Scotland 0, Wales 3 It’s the worst result by the national team since the last one – but has served to heighten interest in the biggest digital decision ever likely to be taken by intelligent Scottish males. Should key Scottish football matches be broadcast on terrestrial TV or left on Sky? The first option delivers the biggest audience. The second delivers the biggest revenue.
Nightmare.
Meanwhile, a digital decision of truly historic cultural importance is being made without a fraction of the fanfare because it involves two unfashionable minorities. Should BBC Alba replace all BBC radio in the evenings on Freeview?
Gaelic speakers versus evening radio listeners – in a world dominated by the trivia of the silver screen, frankly who cares?
Stick with it.
BBC Alba started transmitting last year and has done well in critical and popular terms. The big obstacle is proving not to be the language barrier but – like footie – the current availability of Alba only on Sky, Freesat and the BBC iPlayer. So the BBC’s been asked to clear Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Live, Radio Scotland and the World Service from Freeview in Scotland to give bandwidth to BBC Alba and reach beyond its current weekly viewing base of 220,000 people.
Disappointed radio listeners can always hear the “lost” programmes on FM, AM, DAB, satellite, cable and online.
So that’s alright then. Two sizeable and significant minorities are being forced to slug it out for crumbs from the digital table even though the BBC’s planning to auction off two under-used Freeview streams, to stop them “sitting idle” in the run up to 2012.
Radio is a success, ditto BBC Alba. So why will those “spare” Freeview streams get filled with fake-tanned fifty year-olds selling jewellery instead of boundary-pushing Gaels, or late night intelligent speech and music programmes?
Money of course – even though the whole point of the publicly funded BBC is to “educate inform and entertain.”
Some of this dilemma is to do with broadcast executives – the vast majority of whom have no radio experience. But a lot has to do with us – the Scottish public – whose lack of respect for Gaeldom may yet destroy a genuine jewel in the crown.
The epicentre of this grinding resentment currently centres on Caithness, whose people regard themselves as Nordic not Gaelic and who speak their own distinctive dialect, even though Parish accounts prove Gaelic speakers were in the majority there until the early nineteenth century.
Last year’s skirmish over bi-lingual English/Gaelic street signs is moving towards full battle status for next year’s Gaelic MOD -- to be held in Caithness for the first time ever.
Quite unbelievably, given the £1million boost to local tourism expected by this influx of 4-5000 musicians, singers, officials, judges and spectators, some local councillors have opposed the appointment of a Gaelic development officer for Caithness as “a misuse of taxpayers' money” imposing “an alien language, of no value in these modern times".
As a result of this unpleasantness many West-coast Gaels have privately decided to give the event a miss. So a classic Scottish dilemma looks set to be solved in a classically Scottish way, with deep-seated social division papered over by robust, upbeat official optimism.
The best result for the Caithness MOD will now be a vigorous brushing of difficulty beneath the all-consuming carpet.
This won’t do.
Gaelic won’t survive without reaching beyond the traditional Gaeltacht and explaining itself to Scots speaking taxpayers who fund its continued existence.
And Caithness won’t thrive without embracing life beyond its county borders – west and south.
The Hebridean Gaels and the Caithnessians actually have a lot in common. They are both inward-facing communities which have endured massive unfairness, clearance and dislocation and are struggling against unattractive victim complexes.
Next year, they will be walled up together in Thurso for a week ... and although the prospects for establishing common cause are not good, they could be revolutionary.
Caithness contains Scotland’s richest mix of indigenous dialect and language. There’s Gaelic, Caithnessian, Norn (via Orkney), Highland Scots and English. Instead of moaning about the Gaelic limelight, canny Caithnessians should be planning to hog or at least share it. For one glorious week, Gaels unfamiliar with Caithness will roughly match Caithnessians unfamiliar with Gaelic.
This represents a great opportunity for mutual discovery. When he sings, Caithness MOD organiser Raymond Bremner explains more about Gaelic singing style than I’ve ever heard from west coast Gaels. If the Caithness MOD finally dumps assumptions of prior knowledge, it will be doing Gaeldom a great service.
So here’s a proposal.
The Gaels should know all about the importance of cultural sensitivity and respect. And currently, Caithnessians who believe they rejected the traditional world of the Gael for the modern world of the English-speaking herring merchant 300 years ago – feel very raw. Dounreay’s been wound up, with no nuclear replacement in sight. Wick lost port status five years ago. John O’ Groats is (once again) awaiting a renovation plan. Bridges have reduced journey times, closing branch offices and allowing most businesses to run from Inverness and the county has been reduced to a giant launch-pad for trips to Orkney.
Caithness is hurt and demoralised. So – to avoid a disappointing, huffy and defensive MOD -- it’s time for the Gaels to make a generous gesture and instruct the new Gaelic development officer to build a Caithness festival around the core Gaelic event. The experience of Northern Ireland is instructive. Even though Ulster Scots has none of the linguistic force, or literary pedigree of Irish Gaelic, one does not achieve funding without acknowledgment of the other. That has led to nonsensical Ulster-Scots helplines used by no-one. But the underlying idea is sound. When the pecking order of centuries is upended, old underdogs like the Gaels must recognise the cultural minorities they’ve managed to o’erleap.
There will never be a better opportunity for Gaeldom to embrace “non-believers,” or for Caithnessians to quit moaning. An ideal opportunity for parity of esteem in the Highlands has finally arrived.
Comments