Programme of Events 2008
| MONDAY, 25TH AUGUST | TUESDAY, 26TH AUGUST | WEDNESDAY, 27TH AUGUST |
| Benbecula Nunton Steadings |
Eriskay Community Hall |
Stornoway An Lanntair |
| 8.00pm | 8.00pm | 1.00pm |
| Mairi Macinnes Margaret Fay Shaw Event |
Roger Hutchinson Compton Mackenzie Event |
Marie Macaulay Children’s writing workshop (P3 - P7) |
| 2.00pm | ||
| Tarbert Sir E Scott School |
Marie Macaulay Children’s writing workshop (P3 - P7) |
|
| 8.00pm |
5.00pm | |
| Calum John Mackay Finlay J Macdonald Event |
Hugh Andrew (Birlinn) Publishing the Hebrides |
|
| 8.00pm |
||
| Mairi Macinnes Margaret Fay Shaw Event |
| THURSDAY, 28TH AUGUST | FRIDAY, 29TH AUGUST | SATURDAY, 30TH AUGUST |
| Stornoway An Lanntair |
Stornoway An Lanntair |
Stornoway An Lanntair |
| 1.00pm | 1.00pm | 1.00pm |
| Debi Gliori Children’s Author English (P1 - P4) |
Joan Lingard Children’s Author English (P5 - S2) |
Roger Hutchinson Leverhulme The Soap Man |
| 2.00pm | 2.00pm | 3.00pm |
| Big, Big Storybook Children’s Illustration Workshop |
Children’s Drama workshop (P5 - S2) |
Martin Macgregor History of Gaelic Scotland |
| 6.00pm | 6.00pm | 5.00pm |
| Whisky Galore (Film) |
The Island Tapes Skye, Harris and St Kilda, incl. piece with Norman Gillies (who left St Kilda as a young boy) (Film) |
Padre Mac - Murdo Ewan Macdonald of Harris |
| 8.00pm | 8.00pm | 8.00pm |
| Roger Hutchinson Compton Mackenzie Event |
Calum John Mackay Finlay J Macdonald Event |
Bill Lawson Lewis in History & Legend |
| Ness Taigh Dhonnchaidh |
||
| 7.00pm | ||
| Mo Roghainn fhèin |
||
| le Mark Wringe, Màiri Bremner & Iain Moireasdan |
Margaret Fay Shaw (1903 - 2004) Event
Margaret Fay Shaw was born in Pennsylvania USA in 1903. She spent 1921 at school in Helensburgh where she encountered the folk song collector Marjorie Kennedy Fraser. At 21 years of age Margaret first visited the Hebrides where she heard unaccompanied Gaelic song for the first time. She returned to travel the length of the Outer Hebrides two years later.
In 1928 Margaret went to live with Màiri and Peigi McRae in North Glendale, South Uist where she wrote down words and music of many songs known by the sisters and their neighbours. Margaret also took a store of now classic still photographs and cine film portraying the way of life in Uist in the 1930s.
'Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist' was published in 1955 and is now in its third edition. Margaret married the Gaelic scholar John Lorne Campbell, who was then working in Barra and soon bought the Isle of Canna, where they went to live in 1938 and remained ever since. Dr Campbell died in 1996 and is buried in Canna. Margaret Fay Shaw died in 2004, aged 101 and is buried at Hallan in South Uist beside the McRae sisters.
Compton MacKenzie (1883 - 1972) Event
During a long life Compton Mackenzie produced 112 books and was active in many areas. His enthusiasms were as varied as religion, spying, ancient and modern Greece, islands, the gramophone, Scottish nationalism, the Indian army under the Raj and new broadcast media. Over time his writing often represented, and helped to pay for, these passions. His early work, such as Carnival (1912) and Sinister Street (2 vols., 1913, 1914), was a critical success, and after 1940 he gained a new audience with well-crafted comedies such as The Monarch of the Glen (1941) and Whisky Galore (1947). Mackenzie was one of the last voices to speak from memory of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. His ten-volume autobiography covers the period from the 1880s to the early 1970s.
Finlay J MacDonald Event
Born in 1924 - Finlay J Macdonald was brought up in Scarista, a small crofting village fifteen miles from Tarbert on the south west coast of Harris. He was educated in Harris and Portree on the Isle of Skye and then went to Glasgow University to study Divinity. After his first year of study, Macdonald started at the BBC as a Gaelic radio producer. He went on to write the famous trilogy of 'Crowdie and Cream', 'The Corncrake and the Lysander' and 'Crotal and White'.
Murdo Ewen MacDonald (1915 - 2004)
Murdo Ewen MacDonald, also known as Padre Mac, who died in 2004, led a remarkable life by any standards. Born in Drinshader, Harris, he was a much respected and charismatic Church of Scotland Minister for many years, who also became famous for his part in an attempted escape from a Second World War prisoner-of-war camp which was later the basis for the film 'The Great Escape'.
He joined the University of Glasgow to teach Practical Theology in the late sixties, and remained there for almost 20 years. After being awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts during the war, the Reverend Professor lectured in Theology and Preaching in America, Canada and Australia. Finally settling in Glasgow, he became an admired and respected member of the University's Theology Department.
“Murdo Ewen was a truly great man – principled, persuasive, humorous. Even in later life, though frail, he was as engaging, interested and committed as ever to the great causes he believed in. His beliefs shone through everything he did. The story of his life and work, from early days in Harris through the adversities of prisoner of war camp to parish ministry and the heights of academia, deserves to be remembered and celebrated”
From the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, a family friend who has written the foreword to a new publication from The Islands Book Trust 'Padre Mac' to be launched at Faclan 2008.
Mo Roghainn fhèin - Taigh Dhonnchaidh, Nis
Mark Wringe, o Leugh an Leabhar air BBC Radio nan Gaidheal agus Sabhal Mòr
Ostaig, ann an còmhradh ri dithis Ghaidheil à Uibhist, Màiri Bremner agus
Iain Moireasdan, mun bhàrdachd as fheàrr leotha. Bidh BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
a' clàradh nan còmhraidhean air an oidhche. Tha an tachartas seo an asgaidh
ach feumaidh sibh ticeadan fhaighinn ro làimh bho Ionad fàilte an Lanntair
air neo faodaidh sibh fòn a chur thugainn cuideachd air 01851 703307.
Mark Wringe from BBC Radio nan Gaidheal's Leugh an Leabhar programme and
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in conversation with two Gaels from Uist, Màiri Bremner
and Ian Morrison, about their favourite poetry. Radio nan Gaidheal will be
recording their conversations on the evening. Please remember that although
this is a free event you will need to obtain tickets beforehand from
reception at an Lanntair or call us on 01851 703307.
