybrid combination of remote working and time in Tiree for two days a week, while Lauren will be expanding her existing role in the Trust to include days working on Gaelic-related projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Mary Ann said, \u201cI grew up in Glasgow with parents from Tiree and Skye who made a conscious decision to bring their family up as Gaelic-speakers and who were very active in the language over the years. I think, I hope, my dad would be proud of my decision to earn that legacy by coming to work in Tiree at a time when the language is in a very fragile state on the island.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Phyl Meyer said, \u201cUrras Thiriodh recognises how important Gaelic is to the culture, people and future of Tiree, and we are excited to see how our new Gaelic team will work with islanders to celebrate and support their language. We are very grateful to B\u00f2rd na G\u00e0idhlig for supporting this work.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Rhoda Meek said, \u201cThe community is the soul of the language. If we lose that, we reduce Gaelic to an intellectual exercise. Having Mary Ann and Lauren, who belong to that community, working on this vital project, I believe we stand a chance of making a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mary Ann is also keen to reinforce the community connection, declining to be called a \u2018Gaelic Development Officer\u2019, and taking the title of \u2018Leasaiche G\u00e0idhlig\u2019, a suggestion offered by the island\u2019s pre-eminent Gaelic scholar, Prof Donald Meek. In Tiree Gaelic, \u2018leasachadh\u2019 has an additional meaning of \u2018improving the land\u2019, giving its usual connotation of development a real connection to land and people.<\/p>\n
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Mary Ann added, \u201cThis is about the community, and Lauren and I will be spending our initial time in making those vital connections. Our door is open and we really hope that folk will be up for talking to us and working with us to make things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Lauren, who hails from Sandaig in the west of the island, said, \u201cI grew up with Gaelic around me in my family and in my school. I want to help make sure that my language has a place and a future in Tiree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thugadh gairm car eadar-dhealaichte le coimhearsnachd eileanach a tha air d\u00f2igh \u00f9r a lorg air taic a thoirt don Gh\u00e0idhlig ann an aon dhe na sg\u00ecrean mu dheireadh far a bheil i fhathast na c\u00e0nan coimhearsnachd. \u00a0 Tha Urras Thiriodh air a bhi air ch\u00f9laibh iomadh leasachadh s\u00f2isealta agus economach air an eilean thar 27 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-11542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trust-news","tag-gaidhlig"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11542"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11547,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542\/revisions\/11547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tireetrust.org.uk\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}