Caithness Councillor John Rosie has gone on record with the controversial view that the Highland Council’s bilingual signage policy “should not apply in his area because the heritage of Caithness is more Viking than Gaelic.”
His statement was quickly condemned by the Chairman of the Council’s Gaelic Committee, Cllr. Hamish Fraser.
The full article can be read on the Press and Journal’s website.
The launch of the new Gaelic Freeview channel BBC Alba — launched at 9pm on Friday 19th September 2008 — has created quite a bit of media coverage. The Sunday Herald’s Tom Shields has some very good things to say about the new channel, praising it for covering world events as well as revisiting past greats such as Ran Dan.
Unfortunately, the service is currently not available on Freeview, and will have to meet fairly demanding conditions to achieve this. It is not yet available on the iPlayer either. At present, the only option open to those wishing to watch BBC Alba is to tune in via Sky on channel 168 or Freesat channel 110.
Biodh an dàrna òraid deo Chlàr 2008–09 air a’ toirt ann an Gàidhlig, le Calum Fearghasdan MA, Eilean Leòdhais a’ comhradh mun chuspar “A’ Ghàidhlig a b’aithne dhomh”.
Biodh a’ choinneamh seo air a cumail air Dihaoine, 24mh Damhair aig Ionad Netley, Rathad an Easbuig, Inbhir Nis, a’ tòiseachadh aig 7.30f.
The second lecture of the 2008–09 programme will be delivered in Gaelic, with Calum Ferguson MA, Isle of Lewis giving a lecture entitled “A’ Ghàidhlig a b’aithne dhomh” (“The Gaelic That I Knew”).
This lecture will be held at the Netley Centre, Bishops Road, Inverness, on Friday 24th October 2008 starting at 7.30pm.
Dreadfully overdue, the new GSI site is now online. You will notice some changes, not the least of which is the new look. This is temporary — GSI Online will return to a move recognisable design once the move has been completed. For now, the focus is on getting a working site free of any kinks or bugs.
From a usability standpoint, the site is now much improved, both for its writers and its readers; there is now a functioning RSS feed, which is available here.
This allows you to subscribe to the GSI’s feed with a news aggregator to automatically check for new posts, rather than manually visiting the site every time. Most modern browsers — such as Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, and Safari 3 — have a an aggregator built in. There are also various standalone applications that do the same.
For more information on the subject, I direct you to the Wikipedia entry on RSS feed aggregators.
The site and its contents are now searchable, using the search field on the left of every page, and there is also a calendar function to go to posts made on specific days. For those interested, a technical overview of the changes made to the site takes place below the cut.
To those with no interest in the technical details, I’d like to welcome you to the new Gaelic Society of Inverness site!
Delighted to report that the ‘Imprentit’ exhibition at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh covers a significant amount of Gaelic material — including the first Gaelic book published in 1567, Knox’s Liturgy, and a copy of the Gaelic Catechism is also on display.
2008 is the five-hundredth anniversary of printing in Scotland and in celebration, there are many events taking place throughout the country; a complete list of these events can be found here.
The first meeting of the 2008–09 “winter season” will feature an address by Dr. Anne Lorne Gillies on the subject “Donald MacKillop — Well-Loved Songwriter, Undiscovered Poet”.
In a change of venue, this meeting will be held in the Council Chamber of Highland Council, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness.
The meeting will be held on Friday, 3rd October at 7.30pm.
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