MORE than £200,000 in funding has been announced for over 40 Gaelic community projects across Scotland in a bid to promote and encourage people to learn the language.
Bòrd na Gàidhlig, a public body of the Scottish Government responsible for promoting Gaelic, said 48 community projects across Scotland will receive funding through the Taic Freumhan Coimhearsnachd (Community Grants) scheme this year.
There are also 30 projects which will receive continued support agreed through last year’s round of funding due to the newly available two-year funding agreements.
With the £208,000 of funding announced, there will be almost 80 community projects available across the country aiming to support the use of Gaelic in Scottish communities.
Govanhill Baths Community Trust will receive the largest grant, with £10,000 over two years, and is planning to gather and share information about the history and impact of the Gaelic language in the area.
The project aims to highlight that Gaelic speakers have been ever present in the area, and the trust will organise workshops and other sessions to explore the links between these Gaels and their language with other people in the area.
Màiri MacInnes, chair of the Bòrd na Gàidhlig, has hailed the funding, saying it will have a positive impact on the language for future generations.
She said: “Gaelic use within communities is at the heart of the National Gaelic Language Plan 2023-28 and is a key focus for Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
“We are very happy to support these projects through the Taic Freumhan Coimhearsanachd scheme at a time where support for Gaelic speakers and community groups is so important.
“Supporting our communities is the means to having an impact on Gaelic use as an organisation and to preserving and developing our language and culture for Gaelic speakers and for the generations who’ll come after us.”
Eight organisations will receive between £5000 and £10,000 to deliver a wide range of projects.
Hands Up for Trad are among these and have successfully applied for £5000 to establish Cailearadh, a project which will provide an opportunity for young people in Uist to work with the RSPB, Comann na Gàidhlig, and Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre to learn more about the island’s indigenous natural landscape and language.
Breakish Hall in the Isle of Skye will receive £6250 to deliver a project encouraging and supporting young people to organise and record interviews with older members of the community to hear, learn and preserve local stories, which will be added to a newly developed archive.
There are also a number of groups receiving smaller grants, which the Bòrd na Gàidhlig say whose projects and work will be “no less valuable”.
Among these are Ionad Gàidhlig Dhùn Èideann (Edinburgh Gaelic Centre), the Lochaber Fèis, and the Birks Cinema Trust.
The groups all have a wide range of aims and targets and plan to deliver projects that will benefit people and communities of all ages and levels of Gaelic fluency.
Steven Kellow, funding and projects manager for Bòrd na Gàidhlig, said the projects funded by the scheme will create valuable opportunities for people to use Gaelic within their communities.
He said: “We are very happy to support these projects and to be able to deliver two years of funding again.
“The different projects will create valuable and engaging opportunities for people to use Gaelic within their communities all over the country.
“We are looking forward to working with the organisations receiving the support over the next two years as well as working with the groups and organisations who we were unable to support financially to identify other opportunities to bring their projects forward.”
