Celtic music and the growth of the Feis movement in the Scottish highlands

Western Folklore, Fall 1998 by McKean, Thomas

Och na. ceilidhean a bh'ann an uair sin, 's bhiodh ad a' dol 'san taigh sgoile, Is bhiodh. Tha cuimhne am, a nist' Aonghais [duine Iseabail], bha thusa aig fad' a bharrachd dhiubh sin.

Bha fear ann ris an canadh ad Duncan Corbett aig Am a' chogaidh, Is bhiodh ad a' &anamh sketch air Hitler. IS bha fear eile arm, co bha &anamh Goering?... Bha Hitler co-dhiubh, Is e chauffeur aig an dotair a bh'ann.7 IS cha robh e ach a' bruidhinn Is fimadaraich8 mu Churchill .a' spataireachd ...... Gheibh sinn Ear lais, Is gheibh sinn Calum Beag [MacDh&mhnaiH]," ma b'fhior gu robh Hitler ag rAdh rudan mar s [in]. Bhiodh sketch-eaichean arm, Is bhiodh orain ann,...'s docha gu robh In accordion a' dol Is bhiodh darms docha as a dheoidh." Ach cha robh mis' ach & chas ch6xr orm, Is cha robh mi math ann an dannsadh riamh.10

IR:

Well, I'll tell you the truth, I wasn't much of a celidh-goer at all. I never had much interest in songs and things like that, but I really liked what they call [i.e. you'd call] humour, just a laugh, you know, just sort Of fun.... But I liked, say, the like of the Skipper [John Nicolson], or William [son oJI John Campbell [another township poet], that's another who was one who'd be singing comic songs, and just making a song about things that happened.

Och, the ceilidhs that were around then, they'd be going in the schoolhouse, [they] would. I remember, now Angus [Isobel's husband], you were at far more of them. There was a man there they called Duncan Corbett at the time of the war, and they made a sketch about Hitler And there was another man there, who was doing Goering? There was Hitter anyway, it's the doctor's chauffeur who [played] him. 7 And he was just speaking and blustering about Churchill and spouting, "We will take Earlish and conquer Little Calum [MacDonald]! " as if it were true that Hitler was saying something like that. There would be sketches, and there'd be songs, maybe the accordion was going, and there would be dancing, perhaps, after it. I only had two wrong legs on me and I wasn't ever good at dancing.10

Between the work cycle of the year and the nights' entertainment, then, there was clearly no lack of activity.

THE BONDS OF COMMUNITY

In this century, Hebridean lifestyles have undergone a dramatic metamorphosis. The depopulation that began in the aftermath of the '45, and which continued for a century and a half with the Clearances, followed by the two World Wars, has gone on unabated. Though the reasons for the exodus have changed, the net effect has not: a crippling of the native people's cultural (and financial) self-confidence.

MacNeacail, one of the older generation of Islanders, still has an unshakeable belief in his own culture all too rare today. As for local social tradition, when I asked if the ceilidhs had stopped, he was quick to respond:

Im: Oh they never stopped yet! Well they're not what they were, you know, television and everything has brought things to a halt now. Because that was the only way you had for going without a wireless or anything, you know (SA1989.25.B8).