The new year is upon us! Our very best wishes for 2014 go out to all Island Voices followers, here in the Hebrides and right around the world.
This time last year we were anticipating exciting developments for 2013, and are now glad to note success in much that was predicted – and also in much that was not! Our European links continue to grow, through projects like TOOLS and now POOLS 3, and another significant Soillse research project was brought to fruition. And, crucially, we have continued to help individuals and groups who want to develop this kind of work in the local community.
The bilingual project with Stòras Uibhist on tales of Bonnie Prince Charlie has uncovered new recording stars, Tommy Macdonald not least among them, and continues to grow with more recordings in the offing in the new year. An Radio, the new community station for Uist, also offers promise as a more polished outlet for the kind of skills this work entails, and Island Voices is well placed to help more volunteers, who are much needed, onto the first rungs of that ladder of opportunity. Watch these spaces!
The annual WordPress statistics record some interesting facts and figures, and applause is due to Mary Morrison and Iain Trumisgarry for this post, which garnered the most views in one day throughout the year. Mary did much other work in Gaelic and English with both young and young at heart, and is an example to us all. One wonders what plans she has for 2014…
The stats also reveal that this site had visitors from 87 different countries in 2013 (and our YouTube channel from 154!). Let it not be said that the language work we pioneer is somehow “remote” or “peripheral” because of our islands base. To quote Jenny Pugsley, “… those who are monolingual and determined to remain so may be the losers in the battle for a sense of strong personal identity and communal comfort in the UK of the moment.” The Island Voices/Guthan nan Eilean project looks forward with confidence and enthusiasm to further grassroots bilingual and multimedia development in 2014!