WHILE I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION: Charles Bannerman argues that Highland Council plans to turn the revamped Inverness Castle into a showcase for Gaelic language and culture must be free of antagonistic tokenism
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
No image says “Inverness” more loudly than our castle, so the entire property must be deployed to the maximum benefit of both city and citizens.
Highland Council now wants to convert its grounds into a showcase for Gaelic language and culture. It’s an interesting idea but I’m not sure about claims at a recent Gaelic committee meeting that this esplanade could “rival the Edinburgh Festival Tattoo any time”.
Let’s cool the delusions of grandeur and the hyperbole and take a calm look.
I’d want to know more about the detail before making any judgment, but Highland Council needs to be very careful about which of the two categories of “Gaelic development” they place this in.
Gaelic’s existential crisis is long term, so every effort to sustain and nurture it has got to count.
First the successes. For many years I’ve worked beside BBC Gaelic broadcasters at Radio nan Gaidheal and BBC Alba, so have a close insight into the superbly professional and valuable job they do within the strategy of Gaelic revival. They are also refreshingly devoid of some elements of Gaeldom’s tendency to ram the language down others’ throats and condemn any dissent, while banging the table and quoting the Gaelic Language Act. The spoken word is vital and broadcasting makes Gaelic highly accessible.
Gaelic education fulfils a similar, pivotal role in sustaining and expanding the language at the very grass roots, albeit again against formidable odds. This is another cornerstone of any revival.
One other important, but less prominent, strand is written Gaelic, possibly because newspapers and books don’t enjoy the same public funding as broadcasting and education.
And of course the Mòd – not long departed from Inverness – has played a high profile, pivotal role in Gaelic’s survival for almost 130 years.
These are some instances of the credit side; but what about the debit, including some rather more curmudgeonly attitudes and a tokenism which often antagonises?
If Gaelic is to succeed, it must win hearts and influence people, but there’s too much that has quite the opposite effect. For instance, compared with these credits, do the likes of Gaelic road signs or street names really do very much in the grander scheme? More likely, because many taxpayers see this as Gaelic imposed on them through public funding, the resulting antagonism far outweighs the marginal value. You have to be pragmatic.
Over time, Highland Council’s Gaelic committee has appeared especially prone to tokenistic gestures which often get the backs up of the very people they need to win over. For instance, do these swathes of green on just about every council sign and Gaelic street names contribute much that really supports this language?
Then we have the random Gaelic statements engraved on both the city’s pavements and certain objects which were apparently conceived as “art”.
And what does having POILEAS on every cop car achieve?
So there we have it – the true heart of Gaelic development, and its ineffective tail which does a lot more to antagonise than it achieves.
Whatever they do to Inverness Castle’s grounds, I really hope that it falls into the former category.
