TAIBHSEAN IS BUISNEACHD & THE GAELIC OTHERWORLD

Three of the greatest folklorists, tradition-bearers, academics in the Gaelic world share the stage

Margaret Bennet

Margaret Bennett’s illustrious career has taken her from her birthplace in Skye to Lewis, Shetland – where she finished her schooling – and the academic heights in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newfoundland and Quebec. She wrote her PhD on ethnology during the 11 years she was at Edinburgh University, and is an honorary research fellow at Glasgow University. Her encyclopaedic knowledge and scholarship have seen her showered with awards on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently the 2011 Prix du Quebec (the most prestigious award attributed by the Government of Québec in all fields of culture and science).
She’s published 7 books including The Last Stronghold: Scottish Gaelic Traditions of Newfoundland (Breakwater Books, 1989), Scottish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave (Polygon, 1992 reissued 2007) and Oatmeal and the Catechism: Scottish Gaelic Settlers in Quebec (John Donald, 1998). Singer, storyteller, musical-historian, folklorist, ethnologist, teacher … Margaret Bennett is all of these in one unique category.

Essays of John MacInnes

Dr John Macinnes was born in Uig, Lewis, in 1930, but spent most of his childhood on Skye and Raasay. There he acquired a keen interest in the traditional songs, folktales and culture of the Scottish Highlands, which led to awards of degrees and distinctions at Edinburgh University. He was appointed to the School of Scottish Studies in 1958, and continued there until his retirement in 1993.

Described by the Rev. William Matheson as the ‘the last of the native scholars’, John MacInnes is the foremost living authority on the oral tradition of the Scottish Highlands. Having spent some five decades recording the Gaelic lore of tradition-bearers, he writes with profound insight and intellectual rigour on the Gaidheal’s inheritance from clan sagas to Clearances, from Sorley Maclean to the supernatural.  He will present a paper called ‘A Survey of Traditional Beliefs’

John MacInnes is unique … no one understands the Gaelic language and the traditions of the Highland people as well as he does

–Ronald Black

Sheila Stewart

Sheila Stewart, MBE is the last in the line of the Stewarts of Blair. She spent her childhood travelling all over Scotland and working on farms with her family. From 1954 she sang in concerts with her parents and her sister Cathie. An acclaimed story teller and ballad singer, she also lectures on the oral culture of the travelling people.