This Tuesday, Dec. 7, marks the 1,500th anniversary of the birth of Calum Cille, as St. Columba is known in Scottish Gaelic. Born in what is now Donegal, Ireland, in 521 A.D., Calum Cille is famed as the founder of the monastery of Iona off the west coast of the Isle of Mull in Scotland.

That in itself would have secured Calum Cille a place in ...

Scottish Gaelic song, poetry, and storytelling were well represented at the US National Mòd this month, as An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaga (ACGA) held its 32nd Mòd Nov. 13-14. The two-day event brought together nearly 30 participants and attendees for six competitions and two workshops.

This was the second year the Mòd was held virtually, through Zoom, with 27 registrants. Altogether, 13 competitors gave 28 individual performances, ...

SpeakGaelic, the first multi-media learning platform for Scottish Gaelic, was launched this week in Scotland, online, across multiple social media platforms, and on television and radio. The program’s goal is to get people in Scotland and around the world speaking Gaelic, whether they are absolute beginners or already have learned some Gaelic.

The initiative is backed by the Scottish government and is being jointly produced by ...

The Gaelic Society of Toronto will host an online Fèis, a traditional Gaelic arts and culture festival, Oct. 15-16. The event will start off with the Annual General Meeting of Comunn Gàidhlig Thoronto (CGT) on Friday Oct. 15, followed immediately by a cèilidh hosted by Gaelic singer Robyn Carrigan of Nova Scotia. David Livingston-Lowe will present a Gaelic Whisky toast.

The AGM and Ceilidh are ...Read More

Sgoil Gàidhlig Bhaile an Taigh Mhòir (the Baltimore Gaelic School) will hold the third online event in its Facing Our History series Sunday, Oct. 3, a discussion of the impact of colonialism on Scottish Gaels, their involvement in colonialism, and how Scottish Gaels and their descendents can become allies of indigenous peoples. This will be the first episode in the series where the guest comes ...

Two of Scotland’s premier Gaelic singers, Joy Dunlop and Angus G. MacLeod, will adjudicate the US National Mòd via Zoom Nov. 13-14, An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaga (ACGA) announced Sunday.

Both Dunlop and MacLeod are former gold medal winners at Scotland’s Royal National Mòd, and both have attended the US National Mòd in previous years as special guests. We’re delighted they will join us as adjudicators for ...

An Ceangal, an international magazine aimed at the Scottish diaspora, launched a pilot issue recently. This issue also includes an online questionnaire for readers tro complete to gauge interests on future content and contributors. Their first “proper” edition will come out soon. The magazine will paritcularly interest those who have conections or interest in Highland Perthshire. It also seeks contributions from those with interests in ...

Registration is now open for the 32nd US National Mòd, which will be held online Saturday, Nov. 13 and Sunday, Nov. 14. The two-day event is a celebration of Scottish Gaelic song, poetry, and culture, featuring several competitions, workshops with our adjudicators, and a cèilidh.

Register for the event at this link:

https://acga.wufoo.com/forms/s1cq3lf20j6j3j5/

Registrants pay a $25 fee to attend all events, including the various competitions, workshops, and ...Read More

For North Americans, access to the BBC’s Gaelic-language television programming is extremely limited, thanks to British licensing laws. That’s why Scottish Gaelic learners in Canada and the United States will be delighted to learn that Bannan, a BBC Alba drama in Scottish Gaelic set on the Isle of Skye, is now available to viewers in North America through the streaming service MHz Choice.

Bannan, first broadcast ...

University researchers in Scotland are trying to develop a Gaelic-speaking voice assistant like the Alexa, Siri, and Google voice assistants used by millions of people to check the weather, play music, or shop online. According to a news report in The Scotsman, linguists and artificial intelligence (AI) developers at the University of Edinburgh want to use AI to convert spoken Gaelic to text.

The project is ...Read More