As a small child from Embo I spent many Sunday mornings attending the Gaelic service in the Free Church of Scotland in Dornoch and this is exactly how I remember the praise singing. I often went to this church with my maternal granny, Annie Cumming. Happily she always had an endless supply of mint imperial sweets which she would often slip to me during the service. The Presenter then was a John Mackay, also from Embo, who was always known there as Johnnie Piggach. In fact the whole of the congregation was from Embo as I never met anyone from Dornoch who could speak the Gaelic. The minister then was the Rev Hugh MacLeod who was a very tall and very austere man whose sermons were always full of threats of fire and brimstone for unrepentant sinners. But luckily at that time I was too young to be a sinner.
I'd no idea there were still Gaelic speakers in Embo. I'm from Thurso myself. It used to really annoy me when people would say there was never Gaelic spoken in the north. I remember a certain female labour councillor writing that in the groat around 1994 and someone rebutting it, saying they knew the last person who spoke the Gaelic with a Caithness dialect who had passed away some years earlier. It's sad how the language was repressed, my grandmother once told me that she had never had a conversation with her grandparents as they only spoke Gaelic, she wouldn't learn it as they were not allowed to speak it in school and she thought it was a dirty language......that was what was drummed into her.
A non-Gaelic man, born in Alva and now in exile in England, I have sometimes wished to know some Gaelic. Recently, I have discovered on TH-cam, Kristine Kennedy singing Psalm 107:21-30 to the tune Loch Broom, and Cha Dachaidh Dhombh an Saoghal. Perhaps a translation of the latter might be forthcoming? I have discovered also Clare Ross, singing Psalm 63 and Psalm 85. All excellent stuff!
When I was young I spent time on the East Coast regularly and met many speakers of Gaelic and knew Nancy Dorian who was studying Embo Ghaidhlig. Lol. Too young to be a sinner. Never too young to sin: never too old to be saved.
As a small child from Embo I spent many Sunday mornings attending the Gaelic service in the Free Church of Scotland in Dornoch and this is exactly how I remember the praise singing. I often went to this church with my maternal granny, Annie Cumming. Happily she always had an endless supply of mint imperial sweets which she would often slip to me during the service. The Presenter then was a John Mackay, also from Embo, who was always known there as Johnnie Piggach. In fact the whole of the congregation was from Embo as I never met anyone from Dornoch who could speak the Gaelic. The minister then was the Rev Hugh MacLeod who was a very tall and very austere man whose sermons were always full of threats of fire and brimstone for unrepentant sinners. But luckily at that time I was too young to be a sinner.
I'd no idea there were still Gaelic speakers in Embo. I'm from Thurso myself. It used to really annoy me when people would say there was never Gaelic spoken in the north. I remember a certain female labour councillor writing that in the groat around 1994 and someone rebutting it, saying they knew the last person who spoke the Gaelic with a Caithness dialect who had passed away some years earlier. It's sad how the language was repressed, my grandmother once told me that she had never had a conversation with her grandparents as they only spoke Gaelic, she wouldn't learn it as they were not allowed to speak it in school and she thought it was a dirty language......that was what was drummed into her.
A non-Gaelic man, born in Alva and now in exile in England, I have sometimes wished to know some Gaelic. Recently, I have discovered on TH-cam, Kristine Kennedy singing Psalm 107:21-30 to the tune Loch Broom, and Cha Dachaidh Dhombh an Saoghal. Perhaps a translation of the latter might be forthcoming? I have discovered also Clare Ross, singing Psalm 63 and Psalm 85. All excellent stuff!
Have you now discovered that you’re old enough to be a sinner?
When I was young I spent time on the East Coast regularly and met many speakers of Gaelic and knew Nancy Dorian who was studying Embo Ghaidhlig. Lol. Too young to be a sinner. Never too young to sin: never too old to be saved.