RSE Islands Past: "Treasure Islands?"

Dr Gòrdan Camshron, LSI post-doctoral researcher, gave a talk entitled “Treasure islands? Gaelic language and culture as societal assets” at the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s “Islands Past” event, held at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI on the Isle of Skye. Dr Camshron presented some key data gathered during his doctoral research, juxtaposed with 2011 Census information to highlight the continuing importance of island communities in bolstering Gaelic development efforts.

In 2011, when analysing Gaelic being spoken at home, it was found that 100 or more people were reported as speaking Gaelic at home in just 44 Census data zones out of over 6,900. All 44 of those data zones were micro-locales in the Western Isles or the Isle of Skye. The most mobile sector of respondents to Dr Camshron’s doctoral survey, however, were women in the 25-34 age cohort reporting an island or Highland background who had moved to urban cities. This sheds light on related issues facing the Gàidhealtachd including population retention and gentrification; career development and succession planning; housing availability; connectivity; amenity and service infrastructure and local economies.

The doctoral findings further tallied with Census results indicating the dramatic growth of more remunerative Gaelic-related employment in mainland urban centres, rather than island or Highland regions. How can the community capacity and leadership skills required to strengthen Gaelic-speaking communities in the Western Isles be bolstered if the bulk of more attractive opportunities lie elsewhere?

Hence, the Western Isles, in particular, can be said to exist in a peculiar condition wherein many Gaelic services are effectively ‘on-shored’ – out-migrants from the Western Isles provide services back to, or for, the territory from outwith because remaining in the islands is challenging. For example, Scotland’s civil parishes with a reported Gaelic speaker density under 5% are centres for the majority of senior management and professional positions in the putative Gaelic economy.

The research discussed raises serious concerns about whether the Gàidhealtachd can be seen as successful in an era of apparent political support and two decades of targeted institutional Gaelic language planning.