AN SNP MP has spoken about his regret of breaking the family link of speaking Gaelic.
John Nicolson, MP for Ochil and South Perthshire and the party's shadow culture secretary, is a member of the Minority Languages Select Committee.
During Monday's session, Nicolson said: “I come from a long line of Gaelic speakers, I sadly am the first generation in my family to not speak any Gaelic at all. So, I feel there’s a thousand-year history and I’m the first break in it which feels terribly sad."
The expert told the MPs: “When my mother and father would have gone to school, people would have been belted for speaking the language because it was seen as the language that was going to hold them back.
“It wasn’t until the 1980s that the then Conservative government actually saw value of starting Gaelic education, and that started probably with the middle classes in Glasgow. In a school in Glasgow that is now a secondary school."
Bun-Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu (Glasgow Gaelic Primary School) was formed in 1999, starting off as a primary school before expanding into unused buildings and also becoming a secondary school.
“It is in a different building now, obviously, but it is now regarded as one of the best-performing state schools in the city and one of the best-performing state schools in the country," Nicolson told the committee.
Gaelic has been persecuted for centuries. My Grandmother was beaten at school for speaking her own native tongue. So how do we save the language once spoken throughout most of Scotland? Schooling in Gaelic seems key as the Commons Culture Committee heard. pic.twitter.com/sJcNJEmxzW
— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. (@MrJohnNicolson) June 26, 2023
Nicolson discussed the history of Gaelic, telling MPs that by the 1400s the language was in decline.
“But then when you look at the big change was after the second Jacobite rebellion where there was acts of parliament against Gaelic," he said.
“The bagpipes are proscribed, wearing the kilt was proscribed – the speaking of Gaelic language was proscribed. So, effectively the state was legislating against the language.
"The 1872 Act, which made education compulsory across Scotland, did not include Gaelic."
