Blog Posts

There have been surprising and remarkable developments around Gaelic in the last couple of years, some of them quite unexpected. Although Gaelic remains highly endangered in Scotland itself and in the last speech community outside of Scotland – in Nova Scotia, Canada – there have probably never before been so many adults learning the language.… Read more

I’m excited to announce the release of a new book that I’ve been working on for the last year. It’s called Gaelic In Your Gob: Four Dozen English Words that Came from the Scottish Highlands. It’s a light-hearted exploration of 48 words that were borrowed into English from Scottish Gaelic, each of which is explained… Read more

DuoLingo released a version of their language-learning app for Scottish Gaelic in the Autumn of 2019 and in little more than a year, more than 500,000 people had signed up to gain some knowledge of a tongue that is in a highly endangered state due to centuries of neglect and persecution from anglophones, especially those… Read more

It seems safe to assume that every interest group has online fora where people can meet and discuss issues on the internet. I was recently asked to chair a Q&A session on the Ask Historians group on Reddit (on this webpage) so that participants can ask any questions that they may have about the history,… Read more

As we approach the winter solstice, the pace of life in the natural world begins to slow down and move toward hibernation. The traditional folk calendar of the northern hemisphere recognizes this reality (increasingly the farther north you go!) and allows for social gatherings focusing on reaffirming communal bonds and values, things we need to… Read more

It’s just over a year since I established Hidden Glen Folk School and began a string of blogs about the contemporary relevance and need for tradition. Samhain – the Gaelic New Year – is fast approaching and seems an appropriate time to look back on the last twelve months. This last year has been challenging… Read more

The world is gripped in a crisis more profound than humanity has experienced collectively and simultaneously for a very long time. We are only at the beginning of the personal, social, and cultural tolls that this pandemic will visit upon us. If this is not the mortal blow that brings down the current world order… Read more

It’s like a parody of capitalism actually expressed out loud by the people who have benefited the most from it and are least likely to suffer its most negative effects: people should sacrifice themselves during this pandemic in order to save “The Economy.” It’s like the Biblical parable of Moloch come to life to demonstrate… Read more

The Scottish Gaelic language and culture have somehow survived to the present, despite centuries of deprivation, hardship, and persecution – much of it created deliberately by anglophone adversaries. From the usurpation of the upper echelons of Scottish society in the twelfth century, to the Statutes of Iona enforcing the angloconformity of the Highland aristocracy in… Read more

The idea that the Celts were or are inherently war-like, natural-born soldiers who love to fight, is one of the oldest and most persistent stereotypes that adhere to the present to both the Scottish Highlanders and Irish, although in slightly different forms and for different reasons. The image of Scottish Highlanders as innate brawny warriors,… Read more