Tha pròiseact ùr a’ tòiseachadh le Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath. Cùm cluas ri claisneachd!
Starting PointsHundred Thousand Hits!Love SongAn Radio Public Meeting
Another numerical milestone was passed on Friday 14th February, when the Guthan nan Eilean YouTube channel, “Island Voices Videos”, clocked up its 100,000th view – and added another eleven by the end of the day, “sharing the love” on Valentine’s Day. (Uncannily, we seem to time these moments to coincide with special days in the calendar year – we went through 50,000 on the night of Hallowe’en just over a year ago.)
The razor-fishing documentaries are still among the most viewed clips, but also trending now are the “Gaelic journey” films that recorded the project’s visit to Ireland around this time last year. And the geographical spread amongst our viewers is quite remarkable. The top five countries remain the same: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Ireland, and Australia. But YouTube analytics also reveal that the channel has now been viewed in a total of 173 different countries around the world. Visitors are always welcome. Ceud Mìle Fàilte oirbh uile!
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A modern Gaelic love song, ’S tu mo ghaol, from the Bi Beò (nach maireann) archives forms the musical centrepiece for Island Voices’ Valentine’s Day message. You can hear it above without a transcript, or if you would like to read the words while you listen you can try this new Clilstore unit.
For a local visual celebration of the same sentiment we still find it hard to beat this message in Russian, beautifully crafted out of Grimsay scallop shells at Poll nan Crann in Benbecula. The story behind it is quite touching, and you can read all about it in this Facebook thread.
Meanwhile, and for one day only, An Radio, the new bilingual Uist community station, will be running specially themed playlists all day today. Just follow this link and click on the “An Radio Player”. Wherever you are, and whichever languages you like to use, Island Voices wishes you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!
Find out more about An Radio at this meeting.
